Soft Pretzel Logic

It wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing way to ring in the new year, but Saint Joseph's had little trouble in overcoming Drexel at the Palestra tonight, 69-51.

Drexel shot only 33.3 percent from the field, and continued its struggles from the perimeter with a 2-for-20 performance from three-point range. A big part of that fell on Tramayne Hawthorne's shoulders, who was 1-for-10 from the field and 1-for-8 from beyond the arc.

St. Joe's shot 53.2 percent from the field and 6-for-10 from three, and also had a 32-28 edge in rebounding.

The Hawks recorded 16 assists on 25 made field goals with 22 turnovers, while the Dragons recorded 12 assists on 16 made field goals and 17 turnovers. A good ratio, but all the numbers were lower than the Hawks' and there's the difference.

Drexel's big men had a good night against a St. Joe's defense that had been allowing only 44.2 percent two-point shooting. Randy Oveneke led the Dragons with 18 points on 6-for-12 shooting and 6-for-8 from the line, while Frank Elegar scored 17 on a perfect 6-for-6 night from the field and 5-for-7 from the line.

Because Drexel pulled down 12 offensive rebounds, there was a big differential in possessions. The Dragons recorded 66 and St. Joe's recorded 71. But St. Joe's averaged 0.97 points per possession to Drexel's 0.77.

In his postgame press conference, Hawks coach Phil Martelli praised his defense. Listen to his remarks here.

Bruiser Flint admitted that his team's shooting performance simply would not do, noting that while his team got some good looks, "you've got to make them, though."

But he politely reminded the reporters in the room after the game that his team is 7-6 heading into its CAA opener at home against UNC-Wilmington on Wednesday. Listen to his remarks here.

Line of the game goes to Pat Calathes for his double-double:

With that, I'm taking the rest of the year off. See you all in 2008!

I bet that headline gets some attention on a Sunday.

In a game that will go down as among the most rollout-worthy in Penn history, the Quakers scored only six points in the first half and made only eight field goal attempts during the entire game on the way to a 60-30 loss at Florida Gulf Coast University.

According to the game report, it took Penn more than 13 minutes to even register a point, as they missed 12 field goal attempts and committed 13 turnovers before Tyler Bernardini scored. Those six first half points are a record low for the shot clock era, and the Eagles had 30 at halftime.

We can only hope that happens against the Bills, even though the game's meaningless.

To put it even more starkly, Penn recorded 72 possessions for the game and averaged 0.41 points per possession. I don't have first-half-only stats but I'm sure the points per possession in the first 20 minutes is something really putrid.

So let's give a Line of the Day to the entire Penn offense:

That's the first time I've ever seen a negative efficiency total.

For those of you who might be wondering, the Eagles are a transitional Division I team located in Fort Myers, Fla.

By the way, isn't it great to see a team called the Eagles make Penn kids look so bad? If that doesn't warm the hearts of Philadelphia sports fans, I don't know what would.

It should at least make for some good rollouts at Penn's three Big 5 games in January, especially when St. Joe's visits the Palestra on the 19th.

But if Penn fans need any solace before facing a Miami team that lost for the first time all year today, there's this: the Quakers' 30 points is still more than the 21 that Princeton scored against Monmouth in 2005.

It wasn't as big a win as any of the four non-conference losses would have been, but St. Joe's' 74-68 victory at Siena last night should serve as a pretty big confidence boost heading into Monday's game against Drexel at the Palestra.

There were a few good signs. First, the Hawks won playing at Siena's pace, registering 70 possessions to the Saints' 71. St. Joe's came into the night averaging 63.6 possessions per game.

Second -- and I'm sure this is quite important to Phil Martelli -- the Hawks held Siena to only 8-of-24 shooting from 3-point range. St. Joe's had been giving up 42.7 percent from long range.

On offense, a ratio of 20 assists to 28 made field goals and 12 turnovers is impressive, as is a 10-for-20 night from beyond the arc. Let's give a Line of the Day to a player who got the job done from outside and inside, though:

It's a really slow news day, so why not download the latest episode of the College HoopsCast. Joe Juliano and Mel Greenberg join me to discuss the latest college basketball news, including:

-- Drexel's win over Rider last night and their game against St. Joe's at the Palestra on Monday;

-- The Hawks' trip to Siena tonight;

-- La Salle at Villanova tomorrow;

-- Temple and Penn traveling to Florida for games against the Gators and Miami, respectively;

-- Some big national games of late, including last Saturday's Georgetown-Memphis game and the upcoming start of conference play;

-- And a roundup of the local and national women's scene, including Temple's record-setting 16th straight Big 5 win last night against Penn.

Amber called her uncle, said "We're up here for the holiday
Jane and I were having Solstice, now we need a place to stay"

-- the opening lines of Dar Williams' "The Christians and the Pagans," sung annually at my high school's holiday assembly and still stuck in my head all these years later. Seriously.

Good morning, everyone, and merry Christmas to all of you out there observing the holiday. It's a working day for me, though, as I've been behind the controls of Philly.com since 6 a.m.

But I've had some great entertainment to keep me company, in the form of known Soft Pretzel Loglc reader (and commenter!) Jon Solomon's holiday music show on WPRB-FM in Princeton. The Inquirer's Dan DeLuca reviewed it a few days ago; if you see this post before 6 p.m., click here to listen to the broadcast.

So with a few minutes to spare (but don't tell the boss), I figured I'd put together a special holiday edition of Crunchy Numbers. This version adds a strength of schedule column. I'm going with overall SOS instead of just non-conference, because I think it includes more data. Convince me to go with non-conference and I'll change it.

And as a special holiday bonus, I've added the teams' Big 5 records in parentheses next to their overall records, including Drexel's record against city teams. But the other schools just have their Big 5 records.

The other numbers in parentheses are last week's stats.

Having said all that, here's the table.

After the jump, the team and invididual stats...

He told his niece, "It's Christmas eve, I know our life is not your style"
She said, "Christmas is like Solstice, and we miss you and it's been awhile"

With so many great games yesterday, I figured I should post something this afternoon. But I can't offer you much because I'm overseeing our live coverage of the Eagles-Saints game, including my live running story.

So let's take a look at some of the crazy lines from yesterday's action. For starters, there's pretty much the whole box score from Seton Hall's 112-110 overtime win over James Madison. Among the highlights were 20 points and 10 rebounds from former St. Joe's guard Abdulai Jalloh.

On the local scene, there's Temple's 58-55 win over Eastern Michigan at the Liacouras Center yesterday. Mark Tyndale had the game-winning basket, but Dionte Christmas had (yet again) the best line:

At the other end, Eagles guard (yes, guard) Travis Lewis' effort against the Owls was completely pointless but quite efficient:

La Salle played well in a 93-88 loss to DePaul, and for those of you who had asked what Shannon Ryan's up to these days she covered the Explorers' trip to Puerto Rico for the Inquirer. Darnell Harris had 21 points for La Salle, but the line of the game goes to Blue Demons center Mac Koshwal. And not just because of his cool name:

And finally, there's North Carolina's 105-70 drubbing of UC-Santa Barbara in Chapel Hill. I'm not sure which was more impressive:

-- The frenetic pace of the game, with 87 possessions for UCSB and 84 for UNC;
-- Carolina's 1.24 points per possession on offense;
-- The fact that Tar Heels coach Roy Williams played seventeen players in the 40 minutes;
-- or Tyler Hansbrough's 360-degree dunk in the game's opening minutes, captured on video by the Raleigh News and Observer.

Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel blows the cover off a BCS scandal:

As it turns out, an 11th-hour agreement had been reached that would have allowed the No. 3 and 4 teams in the final BCS standings -- Virginia Tech and Oklahoma -- to meet in the Orange Bowl, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation. The conference commissioners who oversee the BCS, however, shot it down -- and several of the affected parties are still wondering why.

So I leave this question to you, especially the law scholars I've heard are out there.

Which is the greater act of collusion: moving the BCS matchups around, or not doing so? Or is the whole thing a violation of antitrust laws?

And wouldn't a playoff system fix at least part of this?

Objection, your honor, the prosecution is leading the witness.

Oops...

Since I haven't been paying attention to known Soft Pretzel Logic reader Joe Lunardi's Bracketology of late, I figured I'd take a look at today's latest edition.

If you're a Villanova fan, it should make you very happy. The Wildcats are an 8-seed and draw California in Raleigh, N.C., with the winner to face North Carolina. Except... wait a minute.

Villanova vs. Cal for the right to play UNC within earshot of Chapel Hill. Am I the only one hearing an echo in the room?

I'm not saying it'll actually happen that way, but I've always thought the selection committee has a bit of a sense of humor to it.

The other bit of good news for Villanova fans about this field is that the Wildcats are the only local team in it, as Lunardi has discarded St. Joe's. But the field is good news overall for the Atlantic 10, as Rhode Island and UMass join Xavier to give the conference three bids. Another A-10 team, Dayton, is the seventh team out.

15-seed Brown knocks off Cornell for the Ivy League bid, which shouldn't surprise the Penn fans out there much at all, while the CAA gets only one team, George Mason. The 11-seed Patriots would get to play St. Mary's in Washington, D.C., site of their East Regional championship in 2006 and a 20-ish mile straight shot east on Interstate 66 from the school's Fairfax, Va. campus.

I'd tell you how long it takes to make the drive but that stretch of road puts the Conshohocken Curve to shame by some distance when it comes to traffic. Regardless, that's an unfair fight for the Gaels if you ask me. But I only said that the selection committee was funny, not fair.

And I ask that you direct your correspondence to the Fieldhouse, not my office...

Download it here.

On this week's show, Mike Jensen and I discuss:

-- Temple's win over Drexel in depth, including whether Temple's defense or Drexel's lack of offense was the bigger factor in the game.

-- Why Hartford played so well at Villanova -- and why the Hawks' Philly ties have a lot to do with it.

-- La Salle's trip to Puerto Rico, where they'll face hosts Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, DePaul and Mississippi.

-- And the national scene. Louisville's loss to Purdue on Saturday has some ramifications for Villanova, and there are some big games this week including Pittsburgh vs. Duke in New York and Georgetown at Memphis.

The game wasn't much, and the attendance (3,254) at the Palestra wasn't either, but the end result was significant: Temple 64, Drexel 51.

The Owls hit seven of 16 threes to the Dragons' 2-of-10, and held Frank Elegar to 6-of-17 from the field. His 18 points and 12 rebounds are big numbers, but the Dragons clearly needed someone else to step up and it didn't happen.

Gerald Colds, who wore a face mask to protect a broken nose suffered at George Mason, was only 4-for-13 from the field and 2-for-7 from three. But no other Drexel player took more than six field goal attempts or made more than three.

The standout performance really goes to a guy who has rarely merited it before, but stepped up in a big way today when called on to guard Frank Elegar one-on-one. Sergio Olmos stole the show at both ends of the floor, finishing with this line:

Mike Jensen and I will have more to say about the game on Monday's College HoopsCast. But for now, listen to the Temple and Drexel postgame press conferences, including some less-than-positive remarks from both coaches about their teams' performances.

(NOTE: All numbers are as of the morning of Friday, Dec. 14; which means Villanova's win over Hartford is not factored in.)

We move from the English department to math, as our weekly statistics session comes to order.

(Though we might have to file this stuff under engineering instead of arts and sciences, given how complicated it can be.)

This season, I'm adding the Basketball State ratings to the customary Pomeroy, Sagarin and RPI. The Basketball State formula is way over my head, but it seems to involve a combination of RPI, strength of schedule, location of games and efficiency. And it updates hourly, somehow.

So with that said, here's the first table of the season. I will bring in non-conference strength of schedule next month once that part of the season has started to wrap up.

I find it really interesting that St. Joe's has lost all its big non-conference games but is 25th in Basketball State, while Drexel is over .500 but is 284th (and 253rd in Pomeroy). That's how you know the effect of efficiency stats.

After the jump, we turn to the individual schools...

With exams going on this week, I'm going to try to keep the posting a bit light and get back a bit of the energy I've lost due to the cold and having lots of other stuff to work on.

I'm hoping to have a Crunchy Numbers post ready at the end of this week, and I figure those of you out there who are still students shouldn't be reading the blog anyway if you have studying to do...

Oh dear.

I was just checking my iTunes now and realized that the podcast version of the PhillyFeed didn't get posted until today. It was recorded and posted to Phillyfeed.com on schedule this past Thursday.

Chalk it up to a clerical error by a few people, but if you've come here looking for the trivia contest I did in conjunction with Sports Spotlight it's already done.

Sorry. But I'm sure there will be another contest one of these days, so be sure to come on back.

Listen to it here. This week, Mike Jensen joins me for a discussion of:

-- Last night's Villanova-Temple game

-- Villanova's big comeback win over LSU

-- Two more losses for St. Joe's

-- Another bad loss for Drexel

-- North Carolina's tough road stretch, and how that affects Mike's weekly AP Top 25 ballot

-- The resurgent Atlantic 10, which now has big wins including Dayton at Louisville and Rhode Island at Syracuse

-- The impact of A-10 commissioner Linda Bruno, who will retire at the end of June 2008.

I know the Hawks fans have been discussing that latter point a good bit, so let me know what you think of what we said on the show.

We had three correct entries in the Soft Pretzel Logic-Philly Feed trivia contest.

It was indeed the 2005-06 season, when Miami, Maryland and Duke played Temple.

In the name of transparency, here's how I did the drawing: I wrote down the three names, put the rolled up pieces of paper in Philly.com's official cheap plastic Halloween pumpkin trick-or-treating container (we use it all year), shook the thing, and asked my colleague Kristen Graham to pull a name out.

As we don't have some fancy official audit firm the way the lottery does, that's the best I could come up with.

Congratulations to Max, who wins a free soft pretzel at the game of his choosing that we both attend.

1. A Big 5 game on a Sunday night. According to former Big 5 Executive Secretary Paul Rubincam, this was the first time two city series teams met at that point in the week.

2. A Big 5 game with 194 combined points. We got that tonight too, as Villanova used a 23-7 run early in the second half to pull away from Temple for a 101-93 win in front of 7,720 at the Liacouras Center.

It was 42-39 'Nova at the half, as Temple shot 8-for-16 from three in the first 20 minutes but only 4-for-12 from outside thereafter. The Wildcats made 11 of their 10 attempts from beyond the arc for the game: 6 of 11 in the first half and 5 of 9 in the second.

Dionte Christmas had a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds -- he was one of three Temple players to score 20 or more points -- but the line of the night goes to Scottie Reynolds. He's been quiet the last few games, but he exploded for 20 second-half points as part of this total:

3. A Big 5 team that wins 13 City Series games in a row, because until tonight no team had ever done that before. So congratulations to Villanova for setting that record.

Jay Wright and Fran Dunphy both talked about that bit of history after the game. Click here to listen to Villanova's postgame press conference and here to listen to Temple's.

I'll let you all debate the fact that the game wasn't sold out, mainly because I have to work at 6 a.m. and I can't really say I'm looking forward to it...

Before all the shine from Thursday night wears off, I wanted to get this post up about some of the stats behind Villanova's win over against LSU. I was particularly interested in the breakdown of points per possession during the Wildcats' big rally.

I'm not sure that what I came up with proves anything, but the numbers are interesting nonetheless. I had to figure them out by hand because we don't get boxscores just for certain segments of a game, so I hope they're right.

But I was able to split the second half in two parts, which I'm calling Early and Late, with the point of separation being Terry Martin's three-pointer with 8:50 left that gave the Tigers a 21-point lead, 54-33.

Early

LSU: 15 field goal attempts, 6 free throw attempts, 4 turnovers, 2 offensive rebounds, 19 points, 20 possessions, 0.96 points per possession

Villanova: 17 FGA, 8 FTA, 4 TO, 8 OR, 9 points, 17 possessions, 0.54 points per possession

Late

LSU: 11 FGA, 9 FTA, 5 TO, 2 OR, 13 points, 18 possessions, 0.71 points per possession

Villanova: 12 FGA, 21 FTA, 2 TO, 2 OR, 35 points, 22 possessions, 1.59 points per possession

Quite a contrast, isn't it?

As Mike Jensen notes in today's College Basketball Report, ESPN's Bill Raftery saw it coming: LSU's foul trouble had a lot to do with their collapse.

Anthony Randolph picked up his fifth with 4:08 left and the Tigers up by 15, and just under a minute later the floodgates really opened. Villanova finally had some space to get the ball to the basket from within the paint, resulting in 11 free throw attempts after Randolph hit the bench.

I knew Raftery was really good, but I didn't know he had clairvoyance to go along with that humor.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend; see you at the Liacouras Center tomorrow night.

First of all, a special welcome to the blog for all you who've come here by way of the Daily News' Philly Feed podcast. For everything you need to know about the trivia contest that was mentioned on this week's show, click here.

The question is: when was the last season three ACC teams played in Philadelphia? The winner will be randomly selected from all the right answers submitted in the comments.

The prize is, of course, a free soft pretzel at a game that both I and the winner are attending. Rest assured that I get to all the schools' games over the course of the season, so we'll work it out.

Which brings me, not coincidentally, to the ruffled feathers among the St. Joe's fans over my ranking the Wachovia Center above the Fieldhouse in my favorite places to watch a game.

First, thanks to the poster on the Hawk Hoop Club club message board for linking to the blog, because I need all the traffic I can get.

Second, I really wasn't trying to knock the Fieldhouse. I like it just as much as everyone else, believe me. If I was ranking on terms of atmosphere alone, I would have been right there with the commenter who put it second to the Palestra. I might even have split the Palestra between when it's full and when Dartmouth's in town, and put the Fieldhouse in between.

Here's the thing, though. To me, the Wachovia Center is like the really nice set of dishes my mother got out for family dinners when I was growing up. Because we didn't use them often, it gave the meal a special sense of occasion. If we'd used the plastic plates I usually ate dinner off of, it wouldn't have been the same.

Now that doesn't mean those plates are bad. In fact, I brought some of them with me when I moved here because I liked them so much.

If Villanova played all its games at the Wachovia Center, it wouldn't be as important. Georgetown doesn't make a big deal out of playing at the NBA arena in D.C. because the Hoyas play almost all their games there, so it's not as special. The same goes for Seton Hall and, to a lesser degree, St. John's (which is now so bad that they're playing more games on campus than they used to).

So we draw a distinction between the Pavilion and the Wachovia Center for Villanova games -- and to some degree, we draw a distinction between the Fieldhouse and the Palestra for St. Joe's games.

The Hawks play their Big 5 games and their big out-of-conference games on 33rd Street, which in most years ends up being about the same number of games the Wildcats play at the Wachovia Center.

I hope that makes sense.

That was shocking.

I'm sure most of you saw it... although if you were like some of the 9,212 fans at the Wachovia Center tonight, you turned the game off with nine minutes left and Villanova down by 21 points, 55-34.

Maybe you stuck it out a little longer, but gave up when LSU's Mike Thornton got two rebounds in a row and finally scored to give the Tigers a 15-point lead, 64-59, with 3:11 left.

Somehow, some way, Villanova came back and won.

And in a season when seemingly every player has had his night to be the star, this time it was Malcolm Grant. The freshman scored all 18 of his points in those last nine minutes, grabbed two assists and a rebound and made the drive that led to Dante Cunningham's game-winning putback.

Grant made seven of the eight free throws he took in that span, including one after he was fouled hitting a three and all three after he was fouled missing a shot from beyond the arc.

And speaking of threes, Villanova had missed all five of their long-range attempts prior to Grant's first trey with 6:05 left on the clock. All that did was cut the deficit to 18 points.

You have to credit LSU for shutting down Villanova on the perimeter, but the fact that the Wildcats couldn't make a three for 34 minutes of play is pretty bad.

In the end, though, it was the greatest comeback I've seen in six years covering basketball around here. Yes, that means it trumps Penn's 18-point comeback with 7:35 left against Princeton in 2005. In part because that game went to overtime while the Wildcats won tonight in regulation, and in part because of that s 15-point deficit with 3:11 to play.

It doesn't beat Princeton's comeback from 33-9 down at halftime against Penn in 1999, but that was before I got to town.

Having said that, this one somehow seems more believable than the one two years ago. I don't know about tempo stats yet (which always factor in when Princeton's on the floor), but I had this hunch early in the second half that Villanova just wasn't out of it yet, and that they somehow or other had too much talent to really be stuck in the hole they were in against a very young LSU team.

The comeback two years ago just didn't make any sense to me at the time, because Princeton had that game going at a snail's pace and I wasn't sure there would be enough possessions for Penn to get back in it the way they were playing at the time.

Anyway, I really have to go to sleep, because I have to be up early in the morning, but here are the postgame press conferences from Villanova and LSU, and here's another clip from Jay Wright talking to reporters after his press conference. That clip is a straight MP3 file, so be ready for it instead of going to a Philly.com page.

Believe me, though, there's more to come on this one..

Preamble: A reminder to enter the Soft Pretzel Logic-Philly Feed trivia contest, in which we want to know when the last time was before this year that three ACC teams played in Philadelphia. Click here and leave a comment to submit your entry.

I've been meaning to mention that a couple days ago, I was interviewed by a college sports blog called Storming the Floor. You can read the piece here, but there's a question they asked me that was left out of the final product that is relevant to us tonight.

When they asked me what my favorite college arena in the region is, I of course said the Palestra, and I put the Wachovia Center second.

That surprised the interviewer, Marco Anskis, and I bet it might surprise a few of you.

Well, tonight is part of the reason why I said that. Yes, this is an NBA arena, and as such you don't get the closeness to the action of the Fieldhouse, the DAC or Tom Gola Arena.

But you know whenever you're here for a college game that it's a big deal. Usually, it's Villanova playing one of the bigger-name Big East Teams like Connecticut or Syracuse. Sometimes, it's a non-conference game like Texas last year or LSU tonight. Or it's the NCAA Tournament.

Regardless, whenever I'm here I feel like the game has a lot more sizzle to it than games at the Pavilion and pretty much all the other venues in the region. Maybe it's the lights, or the video screens, or the fact that there's almost always a national tv broadcast going on.

So off we go in the nightcap of the SEC-Big East Invitational doubleheader. South Carolina beat Providence in the first game, 67-66. The news here so far is that Shane Clark started, but midway through the first half Villanova trails 17-10.

And despite what I said above, the crowd here isn't all that big. Maybe it's because of the late start, maybe it's because Villanova didn't totally control the ticketing, but the upper deck is almost totally empty. There's the usual big Wildcats student section, though, and there's just enough noise around to get at least partway through my cold-fighting head.

It's been a while since I did a trivia contest on the blog. Time for a new one.

This one comes to you in cooperation with Daily News assistant managing editor Pat McLoone, a college hoops junkie better know to many of you as the co-host of the Philly Feed podcast's Sports Spotlight.

It's an apt one given the discussion on here over the last few days about BCS conference teams playing non-conference road games. Despite my complaints over the last few days, three ACC squads visit Philadelphia this year: Virginia for the Philly Classic, North Carolina last night and Duke next month to play Temple.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tell me and Pat when the last time was that three ACC teams played in Philadelphia during the regular season. So that excludes the NCAA Tournament and NIT, but not early-season exempt tournaments that might have the word "preseason" in them.

UPDATE: I forgot to set two really simple rules and I'm sorry for not doing this at the start. First, to be eligible to win, you have to post your answer in the comments. Some people have emailed me their answers and I want people to see the answers out there.

Also, since I want a lot of people to enter this thing, I'm not going to give the prize to the first person who answers. I'm going to draw the name randomly from all the people who get it right.

Yeah, that changes the rules of the game after it started, and yeah, it's on me for doing something like that. But it's also a polite way of admitting that someone already emailed me the right answer and I don't really want the contest to be done before this week's podcast gets recorded, which it hasn't been yet.

Sorry about that. But fear not, because there will be a prize for the winner. I'm not sure what it will be yet, but there will definitely be something material. I might even have someone else do the drawing just to make sure the whole process is squeaky clean.

I'll close the contest when I get to the Liacouras Center on Sunday for the Temple-Villanova game.

Also, here's a hint. The teams had to be in the ACC at the time, and here's a reminder of when the conference's newer members joined up:

2005: Boston College
2004: Virginia Tech and Miami
1991: Florida State
1979: Georgia Tech

The conference was founded in 1953, with charter members North Carolina, Duke, N.C. State, Wake Forest, Maryland, Clemson and and South Carolina. Virginia also joined in 1953, but not as a charter member. South Carolina left for the SEC in 1971.

1. The first snowfall of the season.

2. My first cold of the season, which not even a roasting Palestra last night could help.

3. Attention moving away from the Eagles and towards basketball.

Mike Kern and Kevin Tatum recap last night's Penn-North Carolina game, while Mike Jensen looks at the scene and notes that Roy Williams had to do a bit of coaching despite the blowout.

Dana Pennett O'Neil nails the point I was trying to make yesterday about big-time schools and where they play their non-conference games. You have to give UNC a lot of credit for its road schedule this year, but my point still stands. As Dana said:

The last time Syracuse left the state of New York for a pre-Big East game, state troopers arrested Jim Boeheim at the border for desertion.

From down south, here are recaps from the Raleigh News and Observer (along with a photo gallery), the Durham Herald-Sun and the Greensboro News & Record.

Going back to the local scene, I was pretty shocked that St. Joe's lost to Holy Cross last night. The Crusaders are a good team, but any time you don't score a two-point field goal in the entire first half at home that's a bad loss.

Dick Jerardi notes that the Hawks' defense wasn't so great either, as Holy Cross shot 50 percent from the field. Jeff McLane wonders whether the Hawk himself (or is it herself this year? Let me know) could have done a better job.

There's better news from the A-10, as conference TV broadcaster CSTV has agreed a deal to get local games on Comcast SportsNet and CN8.

A columnist in the Penn State Daily Collegian, their student paper, pays homage to the Palestra and takes a few shots at the Nittany Lions' home floor.

And speaking of the Palestra, props to a guy who played his college ball there and still shows up on a regular basis: new Sixers GM Ed Stefanski. Mike Jensen, Dick Jerardi and Rich Hofmann look at how Stefanski got from 33rd Street to South Broad Street by way of the New Jersey Turnpike.

Well, now we know why the Palestra is sold out tonight.

The place is almost completely full eight minutes before tipoff, and I'd say it's at least 60-40 Carolina blue.

I'll check in here throughout the night as events warrant. Which I don't think they will, but if there are any good rollouts, or celebrity sightings, or stuff like that I'll note them.

The game is on ESPN2, of course, so I doubt I'll have to say much about the game.

Okay, off we go...

UPDATE: So as you noticed by now, there wasn't really much spectacular. North Carolina won, 106-71, shooting 57.3 percent from the field for the game and averaging 1.30 points per possession.

The game was close enough to be interesting for pretty much the whole first half, though. I was amazed by how tight Carolina's man defense was at the perimeter, but Penn did a good job of getting around it and shot 56.7 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes. The score was 50-37 UNC at halftime.

The final score may look like a blowout, and it was, but I never thought the Tar Heels were running up the score. The game was played at such a fast pace -- 82 possessions for UNC, 85 for Penn -- that the points total just pretty much happened. Nothing Belichick-ian about it, that's for sure.

Tyler Hansbrough was simply awesome. I've been impressed enough watching him on TV, but seeing him work on every possession in person is something totally different. Look at what he did in the minutes he played:

Tyler Bernardini was the talk of the Penn side of things, scoring 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting. I don't know how serious Roy Williams was when he said this, but he said after the game that "I told our staff, 'Why the Dickens didn't we recruit him?'"

And I will say this for the atmosphere: From the time I wrote the original post to around 3/4 of the way through the first half was without question the loudest I've heard the Palestra in a while, probably going back to the '06 Holy War. Both sets of fans were really into it, with every seat in the place filled and quite a few fans standing along the back wall across the floor from press row.

Oh, and it should be noted that Bill Raftery called out the Penn student section on the ESPN2 broadcast during the second half, hoping they would show up like that for Ivy League games. We'll see about that.

I'll let the Inquirer and Daily News writers do the rest of the talking tomorrow morning, but for now, you can listen to the Penn and North Carolina postgame press conferences. Both have plenty of good quotes in them.

There's also a good photo gallery from the Inquirer.

And a hello to all of you coming over here from the Raleigh News and Observer's ACC Now blog, one of my favorites on the college sports landscape.

As I said in the previous post, I spent seven summers in your neck of the woods and remember it fondly. Feel free to stick around on this side of the cyber-Mason-Dixon Line -- Duke comes here Jan. 9 and I'll be there as well.

Ain't it just like a friend of mine
It hit me from behind
Yes I'm gone to Carolina in my mind

-- "Carolina In My Mind," James Taylor; peformed here by the UNC Basketball Band.

Most of our basketball discussions on here discuss the four conferences that have teams in our region -- the Big East, Atlantic 10, CAA and Ivy League.

But ever since I started following college basketball growing up, including seven summers spent at a camp three hours east of Raleigh, N.C., I've been a big fan of the ACC.

Yes, it is known to get too much hype in years when its teams aren't as good as others in the country.

And yes, it has a bit of a good-old-boys culture to it that rubs some people the wrong way. There's no better proof than the fact that there hasn't been a public sale for its men's basketball tournament since 1966. It's not just that the tickets sell out to the schools' season-ticket holders in advance, it's that -- as this Washington Post story from the 2005 Tournament details very well -- even the boosters have to pony up extra to get in the door.

By contrast, the Big East has always put aside at least some tickets for the public at Madison Square Garden, even if that number has diminished in recent years due to conference expansion.

Every once in a while, though, an ACC blue-blood ventures out to the masses. Sometimes, it's Duke going to Madison Square Garden to play St. John's, or to the Wachovia Center to play Temple next month. Or it's Boston College playing old Big East rival Providence this past weekend on the Celtics' floor. Even Duke and UNC's recent games against Davidson in Charlotte sort of count.

But what we have tonight is something completely different. North Carolina's trip to the Palestra is something that you almost never see anymore: a genuine titan of the game going to a perennial two-digit NCAA Tournament seed's home floor.

Would it happen if it was any other arena? Probably not. St. Joe's has played BCS teams at the Palestra in recent years -- Boston College, Ohio State and Penn State. Temple played Illinois there in 2003.

But the big boys won't go to the Fieldhouse, the DAC or Tom Gola Arena. They sometimes go to the Liacouras Center, but Drexel got N.C. State on its floor only because the NIT forced it.

(Yes, Oklahoma-Villanova was at the Pavilion, but Texas went to the Wachovia Center and I would have to think the Big East/SEC Invitational would have gone somewhere else if an arena of that size wasn't easily available here. And Villanova is different because it's in the Big East.)

Our local college basketball history tells us -- in the form of that great Palestra documentary movie -- that nights like this used to happen all the time.

It was an era when top teams from across the country still had the guts to go play someone else on their court without being forced to by a conference, and it's why there are photos of so many legendary coaches on the Palestra's concourse.

But those times are long gone, which makes this game even more special.

Look, I don't expect this game to be close at all after the opening tip. Nor do I really expect most fans around here to care after the first TV timeout. North Carolina is a 24 1/2-point favorite for a reason.

But what a treat it will be to see this incredible Tar Heels team play in our city. Hopefully, the atmosphere will fit the occasion, even if it only lasts for a few minutes

For the lucky ones who will be in the Palestra tonight -- and yes, I'm one of them -- it will be a real privilege.

With the football season finally over, let's take a quick look at where the 10 teams in our local ranking ended this year. But instead of looking at last week's standings, let's compare the teams to where they stood on September 14, when I did this for the first time. As I didn't include Rutgers the first week, their starting number is where they were the next week. I realize that dents the accuracy of the thing somewhat but it's the best I can do.

31. Penn State (13)
42. Rutgers (32)
70. Delaware (77)
94. Villanova (105)
129. Temple (188)
148. Delaware State (162)
165. Lafayette (143)
173. Lehigh (168)
185. Penn (132)
242. La Salle (242)

Well, I think we can easily say that the biggest positive surprise was Temple and the biggest disappointment was Penn. We could have certainly said it without Sagarin's help, but both teams made really dramatic moves.

So we go back to the original two questions, and I ask you:

-- Is Penn State better than Rutgers?

-- Are Villanova and Delaware both better than Temple?

Also, congrats to Robert S. in Aloha, Ore. (which actually exists, believe it or not). He won the Philly.com college football pick'em challenge with 140 points.

The final standings were:

1. Robert S.
2. Myself
3. Fred D. in Charlottesville, Va.
4. Jeff S. in New York City
5. Steffan W. in Elmira, N.Y.
6. Aaron S. in Union, Miss.
7. Zach K. in Philadelphia
8. Josh H. in Narberth
9. Kyle M. in Wayne

Thanks to all of you for playing. Unfortunately, there aren't any prizes for our group, but hopefully we'll be able to make something bigger out of the March Madness contest.

By the way, I have a minor complaint to register. A few of you who comment regularly have been doing so with fake email addresses. I know this because I've tried to contact you outside the blog to follow up on what you've written and your addresses have bounced.

When you post a comment, your email address does not show up to readers. Not even as a link. I see it on the back end of our blog platform and no one else does.

So if you all could help me out with that I'd really appreciate it... and I swear I won't tell anyone else about your info. I hate people who give out personal data just as much as everyone else.

I didn't see it or follow it live, but I have to think La Salle fans are just crushed tonight after the Explorers gave up a 12-point lead at Bucknell and lost by a point, 67-66. Ruben Guillandeaux had a chance to win it but his layup sat on the rim with three seconds left and rolled off.

I know that there are some Bison fans who read this blog and I'm sure they're ecstatic about stopping a four-game losing streak. But La Salle hit 14 threes, pulled down more rebounds (34-31), dished out more assists (11-9) and committed fewer turnovers (11-12).

By the way, the official box lists 34 and 31 rebounds but the Basketball State one lists 32 and 29 because it doesn't count the "team rebounds" stat. Either way, the Explorers come out on top by three.

Anyway, check out Darnell Harris' line in the loss:

I finally got this week's podcast up on the site. You'll notice that the sound quality is a lot better; I did some tweaking of the recording equipment and am pleased to say that I no longer sound like I'm talking into a tin can.

You'll also notice that the file size of the mp3 in the podcast feed is a lot bigger; I'll work on fixing that for next week.

Anyway, this week I was joined by Mike Jensen and Joe Juliano. We discussed a lot of things, including:

-- An in-depth look at the Penn-Villanova game

-- A discussion of just how deep this Villanova team is

-- Drexel's really bad week

-- The impact of St. Joe's playing three games in three days, and how close the Hawks are to being ranked

-- Whether Temple will look past Thursday's game against Towson to Sunday's game against Villanova

-- La Salle's trips to Bucknell and Morgan State this week (yes, I realize we haven't talked about the Explorers in a while)

-- Penn's big game against North Carolina tomorrow night

-- All that star power the Tar Heels have, including Wynnewood native Wayne Ellington and stud point guard Tywon Lawson

-- And the national games of the week: Memphis vs. USC in New York tomorrow night and Kentucky vs. Indiana on Saturday.

Also, here's some good stuff to read:

-- Mike Jensen and Mike Kern on the BCS matchups

-- Mike Jensen on Wayne Ellington's homecoming

-- The Washington Post's Adam Kilgore's in-depth analysis of the football coaches' poll, which might just leave you seriously questioning its legitimacy

-- ESPN.com's Gene Wojciechowski's plea for a football playoff

-- and Storming the Floor's update on the whereabouts of former Temple big man Anthony Ivory (scroll down a bit, but read the other stuff too).

UPDATE: The matchups are now official. Let me know what you think:

Rose Bowl: Illinois vs. USC
Fiesta Bowl: West Virginia vs. Oklahoma
Sugar Bowl: Hawai'i vs. Georgia
Orange Bowl: Kansas vs. Virginia Tech

National Championship Game: Ohio State at vs. LSU (just joking, sort of)

We are just moments away from the announcement of the teams that will play in the various Bowl Championship Series games next month, including the national championship game. As we wait for the news, let's take a look at the polls as they now stand:

I find Sagarin's ranking fascinating. We'll see what kind of an effect it has.

Of note, Hawai'i got a vote in each poll.

In the AP poll, the first-place votes were: Ohio State 50, LSU 11, Oklahoma 1, Georgia 1, Virginia Tech 1, Hawai'i 1..

In the coaches poll, the first-place votes were: Ohio State 46, LSU 11, Oklahoma 2, Hawai'i 1.

If it was up to me, LSU and Hawaii would play for the national title. I think the Warriors deserve a shot, and we all saw what Boise State did last year.

If I had to pick four teams for a playoff, I'd probably go with LSU vs. Hawaii and Ohio State vs. Oklahoma for my semfinals. It punishes Georgia for not winning its division of the SEC, but the Bulldogs had their chance to beat Tennessee and got blown out.

Well, that was perhaps the least surprising result we'll see in the Big 5 all year. Villanova's 87-61 rout of Penn wasn't much of a game from the start, and still wasn't one when the Quakers outscored the Wildcats in the second half.

So I don't put too much stock in what happened after the first 10 minutes of the game, with the exception of Tyler Bernardini's three threes in four possessions to start the second half. Perimeter shooting is a skill no matter how much time is on the clock.

Corey Fisher had another sublime night, with 13 points -- including 3-of-5 from three -- four assists and four steals. Scottie Reynolds' 21 points won't be overlooked either.

But what I will remember from this game was a 50-second span starting at the 15:13 mark of the first half when Antonio Peña hit a layup, a three and a slam dunk on consecutive possessions. That was the moment when I realized just how deep this Villanova team is.

Obviously, Thursday night's game against LSU will be different, not least because the bodies on the other side will be a lot bigger and a lot faster. But Shane Clark didn't even play last night and Villanova got 21 offensive rebounds. This team is a lot deeper than we thought coming into the season, and I'm starting to think it could do some pretty good things this season.

Joe Juliano recaps the game, and there's also audio from the Penn and Villanova postgame press conferences.

Elsewhere, Jeff McLane recaps Penn State-St. Joe's and Kevin Tatum digs through the demolition derby that was Creighton-Drexel.

There's also a good story by Jeff Gammage that looks at the past and present of professional soccer in Philadelphia.

Welcome to the Pavilion, which is a sea of white tonight thanks to the free t-shirts that were placed on on every seat for the usual sellout crowd.

But unlike the Bucknell game, where there was a significant amount of orange in the stands, there are almost no Penn fans here at all. Maybe two rows at the very top of the north end, including the Penn band. I'm surprised a visiting band would be let in, even though it is a Big 5 game.

As for the game I was just at, I left the Palestra just as St. Joe's made its big run to start the second half, and the Hawks held on from there for a 79-67 win.

I could only follow Drexel from my computer, though, and was surprised to see yet another terrible offensive performance -- only 18 made field goals in the game and 27 turnovers.

So we're off and running here on the Main Line... and Villanova is already out to a 18-4 lead just over five minutes in.

Off we go on what promises to be an interesting evening of college hoops around here. Over the next five-plus hours there will be three games: Penn State-St. Joe's at 4 p.m., Creighton-Drexel at 5 and Penn-Villanova at 7.

I'm at the Palestra now, where the big surprise so far is the existence of a Penn State student section. I'd estimate it at around 40, in section 210 at the east end of the floor. Of course, that's dwarfed by the usual mammoth St. Joe's student section, but 40 is more than nothing. And they're very into it.

Late in the second half, I'll be making a mad dash for the Main Line to see the first Big 5 game of the year. Yes, that means I have to miss the Creighton-Drexel game, but I'd rather see most of two games instead of halves of three games.

For now, let's see what happens in terms of atmosphere between the Nittany Lions and the Hawks. This could be interesting, at least for a little while.

Oh, and check out Mike Jensen's college football and college basketball reports for the week.