Sox Drawer: White Sox NCAA Bracket Battle

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Thursday, March 18, 2010
3:13 PM

By Chuck Garfien
CSNChicago.com
I cant get a hit off a major league pitcher.

I cant throw a baseball 95 mph.

And I certainly cant throw a perfect game.

But hopefully what I can do is beat three White Sox stars you know and love in a test of skill, brains and blind luck.

Mark Buehrle, John Danks and Gordon Beckham have given me their NCAA Tournament brackets, and over the next two-and-a-half weeks we will go head-to-head in a Sox Drawer bracket battle royal to determine who is the real baseball bracketologist!

By the way, the answer no matter who wins isnone of us.

According to DePaul math professor Jeffrey Bergen, there are 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 different ways to fill out a bracket.

Thats all?

He says you are more likely to win the lottery on consecutive weekends than correctly predicting the perfect bracket (which of course, I have done).

As I wrote earlier this week, I chose a different strategy this year. Instead of studying up for three days, using charts, graphs, tape, glue, Crayons, a stapler, a compass and Doc Browns time machine in "Back to the Future"I just filled the thing out as fast as humanly possible, making sure not to waste any time using that thing called my brain.

When I finished, I had Kansas, Syracuse, Marquette, and Villanova in the Final Four with Kansas beating Nova for the title. I like it. At least right now. Talk to me on Thursday night after Lehigh shocks the world by beating the Jayhawks in the first round and I might have a different take on this.

As for my competition, I am encouraged to see that none of them took the safe route. There are some very daring picks (Buehrle has Purdue in the Final Four. Yes, Purdue).

But thats nothing compared to the monster homer pick coming from the mind of John Danks.

The Texas native and die-hard fan of the Longhorns has drowned himself in Texas Kool-Aid, calling for his free-falling squad that used to be ranked 1 in the country and is now an eight-seed in the East to somehow put it all together and win the whole tournament! Hes got the Horns beating Wake Forest, Kentucky, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Villanova, and Kansas.

Good luck with that.

Click here to seeall of our brackets. What do you think? Whos got the edge?

Well, maybe not Danks after Texas gets knocked out in the first round. Or Buehrle after the Boilermakers get rocked by Siena. Or me, after Marquette implodes against Washington. That leaves Beckham, who after putting New Mexico State and Georgia Tech in the Sweet Sixteen, got very conservative. Hes lucky his Georgia Bulldogs arent in the tournament. It would have definitely clouded his judgment, ala Mr. Danks.

So the madness is here! Its Buehrle vs. Danks vs. Beckham vs. Garfien.

Who will get a degree in basketball bracketology? Well find out April 5 -- Championship Day and Opening Day.

And please, no wagering.

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