March Madness is finally here — this is a time of year I look forward to! I love making the brackets and guessing which teams will be the underdogs who come out and surprise America.

Growing up, my family used to always make brackets and compete against each other for fun. I used to not know anything about college basketball or the teams, so I made my picks based on the color of each team’s uniform. Now I am more into basketball and do research before selecting my teams.

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When I was a freshman in college, my friend Andrew and I made our whole dorm floor fill out brackets, then we taped them up on the wall and kept track of each bracket until the end so we could find a winner. Ever since, we always get a group of friends to fill out a bracket for a little friendly competition. Instead of doing the printable brackets, we now do it electronically on an app so everyone can participate even if we don’t live close to each other. All my friends are pretty competitive, so I always expect some trash talking.

Living and growing up outside of Philadelphia, I was always a big fan of Villanova basketball. Coach Jay Wright is a local from my hometown, as well as former player and NCAA Champion Ryan Arcidiacono. I used to always pick Villanova to be the winners no matter what their season looked like.

Even though I still want them to win the whole thing, now I pick my bracket based off the stats, rankings and play in games.

I am looking forward to seeing the upsets and how this year’s March Madness shapes up. Good luck on your brackets!

— Mary Melnick, social media and editorial coordinator