Sitting here in the friendly habitat otherwise known as Long Island, N.Y., having arrived from Chicago earlier this morning.
And actually, our March Madness started yesterday with a little bit of Indiana high school hoops -- including watching potential Notre Dame player Russell Byrd (we'll post on him later). First upset of the month for us, too, as Notre Dame's women lost to Pittsburgh in Hartford.
So scratch the trip to Connecticut off our list for tomorrow. It also means we'll be in New York all week long, blogging the sights and sounds of Manhattan and the Big East tournament. Then on Sunday, back to South Bend for Selection Sunday and Monday before a trip to who-knows-where.
Got any suggestions along our journey? Want us to check anything specific out? Drop us a comment or e-mail us at mrothstein@jg.net.
In the bracket world, Notre Dame keeps strong at the No. 4 slot in the Bracket Project, meaning Big East tournament week could vault them as high as a No. 3 and low as a 5, one would think.
SportProjections.com has Notre Dame as a No. 5 seed out west playing Boise State in the first round with a potential second-round matchup against in-state non-rival Butler. Over at favorite Web site Crashing The Dance, where they've introduced a new, cool tool called Sparklines, Notre Dame is a No. 5 and rising.
We'll be updating daily the rest of the way, so stay connected here.
In The Jerome (and NCAA automatic berth land), five bids have been awarded, including to Winthrop (again) in the Big South and possibly the school with the greatest chant ever, Austin Peay in the Ohio Valley. If you watched the conference final on ESPN2 yesterday, you heard the consistent cheer "Let's Go Peay!"
Indeed.
Peay and Belmont in the Atlantic Sun got us our first Jerome points. First leaderboard out tonight. We expect to be near the bottom. Southern Illinois (Missouri Valley), Albany (America East) and Robert Morris (Northeast) kinda put us in that spot.
-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette
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