What Is March Madness?
Though many of us have heard of March Madness, many may not entirely understand what it is. According to the NCAA, March Madness is a highly anticipated men’s basketball tournament that has been played since 1939. 68 Division I men’s basketball teams compete in seven single elimination rounds for the March Madness Naismith trophy. Many basketball fans will bet on the winner of each game by making brackets that illustrate their predicted tournament outcome.
According to the American Gaming Association, “A quarter of all American adults (68 million) plan to wager $15.5 billion on this year’s NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament”. Given the massive number of observers nationwide, and the even greater estimated money spent on March Madness, it is clear that the tournament is in the spotlight for many Americans—including those at LZHS.
AP Statistics Brackets
A beloved yearly tradition, JB Hanson, AP Statistics teacher, will hold a March Madness bracket assignment for his AP Statistic students. While many create brackets for fun, it actually requires quite a bit of statistical work to make winning predictions.
Hanson has been doing this assignment with his AP Statistics classes since his first year teaching in 2006. According to Hanson, it is a very popular activity that many of his students, even those that do not otherwise enjoy basketball, have a lot of fun with. He, however, likes the educational aspect even more.
“It’s also educational because the assignment is [to] create an algorithm, formula, procedure, method, etc. to assign probabilities to each team winning each game,” Hanson said. “Then, they would use a random number generator of some sort to actually determine the winners of the games, so it applies a lot of statistical concepts as well as relevant to [kids interested in the NCAA tournament].”
The students are allowed to use virtually whatever data they like, and after giving them this creative freedom, Hanson has seen some interesting ideas.
“I’ve seen a lot of stuff,” Hanson said. “Things related to the average ACT scores of the students at the schools, the amount of Chipotles on campus, all sorts of basketball data, the attractiveness of the head coach… You name it, kids have tried it.”
Every year, depending on the outcome of the tournament, Hanson picks a winner from the brackets his students submitted. In 2023, that winner was Dennis Szczech, senior.
“I measured the […] experts rankings, and I weighed them so, like, if this expert was really good at whatever they did, […] they would influence my rankings of the teams by like 20%. I also had one of my friends that is really into March Madness, [and their rankings] ended up influencing my ratings by like, 5% or whatever. So I took a ton of sources like people’s rankings and I weighed them [and] added that up to have, like my ranking,” Szczech said.
Overall, Szczech’s rankings worked out well, as his equation brought him to an unlikely but accurate winner.
“The biggest reason why I won is because I chose UConn to win,” Szczech said. “They were in the fourth seed, so everyone else, you know, chose a one seed, a two seed to win. And because I chose a fourth seed, and they ended up winning, that’s kind of a little rare to happen, which is why I [won].”
Looking back on the assignment, Szczech feels it was not only fun, but a good way to learn in a more hands-on way than many other classes would offer.
“It was a good way to put statistical concepts into reality,” Szczech said. “Because in like, Calculus, Pre Calculus, whatever, you just do math problems, and that’s it. But here, I did something that influenced, you know, like something real in the real world. It actually helped me do something.“
Student Council Brackets
For the first time ever, the student council is doing a March Madness bracket competition. Make sure to listen for the winners in this year’s spring assembly!
“This year, the Student Council is doing a first ever school-wide March Madness Bracket Competition! […] Students and staff are eligible to play,” the Canvas announcement said. “The winners of each bracket will be announced during the assembly and awarded the best of LZ bracket prize. Best of luck to everyone—let the madness begin!”
