Without taking a survey of participants, I’m going to generalize and say there are two distinct groups of people participating in March Madness brackets. The first group is made up of hoop fans who believe they have expertise whether we actually watch as many regular season games as we once did. Some of us follow particular conferences closer than the markets. For many reasons, we are less knowledgeable than we were when we were in college. We also pretend to fill out our brackets with our head instead of our hearts.

The second group, is the more sane of the two and usually joins a pool because they were cajoled by a friend, family member or co-worker in order to goose up the pot. Their selections are usually based on anything but the numbers. Occasionally, their alma mater makes an appearance and the heart wins out, but they aren’t as emotional when they lose.

While everyone pretends to root for the underdogs, most of us only do so when it benefits our brackets. However, some fans love the chaos of upsets and hyped teams heading home empty handed. The passionate and supposedly knowledgeable fans also have specific dislike for certain programs and head coaches. That makes it difficult for the head winning out over the heart.

The rules and landscape of college sports have changed so much in the past few years that it’s become more difficult to track players and coaches’ movements. Frequent movement used to be seen as a negative, but now it’s part of the game.

Long before paying players was legal, there were several coaches and programs that famously and surreptitiously paid their kids and bent the rules. Alumni generally excused this behavior if it led to championships. Furthermore, many of the shadier coaches were winners. The media often suggested that everyone was doing it-which really isn’t exculpatory evidence.

Without naming names, there’s a long list of cads, roues, scallywags and cheats coaching in this tournament. Fans from the first group grapple with rooting for any of them while the second group can plead ignorance and move on.

One of the more successful coaches from this group is Rick Pitino of St. John’s. He’s pretty much earned every criticism lobbed his way. He gives snake oil salesmen a bad name. Unlike some of the other bad guys coaching, his behavior extends beyond bullying refs, the media and athletes. Editor‘s note: You can google him and read all about his many peccadillos. Lost in the story is the fact that he’s an excellent coach and his teams are always fun to watch. Personally, I’ve never cared for his behavior, but I love watching his guys play-even when they defeated my team.

As is often the case during the tournament, I’ve picked a Pitino led team (St. John’s) to go much deeper in the tournament than I’d care to admit. In their next game with Arkansas, I know several passionate fans will have a difficult time choosing the lesser of two evils, Calipari or Pitino. Regardless of who wins, it should be a pretty good game.