NCAA Tournament March Madness My Bracket Tips and Insight

     Hey guys I know this is a business blog lol, but if anyone truly knows me being a former college basketball player this is by far my favorite time of the year sports wise. The NCAA tournament is my favorite sporting event, yes even over the super bowl lol.  So in saying that lets take a moment and step away from business for a minute and lets talk some NCAA tournament basketball for all the college basketball fans. So here are my tips and rules to follow in filling out your bracket. And what teams to stay away from and who are some sleepers.

     First before you start filling out your bracket there are 3 crucial rules that I follow every single year. 

 Rule #1 Never pick a 16 seed over a 1 seed upset. It will happen one day there have been a few really close calls but it hasn't happened yet so don't put your eggs in that basket.

Rule #2 Always have at least one double digit seed between a 10 seed and a 13 seed to make the sweet 16. It happens basically every single year.

Rule #3 NEVER EVER UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES!!!!!! Put all 4 #1 seeds in the Final Four it does not happen. Only once in the entire history of the NCAA tournament has that happened. So don't do it. In reality you should look for at least 2 #1 seeds that will go down potentially one of them at the sweet 16 round.

     Picking upsets is a little difficult mainly because you have to have some luck in hoping it actually happens. When looking for potential upsets I look for two things. first thing is looking for teams I'm very certain are over-seeded aka Over-rated and got seeded too high. The second thing I look for is for the higher seeded team that could get upset is inconsistent guard play and lack of match-up problems. Power 5 teams that don't have major match-up advantages against the little guy are always vulnerable. Most of these smaller schools and mid majors already have great guard play that's why there in the tourney now, but a lot of them don't have a lot of depth or size down low so if they play a power 5 school that doesn't have legit big men that causes problems for them down low and or plays small ball a lot watch out.  (Yeah I'm talking to you Villanova) 

So here are a few sleeper teams that I think can potentially make some noise in the tourney. I'm not saying their going to the Final Four but sleeper teams that could either have a huge upset or make a sweet 16 run. 

1.) Saint Joseph's- I won't lie yesterday was my first and only time watching these guys play. I watched them in the A-10 title game. I came away extremely impressed by this team. They are long and play serious D. The other thing is they have big men that can stretch the floor and play from the perimeter that causes match-up issues for a lot of teams. From what I saw if I'm a power 5 team that is one mid major I do not want to play in the first round. Cincinnati will have its hands full with these guys in the first round.  

2.) Stephen F. Austin- This is a team that has dominated the Southland Conference the past 3 years. They have good guard play from senior guard Thomas Walk-up. I also like their matchup against West Virginia. SFA lead the country in forced turnovers West Virginia was the second best. West Virginia's style of play goes into exactly what SFA loves to do. Just like in boxing and MMA styles makes fights. Sometimes that's true in basketball. 

3.) California- I'm putting California on this list because simply put it they just have a ton of talent on this team. Granted 2 of their best 3 players are freshman but 3 of their starting 5 players will be called in the 1st round in the NBA draft come June. Ivan Rabb and Jaylen Brown are two very talented freshman that will both go top 10 in the draft. But what gives me some confidence is their lead guard is a senior in Tyrone Wallace who's the 3rd NBA talent on this team. 98% of teams don't have an NBA player on their roster this team has 3 and won 9 of their last 11 games coming into the tournament so they have some momentum. 

4.) Providence- They have maybe the best 2 player duo in the country in the best PG in the country in Kris Dunn who won Big East player of the year and Foward Ben Bentil who averaged 21 ppg and 8 rebs per game. They are a very dangerous 9 seed and are truly an under-seeded team.

Now here are some teams I think potentially everyone are high on but won't make the Final Four and potentially could be out early. 

1.) North Carolina- This is hurting me beyond belief because I'am a true die hard UNC Tarheel fan. I preach God made the sky Carolina Blue. But they have just been way too inconsistent for me to feel comfortable. UNC is without question the most talented team in the nation from top to bottom and when they are on there's not a team they can't beat. But man when it comes down the stretch they have had numerous games where they just folded late especially with their guard play. Marcus Paige is a senior who has not had his best season and Joel Berry is good one day and not so good the next. Their best player is Brice Johnson and they have long stretches where they don't even give him the ball its mind boggling. Simply put it idk if I can trust this team. 

2.) Duke- This is a team that isn't very athletic, they don't have a ton of depth, and they are top heavy. They are over-seeded in my opinion as a 4 seed. I just don't see them making much noise this year. This is just a down year for Duke. Outside of Grayson Allen and Brandon Ingram they don't have much.

3.) Iowa State- They have a very good PG in Monte Morris and offensively they can score but they are not a good defensive team. Let's not forget last year in the tourney they didn't have an upset loss they had a bracket busting loss last year to a UAB team that wasn't very good. I don't expect much out of Iowa State and they were heavily over-seeded as a 4 seed. 

I'm still not finished on my final four picks as of yet but 2 teams I'm putting in for sure are

1.Kansas

2.Michigan State

My Next Step in My Journey

    It's been a while since I did my last post. I've been really busy with the re-location of Heavensent Massage Clinic and working just been swamped with a lot of things. Things have now started to settle down a little bit now. But now is the point to where I've reached the next step in my entrepreneurial journey. Kev/Jon Capital Group LLC.

     Kev/Jon was originally was a business entity that my father formed many years ago when I was a child. I still remember him giving me my first business card for Kev/Jon I was the director of children affairs LOL! Well its time to take my dad's original company and build it. This is where the real hard work begins and hopefully starts to pay off. So what is Kev/Jon Capital Group? It's my business entity and investment company I'm starting. All of my business and investment assets will be under this entity. My goal is to build my company's AUM (Assets Under Management) up to a multi million dollar level. I want my companies AUM to be diverse into many different sectors such as ,Securities trading, Real Estate, Business ownership and franchises etc. This is the start of building up a company truly from the ground up. Of course I have a business plan and strategy in place.

     The first strategy put in place is to build up capital and cash flow for Kev/Jon. As you already know I'am co owner and business partner of a small business so the cash flow I receive from my business I will fund that into my company, The first step of using that cash flow is to build up enough capital to start growing my company. This is where securities trading comes into play. I'm currently in the process of hiring a Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for my company to help me with the securities trading. My CIO and I will follow our investment strategy that I already have in place. My securities strategy is to use value investing in finding companies and stocks that are deemed undervalued with potential to grow and buy call or leap options on those stocks. options on undervalued stocks are much cheaper and mitigate your exposure. So in doing this if were wrong on a stock were only wrong small but if were right were potentially right BIG. We will also search and study which affordable stocks have good paying dividends that are safe (Low payout ratio/High cash flow). I will also have another business partner investing in the Forex market. Overtime hopefully were successful enough to where we have enough capital and cash flow through our securities trading to where my CIO can go full time running that department of our company while I start to diverse my company in investing in business and franchises.
   
     People have asked me in the past what do I personally look for when investing in a potential business or franchise. In any business I look for 3 things, Low overhead and operating cost, wide margins, self generating payroll. Examples of businesses that meet these are Bars, Massage clinics and even car dealership lots. Franchises are good but you don't have 100% control but if the margins are wide enough and the franchise fee is low I will also consider them.  I will always tend to stay away from business that are heavy cash flow that require a ton of money up front and 100% of all profits are made on the back end. Those type of business are too risky such as Record Labels, Films, promotional companies etc.

Eventually as I stated my ultimate goal is to grow my capital group into company that has a big company AUM in different sectors and maybe one day I can become a VC (Venture Capitalist). Hopefully one day I can look back and realize my dad's original idea finally came to fruition.