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46 MENSHEALTH.COM | March 2015

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Pity the modern man’s pants: Today’s big smartphones and fat wallets con-

spire to create some odd bulges. Thankfully, there’s hope: The phone wallet

case pulls double duty to streamline your slacks and squelch any mixed signals

about your state of arousal. Matt Altschul, president and CEO of CM4, a com-

pany that designs and sells phone cases, points out key features that keep your

device ding-free, your Amex in place, and your style dialed in. —GILLIAN FRANCELLA

The MaterialIf your phone could talk, it would ask

you to buy it a soft-touch rubber or sil-

icone case to disperse shock. And

Altschul recommends a fabric interior

to swaddle your credit cards. If you

choose to go the stylish route, opt for

genuine leather. Just remember: an

overstuffed Costanza wallet will lose

its shape over time. To fix that, dab

water on any stretched-out areas. As

they dry, they’ll shrink to original size.

The Stitching The Stitc ghingA glued seam is a split waiting to

happen, so look for stitching. Choose

nylon thread over cotton. For one

thing, nylon is stronger, so it can take

more case-cramming abuse before

breaking. It’s also water-resistant,

which means it won’t rot like cotton if

it gets wet (from rain or your attempt

to remold it). How do you tell the

threads apart? Nylon is synthetic; it’ll

appear sleek and shiny, not fibrous.

The PortholesThe PortholessCases with narrowly cut access holes

make plugging in your headphones

or charger a pain. Pretest by bringing

your add-ons to the store. To make

sure they’re secure, listen for a click

as you insert the plug, Altschul says.

OUR FAVORITESTWO CASES THAT HIT ALL THE MARKS—AND

LOOK GOOD DOING IT—ARE THE IFLIP WALLET WW

($30, IFLIPWALLET.COM) AND THE LUGANO

WALLET BY WW SENA ($40, SENACASES.COM).

BUY Q

Making a Case for the Phone Wallet

The Phone HolsterAim for a skintight fit to keep sweat

and crud out, says Altschul. And for

screen protection, look for a beveled

top edge that’s at least 1 millimeter

high. To measure, go old-school: Bring

a pencil to the store, slide the phone

in the case, and place the graphite tip

against the screen beside the bev-

eled edge. The distance between the

screen and top of the case should be

about the same size as the tip.

Is picking the winner of the

Big Dance a crapshoot? You

wish—that would imply that your

odds were fathomable. But 68

teams going head-to-head in

single-elimination games over

six rounds leaves some 147

quintillion ways to blow your

office bracket, says Sheldon

Jacobson, Ph.D., a computer

science professor at the Uni-

versity of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign. (The number again:

147, followed by 18 zeros.)

So Jacobson has calcu-

lated an edge: The chart below

shows the percentage of times

each seed has won to advance

to a new round since the play-

off format was standardized in

1985. That’s 30 seasons of data

at your fingertips. Pick a No. 16

seed to go all the way and you’re

crazy—or seeking a permanent

invite to the office pool.

Take the Long ShotYes, low-ranked teams typi-

cally wash out of the first

round. But 12th-placed seeds

historically go 44-76 in their

first games. That’s a 37 percent

win record. Twenty have made

the Sweet Sixteen, but that

luck does run out: Only one has

ever made it to the Final Four.

Measure More MatchupsAnother Cinderella team that

might win some early rounds?

No. 11 seeds move on 34 per-

cent of the time. And just over

40 percent of those victors ulti-

mately make it to the Sweet

Sixteen before being taken out.

Forget Some FavoritesPicking all four No. 1 seeds as

your Final Four isn’t just lazy.

It’s statistically stupid. There’s

only a 1.7 percent shot of all

making it. Three? A 12 percent

chance. Two? Well, 32 percent

of the time both may be there.

It’s better to select one No. 1

to make it: That’s happened 38

percent of the time. —G.F.

DATA BOMB

BUILD A BREAKOUT BRACKET

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

SEED

0%

6%

15%

21%

37%

34%

39%

51%

49%

61%

66%

63%

79%

85%

94%

100%

0%

1%

2%

5%

17%

14%

18%

4%

9%

17%

33%

33%

46%

51%

64%

87%

ROUND TWO

32 teams

0%

0%

0%

0%

1%

5%

6%

2%

7%

7%

11%

7%

16%

25%

47%

68%

SWEETSIXTEEN

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

3%

0%

1%

4%

1%

3%

5%

0%

12%

22%

40%

ELITEEIGHT

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

3%

1%

2%

3%

3%

8%

10%

23%

FINAL FOUR

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

1%

1%

1%

0%

1%

3%

3%

15%

THEBIG

GAME

Winning Percentage by Seeding per Round Since 1985*

*The tournament includes four regions, so four teams always start out with the same seed designation.

If they all reach the final four, three of those same-ranked seeds must lose to the other to advance.

ROUND ONE

64 teams

BRACKET ROUND

GOOD

CALL!

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