The King of March

Gordon posing with his March Madness crown.

Every year, millions of Americans attempt to predict college basketball’s biggest tournament, March Madness. Though so many attempts are made, the sacred perfect bracket has yet to be made. With 68 teams participating, the odds of making a flawless bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. For reference, you’re likely to win the lottery twice, survive a vending machine attack, get struck by lightning, and see aliens land on your front lawn. 

Yet perfection is considered nearly impossible, it is still enjoyable to participate in bracket challenges. At the Emery Weiner School, there was a popular free bracket challenge that nearly ⅕ of the entire high school student body participated in. Though so many people tried, only one came out on top. That man’s name is Gordon Robinson. 

Gordon, a senior at the Emery Weiner School, has been a sports fanatic his entire life. Though many sports have caught his eye, basketball was the one that caught his heart. He has been doing the March Madness bracket challenge since he was in elementary school, doing it as a fun tradition in his family. Funny enough, he never won any of these competitions due to his family’s deep connections with college basketball. His dad is a massive basketball fan and refuses to give up his top spot in the family bracket ranks. 

One thing Gordon learned from his dad was how to choose the right team to win. By the end of the tournament, he had reached the top 98% of the entire world, which is out of nearly 25 million people. So, the big question that everyone should be asking. How did he do it? Well, to be honest, there isn’t a straight-up answer. He told me that there were a lot of factors that led him to choose his teams, but it all boiled down to him believing in himself. Gordon’s advice to the future March Madness bracket makers is to “trust in yourself and not in analytics. He chose Florida to win just because it was all over his TikTok feed. It’s up to you to decide if Gordon is the right person to believe when it comes to March Madness. But based on history, is there really a better way to try and make the best bracket?