Guest Curator: Seth Davis Fills Out Your Bracket

…And this year is no different. The Swoosh, along with its Jordan Brand, is a partner of 41 of the 68 teams in the men’s NCAA Tournament. We hope the good folks at Nike take some PTO in April when all’s said and done.

On Monday night, Russell Westbrook put the Warriors to the Sword. On Tuesday night, he put the finishing touches on the first edition of his newsletter Word of Westbrook, talking all things Versace and ranking recent tunnel fits from Lewis Hamilton, Rickea Jackson, Devin Booker, and Tasha Cloud.

Ever dreamed of your favorite NWSL stars facing off against the best of the best in Europe? Eight elite teams from both sides of the pond will face off in a 7-a-side tournament in the lead-up to the Women’s Champions League Final, with a multi-million dollar cash prize on the line. We will be there (if someone sends us tickets!)

Ilona Maher has entered the athlete podcast chat. Hosted by the rugby and TikTok sensation alongside her sisters, House of Maher will cover everything from body image to women’s sports to the correct ranking of Nancy Meyers movies. 

No one is pushing tennis culture forward like On. The Swiss sneaker brand popped up in Miami for a pre-tournament party last night, featuring a showcase game on a futuristic-looking court featuring two of its bright young stars, Ben Shelton and Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca.

Whether you're a sicko or a casual, odds are you're filling out a March Madness bracket, maybe even a Mars Madness Bracket. The next three weeks will unify all of us as we look out for upsets, Cinderellas, and breakout stars. Even Warren Buffett even gets in on the fun.

And there's a lot to unpack his year. Which is why we've brought in one of our favorite content creators and writers, Seth Davis, to help us sort the Madness. Which stars should we be paying attention to? Who will be Cinderella? And, most importantly, how should our bracket look?

Seth has been in the college hoops bracket, er, racket for 30 years. You’ll see him throughout the tournament on CBS, where he is a studio analyst. Seth is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Hoops HQ, which, like OffBall, launched last fall to offer a more direct and fun way to engage with the stories we love. (You can subscribe here). Take it away, Seth...

The biggest narrative all season long has been the prominence of the SEC. Unlike other leagues, especially the ACC, the SEC understood years ago that things were headed in a more professional direction. Their experience with football has shown them that if you properly invest, you’ll get a big return. I’d say 14 teams in the tournament, and two No. 1 seeds, is a big return. It will be interesting to see how those teams perform in the tournament, although I am not one to use tourney results to validate pre-tournament narratives. The tournament is chaotic, there’s no use trying to make sense of it.

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This also might be the tournament of the underdog. The Auburn story is incredible because there is only one player on this team who was considered a top recruit. Everyone else was under the radar or transferred from a mid-major, Division II school or junior college. Johni Broome, the National Player of the Year, played his first two seasons at Morehead State. Pretty incredible. 

We also have two teams in Drake and UC San Diego that are being led by Division II transfers. Both are good enough to win multiple games.

The other thing to watch is whether Duke can win a title led by The Freshman. Hoops HQ has been saying for a while that it was getting harder to do because the transfer portal helps teams stay old (see: Auburn). Duke’s freshmen, and Cooper Flagg in particular, are good enough to do it. 

Chaos is the name of the game so if you want to go the bold (or dumb) route, I am certainly not shy about making upset picks. My Cinderella candidates are UC San Diego, McNeese, Drake, and High Point. You can’t go wrong on the No. 12 or No. 13 seed lines. Those are where the upsets usually come from. This year, every year.

I also think BYU is good enough to make a deep run, although the Cougars ran into a tough matchup in the first round against VCU. 

Whatever your methodology – I embrace it. I fill out only one bracket and it’s the one that I get handed in the CBS studio about 20 minutes before the Sunday Selection Show. I take about four minutes to fill the entire thing out and then I prepare for the show. When the show is over, my thoughts are, what the hell did I pick? And what the hell did I just say? 

I will point out that I once won the bracket pool at Sports Illustrated in back-to-back years. From that point on, it’s been all downhill. The NCAA Tournament is a wonderful mess and I think spending time on the picks, while fun, does not make your picks more accurate. The more you know, the worse you do. I think I demonstrate that every year. But if you must see my bracket…

A few weeks ago, LeBron James would have been forgiven for thinking he’d achieved all there was to accomplish in this life and the next. But he’d have been wrong because he hadn’t become his own music genre yet. And now he can add dominating the (Internet) chats to his crown. 

LeBron (the music genre) seemingly came out of nowhere earlier this month, when LeBron Song by creator OkaySpade started doing the rounds on TikTok. The track is a weirdly catchy harmonization of LeBron’s name repeated over and over again—lyrics so simple even the man himself couldn’t mess it up.

Don’t even lie, we know it’s been stuck in your head on repeat ever since you first heard it. Just ask LaVar.

Naturally, it was only a matter of time before Jared McCain hopped on the vibes. And in case you’re wondering, they’re already making songs about him too. Talk about future GOAT material.

@jaredmccain

A banger

Meanwhile, the internet has well and truly done its thing, blessing us with an entire treasure chest of LeBron goodness. We already have a big enough body of work to anoint this a genre of its own.

Coming in hot is the Michael Jackson-inspired “I’m Talking Bout The Man On The Lakers”, which gets a little more creative with the lyrics than the original LeBron Song.

“I Love You LeBron” which samples Bruno Mars’ Talking To The Moon, is already a TikTok banger.

@free_birb08

Harmonise for our Glorious King Lebron James 👑🐐| Original audio/Lead singer @ilyaugust | Harmonised with my brother @Chairicho #fyp #xyzbc... See more

And last but certainly not least, we have this gem by Roberto Bell, who says we’re in a LeBronnaissance. He ain’t wrong!

@roberto.bell

We are in the LeBronaissance 🔥🔥#fypツ #lebronjames

The streets (read: people in the comments on TikTok) are saying that not even MJ’s greatness was enough to inspire an entirely new music genre. When all’s said and done, that may just be what settles the GOAT debate once and for all.