An Expert Bracket and Keys to Karaoke

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My bracket is in. Am I college basketball expert? Maybe. Am I sports betting expert? No I am certainly not. Do I know more than you do about basketball and the tournament? Probably.

Full disclosure, I have entered two separate 30 personish tournaments the last 5 years and won 2 of them. That’s a 20 percent win rate and a positive return on my capital. My last win was two years ago when Duke got it done. I will go on the record as NOT a Duke fan but I liked their team that year and they brought me to the promise land. Without further adieu, here is my bracket!


A WINNING BRACKET!

This is a great week of water cooler talk and I hope everyone is enjoying it and really supporting their upset picks with fervor. The key to an upset pick is making yourself believe it’s possible and the best way to do that is to tell everyone you can get the ear of why and how this magic will happen. It’s the opening week of the NCAA tournament, forget work, forget obligations, set up shop next to the water cooler, the conference room, wherever there are people and make your dreams a reality through backwards logic and blind trust. Get out there and do this.

A couple futures for the gamblers out there, and these are my opinions only, but I love the value of West Virginia at 28:1, Wichita State at 66:1 and Kentucky at 12:1, those are my mid-level, longshot, and favorite picks with value in that order. Throw a couple bills on them and pray.

Next blog will be on the First Four and some predictions and analysis for the weekend. All the small schools are geared up and getting a taste of what the big boys go through all season long with fancy meals and Egyptian cotton sheets in the hotel rooms. We have had some amazing sports championships over the past year starting with the Villanova win over UNC, the Cubs breaking the spell, the Cavs and their comeback, and even though I vomit onto my keyboard as I type this, the Patriots over the Falcons in the super bowl. (I was at the game and am a Falcons fan. Please run the ball Shanahan good lord.) Hopefully this tourney can continue the incredible run of delicious endings and riveting drama that sports purists have been able to experience. Here we go!

On a personal note, I am in Japan right now on a bullet train headed to Atami where the assumption is that myself and 70 of my classmates will shed clothing and enter a natural hot springs nude together. I am having several internal battles with myself on a variety of fronts with what’s about to happen and I still am generally confused and extremely intrigued on how this is going to go down. What in god’s name is the protocol here? Do I just drop trou and get super knowledgeable on the physical form of the majority of my classmates? Do I show some cooth and go with a boxer brief? Do I wear sunglasses? Is this thing gonna be co-ed? My god it should be interesting, I will keep ya’ll posted with how it goes down.

Pop Culture tidbit of the week is tougher because I am literally on the other side of the world right now, however, the Bachelor finale happened last night and apparently Nick surprised Vanessa with a proposal. Riveting stuff, but I get anxiety when I watch these shows and have to settle for updates and recaps from female friends so I can't give you all my personal reactions and glimpses into my heart. Nick, Vanessa, best of luck in your relationship but the odds are against you my friends coming from a reality TV show. At least you will have your cup of tea and some sweet appearance fees to shake your booty in Vegas or make and Instagram post for a sunglasses company. (Note: I always thought getting paid to come to a party was an incredible thing. And yes I am jealous of Nick and Vanessa to some degree.)

I will also suggest two songs to download because they will be my options for Karaoke tonight (I’m in Japan, you know it’s going down). Everyone who is anyone should have some go-to’s for karaoke. You can be a douche and have something like Wonderwall by Oasis or you can be a party starter and have Mr. Brightside as old Faithful. I try not to judge, and as long as you get up there and give it a college try, you have my respect, even if you are douchey. My two songs are classics and they are “I would do anything for Love” by Meatloaf and “I’ll make a man out of you” from the Mulan soundtrack. Both are massive crowd pleasers when executed the right way and I usually try to get a duet going for Mulan. I will include a review of my karaoke performance tonight in the next blog along with the hot bath results, but go ahead and download these two gems to get acquainted. 

Tourney is right around the corner. GET EXCITED my buddies~! CJ