Like Father Like Daughter

So after a month of March Madness, we're down to the Championship Game of the Final Four tomorrow. In years past, I have both run pools and entered in pools to fill out the ubiquitous "Brackets." I don't think I've ever won an NCAA bracket, but I usually come pretty close. It takes a careful balance of luck and strategy to make good picks. I have the strategy part down, but the luck just hasn't been there.

Let me start off by making a few interesting notes...

• An ungodly amount of us picked Georgetown to go all the way - 7 in all, with another person putting them in the finals. That's a pretty high number considering we had 18 entries.
• 8 of the top 9 entries right now are women. The Heffernan men had an absolutely AWFUL showing in this year's pool. The lone exception is yours truly. I was sitting pretty until UCLA played the game of their lives to knock of Kansas. As it stands, I'm still hanging on, but not for long.
• Kevin may be the worst bracket prognosticator of all-time. After organizing the pool, he actually took the time to enter 2 brackets. They sit at #17 and #18 out of 18 entries!!!

So before the big game, I wanted to analyze the possible scenarios for our friendly little family pool on ESPN.com. Keep in mind that the Championship between Ohio State and Florida is worth 160 points if you pick the winner. It really is pretty simple at this point.

1) Ohio State wins
Bridget wins it going away. She picked the Championship matchup, and currently sits in a first place tie with me. Steph will have a nice 2nd place finish, also picking the same outcome in the Championship game.

2) Florida wins
In what some will call "beginner's luck," Ava wins it all with her Mermaid Food entry!!! Daddy helped Ava in her 1st ever bracket selection. He gave her the pen and a bracket and let her select her picks. Unfortunately, after making quite a few selections, Ava thought it would be more fun to poke holes through the paper with the pen - while the paper was on the couch cushion. We have since flipped the cushion. Runner-up would be Mom, who can't quite catch Ava.

Needless to say, it will be an easy decision for me on Monday night...

GO GATORS!