Alright, so here's what I saw and heard atmosphere-wise tonight:
No rollouts from the Temple students, which kind of surprised me. St. Joe's had a bunch, of course. Variations on a few themes.
14:59 1st half: “Hawks welcome Temple fans ... BOTH of You”
Reply from the rather sizeable Temple student section: “You can’t count”
10:40 1st half: “Sticks & Goons May Break Our Bones, But Temple Will Never Beat Us”
1:56 1st half: “What’s So FRAN-TASTIC About Losing?”
1:08 1st half: “Remember When Football Had the Worst Team at Temple?”
Various replies from the Temple students of “You don’t even have a football team.”
19:24 2nd half: “Philly’s 3 Biggest Jokes: Temple Bball, Temple Football, TEMPLE”
17:07 2nd half: The St. Joe's students sing “We’ve lost that loving feeling...”
I'll be honest, it seemed like they were getting rather bored at this point. Then again, the Hawks were up by 20 points at the time and would rather soon go up by 30.
14:35 2nd half: “March is NOT Christmas Season”
11:00 2nd half: “Temple Bball + Temple Football = EMPTY SEATS”
7:44 2nd half: “What’s Worse - Being a GOON or Losing to La Salle?”
7:22 2nd half: “This is our house” from SJU students. No reply from Temple stunts, a few of whom were seen leaving the seating bowl at the time.
3:16 2nd half: Obviously... "THE HAWK WILL NEVER DIE"
I can't say I've ever seen the use of the underline in that one before. I guess, despite their apparent boredom, this one did mean something.
2:19 2nd half: The SJU fans start chanting "We want Artur," for last-man-on-the-bench Artur Surov.
0:57 2nd half: They finally get him -- but wait! The sub is supposed to happen between a pair of Garrett Williamson free throws, and Surov is coming in for the shooter. So St. Joe's P.A. man Brian Startare has to say "Replacing... in just a minute..." and then announces that Temple's Anthony Ivory is coming in. Surov finally comes in after the second free throw, and gets an ovation from the St. Joe's students that are left in the place.
I must admit I'm a bit disappointed in the rollouts. I mean, the Goon thing was two years ago now, and everyone else has moved on (and Temple has changed coaches, too). And as for the football and attendance smack... Yes, but St. Joe's doesn't have a football team. No, the Eagles don't count.
Then again, at least the rollouts were there. This letter-writer to the Daily News thinks they don't exist anymore. Which loses you a bit of cred in arguing that Drexel should be in the Big 5, even if you don't have any connection to the place.
