If you’re like me, then you enjoy a good bracket challenge.
Before March Madness kicks off, we as Iowans get a two straight weeks of competitive basketball.
First, the Iowa High School Girls State Basketball Tournament starts in late February and typically goes into early March. There are 5 total classes and LOTS of competitive basketball, you can tell the sport is growing.
Not to be outdone, however, the boy’s State Tournament begins the week after. With just 4 total classes, we get to witness another slew of big games, moments, and memories. These two unions create an atmosphere and environment that makes the whole state put everything on hold and watch, and it’s exciting.
So how do you know what teams to pick and cheer for?
There’s some key things you need to know before making your picks.
1: General info and stats
What’s a bracket challenge without doing your research? For this, be sure to check out https://www.gobound.com/ia to see points, rebounds, size, and all the factors that can indicate whether a team might win or lose.
2: Schedule
Arguably the most important part of the challenge is determining who has the harder schedule. With teams coming in from all over the state, it’s important to know how to value them. How does a team with an easier schedule and great record stack up against a team with harder competition but more losses?
For me, I personally give an edge to those who play a harder schedule. The farther down in classes you go, you will see the benefit of playing harder games show through a less impressive record.
3: The Rankings are not always correct
The rankings that are released are done so very quickly after the final playoff games are tallied. This is done so as to setup the State Tournaments efficiently and effectively. However, sometimes it seems rushed or not thought through.
The people creating the seeding often have bias or may favor certain teams over others. It’s not a downright outrage, but it’s nice to have an accurate tournament. The rankings can be used as an indicator, not as a final tally. After doing my own bracket challenges and predictions, about 60-70 of the time the seedings are correct.
4: Beware the undefeated
More times than not, teams that come into the state tournament undefeated are not who they say they are. They may be a top team in the state, but likely are overinflated to a point where they may not have the ability to win. They have won all of their games by 20 or more, and have’t stuck around to hang with anyone in a close game. This hurts them, as in the postseason when games get tough and you find yourself down, they struggle to comeback and win.
However, some teams really ARE just that good. I often see this at the 4A and 5A levels. It’s not to say a team can’t be good because they’re undefeated, it just can really depend based on games.
5: Be careful betting against the CIML (Central Iowa Metro League)
We’ve seen time and time again the dominance in the Des Moines area, which means there can be upset value in teams seeded higher than a Des Moines area school. It’s not always a surefire bet, but just know more often then not Des Moines stays dominant.
Besides Des Moines, there are other areas of the state that are really tough to not consider in matchups. For example, northwest Iowa is extremely competitive at smaller levels, and even southeast Iowa has some 3A teams that are known to disrupt teams from making deep state runs.
Combine all 5 of those elements, and you’re ready to make your bracket! Just remember that just like March Madness, you can do all that research and still be wrong! Take it from me!
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