2023 NCAA Tournament Perfect Bracket: Large Pools (March Madness)

Mar 13, 2023 - 1:09 PM

It’s that time of year again, March Madness has finally returned. One of the most exciting aspects is this week leading up to the tip-off of the games when you have to fill out your bracket. If you’re like me, you will stress over every little decision. If you aren’t like me, you will trust my advice and use this article to build your brackets. I will be doing a series on filling out your bracket for small, medium, and large pools.

Here I will be providing advice when filling out a bracket for large pools. These are pools with 500+ people such as national bracket pools or free-to-enter pools sweepstakes with prizes. You have to get creative when filling out a bracket for the large pools because you need to pick a champion that is different from any of the top, go-to selections, but still a reasonable selection to take it down. The number one thing when winning a bracket pool is getting the champion right. But you have to hope it isn’t a basic champion everyone else selects because someone else is bound to beat you with more correct selections from the earlier rounds.

• 2023 NCAA Tournament Perfect Bracket: Small Pools
• 2023 NCAA Tournament Perfect Bracket: Medium Pools

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Some leverage options I like to either make your Final Four or simply select as your champion: UConn, Texas A&M, and Creighton.

Now, these may seem like some pretty out-there teams, but UConn ranks fourth in KenPom. If you think back to earlier this season, Connecticut stormed through neutral court play against Oregon, Alabama, and Iowa State, beating all three teams by double digits. This team is incredibly difficult to prepare against and their incredible offensive rebounding rank makes me feel confident I can rely on them.

In the Bart Torvik era (since 2008) every champion not named UConn ranked in the top seven on Bart Torvik from January 1st to Selection Sunday. Those teams right now:

1. Alabama
2. Houston
3. UCLA
4. Tennessee
5. Gonzaga
6. Texas A&M
7. Purdue

The Aggies in the second half of the season were a completely different team than in the first half. They draw fouls at an incredibly high clip and Wade Taylor has seriously made strides in his play. Texas A&M does have an incredibly tough draw, matching up poorly against Penn State and then immediately having to face Texas following if they win. But this is a legitimate championship-caliber team who can make waves this tournament.

Creighton is still the same team that people picked as their preseason title selection. They rank in the top 30 both in offense and defensive efficiency which can’t be said about many teams. The Blue Jays’ offense can go nuclear and they had some pretty solid showings in the neutral-court game against some pretty top-tier opponents. Creighton has an incredible draw, presumably facing a weak defensive team in Baylor in a potential second-round matchup before running it back with Arizona, a team they already faced earlier this year. 

It’s March. It’s literally called March Madness so don’t be afraid to get creative with your bracket-filling-out endeavors. I included an example below if you need inspiration.

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