The national news is thrown out this morning, because after last night's action it really doesn't matter.
As I walked home last night from the Palestra, I kept repeating to myself the indisputable fact that Philadelphia is a football town. But when I woke up this morning, I saw something that I really didn't think was possible anymore: college basketball on the back page of the Daily News. A great job by Yong Kim to get a shot of Dion Dacons' foul on Mark Zoller that led to the winning free throws.
On the inside pages, Mike Kern says "it really doesn't get much better" in his recap, accompanies by a Yong Kim shot of Dionte Christmas with his jersey pulled over his head. Rich Hofmann breaks out the history books in his column, going back to the 1960s to detail Fran Dunphy's first trip to the Palestra.
Three (!) stories in the Inquirer, led by Mike Jensen's recap. You have to feel bad for Fran's mother, Josephine, who told Mike before the game that she was "going to have a heart attack." I saw her after the game and can attest to the fact that this thankfully did not happen, but I'm sure it wasn't easy for her.
Jim Salisbury's column takes another shot at the 2,619 people who didn't show up last night while describing the range of emotions in the building. Finally, Kevin Tatum puts some spit-shine on the evening by talking to the Palestra's famed custodian, Dan Harrell, who arrived at Penn in the same year that Dunphy did.
The Penn student paper declares last night's win to be an exorcism by pulling out a headline not seen since 1993. And maybe it was because the current senior class had never beaten Temple before. And Dunphy takes Mark Zoller's remark about playing against one's father as a compliment.
The Delco Times recounts a game that wasn't hyperbole.
Of course, there were other games last night. In D.C., St. Joe's lost to GW. The Inquirer's Ray Parrillo puts the Hawks' 20 turnovers in neon. St. Joe's blew a 14-point lead, which Phil Martelli called a "damn shame" in the Daily News.
La Salle beat another young team, Richmond, thanks to 18 points from Darnell Harris. In the Inquirer, Marc Narducci notes that Harris got the rest of the night off with 1:48 to go and now stands four points shy of 1,000 for his career. In the Daily News, Bob Cooney doesn't care how ugly the game was.
Drexel won at UNC-Wilmington for the first time, setting up an enormous game against Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday at the DAC.
Temple's women lost at home to Rutgers, which used a 21-6 run midway through the second half to seal the win.
And finally, Philadelphia U. coach Herb Magee tied Clarence "Big House" Gaines for the all-time Division II wins record at 828 with a 63-56 victory at Holy Family.
