With the first two days of play completed, I am in better shape in my pool than I usually am. I asked Chat GPT to create two brackets: one to predict the actual winner, and one to win my pool. So far, both are doing OK. I am tied for fifth out of sixty brackets with one entry and twentieth with the other.

Chat GPT didnt do any better than I would have at predicting some of the upsets, because the reason that one team is seeded fifth and the other twelfth is that the committee expected the higher seed to win.

Recommended Videos But it has been right about 80% of the time. Of the three teams that I was rooting for, two (UCLA and Gonzaga) won, Santa Clara, a ten seed, lost a buzzer-beater to Kentucky.

In my win the pool bracket, my Final Four picks feature a bunch of #2 seeds, UConn, Houston, and Purdue, with Houston beating Purdue for the Championship.

In my be right bracket, I have the #1 seeds prevailing with Duke winning the whole thing outright.

One theme in the commentary around this years tournament is the extent to which NIL money and the transfer portal are tasking Cinderella out of the game. There is a growing sense that the top ten or fifteen teams can buy the top talent and are deep in the NBA lottery picks. Well see if that proves true, but its intriguing.

Come back on Monday, see whether my Sixteen is Sweet or sour.