March 11, 2017

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Sports March 11, 2017

March Madness 101: A Few Tips For Your Bracket

March Madness is about to take over. Before the NCAA brackets are revealed on Sunday, here are some tips (you’ll also need luck) for filling them out.

LAKSHMI SINGH, HOST:

It’s March. So that means a few things, like turning your clocks forward an hour tonight or breaking out that barbecue for the first time in months. But for a lot of people, it means one thing above all else – Madness as in March Madness. Tomorrow, the full fields will be announced for the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. The women’s draw will be revealed on Monday.

The winners will be the college basketball national champions. There will be plenty of winners and even more losers in office pools across the country. So we thought it would be a good time to call our very own Tom Goldman NPR sports correspondent. Thanks for being here.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Calling a loser – is that what you’re saying? You’re calling me a loser.

SINGH: A loser.

GOLDMAN: All right. Happy to be here, Lakshmi.

SINGH: Well, tell me – when you think March Madness, what immediately comes to mind?

GOLDMAN: I think of disappointment when I think of the pools. But I think of excitement, and I think of the first week mainly. The first week always seems to be the best. That’s where the madness really is in March Madness. It’s where you have all these teams playing, and it’s where your really fun upsets will happen usually.

SINGH: OK. So for folks, like myself, who haven’t really gotten into it as much as in, you know, recent years, you have any big strategies in mind for those who start filling out their brackets tomorrow?

GOLDMAN: (Laughter) Well, let me preface this by saying I have one – maybe one pool in the last decade, so buyer beware. OK here are a few tips.

SINGH: All right.

GOLDMAN: If you have face paint and a foam number-one finger and all kinds of colorful T-shirts and sweatshirts from your alma mater…

SINGH: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: …Put them away.

SINGH: What?

GOLDMAN: You can wear them during the games, but not when you’re making your picks. It’s not about emotion. It’s about business. Only pick your school to win if you went to Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, you know, UCLA, teams this year that have a real chance. OK. Another one.

SINGH: Wow. OK.

GOLDMAN: If you want to pick upsets, 12 seeds for some reason do well against fives. So go ahead and pick them. And if you want to pick a whopper upset like a 15 seed over a two or a 14 over a three, don’t take your Cinderella team far. They’ll often flame out quickly after the thrilling win.

And one thing, Lakshmi, do not pick a 16 seed to beat a number one seed. That is the only guarantee because it’s never, ever, ever happened. It might someday, but don’t use the someday principle to knock out a first seed that might very well go all the way.

And, lastly, arm yourself with a quarter because you will need to flip a coin on several picks. It’s just that close or you don’t know the teams, and that’s perhaps the biggest rule, except that there’s luck involved both in the games and in picking winners.

SINGH: Although I’ve seen those coins with two heads or two tails, so I’m thinking get the coin that has a head and a tail.

GOLDMAN: There you go.

SINGH: OK. Who are the teams and players to watch on the men’s side?

GOLDMAN: Well, you know, I mentioned a couple of teams before, but I’ll add Louisville, I’ll add defending champion Villanova. We haven’t had a team win consecutive titles since 2007 when Florida won its second straight – also Gonzaga which spent a good deal of the regular season as the number-one ranked team. The West in general has some very strong teams, along with Gonzaga, UCLA which I mentioned, Oregon and Arizona.

SINGH: And how about the women?

GOLDMAN: Well, the women – of course, it’s all about UConn. They have now won 107 straight games, many by whopping margins. Although this season, they had some squeakers. They won by two, by three, by six in three different games, and I asked espn.com’s great women’s basketball writer Mechelle Voepel, the question we always ask in March with UConn, can they be beaten? She says, while it’s still a tall order, there’s probably a better chance this year than last.

Last season, they were ridiculously dominant, rather than their usual unbelievably dominant. They have some younger players leading them this year, and those younger players without a lot of experience in past tournaments. That might make them a little vulnerable, but it should be UConn. We have South Carolina, Baylor, Notre Dame, Maryland as teams that might be the ones to beat them.

SINGH: Well, I hope you go mad this March Madness. Tom, thank you so much for joining us. That’s Tom Goldman, NPR sports correspondent. Thanks again.

GOLDMAN: You’re welcome.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Health March 11, 2017

Illinois Congressman On Why He Supports The Republican Health Care Plan

Congressman Rodney Davis of Illinois supports the Republican Health Care Plan that’s making its way through the House. But he says that there will likely be hurdles before the bill becomes a law.

LAKSHMI SINGH, HOST:

We want to turn now to Congressman Rodney Davis. He is a Republican speaking to us from Decatur, Ill., and he is in favor of the bill being advanced by House Republicans. Congressman Davis, thanks so much for joining us.

RODNEY DAVIS: Thanks for having me on.

SINGH: So please tell us briefly why you are in favor of this bill.

DAVIS: Because the status quo is collapsing. The health insurance marketplace as we know it is not sustainable under the current law. And if we do nothing and watch states like Illinois have to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars under the current law just to keep the Medicaid expansion in place that we have, then I’m abdicating my responsibility as a policymaker. The bill that I’m supporting I’m sure will be changed by the time it goes to the Senate and comes back to us. But I’m looking forward to the debate to make our health care system better than it is today.

SINGH: We just heard from the president of the American Medical Association, who says that this bill will put health insurance out of reach for millions of Americans, especially older, lower-income patients. What do you make of that?

DAVIS: Well, I disagree with the statements. And I’ve talked to many doctors over my time in Washington over the last four years who were very frustrated with the current status quo, with the Affordable Care Act as implemented. Doctors that I talked to are seeing less patients because of the compliance issues that they have to follow under Obamacare. We want to make the system better, and I look forward to having their input. But I would argue looking in Illinois, where we’ve had 45 to 55 – and friends of mine have had 87 percent increases in their premiums – Obamacare’s already costly. And frankly, the promise for families of saving $2,500 on average did not come true.

SINGH: Well, as you’re well aware, there has been pushback from the right as well, a lot of Republicans, especially in the Senate, who say that this bill does not go far enough in repealing the current health care law, the Affordable Care Act, also widely known as Obamacare. Rand Paul has called the Republican plan Obamacare lite. What do you make of his resistance to this current bill?

DAVIS: Well, I know Rand. Rand’s a friend of mine. I think this is a publicity stunt, though, that is not based on facts. His own plan has refundable tax credits just like our plan does. You know, I want to make sure that we don’t just pull the rug out from those who are dependent on coverage, those who may need the assistance through our Medicaid programs.

I think our program as designed is a great off-ramp to be able to get to a system that’s going to be affordable for every single American, that’s going to stop the collapsing status quo we know as Obamacare, and also actually be able to provide opportunities for families to get off of Medicaid and then be able to afford the coverage that they need or be offered more affordable coverage through their employers or future employers.

SINGH: Well, Congressman Davis, we know, though, that this is probably not going to be smooth sailing for this bill to be approved. There is enough resistance that there are going to be obstacles to getting to where you want to get. What is it going to take, you think, to get enough Republicans to bend behind this bill finally?

DAVIS: Well, we’ll see when we go back next week. I’m part of the deputy whip team, so we’ll be asking members what their concerns are. But I would – I would let you know that no major piece of legislation that I’ve seen go across the House floor in my four years has ever been easy. And this one will be no different. But we also have to remember as Republicans we are now the majority and we have the White House. We have to move from an opposition party to a proposition party. Now’s our time to put our ideas forward. And this is going to be a test for the Republicans, no doubt.

SINGH: Congressman Rodney Davis, representing Illinois’ 13th District, speaking to us from Decatur. Thank you so much for joining us.

DAVIS: Thanks for having me on.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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