Bracketology, Tips style

Published 8:52 pm Wednesday, March 19, 2008

This afternoon before practice I found myself muddling through my NCAA basketball tournament bracket. There have been times when I’ve been quite familiar with college hoops (it’s been a lot more difficult to stay informed ever since I took the Silvertips beat). And yet, I’ve never won one of these things. I’ve never even been close. This year one person wanted me banned because I’m a sportswriter, but what a silly idea that is. I’m a terrible prognosticator.

Which brings me back to the pertinent subject. Filling out the bracket inspired me to revisit my preseason predictions. And, alas, my prediction for the Tips was about as accurate as my predictions about basketball. Apparently I thought Everett was going to win the U.S. Division. Well, I only missed that one by 27 points.

Fortunately I threw myself a couple softballs to make myself look a little better. I don’t have the actual numbers in front of me, but I’m pretty sure John Becanic didn’t incur as many bench minors as his predacessor Kevin Constantine did (though do you have to count penalties for too many men?). And while the Western Conference awards nominees haven’t been announced yet, I feel safe in saying Kyle Beach is not going to be the conference nominee for the Brad Hornung Trophy for the league’s most sportsmanlike player.

I had Vancouver winning the WHL title, beating Calgary in the finals. Those picks still look pretty solid.

So all-in-all it was a pretty good year of predictions, at least by my standards.

Now if only I could be so accurate when it comes to the NCAAs …