JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — This has already been the most turbulent college basketball season in history. There’s a genuine fear that COVID-19 will give new meaning to March Madness if, at any point, it forces a team to exit the NCAA tournament.
The last thing anyone wants for one of America’s best sporting events is to have the coronavirus become a bracket buster. Really, I make enough bad selections every year to destroy my own bracket without COVID-19 ambushing a viable Final Four candidate.
In 2019, after correctly identifying seven NCAA champions in my 12 previous annual brackets, my prediction game went south. I hit on only one Final Four team, third-seeded Texas Tech, while picking the wrong ACC teams (Duke, North Carolina) to reach the title game and having eventual national champion Virginia exiting in the Elite Eight. Since 2007, my winning percentage on Final Four picks is .384 (20 of 52), the equivalent of an average 3-point shooter.