Planning on playing hooky Thursday and Friday to see how youre doing with your NCAA Tournament bracket? Good for you.

But if you really want to be able to be the champion of your office pool, Andrew Clark advises taking a sick day today as well. Maybe Tuesday, too. But only if youre willing to do a little research.

Clark is the author of Bracketeering, The Laymans Guide to Picking the Madness in March, which mainly relies on statistics to predict the NCAA mens basketball tournament, although he claims it doesnt take a masters degree in mathematics or a total immersion into college basketball to be successful.

Last year, I had Ohio State (eliminated in the Sweet 16) and Kansas (out in the Elite Eight) in the championship game, said Clark, whos in his third year at Suffolk University School of Law in Boston. But Virginia Commonwealth came out of nowhere, and I didnt think Butler could do it again.

So many unpredictable things like that can happen. But its certainly better to have an educated system rather than picking things haphazardly.

Maybe. Maybe not.

ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi was beaten by a Cocker Spaniel two years ago.

If anybody was smart enough to have Butler and VCU in the Final Four last year, he should be picking stocks instead of basketball teams from his penthouse on Park Avenue, Lunardi said.

The easiest thing about Clarks method is that the data he uses is readily assessable at ncaa.com/statistics, where all 338 Division I teams are ranked in 20 categories.

From there, Clark prepares his sheet of integrity, lining up the 68 teams in the tournament, which this year culminates with the Final Four on March 31 and April 2 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

See the original post:
Author says key to NCAA Tournament bracket success is in the numbers