Brackets,brackets...brackets

I hate predicting the future,I hate trying.I am not a clairvouyant nor do I believe in fortune telling or voodoo(or the Rockets playoff chances for that matter)I am not a fan of it all.If I hate this so much,then why do I love the process of filling out my bracket each year?I'll probably never know the answer to this,I may try and spend thousands to get to the bottom of this with a psychiatrist who couldn't cut it in real medicine,but this is hardly an important enough issue to be obsessing over,I have many more pressing problems that could warrant some psychoanalysis,but ANYWAY.The thing is for all my protestations on predicting a prospects future or the outcome of a game,I still participate-a lot.It's almost like a drug problem or drinking heavily,you know that you probably shouldn't do it,but in the end you ultimately realize that it will be YOU you make a fool of and no-one else.I have made a fool out of myself many times in the past,why stop now?People seem OK with making careers of making fools out of themselves,so me doing it for the love of idiocy doesn't seem all that bad in the scheme of things.I'm an amateur idiot,I can only dream to one day reach the level that some have and I accept that I ultimately won't,I'm a part-timer.I am Ok with this.

Onto this years bracket.This year is noodle-scratchingly tough.Last year was a comparative breeze,we all knew what was going to happen,even the upsets seemed obvious.Now,look at what we have,an almost wide open field with no obvious upsets(with maybe one exception) and at least six teams with a legitimate chance of taking it all home.What are you to do?Well not fill out a bracket would be the most obvious answer and if this is the route you decide to head down,you and I cannot be friends.Brackets are fun,even if fun isn't sometimes fun.How do you go about predicting upsets?Well you don't really,I can't see a real solid approach to predicting upsets.If you think a team is vulnerable-go for it,if you think a team is overrated-go for it.If you want to make a method out of the madness,the question is:Do you go with the user picks percentage and pick along with the masses or do you try and approach your head to heads with somewhat of a gut feeling factor?Do you pick a certain team to win because you think they can or because you think they will?This is all very confusing.You can approach thing a little differently by a)matching each team's record head to head and going by the logic of "Oh Team A has a better record than team B,but Team A has a bad road record.But Team B completely annihilated Team C who beat Team A,so by that logic I'll pick team B to win." or you could b)match both teams line-up against each other,For Example:"Team A has some great shooters and a 3 guard system and can really run the floor,but Team B has height and some great interior D and can really slow the pace of the game down,and since Tourney games are usually slower more methodical games anyway,I'll pick team B."Do you go by current form in the run up to the tourney,or do go by a team's past performances in the tourney?Do you go by AP ranking,do you even care that much any more?This can really get tedious after you get around to picking the 57th match up.You must realize that you're trying to predict what for the most part is unpredictable,you may as well have a game of "eeny-meeny-mineey-mow" to fill out your bracket and have fun with it.Just enjoy the basketball.