It is that time of year again, march madness. Every year after selection Sunday there are a few days where people of all ages fill out brackets of who will win the NCAA Men's Basketball championship. Not everyone that fills out a bracket has a lot of knowledge on college basketball, or even sports for that matter. With 68 teams including the play in games, the amount of combinations are mind-boggling. Sometimes it comes down to luck, some people like to study all the teams, some people are upset heavy, some people go chalk. If you are stuck, follow some of these tips to help with some of the tougher, coin-flip match-ups.

First look at the conference that the team is from. If it is a powerful conference even the third or fourth best team in this conference can be dangerous against smaller, weaker conferences that don't have as much depth.

Another good tip is to look at any key injuries the roster might have. If a top-ranked school is playing without their best player then that is something to take into consideration. On the other end, if a school is getting a top player back into the lineup, they might be more powerful than their record or seed shows.

We all love to try and pick those upsets. But usually most upsets don't make it past the round of 32 and rarely make it past the Sweet 16. Yes there have been some instances in recent years, even last year with Loyola-Chicago and Michigan making it to the Final Four. Usually brackets start to favor the higher seeded teams in the later rounds (not always, but usually). Even in the first and second round games since 2011, the higher seeded team has won 71 percent of those games.

Don't be too conventional with your picks. It is okay to be safe and and go chalk, which means picking the higher seed, but be careful not to do this in every match-up. Only once has there been a Final Four of all 1 seeds. It is actually 11 times more likely that the Final Four will contain no 1 seeds than it is to have all four of them.

It is not about getting every pick right. It is about beating your opponents. You can't beat your opponents if you are picking the same exact teams as them. Picking the national champion and the teams that play in the national championship is where bracket pools are won. This being said, Duke is the clear favorite to be the national champion. The Blue Devils are being picked to win it all in 38 percent of the brackets on ESPN as of Wednesday morning March 20th.

Look at where the scoring is coming from for each team. You want the leading scorers usually to be upperclassmen, preferably not Freshman. The reason for this is when in a tight game, or if a team goes down early, you want to be able to have a go-to veteran that can help turn the tides in that school's favor. A good thing to look for is high volume scoring from upperclassmen guards, because they will be the ones who are going to have to take those 3-pointers down the stretch with little time left.