NCAA brackets 2012: Bracketeering: The Layman's Guide to Picking the Madness in March [Paperback]

Product Details

Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: ACTA Publications (December 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0879464461
ISBN-13: 978-0879464462
Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.6 x 0.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

By : Andrew Clark (Author)
Price : $9.95

Bracketeering: The Layman's Guide to Picking the Madness in March [Paperback]

Customer Reviews

At 61 pages, you might ask yourself: Is it worth my time? Can a serious book on sports really sell for just $9.95? Yes. The author is tightly focused on generating winning brackets in March Madness tournaments. His methods are original -- I have not seen his type of analysis on this topic published before. He has simplified a very complex sport such that anyone willing to spend an hour on their bracket will have a huge advantage over his competitors. The author's analysis and conclusions don't just read well, they make sense.
The book's explanations require only an understanding of basic math and percentages that most fans of basketball can easily follow. The approaches offered addressing vulnerabilities of highly ranked teams are of interest not to just bracketologists, but to sports bettors as well.
It is hard to criticize a well-written 61 page manuscript that is clear and innovative, when no other book on topic comes even close. Rather than criticize, I would offer a wish-list for his next publication: include a quantitative analysis of the conclusions! For example, the book suggests that scoring margin (average points scored minus points allowed per game) is the most important statistic. What is the success of this indicator by round? There are many other suggestions where more analysis would be helpful to a wider audience. The author offers ideas that seem to logically help handicapping inter-conference play. I would love to see more on this, especially with a focus on the first 2 months of college play in each season.

The books gets five stars in the spirit of "A for effort." The application of sabermetric principles to March Madness is fascinating. The book is not graph-intensive, which is a pro and a con. It speeds the reading experience along, but future editions could use a graph or two demonstrating the basis for key assertions.
The author is young and it shows in his writing if not his analytical acumen. He should dump the "bloggy" tone and take his writing craft more seriously. There are a number of parenthetical remarks that are unnecessary and terribly distracting. Nevertheless, the overall reading experience is fun and intriguing. The principles are simple enough to absorb on first pass, and the stats he uses are readily available for free on a number of websites.
The book is useful now and well worth the $10 investment. There is nothing like it in print. Future editions should be even better. This is a promising start.