At last, we have our first College HoopsCast of the season. And even better: there will be a new podcast every day from now until Friday.
Today's featured interviews are Jay Wright and Phil Martelli. Click here to listen.
We also have our first Bracketology of the season. Villanova gets an 8-seed and goes to Little Rock, Ark., to play Stanford; the winner gets Memphis. What a fun trip that would be... right.
St. Joe's gets a 12-seed and goes to Tampa to face Arizona. As in, the same site of the Hawks' nail-biting, last-minute loss to Auburn in the 2003 Tournament.
The last time Villanova and St. Joe's both made the Tournament was 1997, which was also the last year the Philadelphia area got three teams in the field.
But Lunardi doesn't project that happening this year. He has Cornell winning the Ivy League and Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason representing the CAA.
(Though when it comes to history repeating, it's worth noting that the Hawks made the Sweet 16 that year while the Wildcats only made the second round. That could certainly happen in this bracket.)
Penn State, believe it or not, is the sixth team out. It could be interesting to see whether anyone reacts around here if the Nittany Lions' basketball program wakes up this year.
The A-10 gets two teams: the Hawks and 7-seed Xavier, which goes to Birmingham, Ala., to face Washington.
But it's not just the northern teams who are getting sent south. D.C. is the northernmost venue, and it's still south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
And before you ask:
Washington: 38°53'22.24"N
Denver: 39°44'23.86"N
Omaha: 41°15'38.45"N
The other venues are Anaheim and Raleigh. The latter is where Georgetown ends up, because the Hoyas are the host institution in the nation's capital. Duke and Michigan State are the high seeds there.
Finally, don't forget to vote in the poll. The latest results:
Drexel 0
La Salle 4
Penn 22
Temple 18
St. Joe's 2
Villanova 9
Somebody else 7 (but none of them left a comment to say who their team is)
Penn can't possibly win this thing again, can it?
