Bracketology - Part II

Last Post I detailed my picks for the East and South Regions of the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament. Today, I'll go over my picks for the Midwest and West Regions.

Midwest

Louisville is the Number 1 seed in the Midwest. I see them easily defeating the winner of the play in game between Alabama St and Morehead St. For the second round, I picked them over Siena, who I picked to beat Ohio State in the first round. In the other half of this draw, I picked Utah to beat Arizona in the first round and to beat Wake Forest in the second round. I picked Wake to beat Cleveland St in the first round. In the Sweet 16, I picked Louisville to beat Utah. In the other half of the Midwest Region, the Number 2 seed is Michigan State. I think MSU is overrated as a 2 seed, but I do have them winning their first round over Robert Morris. In the second round, I have them meeting Boston College. Boston College moves to Round 2 by first beating USC. In the second Round, I picked Boston College to upset MSU to move on to the Sweet 16. Meeting Boston College will be West Virginia. WVU gets to the Sweet 16 by beating Dayton in the first Round and Kansas in the second round. Kansas makes it to the second Round by beating North Dakota St. in the first Round. In the sweet 16, that sets up a meeting between WVU and BC with BC prevailing to meet Louisville. I pick Louisville to beat BC and move into the Final Four.

West Region

The number one seed in the West region is Connecticut. They easily win their first round game against Chattanooga to face BYU in Round 2. BYU advances to the second Round by beating Texas A&M. I picked Connecticut to top BYU and advance to the Sweet 16. Meeting them there will be Mississippi ST. Miss St is hot right now and they will beat Washington in the first Round and meet Purdue in Round 2 after Purdue beats Northern Iowa in the first Round. I picked Miss St to beat Purdue and move into the Sweet 16 to face Connecticut. Connecticut ends the Miss St run and moves on to the Elite 8. There they will face the Memphis Tigers, the Number 2 Seed in the West Region. Memphis gets to the Elite 8 by beating Cal State Northridge in the first Round and meeting the Terrapins of Maryland in Round 2. Maryland gets to Round 2 against Memphis by beating Cal in the first Round. Memphis beats Maryland to advance to the Sweet 16 to face Missouri. Missouri makes it to the Sweet 16 by beating Cornell in the first Round to meet Utah St in the second Round. Utah St gets to the second Round by beating Marquette in the first Round. Missouri beats Utah St to face Memphis. Memphis beats Missouri in the Sweet 16 to advance to the Elite 8 to meet Connecticut. Memphis beats Connecticut to advance to the Final 4.

Final Four

Louisville will meet Memphis and Pitt will go against Syracuse. I picked Memphis to upset Louisville to advance to the finals and for Pitt to take out Syracuse. That sets up a Memphis vs Pitt finale. Finally, I picked Pitt to prevail over Memphis to win it all.

Check back after the weekend to check out all the red ink as I cross out the games I missed. Drawing up my brackets is great fun, but I know from experience that my track record in past tournaments leaves something to be desired. It still will be madness. Bring it on. Feel free to share your picks.