Villanova won the Big 5 mud wrestling championship last night, Shannon Ryan reports in the Inquirer. Ray Parrillo reports on Phil Martelli's apology to the city for such a bad game. Jim Salisbury apologizes to the "Palestra purists" out there for "the Holy Bore," but praises Villanova's defense.
In the Daily News -- which used "Holy Bore" as its back page teaser headline, by the way -- Dick Jerardi reports that a woman in the stands yelled out, "Somebody please make a basket." Dana Pennett O'Neil relays Phil Martelli's admission that the game was "boys against men and we had all the boys." And Rich Hofmann outdoes them all by adding apologies to James Naismith, ESPN2, Dr. Jack Ramsay and all the ships at sea.
The Penn student paper prints the expletive from Martelli that didn't make it into either the Inquirer or Daily News.
By the way, if you were that woman in question, please email me because I'd love to get a fan's perspective on what it was like to watch the thing from in the building.
Elsewhere in the Daily News, Dick Jerardi does double duty by filling out his 65-team dance card. Penn and Villanova are in, Drexel is not. He has Duquesne from the A-10, which would be one hell of a story. He also has eight from the ACC and six from the Big East, Big 12, Pac 10 and SEC.
In the Inquirer, Mike Jensen previews the first Ellington-Henderson showdown by talking about practice.
It's football recruit signing day, and Penn State is in the hunt for a big-time running back, Broderick Green, to replace Tony Hunt. The Nittany Lions are also looking to junior colleges.
Villanova's getting a hotshot safety, Cardinal O'Hara's John Dempsey. They're also getting a quarterback from the Prep, Chris Whitney.
Temple's getting some speed on both sides of the ball with Daryl Robinson, a North Catholic grad-to-be who can play running back and cornerback.
And finally, some lists: One with players going to the local colleges and coming from the local high schools; and another with all the commitments of players across the region to colleges across the country.
National news after the jump.
Joe Lunardi, having suffered through the game last night as the color analyst for St. Joe's on the radio, wants to see VMI play Duquesne to 100 because they both can.
Pauley Pavilion is to be renovated, with the aim to be done in 2010 for John Wooden's 100th birthday.
A report out of Raleigh that Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams will watch tonight's game on TV. Which makes sense, because they both live in Walkerton, Indiana.
March Madness On Demand signups have begun. UPDATE:I had this link wrong earlier, sorry.
And finally, the official who blew the onside kick call in the Oklahoma-Oregon football game last season lost his job.
