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Looking at 68 groups in a March Madness bracket could be fairly overwhelming, particularly for these taking part in within the event.
However, former Duke participant Jay Bilas stated his legendary former head coach, Mike Krzyzewski, had an excellent approach of dumbing it all the way down to take the strain off the Blue Devils.
“I played for Coach K at Duke and in 1986, my senior year, that was the second year of the 64-team bracket,” Bilas informed Fox News Digital in a current interview. “And he broke the tournament down to basically a four-team tournament the first weekend. He talked about the opposite side of our bracket, the 32 teams opposite our side and said, ‘Look at all those teams in there,’ and started talking about how good some of them were. And then he goes, ‘Who cares? Only one team is coming out of there. Only one team comes out of there. Whatever happens, fine. We’ll play that one team on Monday night for the championship.’
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Head coach Mike Krzyzewski of the Duke Blue Devils reacts in the first half of the game against the North Carolina Tar Heels during the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Final Four semifinal at Caesars Superdome on April 2, 2022, in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
“And so he gave us a bracket. It was a four-team bracket, and we had been taking part in at Greensboro within the first and second rounds. I feel he referred to as it the Greensboro Invitational and stated, ‘This is all we got to worry about.’ And we’re like, ‘Geez, we can process that.’ He made it simpler. And then the second week, similar factor. We performed on the Meadowlands – Meadowlands Invitational. We performed DePaul, after which David Robinson and Navy was on the opposite aspect of that. So we solely needed to cope with a four-team event. Then we get to the Final Four, four-team event. And it actually made it loads simpler.”
Now, like the rest of us, Bilas watches the tournament as a fan. And this year, he will be enjoying it with some ice-cold Garage Beer, founded by Travis and Jason Kelce.
Jay Bilas will be enjoying March Madness with Garage Beer. (Garage Beer)
“I like beer, and I like garages,” Bilas joked, adding that the Kelce brothers are a key reason why he wanted to be a spokesperson for the beverage this March Madness. “I in all probability should not be speaking about how a lot I like beer, however I like beer and I like Garage Beer. And there’s nothing higher than event time, and people two issues go collectively rather well. I attempt to keep away from it when I’m on the air, however I’m identical to everyone else — when there is a good recreation on, I wish to crack one open.”
And regardless of seemingly being several Garage Beers deep all through the event, there’s a good probability that Bilas, a self-proclaimed March Madness “nerd,” will be able to remember just about everything from this tournament.
However, because of Coach K’s bracket practice, that encyclopedia in Bilas’ brain doesn’t have many pages on 1986.
“I can discuss to you about video games that occurred at nearly any event and bear in mind it. I do not bear in mind what occurred in that 1986 event,” Bilas said. “Because all I cared about was what we did. I imply, it is actually type of outstanding. I do not actually bear in mind the rest due to the way in which Coach Ok offered it to us and the way in which we approached it. And I do know a whole lot of groups try this now, and I, at the very least talking for me, I assumed that was terribly useful to us.”
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski yells during the first half of a college basketball game against Cal State Fullerton in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday, March 18, 2022, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
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The Blue Devils are the No. 1 overall seed this year and are aiming for their first title since 2015.
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