I’ve never truly followed the NBA, but I love watching basketball. When I was in high school, I served as the in-house anouncer for our varsity and it was an honor.

I was still playing at the time, if you could call it that. I recognized my lack of skills and just tried to hustle. I hustled my way into a radio booth in college, calling play by play for both the Terriers and Lady Terriers.

During this time, I was watching basketball and following college basketball. In North Jersey, you either rooted for St. John’s, Syracuse or Georgetown. Rutgers was never on that list until your classmates started attending class there.

Following college basketball was perfect. It started up at the end of baseball season and winded down around Spring Training. I really invested in Georgetown with Alonzo Mourning and doubled down with the arrival of Allen Iverson.

The return of John Thompson in the form of his son and the Final Four run with Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert. Yes, the flame outs and disappointing seasons were what they were, but that was never enough to not pay attention.

Until it wasn’t.

I’ve faded back some over the past few years and this year, I didn’t watch at all. There’s no longer a daily Sportscenter addiction, so I have remained functionally ignorant. And now it’s March.

Now is the time when anyone and everyone puts together a bracket using whatever strategy they deem in the moment. The beauty is within the frustration that Phil’s Mom can have as much success at this as Dick Vitale.

And since I’ve already admitted to not really paying attention, I’ve got three sure fire tips to fill out a March Madness Bracket you can be proud of.

1) Pick a style and stick with it. If you went to Wake Forest, believe the ACC is the best conference and foresee two if not three teams reaching the Final Four, don’t pick Miami to lose because you don’t believe they’re a ‘true’ ACC school. Same thing goes if you’re picking via mascots. So what is you don’t know what a Shocker is and how it would fare against a Wildcat; make a choice and stick with it because…

2) There are no do-overs. There are numerous outlets that want you to post your bracket with them. Thus, you have an opportunity to hedge your picks, selecting the 7 seed on one and the 10 seed in another. While this sounds like a good idea, in the end you’ll be upset if one bracket would have been better but for the one pick you hedged on. I know that from experience and from the Rule of Potential Inevitability; a phrase I just crafted that’s similar to Murphy’s Law. If you are counting on a certain pick, it’s sure to lose. Which leads to…

3) Win or lose, have fun. It’s known as madness for a reason. It’s not sane. Crazy is bound to happen, so the best thing to do is just enjoy three games, preferably with friends and a cold one and that’s the truth.