NCAAB

March Madness: The Do's and Don'ts for Completing Your Bracket

Before you finish filling out your bracket, make sure you take a look at these five facts about the NCAA Tournament.

Whether it's for your office pool, a friendly competition, money, or just pride, doing well in your March Madness bracket is exciting. You'll either be basking in glory or beating yourself up over the next three weekends, all thanks to a tournament bracket. 

We like to win, so let's take a look at five Do's and Don'ts for filling out your bracket so you can put that winner on the refrigerator.

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DON'T Advance Duke Teams That Aren't a 1 or a 2 Seed

The Duke Blue Devils are a 4 seed in this year's tournament. Since Mike Krzyzewski became the team's head coach, excluding this year, the Blue Devils have made the big dance 31 times. They've been a 1 or a 2 seed 22 times. In those 22 instances, Duke averaged 3.5 wins per tournament with a .819 win percentage. In the other nine cases where they were a 3 seed or lower, they've averaged just 1.2 wins per tournament with a 55% win percentage.

As a 3 seed or worse, Duke has advanced to the Sweet 16 just three times in the Coach K era, and have made it past the Sweet 16 just once (1990).

DO Have at Least One 12 Seed Upset a 5 Seed

This isn't that exciting because you've probably heard of this already, but it'd be remiss to not at least mention the crazy trend.

Over the past 12 seasons, we've seen 24 cases of a 12 seed upsetting a 5 seed, which is 43% of the time. This year's 12 seeds include Yale, Arkansas Little Rock, Chattanooga, and South Dakota State.

DON'T Put All Four 1 Seeds in the Final Four

The only time all four 1 seeds made it to the Final Four was in 2008. They may be some of the favorites to make it to the end, but it just doesn't happen that way -- at least one of them will slip up along the way. In fact, 2009 was the last time that all four 1 seeds simply made it to the Elite Eight.

DO Eliminate at Least One of the Top 16 Teams in the First Round

Since 1985, all of the 1 to 4 seeds have won their first game just five times. That means there's an 84% chance that this year's bracket sees a 1 to 4 seed upset in their opening game. 

DON'T Put All Four 2 Seeds in the Sweet 16

In the last 19 NCAA tournaments, all four 2 seeds have made the Sweet 16 just one time. That isn't a typo, it has happened only one time. It's understandable that it's extremely hard to write off a 2 seed in one of the two first games, but it's almost a certainty that at least one of them will fall early on. According to our numbers, the worst 2 seed in the tournament this year is Xavier.