This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

It is a great irony that one of the best things about the NCAA Tournament is the all-fired unpredictability of the whole deal — because there is no sports event on the annual calendar at which so many people make so many predictions.

With an estimated 40 million Americans filling out an estimated 70 million brackets this week with an estimated $9 billion up for grabs — compared to an estimated $3.9 billion bet on the Super Bowl — in addition to an estimated 40 million egos looking to be bolstered by winning the office pool, no week is as filled with predictions as this one.

And no week is as filled with so many incorrect guesses, leading to an estimated … what, 38 million losers? That's 38 million hard cases of Bracket Blues.

Everyone is so hopeful at first that this will be their year, that they will win the prize, that they will guess right, either through diligent study or going chalk or picking by favorite mascots or pretty uniforms or feeling some burst of inspiration, that they will stand triumphant over every person in every cubicle across the entire office.

Office pools are not as much about the money/skittles to be won as they are about sticking it to all the loudmouths and blowhards and know-it-alls in your workplace you're forced to put up with all year long, the very same ones who, when they get obliterated in their brackets, they go on and on about how it's always the dumbest person in the room who wins. It's their self-preservation mechanism kicking in as a means of giving balm to their bruised and battered and overinflated senses of self.

It doesn't change the fact that, even in the world of brackets, a win is a win is a win. Talk about one shining moment, this is your shot at finding yours. And when you do, it's like walking on sunshine. It's pure joy. And it lasts all year, until the following March.

I once saw and heard a rather pompous athlete, after a big victory, look disdainfully and dismissively across a gathering of reporters and other lesser human beings and declare to them all: "None of you will ever know what this feels like, how great this feels."

Oh, yeah?

If you've ever won your bracket, you know exactly how this feels. If you haven't … well, you keep on trying, holding out hope for a better tomorrow.

But fans, serious or casual, aren't the only ones guessing this week.

Coaches and players are scrambling, too.

On Selection Sunday, as of the end of the selection show, film coordinators are scurrying around for whatever information they can get ahold of on their newly announced opponents. One coordinator told me the process is absolute bedlam.

And why wouldn't it be? You think Larry Krystkowiak knows much about Stephen F. Austin? Or Dave Rose about Ole Miss? Initially, they probably knew about what you knew. Nothing. It's part of the grab-and-go nature of the entire tournament.

Compare that with the NBA playoffs, during which coaches know nearly as much about their opponents as they do their own team. Add in the best-of-seven format and there aren't a lot of secrets. Adjustments do come into play, and that strategizing is something purists love about those playoffs — moves, countermoves, individual matchups, switching individual matchups, that whole process. By the end of a seven-game series, two things are accomplished: 1) all the bits and pieces are out on the table and 2) the best team usually wins.

In the single-elimination NCAA Tournament, at least in some cases, neither of those gets done.

Rose talked about that on Monday in Dayton, where BYU was prepping for Tuesday night's First Four game against Ole Miss, with the prospect, in case of a win, of having to turn around and play Xavier on Thursday in Jacksonville: "It's different. You don't really know that team and they don't really know you as well as [the teams] you've played the last 18, 20 games."

And he added: "I think that's something that both teams kind of look forward to in postseason play."

They look forward to something fresh, a little intrigue and mystery and randomness and susceptibility and ... unpredictability.

It's a mad scramble. We all are familiar with that feeling.

Holding onto our shorts and flying blind.

And just like with the tournament teams themselves, in our office pools, at the end, there's only one winner, one champion, touched by the Fates, beating the odds, standing tall, reigning over so many other lesser human beings.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.