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Every year has its underdogs, its come-from-behind and out-of-the-blue winners that upset a fair share of bettors, playing for money or water cooler bragging rights. But this year, March has proved maddening for almost everyone betting on the men's tournament.
By the end of last weekend's Elite Eight games, 99.9 percent of bracket makers worldwide had fallen out of the competition as, for the first time in championship history, no No. 1 or No. 2 seeds progressed to the Final Four.
Two underdogs -- Butler and Virginia Commonwealth University -- ruined a lot of brackets by hanging on till the end. Of the 5.9 million people who filled out brackets using ESPN's Tournament Challenge, only two picked all four teams playing this weekend. Of nearly 3 million players who used Yahoo's Tourney Pick 'Em, only one -- a school librarian -- chose the final quartet.
Diana Inch works in the library at Jefferson High School outside Salem, Ore. Perhaps mastery of the Dewey Decimal System provides bracketeers a secret benefit, because Inch nailed the dance card for the upcoming final championship weekend. According to her, the team mascots had a lot to do with her success.
She explained her somewhat labyrinthine system of bracket formation to Yahoo.
"I named this bracket Di's 711 XV Dogs & Cats to guide my selections," said Inch, who coaches soccer when not stamping library books.
"I like the numbers seven and 11, the letters XV (and, although I didn't include it, Q is another favorite letter), and thought that picking teams based primarily on their seeding numbers and mascots would potentially irritate some of my male sports-obsessed colleagues, especially if my bracket did well (who knew how much madness I would be putting into their March?).
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"Some states I favor (the folks I meet from Michigan have usually been fun-loving, and my birth father's family might be from there), while other states leave me underwhelmed. I love cheering for underdogs and teams that never give up, always giving their best efforts no matter the score. In desperation, I sometimes went with the seed closest to a seven or 11, or a team that had an AP ranking that might indicate an edge."As for Monday's final game, Inch is calling it for the UConn Huskies. She and her boyfriend attended colleges (not UConn) with Huskies for mascots, and the UConn husky's face reminds her of the "pleasant face" of her 13-year-old dog Z.
Perhaps next year serious bracketeers will pay more attention to the fuzzy mascots on the sidelines when making their picks.
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