Soft Pretzel Logic

Leron asks:

Jonathan, are you traveling with any one of the teams? If not, you should.

Anthony took a good guess:

My prediction is that Jonathan will be set up with his live-blogging apparatus for all games from DC.

He will take the train both ways and explain the virtues of rail travel over air travel. :)

Unfortunately, I will not be traveling to any of the NCAA Tournament sites. I don't have the time to fly out west or down south, and none of the teams I have any connections with are playing in Washington.

There is a chance that I might go to D.C. for a story this weekend anyway, but it will not be basketball-related. Stay tuned, because it will probably end up on the blog.

Well, I take that back... sort of. It won't end up here. With the NCAA Tournament about to begin, I'm switching to a new blog platform.

The new URL is http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/pretzel. It's got some more toys for me to play with, and as a result, I'll be able to get blog posts to do some things that they never have before. You'll like it, I promise.

As a result of the move, I've locked comments on this blog. So come on over to the new blog and have your say about who you've got in the Final Four, how far you think the local teams can go, and whatever else is on your mind about the NCAA Tournament.

And don't forget to play Hoops Hysteria if you aren't already. I'll be posting my bracket soon... and you'll only see my picks on the new blog.

So come on over and join me.

We have tip-off times for the first round, and let's start with the local games. All times Eastern:

Thursday, March 20

5. Michigan State vs. 12. Temple, 12:30 p.m.

Friday, March 21

6. Oklahoma vs. 11 St. Joseph's, approx. 7:10 p.m.
5. Clemson vs. 12. Villanova, approx. 9:50 p.m.

Isn't that the second year in a row the Wildcats have been put in the last Friday night game?

Also, you can print your own bracket by clicking here.

After the jump, the full schedule.

For the first time since 1999, the Philadelphia region has sent three teams to the NCAA Tournament.

Now that the bracket is finished, I'm going to leave this post at the top of the blog and just update it with stories as they come through.

And remember to enter Philly.com's Hoops Hysteria contest, in which you can win a 50-inch plasma TV from Bob and Ron's Worldwide Stereo if you have the best bracket.

You can also compare your bracket to a panel of experts from the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com, or you can play in the Soft Pretzel Logic group just for fun.

Check back here tomorrow for my picks, as well as audio and video from the Coaches vs. Cancer breakfast.

From the Daily News

Dick Jerardi: Late season excellence puts Temple, Saint Joseph's, Villanova in Big Dance

Owls knew their NCAA day would come
Villanova Wildcats relieved just to be invited to NCAAs
Saint Joseph's Hawks can exhale, on way to Big Dance

Capsule previews of Michigan State, Clemson and Oklahoma

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20080316_NCAA_East_Region_capsules.html">East region
West region
South region
Mdwest region

From the Inquirer

Bob Ford: Philly teams find a way to NCAA tourney
The resume gets job done for Villanova
Hawks let out a collective sigh of relief
St. Joe's, Nova join Temple at dance
On College Basketball | 16 tournament questions that demand an answer
East | UNC repeats as NCAA top seed
Midwest | Jayhawks the best of Midwest
South | Memphis leads strong contingent
West | UCLA, of course, is the team to beat

Fan information

St. Joe's

In Anaheim, Calif.

1. UCLA vs. 16. Mississippi Valley State
8. BYU vs. 9. Texas A&M

In Tampa, Fla.

5. Drake vs. 12. Western Kentucky
4. Connecticut vs. 13. San Diego

In Washington, D.C.

2. Duke vs. 15. Belmont
7. West Virginia vs. 10. Arizona

In Washington, D.C.

3. Xavier vs. 14. Georgia
6. Purdue vs. 11. Baylor

In Little Rock, Ark.

1. Memphis vs. 16 Texas-Arlington
8. Mississippi State vs. 9 Oregon

In Denver, Colo.

5. Michigan State vs. 12. Temple!
4. Pittsburgh vs. 13 Oral Roberts

In Little Rock, Ark.

2. Texas vs. 15 Austin Peay
7. Miami vs. 10. St. Mary's

In Anaheim, Calif.

3. Stanford vs. 14. Cornell
6. Marquette vs. Kentucky

In Omaha, Neb.

1. Kansas vs. 16 Portland State
8. UNLV vs. 9 Kent State

In Tampa, Fla.

5. Clemson vs. 12 Villanova!
4. Vanderbilt vs.13. Siena

In Raleigh, N.C.

2. Georgetown vs. 15. Maryland Baltimore-County
7. Gonzaga vs. 10 Davidson

In Omaha, Neb.

3. Wisconsin vs. 14. Cal State-Fullerton
6. Southern California vs. 11. Kansas State

In Raleigh, N.C.:

1. North Carolina vs. 16 Mount St. Mary's or Coppin State
8. Indiana vs. 9. Arkansas

In Denver, Colo.:

5. Notre Dame vs. 12. George Mason
4. Washington State vs. 13. Winthrop

In Birmingham, Ala.

2. Tennessee vs. 15. American
7. Butler vs. 10. South Alabama

In Birmingham, Ala.

3. Louisville Cardinals vs. 14. Boise State
6. Oklahoma vs. 11. St. Joseph's!

East: North Carolina
South: Memphis
West; UCLA
Midwest: Kansas

If all four top seeds were to make the Final Four, North Carolina would play Kansas and Memphis would play UCLA.

I see the TV cameras are at Temple's party.

... is North Carolina.

So the Tar Heels will get the winner of Tuesday night's play-in game between Coppin State and Mount St. Mary's.

It's 6:00 p.m. in Philadelphia.

Do you know whether your team is in the NCAA Tournament?

That sound you just heard was either "Glory, Glory to Old Georgia," or a lot of Villanova fans becoming very afraid.

... is Coppin State vs. Mount St. Mary's.

Coppin State heads to the Dance with a somewhat unsightly 16-20 record, but the MEAC's No. 7 seed beat No. 2 Hampton, No. 3 Norfolk State and No. 1 Morgan State to win the bid.

Mount St. Mary's won the Northeast Conference as the 4-seed in a tournament that was re-seeded after every round. The Mountaineers beat 5-seed Quinnipiac, then upset top seed Robert Morris (coached by ex-St. Joe's assistant Mike Rice) before beating 3-seed Sacred Heart in the title game.

Meanwhile, Kansas just beat Texas and Wisconsin finished off Illinois, but Georgia has led from the start against Arkansas and currently is up by three.

(Hat tip to the D.C. Sports Bog)

An hour to go until the Selection Show begins.

As I write this, Georgia is winning the SEC, Wisconsin is up big in the Big 10, and Kansas just took the lead on Texas in a possible battle for a No. 1 seed.

Somewhere out Lancaster Avenue, Jay Wright is watching nervously, his Wildcats poised on a knife-edge.

Phil Martelli might just grab his rosary beads a little tighter if Georgia wins, but deep down you have to believe he knows his Hawks have done everything they need to do.

And at the Draught Horse just off North Broad Street, Temple is getting ready to throw a big party.

Tick, tock...

Welcome to Soft Pretzel Logic's live coverage of Selection Sunday.

With the Selection Show just hours away, here's the final edition of Crunchy Numbers of the season. As we find out who's in and out of the field among the local teams, here's the last rundown of all the big stats.

Remember to enter Philly.com's Hoops Hysteria contest, in which you can win a 50-inch plasma TV from Bob and Ron's Worldwide Stereo if you have the best bracket.

You can also compare your bracket to a panel of experts from the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com, or you can play in the Soft Pretzel Logic group just for fun.

(Ignore the Philly.com group; I created it by accident when trying to build a group for the blog and now I can't get rid of it. Sorry.)

After the jump, the usual team and individual breakdown.

Okay, I'm back in Philadelphia now, and as this night finally comes to an end, here's all the video and audio from the championship game.

Video

Temple, in which Mark Tyndale talks about just what it means for Temple to be back in the NCAA Tournament.
St. Joseph's, in which Phil Martelli tells fans to "pray your ass off for us, please" that his team gets an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament

Audio

Temple: Fran Dunphy, Mark Tyndale and Dionte Christmas
St. Joseph's: Phil Martelli, Pat Calathes and Ahmad Nivins

Your video highlight is presented in honor of Stormingthefloor.com, because the Temple fans delivered a pretty good one at the final buzzer, and also in honor of the guy in the Flyers jersey who came up to me on the train back to Philadelphia and said he reads the blog. Thanks for that.

To close things out, I'd like to throw this out there. I've watched Fran Dunphy's teams for six years now, and I've talked to a lot of people who've seen him coach for much longer.

I have a hard time believing he's ever done a better job of coaching a game than he did tonight. Temple simply owned the second half, and Dunphy deserves full credit for getting the Owls to step up in the second half and take things over.

And as Tyndale alluded to in his remarks in the video, the fact that Temple is back in the NCAA Tournament is an important thing. It's been a while since Temple has been front and center like this, and I'm willing to bet that even St. Joe's fans will begrudge the Owls some time in the spotlight.

ATLANTIC CITY -- As I wait for a train back to Philadelphia, here's a quick rundown of the game stats:

St. Joe's shot 23-for-54 from the field (42.6%), including 5-for-21 from three-point range (23.8%) and 18-for-33 from two-point range (54.5%), and a perfect 13-for-13 from the free throw line (100.0%). Twelve offensive rebounds, 20 defensive rebounds, 13 assists 13 turnovers, three blocks, three steals and 20 fouls committed.

That adds up to 61 possessions and 1.054 points per possession.

Ahmad Nivins led St. Joe's with 18 points on 6-for-11 shooting, though he was only 1-for-3 with six points in the second half. Nivins also pulled down 10 rebounds, of which six were on offense.

Temple shot 21-for-48 from the field (43.8%), including 9-for-18 from three-point range (50.%) and 12-for-30 from two-point range (40.0%), and 18-for-27 from the free throw line. Eleven offensive rebounds, 18 defensive rebounds, 13 assists, 12 turnovers, four blocks, seven steals and 12 fouls committed.

That adds up to 61 possessions and 1.133 points per possession.

Of note, St. Joe's recorded seven assists and four turnovers in the first half, followed by six assists and nine turnovers in the second half. Temple recorded four assists and eight turnovers in the first half, followed by nine assists and four turnovers in the second half.

Line of the game goes to the game's high scorer and the tournament's most outstanding player, Dionte Christmas:

The all-tournament team was Christmas and Mark Tyndale of Temple, Nivins and Pat Calathes of St. Joe's, and Leemire Goldwire of Charlotte.

I voted for Tyndale, Christmas, Calathes, Goldwire and Chris Clark, with Clark as most outstanding player.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Temple 69, St. Joe's 64.

I can't believe it.

Somehow in that locker room at halftime, Temple was completely transformed. The Owls team that exploded out of the locker room on a 14-2 run was the polar opposite of what we saw in the first 20 minutes.

And they kept coming.

The passes were all there, the threes were flying in. St. Joe's kept coming, and for quite a while there it looked like Temple was going to slip and go tumbling back down the mountain.

But somehow, it was St. Joe's that couldn't quite get to the top. The Hawks missed passes, missed shots, and then everyone seemed to realize all at once that it wasn't going to happen.

As the final seconds slowly ticked away and the Temple students got ready to rush the court, the noise started coming from the very upper reaches of Boardwalk Hall.

It was an old noise, the kind of noise you hear in movies when a ghost is stirring in the attic, and as I looked around I saw pockets of Temple fans where I thought I had seen St. Joe's fans earlier.

"Let's go dancing!" the Temple students chanted during the game's last timeout. And so they will.

Stats and more to come.

ATLANTIC CITY -- It's 32-25 St. Joe's after 20 minutes, and it would be a 10-point game if not for a three-pointer with five seconds to go in the half.

The Hawks shot 13-for-30 from the field (43.3%), including 2-for-9 from three-point range (22.2%) and 11-for-21 from two-point range (52.4%), and 4-for-4 from the foul line (100.0%). Seven offensive rebounds, 10 defensive rebounds, seven assists, four turnovers, two blocks, one steal and six fouls committed.

That adds up to 29 possessions and 1.123 points per possession.

Ahmad Nivins leads St. Joe's with an impressive 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting.

The Owls shot 7-for-25 from the field, including 5-for-10 from three-point range (50.0%) and 2-for-15 from two-point range (13.3%), and 6-for-8 from the free throw line (75.0%). Eight offensive rebounds, nine defensive rebounds, four assists, eight turnovers, three blocks,t wo steals and six fouls committed.

That adds up to 29 possessions and 0.877 points per possession.

Dionte Christmas leads Temple with 12 points on 4-for-8 shooting, including 3-for-5 from beyond the arc.

But more importantly, Temple just looks nervous. The passing isn't as crisp as it's been the last few games and the players haven't been as aggressive with the ball. That two-point field goal percentage is very telling. So was Ryan Brooks' shot clock violation with 30 seconds in the half, when he just held the ball before realizing he was out of time.

Meanwhile, St. Joe's looks calm and collected, and like a team that knows exactly what it's doing here.

If that keeps up, it will decide the game way more than any number could.

ATLANTIC CITY -- In January, it was St. Joe's by a point on Temple's floor. Two weeks ago, it was Temple by a point at a pro-St. Joe's Palestra. Both games were pulsating, nerve-wracking affairs that went down to the very last shot.

Frankly, they deserved a chance to decide this thing once and for all. Tonight, they -- and we -- get it.

The setting is Boardwalk Hall, an arena whose roof is twice as high as the Palestra's but with a buzz just as palpable. To the winner goes the ultimate jackpot: a berth in the NCAA Tournament. It would be the Hawks' first since 2004, and the Owls' first since 2001.

For Temple, the stakes are even higher. Win and the big prize is theirs; lose and all those chips they've piled up in recent weeks vanish in an instant.

St. Joe's, though, might not need to play another hand. The signature wins are there, twice over Xavier and a blowout of Villanova. With chips like that in their pocket, the Hawks can probably afford to stay out of Temple's double-or-nothing game.

But this is a rivalry, and not just any rivalry. It's two schools and two coaches with decades worth of bonds between them, of intense battles under the Big 5's brightest lights.

You don't just walk away from that, do you?

So come on over to the table, Fran Dunphy and Phil Martelli. Time for another round. Forty more minutes of motion offense and swarming defense. Of ball screens, flares to the wing, hard drives to the basket and equally hard blocks in the lane.

It's time, once and for all, to see who has the strongest hand.

Ante up, gentlemen.

Here are the opening hands:

Temple

F Sr 13 Mark Tyndale
F Fr 24 Lavoy Allen
C Jr 41 Sergio Olmos
G So 10 Luis Guzman
G Jr 22 Dionte Christmas

St. Joseph's

F Sr 12 Pat Calathes
F Sr 52 Rob Ferguson
C Jr 34 Ahmad Nivins
G Jr 0 Tasheed Carr
G So 13 Darrin Govens

The game's on ESPN; watch it and leave your thoughts here. I'll be back at halftime.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Here's tonight's offering. But before you get to the game stuff, I got a few minutes with Joe Lunardi at halftime of the Charlotte-Temple game, and we discussed the postseason hopes for the Owls, St. Joe's and Villanova.

As you'll hear, we made the assumption that Temple was going to win the game, and given Charlotte's comeback against UMass it might not have been the smartest thing to do. But it turned out to be right in the end.

Click here to listen to the interview. Now for the game stuff...

Video

St. Joe's
Temple

Audio

St. Joe's: Phil Martelli, Pat Calathes and Ahmad Nivins
Xavier: Sean Miller, Derrick Brown and Jason Love
Charlotte: Bobby Lutz and Leemire Goldwire
Temple: Fran Dunphy, Chris Clark and Mark Tyndale

And highlights...

Pat Calathes' third three-pointer of the second half, and the beautiful passing sequence that led to it:

After Charlotte cut Temple's lead to 44-39 with 7:00 remaining, the Owls responded with a Ryan Brooks jumper and this Mark Tyndale three:

ATLANTIC CITY -- It wasn't pretty, but that doesn't matter now...

Charlotte shot 16-for-59 from the field (27.1%), including 6-for-32 from three-point range (18.8%) and 10-for-27 from two-point range (37.0%), and 7-for-12 from the free throw line (58.3%). Eight offensive rebounds, 20 defensive rebounds, nine assists, ten turnovers, no blocks, eight steals and 20 fouls committed.

That adds up to 66 possessions and 0.679 points per possession.

Leemire Goldwire led the 49ers in his final collegiate game with 18 points on 5-for-18 shooting, including 4-for-14 from three-point range.

Temple shot 19-for-47 from the field (40.4%), including 6-for-25 from three-point range (24.0%) and 13-for-22 from two-point range (59.1%), and 16-for-23 from two-point range (69.6%). A whopping 12 offensive and 36 defensive rebounds, 12 assists, 19 turnovers, five blocks, five steals and 17 fouls committed.

That adds up to 65 possessions and 0.924 points per possession.

Line of the game is, once again, no contest. Mark Tyndale was dominant tonight, and if he does it again tomorrow he might just take the Big 5 Player of the Year award to the NCAA Tournament.

Philadelphia's 30-year streak of sending teams to the NCAA Tournament just turned 31.

With Temple's 60-45 win over Charlotte, we can now be sure of at least one local representative in this year's field of 65.

It'll be Temple-St. Joe's in the championship game tomorrow. And believe it or not, it will be the first time ever that the Owls and Hawks have met in the final.

Stats and more from this game soon.

Amazing how far we've come in the last few days isn't it?

ATLANTIC CITY -- I was surfing the web for a minute and saw this on TV, so I checked the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's website and found the full story:

A wind storm caused several bolts to fall from the rafters of the Georgia Dome on Friday, temporarily delaying a basketball game between Mississippi State and Alabama.

Yikes.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Even though both teams made fewer than 10 field goals each, Temple seemed pretty well in control of things in taking a 28-19 lead over Charlotte into halftime.

The 49ers shot 7-for-25 (28.0%) from the field, including 3-for-16 from three-point range (18.8%) and 4-for-9 from two-point range (44.4%), and 2-for-4 from the free throw line (50.0%). Two offensive rebounds, 10 defensive rebounds, five assists, five turnovers, no blocks, five steals and seven fouls committed.

That adds up to 30 possessions and 0.638 points per possession.

The Owls shot 9-for-24 from the field (37.5%), including 4-for-15 from three-point range (26.7%) and 5-for-9 from two-point range (55.6%), and 6-for-10 from the free throw line (60.0%). Eight offensive rebounds, 17 defensive rebounds, seven assists, nine turnovers, two blocks, three steals and seven fouls committed.

Chris Clark and Mark Tyndale tied for game-highs in the half with nine points; Leemire Goldwire led Charlotte with eight points on 2-for-8 shooting, all from beyond the arc.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Chris Clark buries an open three from the left corner to make it 19-8 Temple with 9:15 to go in the first half, and Bobby Lutz calls timeout. The Owls are looking good so far and Charlotte seems a step behind, but then again, we saw this last night, too...

ATLANTIC CITY -- Well, it's a sign of how many St. Joe's fans were here that the building is a lot emptier than it was when I headed to the press room. But there are still plenty of Temple fans here, including another big student section:

Charlotte's fans are literally right behind me:

They are suitably annoying, to put it one way.

Starting lineups:

Charlotte

G So 3 Dijuan Harris
G Sr 12 Leemire Goldwire
F Jr 2 Charlie Coley
F Jr 15 Lamont Mack
F Fr 21 An'Juan Wilderness

Temple

G So 10 Luis Guzman
G Sr 13 Mark Tyndale
G Jr 22 Dionte Christmas
F Fr 24 Lavoy Allen
C Jr 41 Sergio Olmos

ATLANTIC CITY -- That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you walk -- or perhaps fly, in this case -- through an open door.

Yes, it got a little hairy at the end, but St. Joe's really toughed it out in the final minutes. The Hawks made the free throws when it mattered and got themselves a season-defining win over Xavier, 61-53, to advance to the Atlantic 10 Tournament championship game.

St. Joe's shot 20-for-43 from the field (46.5%), including 6-for-17 from three-point range and 14-for-26 from two-point range (53.8%), and 15-for-21 from the free throw line (71.4%). Four offensive rebounds, 22 defensive rebounds, 15 assists, 11 turnovers, three blocks, four steals and 19 fouls committed.

That adds up to 59 possessions and 1.030 points per possession.

Xavier really had a bad day from the field. The Musketeers made only 19 of 52 shots (36.5%), including 1-for-14 from three-point range (7.1%) and 18-for-38 from two-point range, though they made a respectable 14 of 18 free throw attempts. Twelve offensive rebounds, 23 defensive rebounds, eight assists, 12 turnovers, one block, four steals and 20 fouls committed.

That adds up to 60 possessions and 0.885 points per possession.

No question about who gets line of the game, frankly.

ATLANTIC CITY -- 1:33 to go, St. Joe's up 54-47. Sean Miller calls timeout with 26 seconds on the shot clock.

Can the Hawks hold on?

It's getting pretty loud in here...

ATLANTIC CITY -- With 11:56 to go in the game, St. Joe's leads, 44-32. Almost all the big shots have come from the perimeter, as the Hawks are 4-for-8 from the arc in the second half. Pat Calathes has all three of the makes, with the fourth coming from Rob Ferguson as I mentioned below.

The St. Joe's fans are starting to feel it. But I can't help thinking there's a little anxiety in the air given how Xavier came back late at the Fieldhouse last week. We'll see.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Twenty more minutes of that and there won't be any doubt.

Thanks to a swarming defense and a big three by Pat Calathes three seconds before halftime, St. Joe's hit the locker room with an impressive 30-20 lead over a Xavier team that seemed overwhelmed by all that crimson in their shirts.

The offense wasn't so great, but if St. Joe's is winning 20 minutes from now that won't matter a bit.

The Hawks shot 11-for-25 from the field (44.0%), including 2-for-7 from three-point range (28.6%) and 9-for-18 from two-point range (50.0%), and a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line (100.0%). One offensive rebound, 11 defensive rebounds, nine assists, four turnovers, two blocks, three steals and six fouls committed.

That adds up to 31 possessions and 0.979 points per possession.

The Musketeers shot only 8-for-25 from the field (32.0%), including 0-for-7 from three-point range (0.0%) and 8-for-18 from two-point range (44.4%), and 4-for-5 from the free throw line (80.0%). Five offensive rebounds, 13 defensive rebounds, four assists, seven turnovers, one block, two steals and seven fouls committed.

That adds up to 29 possessions and 0.685 points per possession.

Xavier also committed three shot clock violations and was a buzzer-beating jumper away from a fourth, which is even more impressive than any of that.

And Rob Ferguson just opened the second half with a big three of his own.

ATLANTIC CITY -- The stakes tonight could not be more clear.

If Saint Joseph's and Temple both lose tonight, the Philadelphia region will almost surely be shut out of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 31 years come Sunday evening.

If they both win, the streak stays alive and the Atlantic 10 could have as many as three teams in this year's field of 65.

The pressure is probably stronger on St. Joe's. Xavier came to play yesterday and showed why it's the bets team in the conference. If that happens again tonight, they will be really tough to beat tonight no matter how many Hawks fans are here.

And the fans do seem to be coming. St. Joe's has a really big student section in the horseshoe end of the seating bowl, and there are a good few fans sitting back behind them -- a place I haven't seen fans in at any time in both years I've been here.

There are some Xavier fans too, including these four:

It's almost time to get this thing started. The door to the NCAA Tournament is wide open for St. Joe's and Temple right now. Will they walk through it?

Both games tonight are on Comcast SportsNet CN8 (thanks for the correction), so feel free to watch on TV and leave your comments here.

The starting lineups:

St. Joe's

F Sr 12 Pat Calathes
F Sr 52 Rob Ferguson
C Jr 34 Ahmad Nivins
G Jr 0 Tasheed Carr
G So 13 Darrin Govens

Xavier

F So 5 Derrick Brown
F Jr 20 C.J. Anderson
C So 31 Jason Love
G Sr 24 Drew Lavender
G Sr 34 Stanley Burrell

Yeah, it's late, but look what I found: video highlights of tonight's games.

Darnell Harris' dunk:

Chris Clark's multi-banked three to make it 80-75 for Temple:

And the frantic ending to Charl=otte (which takes a few minutes of real time):

Video

La Salle
Temple
St. Joseph's

(Of note, Phil Martelli says that tonight's semifinal doubleheader will sell out Boardwalk Hall, and he also goes on an interesting riff on now-former New York governor Elliot Spitzer)

Audio

Dayton: Brian Gregory, Brian Roberts and Marcus Johnson
Xavier: Sean Miller, Stanley Burrell and Josh Duncan
St. Joseph's: Phil Martelli, Ahmad Nivins and Rob Ferguson
Richmond: Chris Mooney, Dan Geriot and Kevin Anderson
La Salle: John Giannini, Darnell Harris and Rodney Green
Temple: Fran Dunphy, Chris Clark and Dionte Christmas
Charlotte: Bobby Lutz, Leemire Goldwire and Lamont Mack
Massachusetts: Travis Ford and Etienne Brower

I also just got word from the Daily News that the latest edition of the PhillyFeed's Sports Spotlight podcast has a heavy college hoops flavor to it, so be sure to check that out.

With that, I'm out of here. I'll be back this evening for the semifinals: St. Joe's-Xavier at 6:30 p.m., followed by Charlotte-Temple at 9.

Yong Kim of the Daily News got that great shot of Darnell Harris' dunk.

So I was sitting in the press room working on the Temple-La Salle videos when I looked at the TV and saw that UMass was up on Charlotte at halftime, 36-19.

I figured the game was totally dead, and my good friend Dan McQuade -- usually of Philadelphia Will Do, but this week live-blogging things here for CSTV.com's Posting Up -- said Charlotte looked totally lifeless.

But then, after Leemire Goldwire said the players "cursed each other out" in the locker room, Charlotte blasted its way back into the game with Goldwire front and center.

Against whatever odds you could come up with, the 49ers rallied to take a 48-47 lead with 11:24 left in the game. But UMass came right back with a 15-5 run to make it 62-53 with 3:55 to play.

That still wasn't enough. After two Charlie Coley free throws, Goldwire, who was 2-for-9 from the perimeter at that point, hit a three to make it 62-58 with 3:22 on the clock.

Meanwhile, UMass couldn't buy a bucket. The Minutemen made only three field goals in the last eight minutes of play, and missed eight attempts.

UMass' last points came with 1:33 to go, a tip-in by Dante Milligan to give the Minutemen a 65-63 lead.

It was right around then that I decided to stop working on the videos and get out to the floor. Right as I did, Goldwire hit a three from the left corner to make it 66-65 for Charlotte. Cue bedlam among everyone in 49ers green, and a palpable sense of fear among the UMass fans in the house.

Charlotte's momentum stopped for a moment when Lamont Mack, who had a big night of his own, fouled out. But UMass' Chris Lowe missed the front end of a one-and-one, and Coley got the rebound.

Charlotte brought the ball down the floor and got it to Goldwire. He looked over at 49ers coach Bobby Lutz for a play.

Lutz described the exchange as short and sweet: "I said, 'Pull it,' "

"Shoot it, shoot it -- just pull up," was how Goldwire described it. "And that's what I did."

To say the least.

With 20 seconds left, Goldwire fired a perfect trey that ripped UMass' dreams of making the NCAA Tournament to shreds, and vaulted Charlotte into tomorrow's semifinal against Temple at UMass' expense.

"That's good coaching," Lutz couldn't help adding, and it's hard to disagree with him.

The Minutemen flailed around as time ran down, trying desperately for a three. But Etienne Brower and A-10 Player of the Year Gary Forbes both missed, and that was it.

Charlotte 69, Massachusetts 65.

Honestly, it's barely worth recounting the full-game stats. Yes, Lamont Mack's 23 points and nine rebounds were impressive, and Goldwire finished with a game-high 24.

But all that really mattered was that one minute and those six points, giving us the first upset of this year's tournament in grand style.

Well, Temple certainly took care of business tonight.

The Owls ended the game on an 11-0 run to knock off La Salle, 84-75, and advance to the 9 p.m. semifinal tomorrow.

The Explorers shot 26-for-57 from the field (45.6%), including 8-for-25 from three-point range (32.0%) and 18-for-32 from two-point range (56.3%), and 15-for-20 from the free throw line (75.0%). Nine offensive rebounds, 20 defensive rebounds, 21 assists, 13 turnovers, no blocks, seven steals and 21 fouls committed.

That adds up to 70 possessions and 1.074 points per possession.

Temple shot 27-for-49 from the field (55.1%), including 8-for-24 from three-point range (33.3%) and 19-for-25 from two-point range (76.0%), and 22-for-31 from the free throw line (71.0%). Four offensive rebounds, 24 defensive rebounds, 16 assists, 12 turnovers, two blocks, seven steals and 19 fouls committed.

That adds up to 71 possessions and 1.189 points per possession. Nice to see a game with such high offensive efficiency from both sides.

Rodney Green led La Salle with 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting; he also dished out seven assists. Darnell Harris scored 18, but was only 3-for-10 from three-point range.

Dionte Christmas led all scorers with 29 points, shooting 8-for-15 from the field and 11-for-14 from the free throw line. He also had five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

But Line of the Game goes to a guy on Temple who once again showed tonight how much he wants to win in his final year on North Broad Street: Mark Tyndale.

Temple made 27 of 49 field goal attempts (55.1%)

Mark Tyndale threw the ball right to Yves Mekongo Mbala, and at the other end Darnell Harris knocked in a three to make it 75-73 La Salle with 2:15 left.

Then Sergio Olmos hits the layup and draws the foul but clanks the free throw.

75-75 with 1:35 to go. We'll just keep the rest of the game in this post.

1:35 2nd, 77-75 Temple: Mekongo Mbala reaches in on Chris Clark. First free throw is good, and so is the second. Timeout La Salle.

1:21 2nd, 77-75 Temple: Darnell Harris passes up what was either a three or a long two -- I'm at the other end of the floor, and decides to drive to the basket... and he travels.

0:50.0 2nd 80-75 Temple: Chris Clark stands at the top right of the arc and looks like he's going to pass it. But he decides to fire up a shot instead ---- it hits the front of the rim, then the backboard... then falls in. Wow.

0:40 2nd, 81-75 Temple: Yves Mekongo Mbala airballs a three and Temple's got it. The ball gets to Chris Clark, and Paul Johnson fouls him. Clark misses the first free throw but makes the second, and Temple calls timeout.

0:23 2nd, 81-75 Temple: Darnell Harris was trapped in the right corner by the La Salle bench, not that it mattered to him. He fired up a three anyway and it rolled tantalizingly around the rim and out. The loose ball resulted in a scrum, a held ball, and Temple possession.

0:17.4 2nd, 82-75: Guillandeaux fouls Christmas off the inbounds pass. The first free throw is good, then Temple calls timeout. The second is good too. The Temple students go for the a capella "Rock N' Roll Part II."

0:04.82 2nd, 82-75 Temple: Kimmani Barrett misses a three, Mark Tyndale gets the rebound and Yves Mekongo Mbala fouls him.

FINAL: 84-75 Temple. Best game of the tournament by far. Both teams gave and got everything, with great shots all over the place. Temple advances to face either Massachusetts or Charlotte, and right now they're looking like the hottest team in the conference by some distance.

An open three from the left corner by Rodney Green gives the Explorers their first lead of the night, 62-61, with 9:01 left.

And now there's a loose ball on the court and players are flying all over the place for it, and we're very much playing a Big 5 game here in Atlantic City.

Make it 63-61 after a Green free throw with 8:23 on the clock.

And Chris Clark takes the lead back for Temple with a three to make it 64-63 with 7:30 left.

Then Kimmani Barrett makes it 65-64, and back and forth we go. How about a three by Dionte Christmas from the left side at 7:02. 67-65 Owls.

There's another three by Darnell Harris, and after a Temple turnover we go to a media timeout with the Owls only up 59-57 with 10:18 left.

And Rodney Green ties the game on a layup with 9:37 to play. Well now.

Ruben Guillandeaux hits a three to cut Temple's lead to 59-54, and with 11:26 on the clock Fran Dunphy decides to take a timeout and settle things down.

It's the first media timeout of the second half, and Temple has a 53-41 lead with 15:05 left in the game. Sergio Olmos has eight of the Owls' 10 points since intermission.

Veteran Temple sports information director Al Shrier was just awarded the Bob Vetrone media award from the Atlantic 10, yet another honor for a guy who's been at it for North Broad Street for a lot longer than a lot of us have been alive.

Temple used another quick run to pull away from La Salle and take a 43-35 lead into the locker room.

The Explorers shot 13-for-32 from the field (40.6%), including 3-for-10 from three-point range (30.0%) and 10-for-22 from two-point range (45.5%), and 6-for-9 from the free throw line (66.7%). Seven offensive rebounds, 10 defensive rebounds, 10 assists, eight turnovers, no blocks, three steals and eight fouls committed.

That adds up to 37 possessions and 0.947 points per possession.

The Owls shot 15-for-27 from the field (55.6%), including 3-for-13 from three-point range (23.1%) and 12-for-14 from two-point range (85.7%), and 10-for-12 from the free throw line (83.3%). One offensive rebound, 14 defensive rebounds, eight assists, six turnovers, two blocks, six steals and nine fouls committed.

That adds up to 37 possessions and 1.153 points per possession.

Dionte Christmas leads all scorers with 19 points on 7-for-10 shooting, while Mark Tyndale added 11. Rodney Geren and Darnell Harris have 10 each for La Salle.

Darnell Harris hit his first three of the night with 3:19 on the clock to cut Temple's lead to 35-31. But Dionte Christmas answered with a three of his own from the top left of the arc, stopping the Explorers' brief momentum.

And now it's 43-33 Temple with 1:11 left in the half.

It only made the score 19-13 Temple, and Mark Tyndale answered it right away with a three, but Darnell Harris just threw down a two-handed tomahawk slam on a breakaway. Wow.

I hope there's a picture of that somewhere later tonight.

Dionte Christmas stole the ball from Paul Johnson and raced away for a layup, and with only 2:15 gone in the game John Giannini had seen enough to call timeout. Good start for the Owls.

Well, we've got a real buzz in the building for the first time this tournament. It's a Big 5 showdown between 2-seed Temple and 7-seed La Salle, and the crowd is without question the biggest yet this year at Boardwalk Hall.

As I said in the previous post, Temple's got a big student section tonight:

La Salle's is also pretty strong, and it's growing as I write this:

Here are the starting lineups:

La Salle

F Fr 20 Jerrell Williams
F Jr 31 Paul Johnson
C So 20 Yves Mekongo Mbala
G So 10 Rodney Green
G Sr 11 Darnell Harris

Temple

F Sr 13 Mark Tyndale
F Fr 24 Lavoy Allen
C Jr 41 Sergio Olmos
G So 10 Luis Guzman
G Jr 22 Dionte Christmas

The game's on Comcast SportsNet, so watch it and leave your thoughts here on the blog.

Away we go...

St. Joe's won, 61-47, and really was never in danger the entire second half.

The Hawks shot 22-for-45 from the field (48.9%), including 6-for-18 from three-point range (33.3%) and 16-for-27 from two-point range (59.3%), and 11-for-14 from the free throw line (78.6%). Seven offensive rebounds, 27 defensive rebounds, 13 assists, 16 turnovers, five blocks, six assists and 16 fouls committed.

That adds up to 60 possessions and 1.014 points per possession.

Richmond shot 17-for-46 from the field (37.0%), including 5-for-18 from three-point range (27.8%) and 12-for-28 from two-point range (42.9%), and 8-for-11 from the free throw line (72.7%). Three offensive rebounds, 18 defensive rebounds, 12 assists, 15 turnovers, six blocks, six steals and 15 fouls committed.

That adds up to 63 possessions and 0.652 points per possession.

And Spiders coach Chris Mooney's mentor, legendary former Princeton coach Pete Carril, was here to see it. I'm sure he quite enjoyed the tempo.

Line of the game goes to Rob Ferguson for his perfect night from the field:

Since the wireless internet here is being balky and La Salle-Temple is only a few minutes away from starting, I'm not going to link to all the multimedia stuff until after the game. I'll try to get it attached to the recap stories on Philly.com, because that doesn't take as long, so keep an eye on that.

But everything from all the games will be listed here at the end of the night.

And with an impressively big Temple student section on its feet, here come the Owls...

... but it's 50-33 St. Joe's with 6:17 to play. Rob Ferguson has 15, while Ahmad Nivins and Pat Calathes have 12 each.

Not much else in it, honestly.

It's 30-22 at intermission, and the Hawks look pretty well in control of things.

St. Joe's shot 13-for-27 from the field (48.1%), including 3-for-9 from three-point range (33.3%) and 10-for-18 from two-point range (55.6%), and 1-for-2 from the free throw line (50.0%). Four offensive rebounds, 12 defensive rebounds, eight assists, seven turnovers, one block, two steals and five fouls committed.

That adds up to 31 possessions and 0.972 points per possession.

Rob Ferguson leads all scorers with 10 points on 4-for-4 shooting, including 2-for-2 from three-point range.

Richmond plays a Princeton-style offense, which is no surprise given coach Chris Mooney's roots in Old Nassau (he's an Archbishop Ryan grad too). And the Spiders put forth a half worthy of comparison to the Tigers these days.

They made only nine of 22 field goal attempts (which is still somehow 40.9%), including 3-for-9 from three-point range (33.3%) and 6-for-13 from two-point range, and 1-for-2 from the free throw line (50.0%). One offensive rebound (also very Princetonian), 11 defensive rebounds, eight assists, 10 turnovers, three blocks, two teals and five fouls committed.

That adds up to 32 possession and a mere 0.690 points per possession.

It took the Hawks a little while to get the offense in rhythm, but in the last few minutes the gears have clicked at both ends of the floor.

St. Joe's just capped an 11-0 run after a Garrett Williamson block bounced to Pat Calathes, who raced away for a layup to give the Hawks a 17-12 lead.

St. Joe's has also held Richmond without a field goal for the last five minutes, a span in which the Spiders have committed three turnovers.

Well, the St. Joe's fans finally did show up, just in time for the 5-seed Hawks' tipoff against 4-seed Richmond. As the game's on Comcast SportsNet, I'm not going to liveblog it as closely as I did yesterday's game, but I'll check in a few times.

Looks like a student section of 20 or so spread out behind the band and the stage end basket, and there's a healthy contingent of Hawks fans in four sections behind my side of the court. There's about a section and a half of Richmond fans, plus their band.

The starting lineups:

St. Joe's

F Sr 12 Pat Calathes
F Sr 52 Rob Ferguson
C Jr 34 Ahmad Nivins
G Jr 0 Tasheed carr
G So 13 Darrin Govens

Richmond

F Fr 12 Kevin Smith
F Sr 15 Gaston Moliva
C So 41 Dan Geriot
G So 5 David Gonzalves
G So 14 Kevin Anderson

Feel free to post your thoughts on the game in the comments.

That run I referred to below turned out to be the difference, as Xavier kept Dayton at Bay through the final minutes for a 74-65 win.

The Flyers shot 21-for-50 from the field (42.0%), including 6-for-19 from three-point range (31.6%) and 15-for-31 from two-point range (48.4%), and 17-for-28 from the free throw line (60.7%). Eight offensive rebounds, 17 defensive rebounds, 12 assists, 13 turnovers, two blocks, seven steals and 28 fouls committed.

That adds up to 67 possessions and 0.966 points per possession.

Marcus Johnson was the game's top scorer with 26 points, including 13-for-16 from the free throw line.

Xavier shot 21-for-47 from the field (44.7%), including 8-for-19 from three-point range (42.1%) and 13-for-28 from two-point range (46.4%), and 24-for-34 from the free throw line (70.6%). Eleven offensive rebounds, 26 defensive rebounds, 13 assists, 15 turnovers, two blocks, five steals and 20 fouls committed.

That adds up to 66 possessions and 1.122 points per possession.

Line of the game goes to Xavier's top scorer, Josh Duncan. While I'm not sure he's the player of the year in the conference -- heck, he didn't even start today -- he did turn in the most versatile performance. Not least because Drew Lavender was 0-for-4 from the field in the second half.

A day after making a bunch of threes to beat Syracuse, Villanova had the tables turned on them by a Georgetown team that is playing its best basketball of the season at exactly the right time.

Trailing at halftime, 40-29, the Wildcats stormed out of the gate in the second half, and actually led, 47-43, with 13:11 to play. But the Hoyas went on a 12-3 run after that, then turned it up a notch with an 11-1 burst to put the game away.

At the moment, I have no reason to think Villanova has done enough to make the NCAA Tournament. If enough other teams fall that could change, but the Wildcats are pretty far back in line at the moment.

As hard as Dayton has been trying, they just haven't been able to keep Xavier down.

Right after my last post, the Musketeers jumped on a 17-4 run to make it 58-48 with 8:51 to play.

The lead has stayed in the 8-10 point range ever since, with a Jason Love layup off the glass with 2:31 left causing Dayton coach Brian Gregory to call timeout.

By the way, if anyone on the Hawk Hoop Club board is reading this... there aren't very many St. Joe's fans here at all right now. Where are you guys?

And now Dayton roars back into the game, as an 11-4 run makes it 43-41 with 14:07 remaining.

Make that 45-41 -- or at least it should be, as Kurt Huelsman's layup was clearly goaltended by Jason Love, but the refs didn't call it. They called a blocking foul instead, and Huelsman only made one free throw.

So it's 44-41 with 13:13 left.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Perhaps Drew Lavender isn't so injured anymore.

The 5-foot-7 guard hit a pair of big threes to help Xavier turn a 17-14 deficit with 10:56 remaining into a 33-21 lead at the 3:06 mark, and the Musketeers went on to hit the locker room up 35-29.

Dayton shot 10-for-25 from the field (40.0%), including 2-for-8 from three-point range (25.0%) and 8-for-17 from two-point range (47.1%), and 7-for-10 from the free throw loine (70.0%). Three offensive rebounds, 11 defensive rebounds, five assists, nine turnovers, one block, five steals and 12 fouls committed.

That adds up to 35 possessions and 0.819 points per possession.

Xavier shot 10-for-24 from the field (41.7%), including 5-for-11 from three-point range (45.5%) and 5-for-13 from two-point range (38.5%), and 10-for-14 from the free throw line (41.7%). Four offensive rebounds, 13 defensive rebounds, five assists, eight turnovers, one block, four steals and eight fouls committed.

That adds up to 34 possesssions and 1.025 points per possession.

Dayton's Marcus Johnson leads all scorers with 13 points on 3-for-3 shooting, including 6-for-8 from the free throw line. Lavender is Xavier's high scorer with nine points, all from beyond the arc.

ATLANTIC CITY -- After four entertaining games yesterday, we get things going today with a blood feud of an affair between top seed Xavier and 8-seed Dayton.

There's a big clump of a few hundred Muskteers fans behind their bench, and a line of six students behind the Xavier band. One of them has a full-body blue paint job going.

But I would say Dayton has at least double that many fans, if not more. Multiple sections behind the Flyers bench and just as many behind my seat across the floor.

No question, this game is a huge deal for Dayton. Not just because of the rivalry -- which is up there with St. Joe's-Temple as the best in the Atlantic 10 -- and not just because Xavier won both games against Dayton this season.

If the Flyers win today, they might just get back into the NCAA Tournament picture. Yes, even though they finished the season 8-8 in conference play, a win over Xavier could get the selection committee's attention given Dayton's non-conference schedule.

It would help if stud Flyers freshman forward Chris Wright played. He's been out injured for quite a while, and rumors have been swirling that he could come back here in Atlantic City. But he didn't play yesterday and didn't start today.

As for who did start:

Dayton

G Sr 2 Brian Roberts
G Sr 3 Andres Sandoval
G So 32 Marcus Johnson
F Sr 33 Jimmy Binnie (whose family is right behind me, I think)
F So 41 Kurt Huelsman

Xavier

G Sr 24 Drew Lavender
G Sr 34 Stanley Burrell
F So 5 Derrick Brown
F Jr 20 C.J. Anderson
F So 31 Jason Love (Philadelphia/Abington Friends)

Now that everything's finally done for the night, here's a recap of all the multimedia features that ran on the site today:

Video

Saint Joseph's: Phil Martelli and Tasheed Carr
La Salle: John Giannini, Darnell Harris and Rodney Green

Audio

Dayton: Brian Gregory, Marcus Johnson and Jimmy Binnie
Saint Louis: Rick Majerus, Danny Brown and Luke Meyer

Saint Joseph's: Phil Martelli, Tasheed Carr and Pat Calathes
Fordham: Dereck Whittenburg, Bryant Dunston and Marcus Stout

La Salle: John Giannini, Darnell Harris and Rodney Green
Duquesne: Ron Everhart, Reggie Jackson and Gary Tucker

Charlotte: Bobby Lutz, Leemire Goldwire and Michael Gerrity
Rhode Island: Jim Baron, Will Daniels and Jimmy Baron

With that, I'm off to sleep. I'll be back later this morning to get the quarterfinals started.

ATLANTIC CITY -- It took a few hours, but we finally have full-game stats for Duquesne-La Salle.

The Explorers shot 30-for-59 from the field (50.8%), including 7-for-12 from three-point range (58.3%) and 23-for-47 from two-point range (48.9%), and 15-for-30 from the free throw line (50.0%). Fourteen offensive rebounds, 24 defensive rebounds, 18 assists, 20 turnovers, one block, nine steals and 20 fouls committed.

That adds up to 79 possessions and 1.035 points per possession.

The Dukes shot 29-for-60 from the field (48.3%), including 7-for-17 from three-point range (41.2%) and 23-for-43 from two-point range (53.5%), and 14-for-20 from the free throw line (70.0%). Ten offensive rebounds, 25 defensive rebounds, 15 assists, 21 turnovers, six blocks, 12 steals and 20 fouls commmitted.

That adds up to 81 possessions and 0.981 points per possession.

It was high-risk, high-reward stuff from both sides, and I was impressed that La Salle was able to run with Duquesne for all 40 minutes. But the Explorers will get a very, very different kind of game from Fran Dunphy's motion offense today.

Line of the game goes not to Reggie Jackson, who led all scorers with 29 points, or Darnell Harris with his team-high 21. It goes to Rodney Green for a big night on multiple fronts:

Duquesne: Ron Everhart, Reggie Jackson and Gary Tucker
La Salle: John Giannini, Darnell Harris and Rodney Green

Video highlights of John Giannini, Darnell Harris and Rodney Green

ATLANTIC CITY -- Word comes from A-10 Director of Communications Stephen Haug that the GameTracker malfunction was caused by the scorer's table computer "blowing up."

So I'm going to work on the video and audio stuff for a while, and check back in at halftime of Rhode Island-La Salle unless events warrant.

Of note, there are about 20 Rhody students here in the horseshoe end of the seating bowl, and both bands are present.

UPDATE: It's a bit after halftime now and still no box score. I noticed from the Charlotte-Rhode Island box that they've definitely switched computers, because the new box is in Arial font instead of the previous Courier.

Anyway, Rhode Island led Charlotte at the half, 37-32, thanks largely to 15 points from Jimmy Baron. An'Juan Wilderness, who has without question the coolest name in this year's tournament, led Charlotte with 10 points.

There are now just over three minutes gone in the second half and it's 44-37 URI.

I'll be back after this game to recap it and pull together all the multimedia from the day.

NOTE: Fordham-St. Joe's stuff, including video of Phil Martelli, is here.

ATLANTIC CITY -- It's the Explorers' first ever Atlantic 10 Tournament game in Atlantic City, so why shouldn't I give liveblogging a spin?

Perhaps because their opponent, Duquesne, has the sixth-fastest tempo in the country at 75.6 possessions per 40 minutes. So to put it one way, there's no chance I get every basket down on here. But I'll do what I can.

Pregame: We've got just under a minute to go and the La Salle band is here, playing the fight song as the Explorers dance in a circle at center court. They're pumped up, and it looks like the La Salle fans are too.

The Explorers' student section has about 35 people in it, which is actually quite a bit more than what St. Joe's brought -- though the 6:30 start has a lot to do with that.

Not many Duquesne fans in the house; most of the red I can see is worn by Dayton fans. Good for them for sticking around.

The starting lineups:

Duquesne

F Jr 1 Aaron Jackson
F Fr 25 Damian Saunders
C Sr 2 Kieron Achara
G Sr 3 Reggie Jackson
G Sr 22 Gary Tucker

La Salle

F Fr 20 Jerrell Williams
F Jr 31 Paul Johnson
C So 12 Yves Mekongo Mbala
G So 10 Rodney Green
G Sr 11 Darnell Harris

19:47 1st, 2-0 La Salle: Rodney Green opens the scoring with a layup.

19:27 1st, 2-2: An Aaron Jackson putback gets Duqesne on the board.

19:09 1st, 5-2 La Salle: And there's Darnell Harris' first three of the night.

16:37 1st, 13-11 La Salle: Rodney Green to Paul Johnson for a gorgeous slam in which Johnson was well above the rim.

16:26 1st, 15-11 La Salle: A Duquesne turnover, and Yves Mekongo Mbala throws down a fastbreak slam of his own.

16:56 1st, 15-14 La Salle: We hit the first media timeout, and there is just no way I can keep up with the tempo of this thing. Thus far, I count 8 possessions and 1.803 points per possession for La Salle to 8 possessions and 1.75 PPP for Duquesne.

I am going to try to keep up with the number in the possessions in the game at the very least, updating the stat at media timeouts.

But if you extrapolate that four-ish-minute stretch and multiply it by 10, you get 80 possessions a side. Which is a heck of a lot.

12:47 1st, 23-20 Duquesne: Kieron Achara, all 6-foot-10 of him, is wide open at the top of the arc and drains a three. Nice shot, though not great by La Salle to leave him unmarked.

11:41 1st, 23-20 Duquesne: Shawn James swats a driving Rodney Green layup out of bounds and we hit the second media timeout. And we're up to 16 possessions for Duquesne and 17 for La Salle.

7:37 1st, 31-25 La Salle: David Theis hits a three for Duquesne, and John Giannini decides he's seen enough to call a timeout.

6:30 1st, 31-29 La Salle: And the Explorers make a little run. We hit the media timeout, and it's 30 possessions to 28 for Duquesne.

4:26 1st, 32-32: On the fastbreak, Ruben Guillandeaux hits a nice spinning layup to tie the score.

3:54 1st, 34-32 Duquesne: At the last media timeout of the half, it's 33 possessions for La Salle and 32 for Duquesne. So things have slowed down a little bit, I suppose.

HALFTIME, 39-36 La Salle: Nice turnaround for the Explorers, who scored seven straight before Duquesne's Reggie Jackson hit a layup with 1:16 left in the half. No points since then, though.

Here are the stats:

Duquesne shot 15-for-35 from the field (42.9%), including 5-for-12 from three-point range (41.7%) and 10-for-23 from two-point range (43.5%), and 1-for-3 from the free throw line (33.3%). Seven offensive rebounds, 13 defensive rebounds, six assists, 10 turnovers, five blocks, seven steals and 10 fouls committed.

That adds up to 39 possessions and 0.991 points per possession.

La Salle shot 15-for-34 from the field (44.1%), including 3-for-5 from three-point range (60.0%) and 12-for-29 from two-point range (41.4%), and 6-for-12 from the free throw line (50.0%). 10 offensive rebounds, 14 defensive rebounds, 10 assists, 12 turnovers, zero blocks, three steals and eight fouls committed.

That adds up to 41 possessions and 0.872 points per possession.

Yves Mekongo Mbala leads all scorers with nine points on 3-for-5 shooting; he also has six rebounds. Aaron Jackson, Reggie Jackson and Gary Tucker all have eight points for Duquesne; Aaron Jackson is 4-for-4 from the field.

19:35 2nd, 41-36 Duquesne: Reggie Jackson hits a short jumper to open the second half.
19:28 2nd, 41-38 Duquesne: Darnell Harris replies with a layup off the glass.

15:52 2nd, 47-44 Duquesne: Here we are at the first media timeout, and the Dukes have swung the game back in their favor. The tempo is also picking up a bit, with both teams having now recorded 47 possessions.

14:27 2nd, 48-47 La Salle: Kimmani Barrett gets a putback to go down and draws the foul from Duquesne's Shawn James. The free throw is no good, but Sherman Diaz grabs the rebound and tips it in to give the Explorers the lead.

12:30 2nd, 55-51 La Salle: Nice dish from Harris to Mekongo Mbala for an open three.

12:10 2nd, 55-54 La Salle: But Reggie Jackson answers with a three of his own at the other end.

11:59 2nd, 55-54 La Salle: Media timeout. Possessions are 53 apiece.

11:34 2nd, 57-55 Duquesne: Reggie Jackson has an open look from three, but Sherman Diaz knocks him over as the shot is en route. It falls short, but Jackson makes all three free throws. Ouch.

9:13 2nd, 65-60 Duquesne: Reggie Jackson makes a tough layup to stretch the Dukes' lead to five points, and John Giannini calls timeout. I'm about as far from a Yankees fan as it gets, but the fact that a guy named Reggie Jackson is having a big game in a conference tournament is kind of cool.

5:53 2nd, 72-65 Duquesne: Somehow or other, Kojo Mensah jumps up between a bunch of people for a big slam. As in at least two, maybe three people.

3:40 2nd, 73-72 Duquesne: Rodney Green's layup is touched coming down off the glass, but goes in anyway. So we get the last media timeout of the game. But I can't do the possessions math because the live stats I was using got stuck at the 9:13 mark.

I'm hearing from readers that it's broken for everyone, so hold on for what could be a bumpy ride...

2:49 2nd, 74-72 Duquesne: Mensah tips a Darnell Harris out of bounds, with Duquesne having intercepted a Harris pass on the previous possession.

2:36 2nd, 74-74: Layup by Jerrell Williams:

2:19 2nd, 76-74 Duquesne: Answered by Shawn James.

2:12 2nd, 76-76: Darnell Harris makes two free throws.

1:48 2nd, 79-76 Duquesne: Kickout to Reggie Jackson for three.

1:32 2nd, 79-76 Duquesne: Charge on Rodney Green driving to the basket. I couldn't see who took it but I wasn't so sure he had stopped moving.

1:04 2nd, 79-76 Duquesne: Timeout La Salle.

0:57 2nd, 79-79: The heck with the guys defending him, Darnell Harris pulls up for an NBA-range there and nails it. And at the other end, Harris gets a piece of James' driving layup and it falls to la Salle.

0:23.8 2nd, 80-79: Aaron Jackson reaches in on Rodney Green and is whistled for it, and can't believe it. But was a foul.

Harris misses the first free throw and hits the second.

0:21.1 2nd, 80-79 La Salle: Duquesne crosses midcourt and Dukes coach Ron Everhart calls a full timeout.

And then John Giannini calls timeout before the ball is inbounded.

0:13.7 2nd, 80-79 La Salle: I have no idea why, but Kojo Mensah threw a pass to the left corner... and there wasn't anyone there in either jersey. Unless you count the bench, and the guys at that part of it were wearing red.

0:12.7 2nd, 82-79 La Salle: The Explorers get off the inbounds pass and Mensah fouls Ruben Guillandeaux. The first free throw rolls around the rim and in; the second is nothing but net.

Postgame multimedia

Fordham: Dereck Whittenburg, Bryant Dunston and Marcus Stout
St. Joseph's: Phil Martelli, Pat Calathes and Tasheed Carr

Video highlights of Martelli and Carr

ATLANTIC CITY -- To shoot 56.9 percent from the field in a game is impressive enough. To do it in a conference tournament game, even against the 12-seed, at least strikes me as being a pretty big deal.

Not having a bye, this is exactly what St. Joe's needed in the first round: an 80-62 blowout of Fordham in which no one played more than 30 minutes. And although the afternoon attendance was announced as 3,342, the Hawks didn't seen fazed at all by playing in front of a diminished atmosphere for the first time in a while.

Fordham shot 23-for-56 from the field (41.1%), including 6-for-23 from three-point range (26.1%) and 17-for-33 from two-point range (51.5%), and 10-for-18 from the free throw line (55.6%). Fourteen offensive rebounds, 18 defensive rebounds, 12 assists, 13 turnovers, four blocks, six steals and 20 fouls committed.

That adds up to 63 possessions and 0.985 points per possession.

In his final college game, Bryant Dunston led the Rams with 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting; he was 5-for-7 from the free throw line. Dunston also recorded five rebounds (two on offense), three blocks, one steal and one assist,

St. Joe's shot 29-for-51 from the field (56.9%), including 7-for-15 from three-point range (46.7%) and 22-for-36 from two-point range (61.1%), and a mildly concerning 15-for-25 from the free throw line (60.0%). Nine offensive rebounds, 23 defensive rebounds, 17 assists, 11 turnovers, four blocks, nine steals and 18 fouls committed.

That adds up to 64 possessions and a nice, round 1.25 points per possession.

Pat Calathes led all scorers with 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting, including 2-for-4 from three-point range, but line of the game goes to Tasheed Carr:

Of note, Martelli went on a bit of a riff in his remarks about why players don't care about winning anymore because they think there will always be another game.

There's also postgame audio from Saint Louis-Dayton, which I got mainly to listen to Rick Majerus. Here's Dayton, and here's Majerus and a few of his players. You guess which one lasts 20 minutes.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Okay, time to take things up a notch. It's the Big 5's first entrant in this year's Atlantic 10 Tournament, and since most of you are probably stuck at your desks, I'll be here from start to finish blogging the game.

But be sure to check the posts below for more from Saint Louis-Dayton and Villanova-Syracuse.

And check the bottom of this post for the latest update on this game.

Pregame: About two minutes before tip, and this place is pretty empty. Not nearly as many Hawks fans as I expected, but there is a small contingent of St. Joe's students under the basket closer to the big wall mural. At least both bands are here, and maybe the place will fill up more as the game goes on.

Starting lineups

Fordham

F Sr 21 Michael Binns
F Sr 30 Sebastian Greene
F Sr 42 Bryant Dunston
G Sr 1 Marcus Stout
G Sr 14 Kevin Anderson

Saint Joseph's

F Sr 12 Pat Calathes
F Sr 52 Rob Ferguson
C Jr 34 Ahmad Nivins
G Jr 0 Tasheed Carr
G So 13 Darrin Govens

19:23 1st, 2-0 St. Joe's: Govens opens the scoring with two free throws after being fouled driving by Fordham's Kevin Anderson.

18:53 1st, 3-2 Fordham: Stout gets the Rams on the board with a three from the right side.

16:54 1st, 6-4 St. Joe's: A floater in the lane by Carr gives the Hawks the lead back.

14:50 1st, 10-4 St. Joe's: A Fordham turnover leads to a Pat Calathes layup.

14:03 1st, 10-5 St. Joe's: Ahmad Nivins picks up his first foul, blocking a driving Herb Tanner. But Tanner only makes the second free throw.

12:39 1st, 12-9 St. Joe's: Trapped against the Fordham baseline, Pat Calathes is forced to call a timeout.

12:09 1st, 12-11 St. Joe's: Out of the timeout, Garrett Williamson gets the ball with three seconds on the shot clock... and passes the ball to Calathes as the clock expires And he knew it. At the other end, Bryant Dunston makes a layup to bring Fordham within a point.

11:29 1st, 16-11 St. Joe's: Another Fordham turnover leads to a Williamson fastbreak. He dished a backwards bounce pass in the paint to Rob Ferguson, who was blocked going up by Sebastian Greene.

The Fordham fans behind me wanted a travel on Williamson; I'm not sure about that, though I did think Greene got the ball on the block. Coming out of the media timeout, Ferguson makes both free throws.

7:53 1st, 22-16 St. Joe's: Another media timeout, and as you can tell I'm having some trouble with the blogging software at the moment. So I'm going to need a minute to get it fixed...

6:50 1st, 27-18 St. Joe's: Rob Ferguson hits a three at the top of the arc, and a very angry Fordham coach Derek Whittenburg calls timeout.

5:41 1st, 30-18 St. Joe's: A three from the right side by Garrett Williamson pushes the Hawks' lead to double digits.

5:03 1st, 33-19 St. Joe's: Tasheed Carr double-pump-fakes and drains a pretty three right at the top of the arc.

3:52 1st, 38-19 St. Joe's: Another Carr three, another angry Whittenburg timeout. St. Joe's has outscored Fordham 16-3 in the last four minutes.

3:29 1st, 38-19 St. Joe's: Right at the end of the media timeout, one of the refs yelled at the Fordham mascot for staying on the court too long. The Ram duly high-stepped it off the floor in a hurry.

3:08 1st, 40-19 St. Joe's: Carr steals the ball and races away for an uncontested layup. Great job by the Hawks so far.

HALFTIME: 44-25 St. Joe's: A Pat Calathes layup with seven seconds on the clock rounded off the scoring, though Marcus Stout's buzzer-beating three was about an inch to the wrong side of the rim.

Here are the stats:

Fordham shot a paltry 8-for-21 from the field (38.1%), including 1-for-7 from three-point range (14.3%) and 7-for-14 from two-point range (50.0%), and 8-for-13 from the free throw line (61.5%). Three offensive rebounds, six defensive rebounds, six assists, eight turnovers, one block, three steals and seven fouls committed.

That adds up to 31 possessions and 0.788 points per possession.

St. Joe's shot an impressive 16-for-25 from the field (64.0%), including 5-for-8 from three-point range (62.5%) and 11-for-17 from two-point range (64.7%), and a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line (100.0%). Three offensive rebounds, 11 defensive rebounds, seven assists, seven turnovers, two blocks and four steals.

That adds up to 32 possessions and 1.029 points per possession.

Tasheed Carr leads all scorers with 14 points on 6-for-6 shooting, including 2-for-2 from beyond the arc. He also has four rebounds, five assists and two steals. Pat Calathes has 12 points and Rob Ferguson has 10. Ahmad Nivins has none, but this time it really doesn't matter.

Bryant Dunston leads Fordham with nine points on 3-for-6 shooting; he also has one assist, one block and one steal.

19:41 2nd, 46-25 St. Joe's: Rob Ferguson opens the scoring with a layup.

18:35 2nd, 49-27 St. Joe's: Bryant Dunston forces his way for a layup to score Fordham's first points of the half.

16:34 2nd, 53-27 St. Joe's: Nivins makes a pretty move to score his first points of the game.

15:00 2nd, 58-32 St. Joe's: A few seconds after an angry Fordham fan behind me yells "GET UP, WHITTENBERG!" Darrin Govens drives for a layup and Whittenberg indeed stands... to call a timeout.

11:40 2nd, 60-36 St. Joe's: A foul is called on Marcus Stout, and we head to a media timeout.

Kyle Whelliston is here, which I find rather amusing. I guess he really does like the Atlantic-Eastern-Southern-Midwestern 14 that much.

9:02 2nd, 64-38 St. Joe's: Idris Hilliard misses a long 2 from the top of the arc, but Ahmad Nivins puts it back and draws the foul from Sebastian Greene. And he makes the free throw.

7:27 1st, 72-43 St. Joe's: After making the free throw of a basket-and-one, Pat Calathes is subbed out by Phil Martelli for Edwin Lashley. If Martelli is able to get the rest of his regulars out too, that will go a long way in helping the Hawks maintain the energy needed to win four games.

5:49 2nd, 74-45 St. Joe's: And that's it for Ahmad Nivins, as Arvydas Lidzius comes in to replace him.

3:49 2nd, 74-51 St. Joe's: It's the last media timeout. Fordham hit a couple threes, and then threw up a few more that were nowhere close. The Fordham mascot walks out on the floor iwith a cardboard pair of scissors that read "HAWK CLIPPERS." A bit late for that... though he does a funny impression of the St. Joe's cheerleaders where he holds up one leg, then falls flat on his face.

2:53 2nd, 77-53 St. Joe's: Idris Hilliard throws down a strong slam, and even though it hit the basket after the shot clock expires the refs counted it anyway. Um.

1:32 2nd, 78-60 St. Joe's: Fordham's Sebastian Greene throws down a monster slam dunk, but gets whistled for a technical foul for hanging on the rim. Ouch.

1:08 2nd, 78-62 St. Joe's: Whittenberg subs out Bryant Dunston, who gets a nice ovation from the Fordham fans in attendance. He's a great athlete, no question about that, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if he goes on to play professionally somewhere on the planet in the years to come.

FINAL, 80-62 St. Joe's: C.J. Brown gets to dribble out the clock, as St. Joe's records a very impressive first-round win over Fordham. The Hawks will next face Richmond, tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.

Stats to come in a bit. I'm off to record the press conferences.

ATLANTIC CITY -- By the skin of its teeth, Dayton survives.

After a tight five minutes of overtime, Danny Brown had a chance to win it at the buzzer, but his long 2 hit the back iron and bounced out. So the Flyers win, 63-62, and will face top seed Xavier tomorrow at noon.

Saint Louis shot 21-for-47 from the field (44.7%), including 8-for-24 from three-point range (33.3%) and 13-for-23 from two-point range (56.5%), and 12-for-17 from the free throw line (70.6%). Five offensive rebounds, 26 defensive rebounds, eight assists, 20 turnovers (ouch), seven steals, four blocks and 18 fouls committed.

That adds up to 69 possessions and 0.892 points per possession.

Dayton shot 26-for-56 from the field (46.4%), including 7-for-18 from three-point range (38.9%) and 19-for-38 from two-point range (50.0%), and 4-for-11 from the free throw line (36.4%). Ten offensive rebounds, 24 defensive rebounds, 14 assists, 11 turnovers, eight steals, two blocks and 16 fouls committed.

That adds up to 62 possessions and 1.019 points per possession.

While I don't normally like giving Line of the Game to a player on the losing team, no one from Dayton really stood out. Saint Louis' Tommie Liddell clearly had the best individual line, so he gets it.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Holy cow.

Down 28-19 with 1:41 left in the first half, Villanova ran off a 9-0 run to hit intermission trailing by only a point.

Then the Wildcats just blew Syracuse's doors off.

'Nova outscored the Orange by 20 points, 55-35, in the final 20 minutes, en route to a very impressive 82-63 win.

Scottie Reynolds finished the game with 22 points, Corey Stokes had 18, and Dwayne Anderson -- what a spark he's been -- added 14.

I see the Wildcats made 11 of 21 threes in the game. Reading Jerry Palm's liveblog for CSTV.com, I see they were at least 8-for-9 in the second half. Wow.

So it's on to a rematch against Georgetown tomorrow at noon. That should be a good one.

UPDATE: Mike Kern checks in with all the details. And so does Joe Juliano.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Well, Dayton had this game totally wrapped up for the first 39 minutes, and blew it all in the last one.

Up by nine, 54-45, with 2:41 remaining, the Flyers blew the whole lead, as Kevin Lisch tied the game on a three with 51 seconds to go. Except for some reason, the horn went off. It wasn't a shot clock violation, as there were 26 seconds left out of the 35.

The refs stopped play, and both coaches -- Rick Majerus and Dayton's Brian Gregory -- went ballistic. Majerus' assistants were able to restrain him from running too far towards the scorers, and insert your own line here if you want.

Then, with 21.8 seconds left, Brian Roberts drove to the basket, drew contact and hit the layup, but was whistled for a charge. I thought it was a block and so did most of the fans here.

Saint Louis got the ball, but Dayton guard London Warren stole it at the top of the key with eight seconds to go and raced away -- but missed the layup. The rebound was kicked out to Flyers guard Andres Sandoval, who had an open look from three at the buzzer to win it, but the shot clanked off the front of the rim.

So we go to overtime.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Dayton leads, 34-25.

Saint Louis shot 10-for-20 from the field (50.0%), including 4-for-10 from three-point range (40.0%) and 6-for-10 from two-point range (60.0%), and 1-for-1 from the free throw line (100.0% -- which is not something I've written very much this season). Zero offensive rebounds, 12 defensive rebounds, five assists, seven turnovers, four blocks, one steal and two fouls committed.

That adds up to 27 possessions and 0.911 points per possession.

The Flyers shot 14-for-29 from the field (48.3%), including an impressive 6-for-12 from three-point range (50.0%) and 8-for-17 from two-point range (47.1%), and 0-for-1 from the free throw line (0.0%). Four offensive rebounds, 10 defensive rebounds, 11 assists, two turnovers, one block, three steals and two fouls committed.

That adds up to 27 possessions and 1.239 points per possession.

Dayton's Mickey Perry leads all scorers with nine points on 4-of-7 shooting; Kevin Lisch and Tommie Liddell both have eight points for the Billikens. Lisch is 3-for-6, including 2-for-4 from the arc, and Liddell is 3-for-8 and 1-for-4.

ATLANTIC CITY -- A bumper crop of material in today's papers...

Mike Kern considers what Villanova has to do in New York this week to make the NCAA Tournament and looks at the rest of the field.

Joe Juliano's key to the game is which team's freshmen will do better in the spotlight. He also has a tournament preview.

I have the live stream of the Villanova-Syracuse game up on my computer and will be keeping an eye on it. Right now, the Wildcats are down by 8 with 5:30 left.

Ray Parrillo previews La Salle-Duquesne and finds St. Joe's in desperation mode.

Dick Jerardi surveys the A-10 and tries to figure out how many NCAA Tournament bids it can get.

Bob Cooney and Ray Parrillo survey the tournament field and players to watch.

Kevin Tatum and Mike Kern were at Jadwin Gym last night to see Penn handle a woeful Princeton team, 60-47. I was there too, which you might have heard if you were listening to the radio broadcast last night.

A loose ball bounced over the press table and I wasn't paying attention until it got within about a quarter of an inch of my computer. I caught it just in time and made a half-decent pass back to the ref, and I gather that got me a mention on air.

Anyway, the Quakers finished Ivy League play 8-6 and in sole possession of third place, which is pretty good considering how down they were coming into the conference stretch.

Nationally, Marcus Hayes talks to Virginia guard and Penn Charter alum Sean Singletary about his last days as a Cavalier.

And John Smallwood argues that teams with sub-.500 conference records should not be allowed in the NCAA Tournament.

Okay, that's more than enough. And it's halftime of Dayton-Saint Louis. Back with stats soon.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Greetings from press row at Boardwalk Hall, where we're underway in the first game in this year's Atlantic 10 Tournament. It's 8-seed Dayton vs. 9-seed Saint Louis for the right to play top seed Xavier tomorrow at noon.

The Dayton band is here, and the all put big foam basketball-shaped hats on their heads a few minutes after tipoff.

I'd say there are at least a few hundred Flyers fans in the house. Not so many Billikens supporters, though; around 40 behind their bench, and their band isn't here.

But Rick Majerus is, dressed in a black turtleneck and black pants.

Here are the starting lineups:

Saint Louis

G Sr 00 Dwayne Polk
G Jr 21 Kevin Lisch
G Jr 25 Tommie Liddell
F Sr 32 Luke Meyer
C Sr 44 Bryce Husak

Dayton

G Sr 2 Brian Roberts
G Sr 3 Andres Sandoval
G So 32 Marcus Johnson
F Sr 33 Jimmy Binnie
F So 41 Kurt Huelsman

So as the four days of liveblogging get underway, what I want to know from you is this: Who do you think will win this thing? The consensus among the media here is that no one has any idea.

Come back throughout the week for stats, video and audio of press conferences, possibly some game highlights, and everything else interesting that happens here at Boardwalk Hall.

Big news here on the blog to start what is always the best week of the college basketball season.

First, I'm proud to announce that for the second year in a row, I'm headed to Atlantic City to liveblog the Atlantic 10 tournament. I'll be there all four days, bringing you updates from all the games at Boardwalk Hall.

There will also be audio and video features, including postgame press conferences and possibly game highlights. Stay tuned.

Second, our big NCAA Tournament pick' em game is now set up. Expert pickers include myself, Dick Jerardi of the Daily News and Jeff McLane of the Inquirer, with more to come soon.

Click here to register.

I've also set up a Soft Pretzel Logic pool for us to play among ourselves for bragging rights. It ain't much, but it's something. Click here to join.

Lastly, this week's College HoopsCast is now available for your listening pleasure here.

Joe Juliano joins me to break down of all this week’s big conference tournaments, including an in-depth look at the Atlantic 10 and Big East tournaments.

What do St. Joe’s, Temple and Villanova have to do to impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee? How many bids will the A-10 and Big East get?

Plus a discussion of all the other big tournaments this week, from the ACC to the Pac-10, and a look around the mid-major tournaments that could have just as big an effect on local teams’ postseason hopes.

And I argue for why some conferences shouldn’t have tournaments at all.

By the way, in a sure sign of just how bad the cold I've had the last few days is, I made a mistake on the show. I said that the Big 5 and Drexel haven't been shut out of the NCAA Tournament since 1997; it is, in fact, 1977.

Postgame audio

Temple: Fran Dunphy, Chris Clark and Mark Tyndale
La Salle: John Giannini and Darnell Harris

Even by John Giannini's own admission, the game was pretty well over at halftime.

Yes, La Salle got within 12 points with 6:28 left in the game, but the hole was just too big to climb out of.

In the end, Temple left the Explorers' dreams of a Big 5 championship in shreds, walking out of Tom Gola Arena with an 85-66 win. It clinched second place in the Atlantic 10 for the Owls -- and took that same City Series title down Broad Street from Olney to Cecil B. Moore.

Temple shot 32-for-66 from the field (48.5%), including 11-for-24 from three-point range (45.8%) and 21-for-42 from two-point range (50.0%), and 10-for-14 from the free throw line (71.4%). Fifteen offensive rebounds, 23 defensive rebounds, 20 assists, seven turnovers, six blocks, five steals and 19 fouls committed.

That adds up to 65 possessions and 1.314 points per possession.

La Salle shot 27-for-61 from the field (44.3%), including 6-for-21 from three-point range (28.6%) and 21-for-40 from two-point range (52.5%), and 6-for-11 from the free throw line (54.5%). Fourteen offensive rebounds, 22 defensive rebounds, 13 assists 12, turnovers, six blocks, one steal and 16 fouls committed.

That adds up to 64 possessions and 1.028 points per possession.

The adage has long been that If you live by the three, you also may well die from it. Darnell Harris led all scorers with 26 points -- 18 in the second half -- but he shot only 4-for-11 from the arc, and 11-for-21 overall.

Harris' first made trey of night made him the top three-point shooter in Atlantic 10 history; his last was the last shot of the game -- and his last ever at Gola -- with 4.8 seconds left.

So the line of the game goes to a guy who has really stepped up in the last few games to become Temple's third scoring option, Chris Clark. And fitting, perhaps, that he did this on the same floor where he also played his last high school game with St. Joe's Prep:

It's Temple's first Big 5 title since 2004-05, when -- like this year -- they tied Villanova for first place at 3-1.

It's also Fran Dunphy's fifth career City Series championship; he won outright in 1994 (2-0) and 2002 (4-0), and in 1992 and 1998 everyone split at 1-1.

We also got two rollouts in the second half. The first came from La Salle's students right at center court of section E3, with 15:41 to play in the 2nd half: "It's OK we like Dr. G better."

And with just over two minutes left in the game, the Temple students at the top of section E1 unfurled one that read "BIG 5 CHAMPS," with an accompanying chant of the same words.

It's always better to have some rollouts than none.

Greetings from a sold-out Tom Gola arena, where we're actually a bit into the second half but I couldn't post until now because my laptop battery was dead. But having found a power outlet, here are the first-half stats after Temple took a commanding 50-26 lead over La Salle into intermission.

The Owls' offense was going full throttle. Temple shot 18-for-31 from the field (58.1%), including 5-for-8 from three-point range (62.5%) and 13-for-23 from two-point range (56.5%), and 9-for-13 from the free throw line. Seven offensive rebounds, 12 defensive rebounds, nine assists, three turnovers five blocks, three steals and nine fouls committed.

That adds up to 33 possessions and 1.507 points per possession.

Chris Clark has the hot hand, leading all scorers with 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting -- including 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. He's still making big shots as I type, and more on that to come after the game.

La Salle kept things close for a while, but a 12-1 Temple run midway through the half broke things open.

For the half, the Explorers shot 11-for-32 from the field (34.4%), including 3-for-12 from three-point range (25.0%) and 8-for-20 from two-point range (40.0%), and 1-for-3 from the free throw line (33.3%), Ten offensive rebounds, nine defensive rebounds, eight assists, nine turnovers, two blocks, no steals and 10 fouls committed.

That adds up to 32 possessions and 0.802 points per possession.

Darnell Harris is only 2-for-6 from beyond the arc and 3-for-9 overall; his eight total points led La Salle at halftime.

The pregame ceremony included a nice touch for the Explorers' other senior, Sherman Diaz: a playing of the Trinidad and Tobago national anthem for the Diego Martin native.

Come back later for press conference audio and full game stats.

Sorry this is so late. I went to the Flower Show with my mother this afternoon, and I got slammed with a cold yesterday morning that probably won't be gone until after the weekend.

If you haven't read Mike Jensen's great feature story on Bobby Convey yet, do so. It's as detailed a profile of the Northeast Philly native -- who I interviewed a couple years ago when he played for D.C. United -- as I've ever seen.

All of the numbers are through Thursday games, so Penn's loss to Cornell -- a really thrilling game, by the way -- is not included in the data.

With only a few games left to play, this is the next-to-last Crunchy Numbers of the regular season. There will be one more next week after Penn wraps up its regular season against Princeton.

It got a little hairy at the end, but that win puts St. Joe's right back on the bubble. Not on the right side of it yet, but beating Xavier was an enormous step in the right direction.

I can't help asking, though: Why rush the court? I'd like to think the Hawks are good enough for a home win over Xavier to not be that big a deal, even if the Musketeers are ranked No. 11 in the country.

I have no problems with a court-storming if you win the conference tournament or even the regular season title in a game, but I honestly believe tonight's win doesn't rise to that level.

Then again, if the students wanted it that badly, who am I to argue against it that much.

Just got word from a friend, which I then confirmed via Philly.com and the CBS affiliate in D.C. via the AP, that George Washington guard and Philly native Maureece Rice has been kicked off the team.

Rice was, as you all know, was the all-time leading scorer in Philadelphia high school hoops history at Lutheran Christian.

Rice is still listed on GW's roster online, but then again the news has just broken in the last few hours from what I can tell.

If La Salle or St. Joe's finish fifth and the Colonials finish 12th, that will have a big impact on the resulting first-round game at the Atlantic 10 tournament next week.

Bucknell and Navy went to triple-overtime in the Patriot League quarterfinals last night, and St. Joe's Prep grad John Griffin was the hero:

Beat that.

Teek writes:

The best NCAA tournament game in town takes place this Friday night at 8:00 at Ursinus College where the 25-2 Ursinus Bears, Centennial Conference champions with a 20-0 league record, take on Baptist Bible College in an opening round Division III NCAA Tournament game.

$6.00 for adults, $3.00 for kids - to see an NCAA game cheaper you'd have to be playing in it.

He's got a good point. I can't make it, but maybe you can.

I can't make it to the Fieldhouse tonight either -- though most of us won't be able to because there won't be so much as an inch to spare tonight when St. Joe's hosts Xavier.

Among the absolute must-read stories on Philly.com today is Ray Parrillo's look back at the Hawks' 59-year-old home floor, and some of the great memories that have been created there over the years.

The other outstanding story today is Mike Jensen's feature on basketball players from Philadelphia who are now pros in Europe. It's the first of a two-part series on Philly athletes abroad, and it runs on the front page of the print edition of today's Inquirer.

Mike went all the way to Poland to find a bumper crop of expats on the hardwood out there, ranging from Rashid Atkins to Chet Stachitas to Mustafa Shakur. He came back with an outstanding story that might be the best piece of college basketball journalism in the city this whole season.

There's also a great map showing where a bunch of players with local ties are now.

Now, I happen to know what the second part of the series is, and if you look in today's paper you'll find it too. But if you don't know, I'm not telling. Let's just say it won't surprise you too much.

Other stories:

Jeff McLane and Steve King on Temple's win over Duquesne that locked up second place in the conference for the Owls

Joe Juliano and Mike Kern on Villanova's win over South Florida

And La Salle got blown out at UMass.

Let's give a Line of the Day to Dionte Christmas for breaking out of a mini-slump:

Well, you've probably seen this on the front of Philly.com by now, but just in case: we're running a really big NCAA Tournament pick'em game on the site. And of course, I want you all to play.

Among other things, you can win a 50-inch plasma TV from Bob & Ron's Worldwide Stereo, which graciously paid a pretty good chunk of change to sponsor the thing. So it'd make thing look real good if you played, if you know what I mean...

On top of that, I'm in the process of setting up another game within our site that you can play. In addition to winning the TV, you'll also be able to play a Beat the Experts game where you can pick against me and writers from the Inquirer and Daily News.

I'll let you know as soon as that game is set up, but I wanted to get word out now because the ads are up. And also because I know you all are going to play on ESPN, Yahoo, Facebook and everywhere else. Well, I hope you'll throw your picks into Philly.com's game as well.

Stay tuned.

Download it here.

It's the first week of March, so Mike Jensen and I had a lot to talk about, including:

-- The impact of Sunday night's Temple-St. Joseph's game on local NCAA Tournament hopes

-- The vital numbers for St. Joe's, Villanova and Temple: do any of them have strong enough resumés to make the Big Dance?

-- Whether the Atlantic 10's weighted conference schedules will result in the conference only getting one team into the NCAA Tournament

-- Who should win Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, and whether anyone deserves Big 5 Player of the Year

-- Cornell's Ivy League title, and Penn senior Brian Grandieri's final games at the Palestra this coming weekend

-- And a rundown of all this week's big local and national games, including Stanford at UCLA on Thursday and North Carolina at Duke on Saturday.

Ray Parrillo
Jeff McLane
Bob Ford
Dick Jerardi
Rich Hofmann

Inquirer photographer Jerry Lodriguss' gallery

(and Dick Jerardi's usual Monday column)

(and Joe Juliano and Mike Kern's reports from Villanova's loss at Louisville)

Philadelphia Will Do has video highlights from the last few minutes.

I'm editing the College HoopsCast right now and will have it posted later this afternoon.

Temple's Mark Tyndale drives for the winning basket. (Jerry Lodriguss/Inquirer)

Postgame audio

Temple: Fran Dunphy, Mark Tyndale and Chris Clark
St. Joseph's: Phil Martelli

Inquirer staff writer Ray Parrillo's early recap

Mark Tyndale admitted after the game that he felt Temple deserved some sort of revenge for the Owls' controversial loss to St. Joe's earlier in the season.

Tonight, he got it.

Tyndale delivered the game-winning basket with 22 seconds left, and 9-6 Temple now sits alone in second place in the Atlantic 10 after its 57-56 win over St. Joe's. The Hawks fell to fourth place in the conference below Massachusetts, and are even with the Minutemen, Richmond and La Salle at 8-6.

The Owls shot 21-for-50 from the field (42.0%), including 7-for-20 from three-point range (35.0%) and 14-for-30 from two-point range (46.7%), and 8-for-11 from the free throw line (72.7%). Eight offensive rebounds, 23 defensive rebounds, 12 assists, 11 turnovers, four blocks, five steals and 13 fouls committed.

That adds up to 59 possessions and 0.962 points per possession.

St. Joe's shot 20-for-52 from the field (38.5%), including a frigid 2-for-16 from three-point range (12.5%) and 18-for-36 from two-point range (50.0%), and 14-for-16 from the free throw line (87.5%). Ten offensive rebounds, 22 defensive rebounds, six assists, nine turnovers, seven blocks and five steals.

That adds up to 58 possessions and 0.972 points per possession.

Just as significantly, after scoring 24 points in the paint in the first half, the Hawks only scored six from there in the second half. At the other end of the floor, Temple scored six points in the paint in the first half and 20 in the second.

Line of the Game goes to the guy who took the thing on his back in the second half and carried the Owls to the win:

So as I head off to sleep, I leave you with this question:

What does finishing second in the Atlantic 10 get you this year?

Honestly, I have no idea.

Off we go from the Palestra at what is simply a monstrous game for St. Joe's if the Hawks are to have any chance of making the NCAA Tournament.

But the Owls surely have that crushing last-second loss to St. Joe's at the Liacouras Center front and center in their memories, and will be out for revenge tonight.

This game counts as the Big 5 game for the season, in addition to its impact on the Atlantic 10 standings and which teams will get byes in Atlantic City.

It's a full house and then some, with the corners jammed well before tipoff. The St. Joe's student section is surprisingly small, though -- just section 120, and maybe a few rows of 220. It's certainly not the wall of crimson we're used to when the Hawks play on 33rd Street.

The Temple students and band are together in section 108. The brass players in the band have little cutouts of Phil Martelli's head in full scream attached to their music holders. Nice tough.

As always, check back here for all the rollouts, chants and so forth. The game is on CSN, so feel free to post comments as you watch.

The starting lineups:

Temple

F Fr 24 Lavoy Allen
C Jr 41 Sergio Olmos
G Sr 13 Mark Tyndale
G Jr 22 Dionte Christmas
G So 10 Luis Guzman

St. Joseph's

F Sr 52 Rob Ferguson
F Sr 12 Pat Calathes
C Jr 34 Ahmad Nivins
G So 13 Darrin Govens
G Jr 0 Tasheed Carr

15:57 1st, 6-4 St. Joe's: The first rollout of the night comes from Temple: "YOU HAVE ONE OF OUR ROLLOUTS."

Well now. Seeing as how the St. Joe's students snuck a "THE HAWK WILL NEVER DIE" rollout into the Villanova section at the Holy War (yes, that's my admission that I completely missed it during the game), let's see where that goes.

And here it is, as the Temple students chant "That's our rollout!" : "YOU CAN'T SPELL DIONTE W/O NIT"

I maintain, as I've been saying on the College HoopsCast for a while now, that an NIT bid would be a pretty nice accomplishment for Temple.

And if St. Joe's isn't careful, they might end up there too.

11:58 1st, 17-13 St. Joe's: I thought I just saw a Temple rollout coming, but it fell over. Oh, it was upside down. Here it is: "NBA SCOUTS TO CALATHES ... YAWN"

7:29 1st, 22-16 St. Joe's: Another Temple rollout: "FLAP YOUR WINGS IF YOU SUCK"

At the St. Joe's end, there's one unfurling slowly. Now it's just sitting there held up behind a row of students, and I can't tell if they're going to lift it. They finally do: "STUDENTS @ TU... TYPICAL UNDERACHIEVERS" The Temple students chant "Boring, boring..."

3:51 1st, 27-22 St. Joe's: Another Temple rollout, and I'm starting to wonder why they've got more than St. Joe's by some distance: "OUR FOOTBALL TEAM WON HOMECOMING... DID BC'S?"

Oh wow. Can I please take some credit for that? Seriously, I had the BC-St. Joe's football thing on here way before anyone else in the Philly media did. So I'm going to take credit for insipring that rollout, thank you very much.

HALFTIME, 31-27 St. Joe's Whereas the Liacouras Center game was an up-and-down, frenetic affair, this game has been much more deliberate and methodical.

I'm not too surprised, to be honest; it's the time of year where you don't want to make too many mistakes, and it's also the time of year when legs get a little weary as the regular season nears its end.

Here, then are the numbers.

For Temple: 9-for-25 from the field (36.0%), including 5-for-14 from three-point range (35.7%) and 4-for-11 from two-point range (36.4%), and 4-for-6 from the free throw line (66.7%). Four offensive rebounds, 11 defensive rebounds, eight assists, seven turnovers, two blocks, two steals and six fouls committed.

That adds up to 31 possessions and 0.875 points per possession.

For St. Joe's: 12-for-26 from the field (46.2%), and all the made baskets were inside the arc -- the Hawks were 0-for-8 from three-point range. They also shot 7-for-8 from the line (87.5%). Four offensive rebounds, 12 defensive rebounds, two assists, six turnovers, five blocks, three steals and six fouls committed.

That adds up to 32 possessions and 0.975 points per possession.

And it's not just that all the made baskets were from two-point range. St. Joe's scored all of their 24 points from the field in the paint. A lot of them came from driving guards, but Ahmad Nivins has stepped up with nine points on 4-for-5 shooting.

Dionte Christmas leads Temple with 10 points on 3-for-7 shooting, including 2-for-5 from three-point range.

Okay, time for the second half.

15:41 2nd, 41-29 St. Joe's: The Hawks jump out on a 10-2 run to start the half, five of the points coming from Tasheed Carr. A Temple rollout: "ST. JOE'S HAWK: FAILED 2ND GRADE ART PROJECT"

15:00 2nd, 43-29 St. Joe's: As Rob Ferguson hits a short jumper, the St. Joe's students unfurl a rollout during the run of play" ¡HOLA OLMOS! DONDE ESTA EL "POST GAME"? A few people behind me laughed, for what it's worth.

11:18 2nd, 49-38 St. Joe's: Another Temple rollout: "SJU BBALL ENDS IN 2 WEEKS X-MAS IS ALL YEAR LONG"

While I was reading the rollout, they had that contest where two students have to run down the floor and make a layup dressed in Dunkin' Donuts coffee cup costumes. Apparently the Temple student in the contest did something illegal, so the St. Joe's student won.

Public address man Brian Startare announced that the winner got "a great prize pack from Dunkin' Donuts because Temple didn't follow the rules." That drew one of the louder cheers on the night.

6:45 2nd, 52-42 St. Joe's: As the game just sort of rolls on, the atmosphere pretty muted by Big 5 standards, at least we get a Temple rollout with a little spice to it: "PHIL'S NEXT BOOK: HOW TO SET A MOVING PICK"

And I thought we were almost past that. I guess not.

5:08 2nd, 52-49 St. Joe's: Serves me right again. Chris Clark hits an open three at the left corner and Phil Martelli quite angrily calls a timeout. We have a game again.

3:59 2nd, 52-51 St. Joe's: Mark Tyndale almost coast-to-coast for a slam to bring the Owls within one point, but Lavoy Allen has picked up a pair of fouls in literally the last 10 seconds. After the media timeout, Pat Calathes will go to the line to shoot two free throws.

Another Temple rollout: "THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: GET ONE"

1:44 2nd, 54-53 St. Joe's: With Pat Calathes trapped against the far baseline, Phil Martelli saves him by calling a timeout. The St. Joe's students bring down the "THE HAWK WILL NEVER DIE" rollout.

1:35 2nd, 56-53 St. Joe's: With a second on the shot clock, Calathes twists and turns his way for a tough bank shot in the lane.

1:24 2nd, 56-55 St. Joe's: Ahmad Nivins goaltends a Mark Tyndale runner.

0:44.6 2nd, 56-55 St. Joe's: After Calathes misses a long stepback two from the left corner, Temple gets the rebound and Fran Dunphy calls timeout after the ball crosses midcourt.

0:23 2nd, 57-56 Temple: With two on the shot clock, Tyndale turns on the jets for a nifty layup to give the Owls the lead. The Temple fans go nuts, including an a capella rendition of "Rock N' Roll Part II." Wow.

(And it's nice to hear the Hey Song at the Palestra again. It's been a while.

FINAL: TEMPLE 57, ST. JOE'S 56: Unbelievably, the Owls pull off the win and all but surely eliminate the entire Big 5 from NCAA Tournament contention for the first time since 1977.

The Hawks had the ball at the end, but Calathes, Carr and Ferguson all missed chances to win the game from close range.

The Temple students rush the floor, and after the security guards force them back to the sidelines they all start jumping up and down chanting "I believe the Hawk is dead!"

Meanwhile, most of the St. Joe's students are still here, and are standing around in one giant mass of stunned disbelief.

Back later with final stats and the press conferences.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Since I just watched Penn set a record for the biggest margin of loss in an Ivy League game in program history, let's pause for a moment to consider two other events tonight that deserve their own places in Ancient Eight lore.

First, congratulations are due to Delaware County native Steve Donahue and the Cornell Big Red. They broke Penn and Princeton's 20-year streak of Ivy League titles tonight, clinching this year's first automatic NCAA Tournament bid with an 86-53 win over Harvard.

Cornell visits the Palestra this coming Friday for its first game after winning the title. It will be interesting to see what kind of a reception the former Penn assistant Donahue gets from the fans.

That's not the only big story coming out of the Ivy League tonight, though. Just after the Harvard-Cornell game tipped off, the Crimson were thrust into the media spotlight in a very different way.

I was sitting on press row at Brown University's Pizzitola Center when I got wind of this New York Times story which exposes possible NCAA and Ivy League recruiting violations committed by new Harvard coach Tommy Amaker.

The article will run in the Sunday print edition of the Times, but was released on the web at around 7 p.m. tonight. I am almost sure that despite Cornell's historic title run, this will be the biggest talking point in Ivy League basketball for the rest of the season.

It was certainly the main topic of discussion at Brown tonight, though the Bears' blowout of Penn had a lot to do with that.

I know that it doesn't really affect most of you, because what Harvard does has little to no bearing at all on the Atlantic 10 or Big East. But for all those Penn fans who fill the comments section whenever I write about Glen Miller, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Among other things mentioned in the story, there is this about Penn recruit Zack Rosen:

Amaker saw Rosen’s father, Les, in a grocery store in Trenton during the Eastern Invitational tournament last summer. At the time, coaches were restricted only to watching recruits and saying hello to them or their parents if they bumped into each other.

Les Rosen remembered Amaker saying, “We really have to get Zack up to Harvard.”

Les Rosen said he thought to himself: Who goes to ShopRite in the middle of a basketball tournament?

I was at Harvard last spring to see Amaker's introductory press conference. It was fascinating to watch the only school in the Ivy League that has never won a men's basketball title make such a sudden, dramatic improvement to its program.

Now it seems like a modern-day Icharus flying too close to the sun.

The Harvard story wasn't the only college basketball news coming out of the Boston area today. Boston College guard Tyrese Rice literally tried to beat North Carolina singlehandedly this afternoon, and while the Eagles couldn't pull off the upset, Rice's effort gets Line of the Day without my even having to look anywhere else.

I'll talk to you again Sunday night from the Palestra, and the big Temple-St. Joe's game that means absolutely everything to the Hawks' NCAA Tournament hopes.