The McNuggets: The Story of My College Basketball Career

Watching March Madness this year brings back memories of my own college basketball career.  No, I never played on the basketball team at my college…or at my high school…or even at my middle school.  Still, although I never played school-sponsored organized basketball, I am reminded of my own days as the captain of the 1999 college intramural basketball team known as the McNuggets – the basketball version of the Bad News Bears.

2021 March Madness Brackets

The NCAA basketball tournament brackets are out.  After last year’s tournament was cancelled, I’m glad to see March Madness come back this year.  The fact that the entire tournament will be taking place in Indiana this year makes it even more interesting for me, even though I won’t be actually attending any of the games.  I’ve already attended the biggest stage anyway; I took the picture above at the 2015 NCAA men’s basketball championship game between Duke and Wisconsin in Indianapolis.

With this year’s tournament field now complete, it’s once again that time of year to fill out your own bracket and see how good you are at predicting the outcomes of college basketball games.  Perhaps you might enter some sort of contest this week and compare your results with the results of other people’s brackets for bragging rights.  Sometimes even those who don’t follow sports participate in the fun by filling out a bracket with complete guesses, and end up doing better than some of the “experts.”  If you’re planning to fill out a bracket this year and looking for some tips, you’ve come to the right place.

Every year at this time, my friend Brian and I collaborate on our own bracket.  Except, our predictions are based entirely on the ferocity of the team’s mascots.  For example, who would win between a Wildcat and a Cougar?  Never mind which basketball team is actually favored to win.  Don’t worry about whether you are predicting a 16 seed over a 1.  After all, upsets happen all the time.  Just compare the schools’ nicknames.