As of this writing, only a couple hours remain before you have to turn your 2017 NCAA Tournament bracket. Depending on the pool you’re in, maybe that deadline has already passed.
(Personally, I like to wait until the very last minute — even when I filled my bracket out earlier. Superstition? Maybe, but it hasn’t gotten me anywhere. More like procrastination.)
Maybe you prefer to look over some brackets filled out by “experts” or celebrities before making the final call on your own selections. Following the lead of someone who covers the sport and is familiar with many of the teams participating in the tournament seems like the way to go, but their brackets tend to be as bad as anyone else’s. Too much thought! And celebrities? Well, you’re taking your chances that the prognosticator knows anything about college basketball, let alone more than you.
One such celebrity who took a shot at filling out a NCAA Tournament is The Late Late Show host James Corden. Corden is known more for “Carpool Karaoke” than college basketball expertise. That makes him as qualified as anyone to fill out a bracket. (That, and the fact that his show is on CBS, home of the NCAA Tournament and Final Four.) At least his trip through the bracket is entertaining, as you can see here:
Corden’s reaction to multiple schools from Florida was especially entertaining. It might be the best late-night joke about smaller state schools since then-Ball State coach Brady Hoke bragged about beating “Southwestern Michigan” and “Mexican Michigan” on The Late Show with David Letterman in 2008.
But going with Duke because “they sound British” is as good a reason as any to pick the Blue Devils on a bracket. Fortunately for Corden, Duke is viewed as a tournament favorite, even if they don’t have Benedict Cumberbatch at point guard.
You still have time to try the Corden method of filling out a bracket, utilizing Magic 8-Balls and Ouija boards to make your picks. Hopefully, those instruments of prediction work better for you than they did for him.
For what it’s worth, Corden’s Final Four picks are Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas and UCLA, with the Bruins to win it all. That looks pretty damn good for someone who doesn’t know anything about college basketball. (And since I’m writing here, I’ll add my gratuitous prediction, which is a Villanova, Louisville, UCLA and Arizona Final Four, with the Wildcats holding up the trophy. The Wildcats from Arizona, that is.)
