Send It In, Jerome...It Begins

The E-mail popped into the box, much like it has every year around this time. It's the last week of the Big East season -- and also the starting point for what we here at Insights call "The greatest six weeks of the year." Why, you ask? Well, it is simple. Conference tournaments start Tuesday and it is all college hoop, all the time until the Final Four in April.
As a confessed basketball junkie, it is great. But the first two weeks offer another avenue of fun. Tuesday marks the beginning of the E-mail I referenced, otherwise known as the entry ballot for the sixth annual (except for the year we skipped) "Send It In, Jerome," contest.

The "Jerome," as it is affectionately known, was started by Orlando Sentinel Florida beat writer Dave Curtis and New York Times national college basketball writer Pete Thamel at our common alma mater of Syracuse. More of an explanation of its origins can be read here, with the Jerome picks of Andy Staples, another yearly Jerome participant.

Essentially you get five points for picking a correct champion, two for a runner-up and bonus points for correctly choosing a low seed or a neutral-site tournament winner. This is all for pride, but the annual list of Jerome participants ranks with some of the heavy hitters of college basketball journalism. We're just lucky to be invited. We don't remember our finish last year, but we've always been a middle-of-the-pack Jeromer.

The selection process is broken into two parts. First with the tournaments beginning this week and then again next week. Without any further extrapolation, here are our picks for the first week of tournament action. Feel free to comment, mock or otherwise degrade or praise our picks below. Any ones you would change? Am I completely nuts? Heck, throw your selections in the comment box and we'll go at it one-on-many with the same rules applying.
It's the best time of the year. Enjoy it.

America East -- Vermont
Atlantic Sun -- Belmont
Big Sky -- Montana
Big South -- Winthrop
Colonial Athletic Association -- Hofstra
Horizon -- Loyola-Chicago
MAAC -- Loyola-Maryland
Mid-Continent -- Oral Roberts
Missouri Valley -- Creighton
Northeast -- Central Connecticut State
Ohio Valley -- Tennessee Tech
Patriot -- Bucknell
Southern -- Davidson
Sun Belt -- Western Kentucky
West Coast -- Gonzaga

-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette

Comments

[Matt J.]

Horizon: Butler
Southern: Appalachian St.
West Coast: Santa Clara

I can't believe you shunned Butler...

[Michael Rothstein]

Matt --
I know, I know. But Butler has lost some of its luster and Loyola-Chicago is playing its best ball of the season now. Plus, Loyola beat Butler at Butler on Thursday so they'd have confidence in a potential semifinal match. I felt it was one of my gutsier picks, but take a peak at the Ramblers.
I looked at Appy State and Santa Clara, too. SC would be a great story if it got in, but I have a hard time picking against the Zags in the postseason.
We'll see what happens. The greatness starts tonight.
-Mike

[Matt Jenks]

What about Xavier for the Horizon? I know they're not exactly road warriors, but they do have some quality home wins. They could potentially play spoiler for a couple of teams in the league. I'm not familiar with Loyola-Chicago, and being in the southeast, you can imagine that I don't get a lot of Horizon broadcasts down here.

App State and Davidson have been fighting it out all year, with Davidson holding the edge. However, the impressive wins that App St. has over other schools (Virginia being the biggest) made me go with them. Unfortunately, this is a one-bid league.

As for Gonzaga...I don't know if they can recover from the loss of their players after the drug bust. Is the tournament on their home court again? If so, then I would feel more confident about them as the PCC pick.

I wouldn't be enamored with Oral Roberts out of the Mid-Con, but there's not much else in the league to compete with them, and hosting the tournament in Tulsa makes me think that's a solid pick.

Most of the others seem to be locked-in picks. But, we'll see. That's why we play them.

[Michael Rothstein]

Matt --
To be fair, I haven't seen much of either SoCon team this year. But Davidson has more experience in this sort of atmosphere, which is why I went with them.
As for the X-Men, they don't play in the Horizon League. They are in the Atlantic 10, and we're likely to pick them to win the conference tourney in the second Jerome selection. Your best Horizon teams are Butler, Wright State (the conference host) and Loyola.
As for the Zags..well...you saw what happened when Notre Dame finally got over the Kyle McAlarney suspension. Same could happen with Gonzaga.

And as always, we could lose all of them.
-Mike

[Matt J.]

I'm sorry. I was thinking of Wright State. Curse those Dayton/Cincinnati schools. I've been out of the midwest for too long...

In any event, I think Brad Brownell's experience with post-season success at UNC-Wilmington will help the Raiders, which is why I tossed their name out there (cleverly disguised as 'Xavier').