Shakespeare was no basketball fan, but he could have been.
“Beware the Ides of March,” The Bard wrote in Act I, Scene 2 of his Roman tragedy, Julius Caesar. The character, a soothsayer, warned Caesar of his impending doom with the famous line.
Beware the Ides of March. Do not consult anyone — Shakespearean soothsayers or otherwise — about your NCAA Tournament bracket.
It could drive you to madness.
March Madness.
For many a March moon, men have searched for divine inspiration when filling out their blessedly simple yet madly complex NCAA Tournament brackets. Shall Davidson upset Ohio State? Shall Pittsburgh’s home-court advantage vault it into the Sweet 16, or will the Panthers be stopped short by injury?
Where art thou, Ides of March?
For some hoop heads, such as Emerald sports editor Adam Jude and myself, the Ides could be lodged deep in the computer chips of the Playstation 2. We went searching for answers in EA Sports’ March Madness 2002 video game.
Our particular question was this: How far will the Oregon Ducks travel in the 2002 Big Dance? The answer might stab some Oregon fans as deep as Brutus’ knife.

Our first contest featured the Ducks against the lowly Montana Grizzlies, Oregon’s first-round opponent. Playing as the Ducks, I smoked Jude with an opening Freddie Jones dunk that shattered the backboard and proved to be as prophetic as Shakespeare’s soothsayer. Final score, 49-42 Oregon, behind 10 points from Jones and 14 points from point guard Luke Ridnour, who threw down a few dunks in surreal fashion.
Our next match featured the Pepperdine Waves and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, with the winner facing Oregon in the video game and in real life. Jude, who we all know sold his soul to the devil in return for supreme video-game coordination, wreaked his revenge in the form of a 61-52 Wake Forest beat-down. Pepperdine’s vaunted guards couldn’t find an outside shot with the game on the line, and the Deacons got 39 points from forward Antawn Scott (who, by the way, averaged 9.9 points per game this season) to cruise into the round of 32.
But I would have my revenge. As Newman once said, loosely, to Jerry Seinfeld: “Your day will come, J(ude), and when it does, I will be there watching, wringing my hands in enjoyment. Bwahh ha ha. Bwaaaah ha ha ha.”
All pop-culture references aside, the average Duck fan might not enjoy my revenge as much as I did. Because I played as Wake Forest. I won, 63-57, and it was only that close because Jude brought in James Davis and Anthony Lever late, and the terrific twosome drained trey after trey but never really got the Ducks within a stone’s throw of the Deacons.
No, I dominated Jude with an all-out blitz from the start. Scott, forward Josh Howard and guard Craig Dawson all scored 14 points. Guard Broderick Hicks had 17 points. Wake advanced to the Sweet 16.
So if Oregon gets knocked out, who will advance to the Final Four? Conventional wisdom points to Kansas out of the Midwest, even if coach Roy Williams has tanked with better teams in the past. By all accounts, this team is looser and constructed like a champion — big man Drew Gooden is one of the nation’s best, and Jayhawk guards Kirk Hinrich and Jeff Boschee can run with the best of them.
Out of the South, it would be almost impossible to bet against Duke, which has the easiest draw of the No. 1 seeds. The only team that could potentially give the Blue Devils problems would be battle-tested Southern California.
So, also applying conventional wisdom to the rest of the bracket, the other two No. 1 seeds will be sent home early. Rarely do three No. 1 seeds make the Final Four.
I bet with Oklahoma last season and I’ll bet with them again, mostly because they just beat Kansas and have survived a tough Big XII schedule. That’s why they’ll survive the toughest region, the West.
Finally for my big upset shocker, out of the East it’s Marquette. The Eagles have a prolific scorer, a tough defense and a young, smart coach. All the ingredients for a Final Four run. Plus they play in Conference USA, and I have to have one American pick. We’ll call it the New England Patriot factor. If you think this isn’t a good reason for a pick, you’ve obviously never participated in a Tournament pool.
Kansas over Oklahoma in the title game.
So, on this day of all days, the opening round of March Madness, don’t worry if your bracket gets shot when Boston University upsets your national champion, Cincinnati. Don’t worry if you had all No. 3 seeds in the Final Four, but the 14 seeds have an opening-round field day.
Take advice from Shakespeare. Enjoy the Madness.
“The Ides of March are come,” Caesar tells the soothsayer shortly before the emperor is killed.
“Ay, Caesar; but not gone,” the soothsayer prophetically answers.
May March never be gone.
Despite the madness it brings.