NCAA Tournament 2012 Expert Predictions: How to Fill Out Your Bracket and Win Your Office Pool with Upset Picks; Plus PDF Printable Brackets [March Madness]

The day is finally upon us.

Thursday marks the big day with 16 college basketball games taking place. Friday will have an additional 16. Yes, it won't be a productive way to end the week as March Madness is upon us.

The Final Four will take place on Mar. 31 at Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, with the title game slated for Monday night on, April 2.

All games can be seen on CBS, TBS, TNT, and TruTV. Once again, opinionated and affable broadcaster Charles Barkely will be a studio analyst.

The NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is filled with suprises and even the most intelligent college basketball experts end up with ugly draws filled with brutal mistakes by April.

That's why it's called March Madness -- anything can happen.

(Here's a printable form: http://a.espncdn.com/i/ncaa/12mens_bracket.pdf)

College basketball is packed with 19-year-olds who play 40-minute games in cities they've never been to before, and against opponents they may have never heard of. Countless hours of scouting and research often means little when a team goes down simply because they couldn't knock down their free throws, and that has often been the case.

However, there are some simple rules to follow when filling out your brackets, and come ahead in the office pool.

1) Focus on the Final Four As much as it's tempting to fill out the early rounds and keep your fingers crossed that your ninth-seed team pulls off an upset over the eight-seed team, the points in winning the later rounds mean far more. The best strategy before filling out a bracket is to look at each region and choose the team you think has the best chance to come out of it. It's not always a No. 1 seed, and it's very rare for four No. 1 seeds to make the Final Four, but your chances are probably better with a No. 1 than any other seed.

2) Never Pick a No. 16 seed The No. 1 seed is almost guaranteed in advancing out beyond it's first game. Sure, it's fun to pick an upset, and you will look like a genius at the water cooler the next day if it happens, but it will be disasterous to lose a great number of points if that No. 1 seed goes to the Final Four or beyond.

3) Factor in location When Team A have a far distance to travel to the neutral site, and Team B have a short distance to travel to that same neutral site, Team A will be at major disadvantage before tip off. When the site of the game is far, it cuts down on practice time, messes with the players' sleep clock, and the number of fans to support them also tends to be thinner.

4) Go with Seniors More experienced players tend to do better in March than younger players. Younger players tend to be more fatigued after a rather grueling regular season, and under-classmen also appear overwhelmed by the spotlight and confusion of playing on a neutral court against an unlikely opponent. Teams packed with upper-classmen, and mainly seniors, usually have an edge because they've often been to the tournament before and have better leadership skills.

5) Check free-throw shooting College basketball is packed with players who have not mastered the skill of shooting from the free-throw line. Unlike the NBA, College basketball has a single bonus and double bonus system. In the single bonus system, if the free-throw shooter misses the first free throw, and the opposing team rebounds the miss, it's basically a turnover for the team shooting free throws. A team that can knock down their free throws has a strong edge over those that don't.

6) Avoid picking too many upsets Sure, those people who picked George Mason to go to the Final Four in 2006 got a chance to gloat for days, but if your upset pick to go deep falls short in the first round (and that happens a lot), your bracket is screwed. Unless you have great knowledge of college basketball, don't take too many chances. Play it safe, because that's what most people are doing, too.

7) Listen to experts ESPN has some of the best in the business. Dick Vitale went with all top seeds. He has Kentucky beating North Carolina in the Final, with Missouri and Florida State reaching the Final Four. Jay Bilas went even further and picked all four No. 1 seeds to reach the Final Four. He has Kentucky winning it all by beating Syracuse.

Hubert Davis has North Carolina (his alma mater) winning it all and beating Michigan State, and has the other two No. 1 seeds in the Final Four, like Bilas. Former Notre Dame head coach Digger Phelps has Michigan State winning it all by beating Kansas, and has Florida State and Kentucky to join them in the last four.

Here's a look at our predictions for the 2012 NCAA Tournament (take it for what it's worth)

SOUTH

Mississippi Valley State over WKU

Kentucky over Mississippi Valley State

Iowa State over UConn

Wichita State over VCU

New Mexico State over Indiana

UNLV over Colorado

Baylor over South Dakota St.

Xavier over Notre Dame

Duke over Lehigh

Kentucky over Iowa St.