Soft Pretzel Logic

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.