Playing for history (Soft Pretzel Logic)

Playing for history

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

Tags:

Posted by Jonathan Tannenwald on March 14, 2008 6:21 PM | Permalink

Comments (1)

Leron

Xavier looks awful. Looks like its gonna be Temple-St. Joes Rd 3! I'm not sure if my heart can handle it.

BTW, The games are on cn8, not comcast sportsnet.

Posted by Leron | March 14, 2008 7:32 PM

Posted on March 14, 2008 19:32

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Jonathan Tannenwald is a producer with Philly.com.

I fell in love with the Big 5 at first sight upon moving to Philadelphia in 2002. At various points in my journalistic career, I've covered all six of the region's Division I teams. During that time, I've eaten many soft pretzels from the Palestra's concession stands, which is how this blog got its name.

In addition to the blog, I host and produce the Inquirer's College HoopsCast. It's a weekly podcast that features all the latest news and analysis from around local and national college basketball. Regular guests include Inquirer writers Mike Jensen, Joe Juliano and Mel Greenberg.

I also occasionally contribute to the Inquirer's women's basketball weblog, Women's Hoops Guru. If you've come here from there, this blog deals mostly with the men's side of things, though I do write about women's basketball and other sports when they fit in.

When not focusing on college hoops, I host and produce the Inquirer's PhilliesCast with Phillies beat writer Todd Zolecki, and can occasionally be found behind the camera shooting videos of the Eagles, other professional sports teams and the tiger cubs at the zoo.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on March 14, 2008 6:21 PM.

The previous post in this blog was Quarterfinal video highlights.

The next post in this blog is Saint Joseph's-Xavier at the half.

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Soft Pretzel Logic

A blog about college sports in the Philadelphia region and across the country.