Moni's 2012 NCAA Men's B-Ball Bracket

It was fun watching the NCAA Final Four transpire in my beloved hometown last year, and FYI, the 2016 NCAA Men's Final Four will be back at Reliant Stadium.  

But like 'errbody' else's NCAA March Madness brackets last season, thanks to all the upsets my 2011 brackets were a convoluted mess by the time the last four teams arrived in Houston   VCU upset my championship pick Kansas, who was knocked out by eventual runner up Butler in the national semifinal game. 

I've had better years since I started posting my NCAA men's tournament brackets on the blog in 2007.  Here are my picks for 2008, 2009 and 2010 on the men's side   

So for the fifth straight year, it's time for me to post my NCAA b-ball brackets on the men's tourney side.  With the First Four games of the 2012 tournament tipping off in a few hours, I will attempt to redeem myself for last year's disastrous showing and see if I can not only pick the eventual NCAA champion, but see if I can accurately pick which four teams will end up in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.  

So let's get busy.  

First Four Games
Western Kentucky, Lamar, Iona, California


East Regional

Second Round
Syracuse, Kansas State, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Florida State, Gonzaga, Ohio State

Third Round
Syracuse, Vanderbilt, Florida State, Ohio State,

Elite Eight
Syracuse, Ohio State

East Region Champion
Syracuse

South Regional

Second Round
Kentucky, Connecticut, Virginia Commonwealth, Indiana, Colorado, Baylor, Notre Dame, Duke

Third Round
Kentucky, Indiana, Baylor, Duke

Elite Eight
Kentucky, Duke

South Region Champion
Kentucky


Midwest Regional

Second Round
North Carolina, Creighton, Temple, Michigan, North Carolina State, Georgetown, Saint Mary's, Kansas

Third Round
North Carolina, Michigan, Georgetown, Kansas

Elite Eight
North Carolina, Kansas

Midwest Region Champion
North Carolina


West Regional

Second Round
Michigan State, Memphis, New Mexico, Louisville, Murray State, Marquette, Virginia,. Missouri

Third Round
Michigan State, Louisville, Murray State, Missouri

Elite Eight
Michigan State, Missouri

West Regional Champions
Missouri

Final Four Teams
Syracuse, Kentucky, North Carolina, Missouri



Championship Game
North Carolina, Kentucky

2012 NCAA Champion
Kentucky

2011 UH Cougar Watch- Great Day In Dallas

One of the irritating refrains spat out by UH Cougar haters the entire season when they want to denigrate the sporting accomplishments of the third largest university in the state is that 'UH doesn't play anybody'. 

It was a comment repeatedly regurgitated during this season on comment threads and one that got annoyingly louder as they opened up with 12 straight wins and came agonizingly close to becoming the first C-USA team to make it to a BCS bowl.

After the shocking loss to Southern Mississippi in the C-USA title game, we fans and the players heard the volume of that refrain turned up for the next month in the runup to the Ticket City Bowl in Dallas. 

Cougar players were also angered by the perceived disrespect in their (and UH fans eyes) of being dropped from number 6 in the nation all the way to number 19 in the rankings and being dissed by ESPN and national media college football analysts. 

They and coach Tony Levine who replaced Kevin Sumlin (who took the money and ran to College Station) were intent on proving that the Southern Miss game was a bad day of the office.  9-4 Penn State just happened to be in the way of a highly motivated UH Cougar team with a huge chip on its shoulder.  They were also playing this game in a stadium that has historical significance for the UH program in terms of the four Cotton Bowl the Cougar program contested there while they were members of the old Southwest Conference.

UH opened the game with an aerial assault that stunned the number 5 ranked Penn State defense and led to a 17-0 lead the Cougars never relinquished as the Cougars rolled to a 30-14 victory over the number 24 Nittany Lions. 

The underrated UH defense also stifled Penn State's vaunted running attack and picked off three passes to close out the dominating win.

Case Keenum was 45 for 69 for 532 yards and three TD's in his final game and finished his Cougar career with 20,114 yards passing while (ho hum) demolishing more NCAA records in his wake.

Keenum also became the first Cougar quarterback in the history of the program to have multiple bowl wins.

Coach Tony Levine also became the first UH head coach to open his career since Hal Lahar did so in 1957 by beating a ranked opponent in his inaugural game.

UH also became the first C-USA football squad to win 13 games and beat a ranked AQ conference team in a bowl game.

It's just too bad that didn't happen for the 13-1 Cougars in a BCS bowl.

This UH senior class of 17 players such as Keenum, Patrick Edwards, Tyron Carrier, Sammy Brown and Marcus McGraw just to name a few of them will leave Cullen Blvd with a lot of records and accomplishments in their wake.  While they didn't get the big prize of a C-USA title while they were there, they set the stage for something more important in terms of making UH football relevant again and getting us back into a major conference.

We Cougar fans and alums will always hold them in a special place in our hearts for what they accomplished, will love them for that and are looking forward to see what transpires in our last C-USA season in September as we prepare to move on to the Big East in July 2013. 

Eat 'em up!

2011 UH Cougar Watch- Fighting For Respect In Dallas

Being a University of Houston football player, student or alum is a constant battle for respect against the constant sneers of t-shirt wearing Longhorn and Aggie fans.  At times we feel we don't even get it from the hometown media who cover our team.

When UH was agonizingly close to becoming a BCS buster and reeling off 12 straight wins the detractors were sipping hateraid from 55 gallon drums as the Cougars rose to Number 6 in the polls and the BCS rankings before falling in a painful nationally televised 49-28 C-USA title game loss at home to Southern Mississippi.

The players aren't happy about what transpired in the last game they played and are looking for redemption respect and to change some minds about the UH football program.

“We want to show everybody that we can play with the best,” senior receiver Tyron Carrier said in a Chronicle interview. “The first thing people say is ‘Y’all don’t play anybody.’ Well now we’ve got somebody. We want to show everybody what we can do with this spread offense and the type of skilled players we have.”

They are in Dallas at the Ticket City Bowl with a chance for redemption against a number 20 ranked 9-3 Penn State squad that tied for the eighth toughest schedule in the country with Alabama, one of the teams they played, and is a member of the automatic AQ qualifying Big Ten..

It's also at the Cotton Bowl, a stadium with a mixed 2-2 record in Cougar football history.   In their previous wins in the stadium UH top five  football squads under Bill Yeoman knocked off number 5 ranked and unbeaten Maryland 30-21 in the 1977 Cotton Bowl to complete their successful run through their first SWC season and finish ranked number four in the nation.  In the 1980 Cotton Bowl the number 6 Cougars beat top five ranked Nebraska on a 6 yard Elston to Herring TD pass with 12 seconds to go for a 17-14 win and the number 5 ranking to conclude the season..

In 1979 number 9 ranked UH lost a heartbreaking 35-34 Cotton Bowl 'Ice Bowl' game to number 10 Notre Dame.  After building a 34-12 lead, a sick Joe Montana came off the bench to make the Cougars ill by leading a furious fourth quarter comeback over the last 7:32 of the quarter for the Fighting Irish victory.

In the 1985 Cotton Bowl an unranked UH fell 45-28 to number 8 ranked Doug Flutie led Boston College.

That was then, this is 2012.  Judging by what Tyron Carrier had to say, the Cougars are determined to erase the bad memories of that C-USA title game loss. 

“We said it amongst ourselves the whole season,” Carrier continued. “They were waiting for us to fall. As soon as we failed, we dropped from top 10 to (out of the top 15). We just want to show everybody that we can really play. It just so happened that we had an off game. We don’t plan on ending the season like that.” 

“I think it’s extremely important,” said coach Tony Levine. “We got to as high as No. 6 in the country and there were still people out there that were skeptics whether it was the schedule or the conference. I think having drawn an opponent like Penn State, the tradition is as good as any in the country. The season they’ve had, the success they’ve had, it’s a great stage for us to go out and show that the 12 wins were not the fluke but the one loss was the fluke. Our kids are looking forward to that.”

The game kicks off at 11 AM CST on Monday.   I'm hoping they have a better result in this game than the one back on December 1.