Welcome to the latest episode of Hot Takedown, FiveThirtyEight’s sports podcast. On this week’s show (March 15, 2016), we discuss all things March Madness. Neil Paine explains why he has a feeling about Villanova on the men’s side. Kate Fagan tells us why no team has a hope of beating the mighty UConn Huskies on the women’s side and why, when she’s picking her bracket, she never picks to win. Plus, we answer some of your listener mail and ponder whether it might be a good idea to make the slam dunk worth 3 points.
Most importantly, we want you to join our ESPN Tournament Challenge bracket pool! We have groups for the men’s and women’s tournaments, and the winner and loser of each will get a Hot Takedown T-shirt. Yes, you can own a shirt that depicts Adam Silver riding a bear into a pool full of fish.
Stream the episode by clicking the play button, or subscribe using one of the podcast clients we’ve linked to above. Links to what we discussed are here:
- FiveThirtyEight’s March Madness predictions. This year, we’ll be updating games with live, in-game win probabilities.
- Nate Silver and Jay Boice explain how FiveThirtyEight is forecasting this year’s tournament.
- Neil Paine on the seeds that will wreak havoc on your bracket.
- Hot Takedown’s men’s bracket group in ESPN’s Tournament Challenge.
- Hot Takedown’s women’s bracket group in ESPN’s Tournament Challenge.
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