…Embrace the Madness

It’s only the first weekend of March Madness, and already many a bracket has met its demise. If you’re in that boat, take comfort in the fact that you can sit back and relax while the rest of us watch our teams are slowly (or not so slowly) picked off one by one.

If even that lovely bit of schadenfreude doesn’t sound like it will do the job, you can also switch over to the women’s tournament. While it certainly doesn’t get the same level of coverage as the men’s tournament, it’s just as exciting, and your favorite team is much less likely to choke under pressure.

Just to be clear, they’re less likely to choke, not defeat a far superior team. That’s according to a new study, which found that women perform better under pressure than their male counterparts. Statistically speaking, they choke about half as much as men.

Full disclosure, the research conducted focused on tennis. But the consistency of teams like UConn and their 100+ game winning streak (they haven’t lost a game since 2014) suggest that the stats stretch beyond the tennis court.

Of course, upsets can make the tournament interesting, so I suppose the men’s tournament has that going for it…and you can always watch both. No matter who you’re rooting for, good luck.