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NCAA Basketball

An Alternative Method To Predicting March Madness


There are many methods one can employ when trying to predict the outcome of a sports game: sabermetrics, computer-generated analytics, betting with Vegas. But sometimes running numbers is just downright unreliable. I have chosen to forego considering quantitative data altogether in favor of a more human interest approach, if you will. And so, in an effort to lend an additional methodology to bracketology, here is an alternative prediction option – one based on the relative merits of each Final Four team’s leading scorers’ Twitter accounts.

Player Introductions, as presented by their Twitter bios.

KentuckyAnthony Davis

About Me: forward for the University of Kentucky…wearing #23 this upcoming season…Big Blue Nation!!

Location: Chicago—-Lexington

Website: http://twitter.com/Antdavis23

LouisvilleKyle Kuric

About Me: Unavailable

Location: Unavailable

Website: Unavailable

KansasThomas Robinson

About Me: Current forward for kansas university, born and raised in southeast dc (41st) F.O.E., just trying to make it! #nodaysoff

Location: out in kansas hoopin

Website: none

Ohio St.Jared Sullinger

About Me: 140 Characters can’t sum me up…I am who I am.. I do what I do! Don’t ask…YES it is me!

Location: Gym Near You

Website: http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com

Final Four Round:

Kuric v. Davis

This match-up was unbalanced from the beginning, not in terms of PPG, blocks, or rebounds, but because it seems Kuric’s Twitter account has been suspended. A Google search for “how does a twitter account get suspended” revealed that either a violation of the site’s Terms & Conditions, or a suspected account hack will suspend it indefinitely.

Winner: Davis, based on his ability to adhere to the site’s Terms & Conditions alone.

Robinson v. Sullinger

Before being done with us*, Sullinger seemed to have perfected the art of the smartphone self pic. His image roll is heavy in markers of the modern self-portrait: extended arms and snarled lips. Not to be outdone, Robinson also offers many a decorated bicep and camera mug.

Winner: Robinson. His image roll includes a meme of himself. Sullinger and Robinson may have been neck and neck in terms of modern day self-portrait artistry, but Robinson knows the internet.

Championship Round:

Davis vs. Robinson: The POY Tiebreaker Edition

On Women

AD: “My girl Miami

On Sports Industry Professionals

AD: “Omg a RT from @KingJames would be so freaking awesome!

On Life’s Annoyances

And The Winner Is…

Both of these guys are prolific tweeters (Davis has 2,944 tweets to Robinson’s 9,223) which made combing for best content a chore. But this W goes to Davis, if not for anything else than his flawless execution of the ultimate self-referential device: the personal Twitter feed link on the personal Twitter feed.

*On behalf of KU fans (perhaps a disclosure statement is in order…), I’d like to issue an apology to Sullinger for this reply tweet. Your spin move is indeed a bit slow (although it seems to work just fine for you), but misspelling “lethargic” is no way to craft an effective insult.

Photos via here and here



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