Welcome back to The Sunstone Way.
And welcome to the Madness!
That’s March Madness, otherwise known as the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships.
Bracket Challenge
One way many of us participate in the excitement is to fill out a bracket, predicting the winners of every game in each round. There’s a bit of skill involved, or at least some knowledge of how teams did this season to see who might be favored in each game.
But there can be luck as well, and there are always a few upsets. After all, there has never been a “perfect” bracket where someone has chosen the winner in every game. That makes sense, because the odds of getting a perfect bracket, even if you know a little bit about basketball, are 1 in 120.2 billion. That’s billion with a B.
But I do pretty well – good enough that I’m betting you can’t beat me. For the first time, we are putting out the Sunstone Way Bracket Challenge. You can still enter for your chance to try to do better than I do, and if for some strange reason you beat me, you’ll be in the running for a prize! I’ll reveal that prize next week.
If you want the best chance to win, you’d best click on that link and enter today – the First Round games start today, Thursday. We’ll be down to the Sweet 16 after this weekend.
Women’s Side
While the Bracket Challenge is about the men’s tournament, don’t forget that there is a women’s tournament as well. There will be plenty of reason to watch, with lots of great basketball played in that tournament, just like last year. (Did you know the women had better television ratings than the men last year?)
There’s going to be some rooting for the home team in Southern California, with a good chance that the trophy will be coming back here in a few weeks. Both UCLA and USC are the Number One seeds in their respective regions, meaning they have the easier road to the Final Four, at least on paper.
Of course, there are 66 other teams in their way, and Texas, UConn (who won the title last year) and South Carolina all are ranked with the two Southern California teams. The sixth-ranked Notre Dame team might have picked up some luck on Monday – it was St. Patrick’s Day.
Men’s Favorites
There’s at least a small chance for the same school – UCLA – to win both men’s and women’s titles. That’s only happened once. UConn did it in 2014. The UCLA women are ranked No. 1 in the country, but the men aren’t in the top 25 despite winning the Big 10 regular season title. They are a 7 seed.
The odds-on favorite for the men’s title is Duke University, ranked No. 1 in the country before league tournaments and a perennial basketball powerhouse. More importantly, Duke is our founder John Shen’s alma mater. Can you guess who I’ve picked as my 2025 champion?
It won’t be easy. Four other teams from the east – Florida, Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee – are on top of their games as well. All these teams are in the SEC conference and have taken turns beating each other throughout the season.
Preparation for Victory
All 68 teams in each tournament are already winners just by getting to the Big Dance. The teams that rise to the top once there will have one thing in common – preparation.
Coaches have worked for years to get the right players to meld into a team, playing as a team. That team has practiced, practiced, then practiced some more to make their offensive plays second nature, their defensive skills the best around and their conditioning second to none.
More recently, the coaching staffs have spent hours studying opponents, trying to find ways to stop what they do well. These days, the players will also be found in the film room.
Talent combined with preparation will go a long way to winning the championship. I wonder if these elite teams know that they are following The Sunstone Way. It is what we do, too.
And remember, always be a Sunstone!
John Keisler
CEO & Managing Partner
Sunstone Management, Inc.
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