Tourney Time

I am a little late doing this but due to some R&R the last couple of days, I have not been able to get my bracket posted before the tournament started. The first day went pretty well for me, but that is usually how it goes. I do well the first day, start thinking that I have it all figured out and then my bracket starts to bust open the second day. Here is how my bracket looks from the first day of action down to my national championship. I will keep updating my blog after each round with my wins and losses and thoughts on the tournament.

First Round

Thursday
The only game I got wrong was Butler against LSU. I went with Butler, not a good move. I know that Maryland, Michagan and Western Kentucky (which was my 12 over 5 pick, because there is always one of those) were techincally upsets but I thought those three were the easy upsets to pick in the bracket. I did not go with the popular upset choice of VCU over UCLA and in the final minute of that game, I thought I was wrong but somehow the Bruins decided to play defense for the last possession after not playing any for the final five minutes.
So after the first day, I have Louisville, Connecticut, Texas A&M, Purdue, Washington, Maryland, Memphis, UCLA, Villanova, Texas, Duke, North Carolina, Western Kentuck, Gonzaga, Michigan and Oklahoma.
After the first day, I still have all my sweet 16 teams alive, but that does not say much.
Here is my bracket for the rest of the tournament:

Midwest Region
Second Day:
Ohio State over Siena
Utah over Arizona (For those who don't know, UA is my arch enemy as I am a proud alumn of ASU, more on that later in the South region)
Wake Forest over Cleveland State
West Virgina over Kansas
USC over Boston College (My upset not only of the day but USC is my surprise team of the tournament)
Michigan State over Robert Morris

Second Round (my picks to make the Sweet 16)
Louisville over Ohio State
Wake Forest over Utah
Kansas over West Virginia
USC over Michigan State (I can see my bracket falling apart about now)

Sweet 16 Round
Wake Forest over Louisville
Kansas over USC

Regional Final
Wake Forest over Kansas (In the past, when I pick against Wake Forest, they win and when I pick Wake Forest they loss, lets see if fortune changes)

West Region
Second Day
Marquette over Missouri

Second Round (To reach Sweet 16)
Connecticut over Texas A&M
Washington over Purdue
Missouri over Marquette
Memphis over Maryland

Sweet 16 Round
Connecticut over Washington (At least I think one Huskie squad will be heading to the regional finals)
Memphis over Missouri

Regional Finals
Memphis over Connecticut (For the second region in a row, the No. 1 seed is going down. But this pick is very shaky after the kind of game Memphis had Thursday afternoon).

East Region
Second Day
Pittsburgh over E. Tenn. St
Tennessee over Oklahoma State (These are the type of 8 vs 9 games that I just flip a coin)
Wisconsin over Florida State (My second of the 12 over 5 picks. Do not feel real good about this pick, but I always take two 12 over 5 picks to cover my basics and we already had a 12 over 5 upset with Western Kentucky).
Xavier over Portland State

Second Round (On the way to the Sweet 16)
Pittsburgh over Tennesee
Xavier over Wisconsin
UCLA over Villanova (Can you start to see my Pac 10 bais)
Duke over Texas (Even though I really considered Texas. I have always liked Duke, but they have been so over rated the last number of years)

Sweet 16 round
Pittsburgh over Xavier
UCLA over Duke (See above posts on Pac 10 and Duke)

Regional Finals
Pittsburgh over UCLA (my first No. 1 seed to reach final four)

South Region
Second Day
Arizona State over Temple
Syracuse over Stephen F. Austin State University
(Before I go on with my picks, let me get sidetracked for a couple of seconds on these two games. Like I said before, I am a graduate of ASU, so go Sun Devils. My wife is a graduate of SFA so we have a potential ASU-SFA matchup in the second round which means the Tyler house may not be very pleasant come Sunday. However, there is a problem and that is Syracuse. Don't really think the Lumberjacks have much of a chance, sorry sweety. Then again, I have that deep don gut feeling that ASU not going to be playing Sunday as well, but I will be making those picks with my heart and not my head.)

Second Round (Sweet 16 here we come)
North Carolina over Butler (actually it would now be LSU)
Western Kentucky over Gonzaga
ASU over Syracuse (Again heart over head)
Oklahoma over Michigan

Sweet 16 Round
North Carolina over Western Kentucky
Oklahoma over ASU (This is when the head takes over against the heart. If ASU makes it this far, will be rooting all for the Sun Devils, but have no idea how they stop Blake Griffin.)

Regional Finals
North Carolina over Oklahoma (I am making the North Carolina pick based on Ty Lawson finally coming back. If he does not, my bracket is over)

Final Four
Memphis over Wake Forest
North Carolina over Pittsburgh

National Championship
Memphis over North Carolina

National Champs
Memphis