No April Fools: Can You Beat this Bracket?

Via the NCAA, the bracket above was filled out by an Indiana high school student. It serves a a nice parable on expertise. The student, Rebecca Gentry worried: "I thought I was already failing with two mistakes."

She was asked about the source of her prognosticative ability:

“I am not really a sports person,” she said over the phone Thursday night.

For instance, does she know anything about seedings? Syracuse at No. 10? “Nope.”

Can she name one player in the Final Four? “Uhhhh …. no. I know faces and stuff. I really don’t know much beyond that.”

She’s not a Final Four expert, then? “I didn’t know there were levels. I didn’t know there was best eight, or whatever. Or Final Four. I didn’t realize there was any of that. I thought they just kind of played basketball.”

For that matter, has she ever seen a basketball game in person in her life?

“I think I might have went to one in middle school, if that counts. Actually I have been to one in high school. The Globetrotters were there. I think that’s what they were called. And I worked the concession stand once, but I didn’t get to see any of the game because I was mostly handing out nachos.”

But she did fill out a bracket because it was for bonus points. “When he first handed the assignment out, I thought I’m not doing this, I don’t know what any of this means, maybe I’ll copy somebody’s."

Meantime, my naive-bracket based on higher seeds is beating 75% of ESPN entries.