In the Inquirer, Frank Fitzpatrick goes feature-length to look at whether former "little ragamuffin" Drexel should be allowed in the Big 5. There are some interesting reader comments on the story too.
In the Daily News, Bill Fleischmann spotlights Bashir Mason. Behind the Insider paywall on ESPN.com, Joe Lunardi offers some unsolicited advice for the BracketBusters matchups. He proposes that the Dragons be sent to Creighton. Ouch.
The Big 5 inducted its 2007 Hall of Fame class last night -- former La Salle star Jen Zenszer, former Penn star Diana Caramanico, and the late former Palestra public address announcer John McAdams. In the Inquirer, Mel Greenberg salutes McAdams' famous greeting that began every game he called. In the Daily News, Bob Cooney reminds us that McAdams was not a member of the HOF until last night, even if everyone thought he already was. And of course I'm one of those who thinks he should have been inducted before he died.
In the Penn student paper, a columnist focuses on Diana Caramanico, who's now the girls' coach at Penn Charter. I wonder how she felt getting blown out at her alma mater, Germantown Academy. Caramanico is married to a former Penn men's player of some renown, Geoff Owens. Geoff's grandfather is of even more renown -- Paul Owens was the architect of those great Phillies teams of the late 70's and 80's.
I was at the ceremony last night and I would describe it as small but elegant, with Don Tollefson emceeing and Dan Baker accepting on behalf of McAdams. There really isn't much more to say about it than that on here; apologies to those of you were expecting more. But be sure to tune into Monday's College HoopsCast, because I'll have exclusive interviews with Zenszer, Caramanico, Baker and another special guest.
On the football side of things, Bernard Fernandez of the Daily News reports from the Senior Bowl on the good-looking NFL future for Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny. But the Eagles probably won't draft him.
By far the biggest result of last night was Washington's second Pac-10 win, 89-77 over Oregon. Check out the second photo in this story -- Hec Ed looks a lot like the Palestra, and I've been told by a Huskies fan who lives on this side of the country that this is on purpose. Elsewhere out west, Stanford beat USC. Pomeroy calls the Pac-10 the "most overrated conference."
Jim Calhoun saw the month of February coming on his calendar a long time ago. Impressive.
Kentucky plays Tennessee this weekend, and a Lexington Herald-Leader writer opines about how you used to be able to read Proust while watching the Volunteers under Ray Mears.
The Rhode Island bandwagon is coming out of the garage.
Duke beat Clemson at Cameron under questionable circumstances. Everyone pretend you're shocked.
Comcast Center will be sold out for the first time ever for a women's game on Sunday when Maryland welcomes No. 1 North Carolina.
