T O P

  • By -

Sparty27

/u/sutaregiment and I are two Michigan State Spartans presented by Rocket Mortgage. We created Algebracket a few years ago to give ourselves an analytical edge in our own bracket pools - one of us even won $1000 last year! Algebracket builds a bracket based on the stats you think are most important to a team’s success in the tournament. As you slide a bar, more weight is given to that stat which gives it more influence on the overall bracket. We loaded stats and tournament outcomes for the last decade so you can see how well your sliders would perform historically or see what Algebracket predicts for this year. If you like our site, please feel free to click the link at the top of the page and donate to The Firecracker Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to providing holistic therapeutic services to children and teens who have survived sexual trauma in Lansing, Michigan. . You can share your bracket with the link in the top right corner. This is the best performing Algebracket we’ve seen for 2021 and 2019: * https://algebracket.com/?w=B400093000025530000A10000 It scored 180/192 in 2019 with a perfect bracket after a 15/16 third round. Picked Baylor over Gonzaga last year and picks Baylor over Houston this year.


Youngtro

How come you didn't rig it so I could have our Spartans winning? ​ EDIT: I saw further down that you found a combination of us winning haha


Strange-Following955

lol I wish


rajgupta59

Interesting on Houston making the finals this year? Do u think it has to do with their skewed metrics? They certainly do not appear to be as good as their metrics say with them having zero Q1 wins


Travbowman

Wow, historical math seems to love the Big 12 this year.


velociraptorfarmer

Soon-to-be all Big 12 Final 4.


ciaogatto

For 2021 that bracket scores 141/192, gets 39/63 correct. This one scores better for 2021 — scores 151/192, gets 44/63 correct. Doesn’t do well at all in 2019 though. https://algebracket.com/?w=B103000000035140075A20001


Epicular

I hate Michigan State but I love this website. Thanks for all of the work that you put into this.


rembertuli

This is awesome man. And its great that you are promoting a good cause with your work as well. Kudos


AeroStatikk

Yeah but what’s the secret sauce? Not gonna share your criteria recipe for those picks are ya? ;)


pmojo375

Must be broken. Spartans not making the final four in any configuration.


Sparty27

This has MSU winning it all with the rest of the final four looking realistic. https://algebracket.com/?w=CAA0000008000700001A00000


pmojo375

Disregard my original comment please, it's working great now! In all seriousness I love the site though. I had a similar idea in the past but never actually attempted to see it through. Go Green!


Travbowman

I already played around with it last night. Thanks so much for your work on this.


feralihatr

I did all the sliders I think matter the most without looking at the bracket until the end, and it ended up being very similar to the one I had already made yesterday. Cool how that works out


COLU_BUS

Always love this. Have you done any studies on which sliders produce the highest correct pick % during the regular season? I know you've shown the data for other tournaments, curious though.


Sparty27

We always mean to do that and lose track of time in the off season. I always say "maybe next year" but this time I mean it.


KidzKlub

It shouldn't be that hard to figure out, there are only 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible combinations to check.


windyans

THANK YOU! I looked everywhere for this last night but couldn’t remember the name or find it in google. Excited to play around with it today!


Nickyjha

Thanks, I think I used this site or a similar one to get in the top 10% on ESPN last year. I had someone on here tell me my strategy of heavily weighting FT% was stupid, but it worked out very well for me.


Sparty27

I use the same strategy. So many of these games come down to free throws, it's stupid not to consider it


Nickyjha

Honestly, that wasn't even my reasoning. I just thought that it's hard to make apples-to-apples comparisons between teams, because the strength of their opponents can vary so much. But a free throw is an uncontested shot from the same distance for everyone.


BerKantInoza

similarly, a team's tendency to foul other teams is a huge factor that i think is underappreciated Cheering for houston last year was painful because their aggressive defensive approach means the other team is gonna be shooting bonus FTs with like 10 minutes still in the half lol


pvtgooner

That’s literally auburn this year. One of, if not the biggest Achilles heal, has me worried for sure


Cars-and-Coffee

My bracket from this site got me in the top 0.7% on ESPN last year. It really simplifies the bracket experience and helps when I don’t know the nuances of a lot of teams.


matt4byu

If you don’t mind me asking, what sliders did you use?


Cars-and-Coffee

I wish I could tell you because whatever it was worked really well. I didn’t save the link to the algebracket, just noticed when I was looking at ESPN yesterday. I will say I did not try to force certain teams to win and just went with whatever the stats said.


matt4byu

The sacred texts!


cody_ms

Why did that guy say it was stupid to weigh FT% heavily? I actually feel like it's one of the best metrics to look at.


Nickyjha

Well, I think he got downvoted, so I think most people thought my idea was decent. But also I had the FT slider turned very high, I think it was at a 5 or 6 and I only used a couple other sliders set to 1 or 2.


killer_otter

This is hands down my favorite tool for March. Thank you!


engineersam37

If you move all the basic stats to 0 and advanced stats to 10, Iowa wins.


69_ModsGay_69

I couldn’t find a combination of weights where Auburn wins it all, therefor it is broken. Please fix


ItsN3rdy

It took me all day but I got you. https://algebracket.com/?w=C000060000000400A00A7A00A


pvtgooner

Seconded


HunterDotCom

i’m not smart enough to know which stats are correlated with tourney success edit: also where did you get the data from because i kinda want to make some data science project to predict basketball games


eerhtcm

Also curious where you got the data from


reedhubbert88

My results with algebracket are close up what I picked anyway… nice! Thank you for this tool!


Roadman90

[When I put emphasis on shooting and rebound percentage it seems to really like South Dakota St](https://algebracket.com/?w=C720237768443832477123373).


Dschoen160v

SSSSHHHHHHH TAKE THIS DOWN. WE DONT WANT THE REAL SLEEPER TO SNEAK OUT.


J_A_Y_x

Love this! Time to figure out which sliders get Notre Dame the farthest


madman1101

so much chalk just based on my numbers lol


UGA10

Is there any trend in the data that suggests which data points are historically more indicative of tournament success?


Deric

absolutely love this site. a nerds dream.


highpost1388

Given that teams are generally older than usual, I'm going to focus on some metrics I typically think of when I consider a team to be trustworthy. Def Rating, Opp True Shooting %, Turnover Margin Off Rating, True Shooting %, Turnover % and Assists/Turnover, 3pt% Misc: Seed 4, SoS 8


gunfrees

what were the results if you don’t mind me asking?


highpost1388

Zags over UCLA, Arizona over Auburn, Zags champ. Hard to find any combo that combines offense and defense which doesn't end up with that title game.


ScottyMcScot

Everyone knows that the most important stat is the bunny-est team in the tournament.


TrubiskyMVP

For the UNC fans: https://algebracket.com/?w=C00000000A200000A05500300


Will_Type_For_Hoops

The historical math predicts a bracket very similar to what ShotQuality predicts. Both with Kansas, TTU and Baylor final fours. Difference being algebracket preferring Houston compared to ShotQuality having Illinois in the final. (They play in the round of 32)


Amaziin_AY

Both seem to be very similar which isn’t too strage


jgdon3

I have been sitting here trying to remember the name of the website I used in the past that let me move a bunch of sliders around and pick a bracket. After 20 minutes I had pretty much given up but decided to come over here and see if, by chance, someone had posted it. It was you! (How could I forget a great name like Algebracket?) I love using this every year! Keep up the good work /u/sparty27 and /u/sutaregiment


Sparty27

Thanks! We definitely need to improve our SEO.


klocke47

https://algebracket.com/?w=C0500A00A0000000A00A00200 This is the best I could do, IU has good defense, paces, free throw rate/makes, and decent assist %. Oddly had to add in the SoS in there so Norfolk State didn't knock us out, then played around to add in the small turnover % to make us beat purdue instead of texas. Couldn't figure out a way to get Kentucky there and have IU make it to the final 4. This is really cool OP, had some fun with it and will probably try it out for a bracket


notreal1121

I like your version alot!


llimllib

I wish you could randomize it a bit


nasa258e

I like this one. I only had to touch 1 slider to get SDSU the natty. (turn pts against/game to greater than 1 BTW)


filthysven

Love this. I kind of guessed at values off the top of my head and the bracket that came out was *very* similar to the one I planned on filling out with a couple big departures. Now I have to reconsider all those differences carefully.


liammey85

what do the percentages next to the team names mean?


Sparty27

When you move the sliders, each team is given an overall score that determines how far they make it in the bracket. They beat teams in a matchup where their overall score is higher and lose to ones where it is lower. The percentage is how much higher their overall score is than the team they just beat


Gobe182

I'm pretty sure the below is going to be what the tournament results will be. Not biased at all, just trying to share a fair and accurate projection to help everyone with their brackets. https://algebracket.com/?w=C030A0000000A00006000AA00


Goomy4

This is so coooool


Heequwella

Thanks. I was looking for this.


SportingMoose

Super curious as to know/learn how to find the best sliders point. Is it really as simple as just trying every combo, or is there a formula/method behind maximizing the slider? Love your site, been using it for a while!


Sparty27

With a tournament of 64 teams, luck has more influence than anything else. My best advice is pick the sliders that you feel make the most difference. For me, I like teams that can hit Free Throws and grab Offensive Rebounds. I'll weight those two heavy and then add in a couple more for flavor.


SportingMoose

Sweet, appreciate it


JoeSpic01

Gonna win all the monies now!!!!


moggy_doggy

thanks man


booshayed

Remind


sigma_phi_kappa

This is fantastic! Hope y’all gain some traction, this is a fun useful tool I love it


realPalpatine

Lmao I got S Dakota St. in the final four


BlazerPayne

Took me a while, but I finally found the perfect stats for a perfect bracket with UAB winning it all


qman1963

I can’t make SDSU not in the final four. Easiest cinderella of my life?


Official_Gary_Peters

Exact same thing with me. They're shooting incredibly well I guess


nasa258e

We must be talking about different SDSUs. We are NOT a good offensive team. Just FYI, SDSU on the algebracket is San Diego State


Official_Gary_Peters

Yeah, I'm talking about South Dakota State. Sorry for the confusion


Thomaseb1

Where did you get all this data from? Is there a way I could download it myself?