Forget about the analytics — team records, RPI rankings and injury reports mean nothing to this bracketologist. Her method to this madness called the March basketball tournament is one that every Charles Barkley wannabe needs to not only understand but also dissect, memorize and implement come the second week of March next year.
Every spring, ESPN unleashes its March Madness basketball pool on the world where everybody who ever bounced a basketball suddenly becomes an expert, and those who vaguely understand the rivalry between Duke and North Carolina begin researching the matchups, combing through all the “expert” opinions to be that one-in-a-gazillion person who successfully fills out that perfect, unbeaten bracket.
This year, ESPN reports that it set a record for the number of brackets filled out and submitted to its contest. More than 20 million brackets were turned in before the opening tipoff to start the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament … that’s 20,000,000!
The odds of finishing in the top 50% worldwide are pretty staggering. To finish among the leaders, say, at No. 230 out of 20,000,000? Well, let’s just say it would take a special kind of expert.
“I didn’t know anything,” Mila Gagen said. “I just went with animals.”
Gagen, who goes by the bracket name Curly, not only stands at No. 230 overall in the ESPN rankings but also has three out of four teams still alive heading into this weekend’s Final Four, and her pick as national champion, Connecticut, is the favorite to win it all.
And what about her extensive basketball background that has not only already won the pool that her family and she belongs to but also has her in the running to climb the national rankings even higher? Well, outside of her love for her 11-year-old German shepherd Piper and coloring with her cousins, none at all.
Gagen just turned 7 in March and is a first grader in the Lower Burrell school district. Her father, Chris, thought it would be fun to submit a bracket for Mila and her younger sister Amelia, who is 4, into the pool that Chris’ sister, Kristen Burke, has been running for years. They are part of a subgroup in the ESPN pool where family and friends can compete against one another in their own little private contest and still be included in the network’s rankings.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Chris said of his daughter’s ranking. “It’s pretty cool. We were sitting here the other day thinking we have the 230th best bracket in our living room watching March Madness with us.”
It all started innocently enough.
“I had been telling the girls I’m going to have you fill out a bracket this year,” Chris said. “I filled out my bracket first.”
The family then went out to dinner, and while waiting for their food, he said, he started asking them to pick their winners.
First, he said, he started with Amelia.
“I did mark down some first- and second-round games for her beforehand because I didn’t want too many far-fetched games. I probably cost her some points,” he said, laughing. “But I went through and asked her what team she liked, and she gave me her pick.”
Then it was Mila’s turn. Chris said he went through every game with her and she picked her winner. After each round, he kept seeing a pattern.
“Mila heard UConn Huskies, and I think she fell in love with them because they were huskies,” he said. “I don’t know what it was about FAU. I kept reading them off, and she kept taking them. Every time she did, I kept thinking they might not make it out of Round 1.”
It was Florida Atlantic that eventually caught the eye of Burke, who said she has been acting as group creator and administrator for her pool for 13 years and this year has 32 brackets.
“You go through and look at people’s brackets,” Burke said. “I don’t know if I ever looked at Mila’s until FAU started doing well because you just don’t anticipate a 7-year-old to go as far as she has. I don’t think I ever looked at hers.
“This is really cool, though. There are all these analysts, people who are supposed to know what is going on. … I guess that’s the madness in this, the fact a 7-year-old can pick FAU to go that far. And she has a pretty good shot with UConn. I hope she just keeps going up, up, up. That’s pretty crazy.”
Although she is not qualified to win one of ESPN’s top prizes because her father did not register the bracket for the ESPN prizes, she has earned bragging rights in the Gagen household for the next year — Amelia’s current ranking in the pool is 17,527,000 and Chris stands at 3,700,000.
“Just pick the brackets that you like,” Mila said. “Pick the names that you like. That’s what I did. Watching the games are fun now.”
And when she wins the pool that her Aunt Kristen is running?
“I’m going to buy an animal shelter,” Mila said.
Maybe with a few huskies in it.
Editor’s note: San Diego State’s buzzer-beating basket to defeat Florida Atlantic in the Final Four was a big blow to Mila’s climb up the ESPN rankings. She did have UConn winning the national championship and ended up finishing 958 overall.
Rick, an associate sports editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is currently on strike and working as sports editor for the Union Progress. Contact him at rdavis@unionprogress.com.