Moni's 2018 NCAA Women's B-Ball Bracket

Since it's Women's History Month, I also show love to the women's NCAA ballers and do a bracket for their tournament as well.  Since 2008 I've done a bracket for the NCAA women's tournament, and had much better results (6-4) thanks in large part to UConn's sustained excellence.

These are my 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 , 2014, 2015 TransGriot NCAA women's tournament brackets.here   In 2016 I only got one of the Women's Final Four teams correct, but it was the right one in the eventual national champion UConn Huskies.

In 2015 I correctly predicted the NCAA women's title game, and I've also correctly picked all four women's NCAA Final Four teams in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2015.

Last year I got half of the 2017 NCAA women's championship game correct.   Like everyone else that watches women's collegiate basketball I was not anticipating UConn going down in the semis to an on a roll Mississippi State team and picked UConn over eventual surprise champ South Carolina.

So who will be cutting down the championship nets in Columbus?   Good question.   Time to answer who I think it will be. 


Albany Regional
First Round
UConn, Miami (FL), Duke, Georgia, South Florida, Florida State, California, South Carolina

Second Round
UConn,  Duke, Florida State, South Carolina

Sweet 16
UConn, South Carolina

Albany Regional Champion
UConn
 

Kansas City Regional
First Round
Mississippi State, Syracuse, Maryland, NC State, Iowa, UCLA, Arizona State, Texas

Second Round
Mississippi State, Maryland, UCLA, Texas

Sweet 16
Mississippi State, Texas

Kansas City Regional Champ
Mississippi State 

Lexington Regional
First Round
Louisville, Marquette , Missouri, Stanford, Oregon State, Tennessee, Michigan State, Baylor

Second Round
Louisville, Stanford, Tennessee, Baylor

Sweet 16
Louisville, Baylor

Lexington Regional Champion
Louisville

Spokane Regional
First Round
Notre Dame, Villanova, DePaul, Texas A&M, LSU, Ohio State,  Minnesota, Oregon

Second Round
Notre Dame, Texas A&M, LSU, Oregon

Sweet 16
Notre Dame, LSU

Spokane Regional Champion
Notre Dame


Final Four
UConn, Mississippi State, Louisville, Notre Dame

Championship Game
UConn,  Louisville

2018 NCAA Women's Champion
UConn 

Moni's 2018 NCAA Men's B-Ball Bracket

It's that time of year again, and once again as I've done since 2007, I'm posting a NCAA men's tournament bracket for y'all to peruse and pick apart.   2015 has been the only year I didn't do a bracket, frankly because that year I was too busy to properly do it.

And for the first time since 2010, I finally get to see my alma mater play in the Big Dance, and it may not be a one and done appearance either.

UH lost in the AAC title game 56-55 (boo hiss) to Cincinnati, but doesn't take away the fact they have had one of their best seasons since I was walking the campus and Phi S;lama Jama was slam dunking their way to three straight NCAA finals appearances

The last time the UH Cougars won an NCAA tournament game was in that 1984 Final Four in the Kingdome against Virginia, so we're way overdue for a tournament win.

This year's Final Four, thanks to SB 6 being killed twice (you're welcome) is in San Antonio. 
And yes Texas conservafools, it's more evidence of the Lone Star State getting nice things when we don't pass unjust legislation.

I got the NCAA Men's Champion right last year, and that evens my all time record to 5-5.

Here's the previous NCAA men's brackets for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 , 2016 and 2017 

And now, my 2018 NCAA men's bracket

First Four Games
Radford, UCLA, Texas Southern, Syracuse 

South Regional 
First Round 
Virginia, Kansas State, Kentucky, Arizona, Miami (FL), Tennessee, Nevada, Cincinnati  

Second Round
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Cincinnati

Sweet 16
Virginia, Cincinnati 

South Regional Champion
Virginia


West Regional
First Round
Xavier, Missouri, Ohio State, Gonzaga, Houston , Michigan, Texas A&M, North Carolina

Second Round
Xavier, Gonzaga, Houston, North Carolina

Sweet 16
Xabier, North Carolina

West Regional Champ
North Carolina 

East Regional
First Round
Villanova, Alabama, West Virginia, Wichita State, Florida, Texas tech, Arkansas, Purdue

Second Round
Villanova, Wichita State, Florida, Purdue

Sweet 16
Villanova, Purdue

East Regional Champ
Purdue 

Midwest Regional 
First  Round
Kansas, Seton Hall, Clemson, Auburn, TCU, Michigan State, Rhode Island, Duke

Second Round
Kansas, Auburn, Michigan State, Duke

Sweet 16
Auburn, Duke

Midwest Regional Champ
Duke 

Final Four
Virginia, North Carolina, Purdue, Duke

Championship Game
North Carolina, Duke

20
2018 NCAA Champion
North Carolina 

Moni's 2017 NCAA Women's B-Ball Bracket

Unlike the NCAA men's tourney, I've had a lot better results (6-3) picking the champion in the NCAA women's tournament ranks.  Then again, when you're dealing with the sustained excellence of the UConn women (107 wins and counting) it's a huge upset and a major news story when they don't win a game or make it to the Final Four.

In 2008 I started doing a bracket for the NCAA women's tournament in honor of Women's History Month and frankly because I believed the lady collegiate ballers needed some love and March Madness attention on this blog as well.

These are my 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 , 2014 and 2015 TransGriot NCAA women's tournament brackets.here 

In 2016 I only got one of the Women's Final Four teams correct, but it was the eventual champion in UConn.  But in 2015 I correctly predicted the title game, and I've also correctly picked all four women's NCAA Final Four teams in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2015.
Like I said, I do a better job on the NCAA women's tournament.

So now it's time to see who are going to be the last four teams standing when they get to American Airlines Center in Dallas on March 31 and who will be playing in the women's title game on April 2

Will UConn win their fifth straight title, 12th overall  and complete their seventh perfect season?     Or will somebody in this field pull off the upset for the ages?

We're about to find out starting in a few hours.

Bridgeport Regional
First Round .
Connecticut, Iowa State, Texas A&M, UCLA, West Virginia, Maryland, Temple, Duke

Second Round
Connecticut, Texas A&M, Maryland, Duke

Sweet 16
Connecticut, Maryland

Bridgeport Regional Champ
Connecticut

Oklahoma City Regional
First Round
Baylor, LSU, Tennessee, Louisville, Oklahoma, Washington, DePaul, Mississippi State

Second Round
Baylor, Louisville, Oklahoma, Mississippi State

Sweet 16
Baylor, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City Regional Champ
Baylor

Lexington Regional 
First Round
Notre Dame, Purdue, Ohio State, Kentucky, North Carolina State, Texas, Kansas State, Stanford

Second Round
Notre Dame, Kentucky, Texas, Stanford

Sweet 16
Notre  Dame, Stanford

Lexington Regional Champ
Stanford

Stockton Regional
First Round
South Carolina, Arizona State, Marquette, Miami (FL), Missouri, Florida State, Creighton, Oregon State

Second Round
South Carolina, Marquette, Missouri, Oregon State

Sweet 16
South Carolina, Missouri

Stockton Regional Champ
South Carolina

Final Four Connecticut  Baylor, Stanford,  South Carolina

Championship Game
Connecticut, South Carolina

2017 NCAA Women's Champion
Connecticut

Moni's 2017 NCAA B-Ball Men's Bracket

It's that time again when the entire country goes gaga over NCAA college basketball and spends the next few weeks checking their brackets to see how accurately they pick what team eventually advances to win the NCAA championship.

I'm a huge college basketball fan, and like everyone else I also do a bracket.  Since 2007 I've been posting mine on the blog for everyone to see and pick apart

In 2015 my March travel schedule was so jam packed I didn't  have time to make out a bracket and just made a pick that Duke alums are still reminding me I got wrong.  I also got wrong what team would be cutting down the nets in NRG Stadium last year when Villanova upset North Carolina

That dropped me to a 4-5 record over my blog's history of picking NCAA men's brackets.

Speaking of brackets, here's the previous NCAA men's brackets that I posted on the blog for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014   

It's 2017, and once again I'm going to attempt to pick what team will be cutting down the nets April 3 when the championship game is over at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Here's my picks

First Four
New Orleans, Wake Forest,  UC Davis, USC

East Regional
First Round
Villanova, Wisconsin, Virginia, Florida, SMU, Baylor, South Carolina, Duke

Second Round
Villanova, Virginia, SMU, Duke

Sweet 16
Villanova, Duke

East Region Champion
Duke

West Regional
First Round
Gonzaga, Northwestern, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Maryland, Florida Gulf Coast, VCU, Arizona

Second Round
Gonzaga, Notre Dame, Maryland, Arizona

Sweet 16
Gonzaga, Arizona

West Region Champion
Arizona

Midwest Regional
First Round
Kansas, Michigan State, Iowa State, Purdue, Creighton, Oregon, Michigan, Louisville

Second Round
Kansas, Iowa State, Oregon, Louisville

Sweet 16
Kansas, Louisville

Midwest Region Champion
Louisville

South Regional
First Round
North Carolina, Arkansas, Minnesota, Butler, Cincinnati, UCLA, Wichita State, Kentucky

Second Round
North Carolina, Butler, Cincinnati, Kentucky

Sweet 16
North Carolina. Kentucky

South Regional Champion
North Carolina

Final Four
Duke, Arizona, Louisville, North Carolina  

Championship Game
Arizona, North Carolina

2017 NCAA Men's Champion
North Carolina   

Moni's 2016 NCAA Women's B-Ball Bracket

While I didn't have time to do my men's bracket in 2015, I definitely had a chance to do one for the women's tournament.  I started as part of Women's History Month compiling it in 2008 , and I have continued that tradition every year since.  

Since I just mentioned it, here are my 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 , 2014 and 2015 women's brackets.here

My record in picking the eventual women's NCAA champion is slightly better at 5-3, and I've also correctly picked all four women's NCAA  Final Four teams in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2015.  Also nailed last year's NCAA women's title game.

But it's a year later.  Can I get it right again and select the four teams that will be playing for NCAA women's basketball supremacy on April and 5?   Will UConn continue their dominance of the NCAA women's basketball ranks and their 69 game winning streak? Will they make NCAA history and become the first women's team to win a fourth straight title or will there be an upset for the ages?..

We're about to find out.

Bridgeport Regional
First Round
Connecticut, Seton Hall, Mississippi State, Michigan State, South Florida, UCLA, BYU, Texas

Second Round
Connecticut, Mississippi State, UCLA, Texas

Sweet 16
Connecticut, UCLA

Bridgeport Regional Champ
Connecticut

Dallas Regional
First Round
Baylor, St John's, Florida State, DePaul, Louisville, Oklahoma State, Oregon State

Second Round
Baylor, Texas A&M, Louisville, Oregon St.

Sweet 16
Baylor, Oregon St.

Dallas Regional Champ
Baylor

Lexington Regional
First Round
Notre Dame, Georgia , Miami, Stanford, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Washington, Maryland

Second round
Notre Dame, Stanford, Kentucky, Maryland

Sweet 16
Notre Dame, Maryland

Lexington Regional Champ
Notre Dame

Sioux Falls Regional
First Round
South Carolina, Kansas State, Florida, Syracuse, West Virginia, Ohio State, Tennessee, Arizona State

Second Round
South Carolina, Florida, West Virginia, Arizona State

Sweet 16
South Carolina, West Virginia

Sioux Falls Champ
South Carolina

Final Four
Connecticut, Baylor, Notre Dame,.South Carolina

Championship Game
Connecticut, Notre Dame

2016 NCAA Women's Champ
Connecticut

Moni's 2016 NCAA Men's B-Ball Bracket

I am a serious college basketball fan, and love March Madness except for replays of a certain painful to watch 1983 NCAA championship game that get nauseatingly run every year

Since 2007 I'd been putting my NCAA bracket on the blog for you TransGriot readers to peruse.  But last year my travel schedule was so jam packed full of events in March that I didn't have time to sit down long enough to post my 2015 NCAA Men's NCAA tournament bracket.   

But I did make a prediction that turned out to be way off, and the Duke alums I know made sure to remind me of it.  Oh well, that's the way the ball bounces sometimes.  It also broke my three year streak of correctly predicting the eventual men's champ.

I'm now 4-4 in the picking the NCAA men's champs, and here's my previous NCAA men's brackets for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014

But it's a new year as the Final Four will be played in my hometown this year at NRG Stadium.  But before we get to those national semifinal and national championship games on April 2 and April 4, we have several weeks of games in which the 68 teams will be whittled down to the Final Four teams that will play for the NCAA men's title.

And  now, my 2016 NCAA Men's Bracket

First Four Games
Wichita State, Florida Gulf Coast, Michigan, Southern

South Regional
First Round
Kansas, Connecticut, Maryland, California, Arizona, Miami (FL), Temple, Villanova  

Second Round
Kansas, Maryland, Arizona, Villanova

Sweet 16
Kansas, Villanova

South Champ
Kansas

West Regional
First Round
Oregon, Cincinnati, Baylor, Duke, Texas, Texas A&M, VCU, Oklahoma

Second Round
Oregon, Duke, Texas A&M, Oklahoma

Sweet 16
Oregon, Oklahoma

West Champ
Oregon

East Regional
First Round
North Carolina, USC, Indiana, Kentucky, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Xavier

Second Round
North Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, Xavier

Sweet 16
Kentucky, West Virginia

East Champion
Kentucky

Midwest Regional
First Round
Virginia, Butler, Purdue, Iowa State, Seton hall, Utah, Syracuse, Michigan State

Second Round
Virginia, Iowa State, Utah, Michigan State

Sweet 16
Virginia, Michigan State

Midwest Champ
Michigan State

Final Four
Kansas, Oregon, Kentucky, Michigan State

Championship Game
Kansas, Michigan State

2016 NCAA Men's Champ
Kansas

Reggae Girlz Trying To Qualify For 2015 Women's World Cup

While much of the attention in this CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying Tournament has been focused on Group A and the FIFA world  number one ranked USA squad, there is an interesting story developing in Group B worthy of being turned into a movie. 

For various reasons, including the perception that soccer is a man's sport, the Jamaican Football Federation hasn't funded a women's soccer program since it was disbanded in 2008. 

The frustrating part about that decision for women footballers on the island is that the Reggae Girlz were one of the top ranked squads in the Caribbean region. 

Jamaican female players who wanted to pursue their passion to play did so in other nations, but never gave up the dream of one day playing for their national team in a Women's World Cup.

The Reggae Girlz are back, and thanks to raising $200,000 via two crowdfunding campaign, Cedella Marley's enthusiastic support and being the Reggae Girlz international ambassador, the team is on the verge of making its Women's World Cup qualification dream come true. 

If the do so, they would be, like their male counterparts were in 1998, the first ever Caribbean based team to make it to the World Cup and it would do wonders for women's soccer in Jamaica.

Despite not playing any international friendly matches prior to the CFA and CONCACAF tournaments, they opened Group B play with a resounding 6-0 win over Martinique in Kansas City, and have a critical match with Costa Rica today in Chicago before finishing Group B play on October 21 in Washington DC versus Mexico.

The Reggae Girlz will want to #StrikeHard and finish first in Group B so they get the Group A runner up in the knockout round.  That way Jamaica won't have to face a match with FIBA number one ranked Team USA until the CONCACAF title game.

The six goals they scored against Martinique will definitely help them out if it comes down to goal differential to sort out the Group B standings for the knockout round.

Top three squads punch their tickets to Canada for next year's World Cup, while the fourth place team in this CONCACAF qualifying tournament has to play the CONMEBOL third place squad Ecuador in a two leg playoff for another World Cup berth.
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Let's hope the Reggae Girlz make history for their nation, they get the funding and corporate backing they need, and we get to see them in Canada next summer at the Women's World Cup..

TransGriot Update: The road to World Cup qualification just got a little bumpier.  Costa Rica beat Jamaica 2-1.

2014 FIBA World Cup Watch-Rolling To The Semis

When I last checked in with Team USA in the 2014 FIBA World Cup Tournament in Spain they were just clinching the top spot in Group C pool play in Bilbao after blowing out New Zealand and the Dominican Republic. 

Their final Group C game was on September 4 against Ukraine, who have been coached since 2011 by Mike Fratello, the former Atlanta Hawks head man and NBA TV analyst.  

Thanks to another slow start by Team USA in which they didn't score for the first nearly 5 minutes of the game,  Ukraine led 19-14 at the end of the first quarter and 27-25 midway through the second until a 19-5 run over the last 4:43 of the second quarter propelled Team USA to a 44-32 halftime lead.  

The third quarter has been Team USA's quarter in this 2014 FIBA World Cup tournament, and this game was no exception to that pattern. 

The USA lead grew to 69-54 by the end of it, and two quick baskets to start the fourth quarter ensured that Team USA would close this game out with a spotless 5-0 record in pool play with the 95-71 victory over Ukraine. 

James Harden made us all happy in H-town with his 17 points to lead all USA scorers. Stephen Curry added 14 points with Anthony Davis chipping in 12. 

After a day off to travel to Barcelona, because Team USA finished in their accustomed spot at the top of the group standings, they were rewarded by an initial Round of 16 knockout game on September 6 with the fourth place team from Group D, which turned out to be our southern neighbors Mexico. 


While there is a bitter rivalry between the USA and Mexico in men's and women's soccer, that's not the case on the basketball court.  The last time we played Mexico was during the 2007 FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament quarterfinals, and the last time we met in FIBA World Cup action was 1967. 

To make it more daunting for Mexico, this game was being played in the Palau Saint Jordi Arena, where the Dream Team romped to gold in 1992.  

Unlike the previous Group C pool games, Team USA got off to a fast 13-2 start.  Mexico pushed back with a 7-0 run of their own but Team USA finished the quarter with a 23-13 lead and surged to a 42-27 halftime edge.

Then Stephen Curry started lighting the Mexicans up from 3 point range and propelled Team USA to the quarterfinals.  He hit two of his six three pointers back to back to start a personal 11-0 run that pushed the USA third quarter lead to 50-27. 

Curry finished with a team high 20 points on 7 of 10 shooting, of which 9 of his 10 shot attempts were behind the FIBA arc.  Klay Thompson contributed another 15 points to the Team USA cause while James Harden chipped in 12 points to send Team USA to the quarterfinal game against Slovenia with an 86-63 victory. 

In yesterday's quarterfinal against Slovenia, Team USA reverted to its previous slow start pattern.  It missed its first seven shots and finished the first half shooting a miserable 36.2% but aggressive offensive rebounding kept them in the game.   They finished the first half with 16 offensive rebounds and a narrow seven point lead.          

Once again, the third quarter has been the killer quarter for Team USA and they lived up to their tournament rep.  They stormed out of the locker  room and scored 37 points in the quarter to blow the game open, finish with 50% shooting and romp to a tournament high 119-76 win over Slovenia. .

Klay Thompson had team high scoring honors with 20 points off the bench with Kenneth Faried and Anthony Davis clocking double-doubles.  Derrick Rose started looking like his old self with 12 points and five assists to help send Team USA to the semifinals against the always dangerous Lithuania.

The repeat is not complete yet.  The host nation Spain is looking equally as impressive on their side of the bracket and they want nothing more than to avenge that Olympic loss to the USA in Madrid.   But they have to get through France first.

Meanwhile Team USA needs to up their game to get past Lithuania and earn that trip to Madrid for the final   .       
 

2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup Starts Saturday

The tournament has been rebranded and the next one won't be played until 2019 so it doesn't conflict with the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, but the FIBA Basketball World Cup tips off Saturday and runs through September 14. .

Many basketball fans in the USA don't consider it as important as the Olympics, but for the rest of the planet and the 23 other nations playing in it, this FIBA Basketball World Cup is a BFD. 

And yeah, USA b-ball fans, you need to be paying attention, because the winner of this FIBA tournament and the women's FIBA one that gets started September 27 in Turkey gets an automatic bid to the 2016 Rio Olympic basketball tournament. 

So if our star spangled men's b-ballers want to be dribbling Molten basketballs on the Rio Olympic Arena courts in two years and avoid playing in the FIBA Tournament of the Americas to qualify for the Olympics, failure to win this tournament in Spain is not an option.

The 2014 (and 2016 Olympic) Team USA squad will once again be coached by Mike Krzyzewski, who has a 64-1 record in FIBA internatioanl play. 

And despite Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook and Blake Griffin pulling out and Paul George's horrific injury during Team USA training camp that will sideline him for this tournament and the 2014-15 NBA season, you international peeps better not sleep on this squad we are sending to defend our FIBA men's title.. 

In addition to my Houston Rockets homie James Harden, the 2014 Team USA FIBA World Cup squad includes DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento); Stephen Curry (Golden State); Anthony Davis (New Orleans); DeMar DeRozan (Toronto); Andre Drummond (Detroit); Kenneth Faried (Denver); Rudy Gay (Sacramento);  Kyrie Irving (Cleveland); Mason Plumlee (Brooklyn); Derrick Rose (Chicago) and Klay Thompson (Golden State).

This 2014 squad is also attempting to do something a USA men's squad has never done in the history of this tournament, and that's repeat as FIBA World Cup tourney champions. 

But there are several teams that want to make sure we don't end up playing in the championship game in Madrid, starting with the host Spaniards.   They are still smarting from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic final losses pinned on them by the USA ballers and being upset in the 2010 FIBA tournament knockout round by Serbia. The Gasol brothers, Serge Ibaka and company are determined to not let it happen on home soil.

The Lithuanians are always dangerous, along with the Brazilians, the Argentinians even without Manu Ginobili and Greece.  If you're laughing about Greece, ask Coach K or LeBron James about that.  They are the team in the 2006 FIBA world semis in Japan that handed Coach K his lone FIBA b-ball loss.

Team USA is in Group C in Bilbao's Barakaldo Arena, and start FIBA Worlds play August 30 against Finland.  The next day they get a 2010 FIBA finals rematch against Turkey before they get a day off.  The USA ballers resume group play on September 2 against New Zealand, play the Dominican Republic on September 3 before completing pool play on September 4 against Ukraine.  

Pretty much a winnable group for Team USA while the Spaniards are slugging it out in the Group A 'Group of Death' in Granada with France, Serbia, Brazil, Egypt and Iran.  

Should be fun to see how this plays out over the next few weeks.