WNUR Bracketology 2019 – Week 1: The Return

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By Jake Liker

Previously on WNUR Bracketology…

So here we are. Judgment day is upon us, at long last. After countless hours and several excruciating decisions, I submit my final projections to you and to the Bracket Matrix today…Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and buckle up. The real madness starts now.

Greetings, readers. I’m back.

My return is a triumphant one––allow me to explain.

Under normal circumstances, I would write a column with some analysis about the college basketball world, but these are no ordinary circumstances. It is 3 AM as I finish typing this. I began the first bracketing process of the year at 2 PM. I am bordering on delirium.

So instead of a column, I will give you a brief assurance, which also serves as a reminder to myself:

It turns out that I might be quite good at bracketology.

Last season’s projections were my most accurate ever. I finally beat not just Joe Lunardi, but the bracketologists at CBS, Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo!, the Athletic, and FOX.

I correctly picked 66 of the 68 teams in the field. I correctly seeded 45 teams. I missed only three teams by more than 1 seed line.

Out of 187 bracketologists, I finished 11th. 2018 was a resounding success:

But this year, the game has changed. RPI is but a speck of dust in the galactic past of college basketball. Our new overlord is NET, a formula which has not been fully disclosed to the public.

This promises to be the most challenging year of bracketology yet. But I am determined to build off of last year’s success. In the words of the wisest sage of them all:

Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character

-John Wooden

So let’s do this. Take a deep breath, buckle up, but this time, don’t close your eyes. Don’t even blink. You could miss something big. Like the usual disclaimers. (And this week’s projections)

The Usual Disclaimers

  • This is what I think the committee would do given what we know about each team. I do not necessarily agree with what I think the committee’s evaluations will be
  • My bracketology does not aim to predict what will happen; it is a simulation of what would happen if the season ended today
  • Italics in the graphic denotes conference champions
  • Projections do not account for games played on the day the projections are made (ex: games played on Monday, January 28th, are not accounted for in these projections)
  • Keep all of this in mind if you choose to @ me on Twitter

PROJECTIONS

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