Soft Pretzel Logic

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 -- 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 -- 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%)

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.

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 -- 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.

Tim McCormick of ESPN is trying to interview Carl Elliot, as both are being swarmed by the GW fans. The public address announcer has now asked the fans to clear the court three times so that the trophy can be awarded, but that ain't happening.

Now the security people are forcing the fans off. Because they can.

Carl Elliot hits two free throws to make it 77-69. Mbang gets wide open on the right and airballs a three, and falls on his backside to boot.

And Mbang just missed a putback slam off the front rim.

Carl Hobbs calls a timeout with four seconds left to clear the bench. Maureece Rice throws his jersey in the air to celebrate. He's going dancing for the third straight year and he knows it.

So do the GW fans, who storm the court and make sure they assemble in front of the ESPN cameras. And not just students, either. A couple parent-and-kid couples, and quite a few young alumni-looking types.

The GW students have all moved down to the lower deck and are getting ready to storm the court. But Jimmy Baron just hit a three to make it 75-69 with 37 seconds left and at least keep things interesting.

Parfait Bitee fouls Travis King to stop the clock. He shoots one-and-one. First good. Second not. Baron jacks up a three and it hits the front rim. Cothran fouls Hollis. 71-64 with 59 seconds left.

I just handed in my all-Tournament ballot. It was the first time I've ever done anything like that. Here's who I have

Maureece Rice, George Washington
Brian Roberts, Dayton (barely over Carl Elliot of GW, but he was such a big part of the Flyers' offense in both games that I think he deserves it)
Justin Doellman, Xavier
Kahiem Seawright, Rhode Island
Will Daniels, Rhode Island

Most Oustanding Player: Maureece Rice, George Washington
Will Daniels

Rhode Island plays 30 seconds of great defense, but Carl Elliot drove halfway to the basket and dished it underneath to Akingbade for a bank layup off the glass. 68-62.

Karl Hobbs calls time after Keith Cothran hits a 12-foot jumper from the right side to make it 66-62.

After GW rebounded its own miss, Will Daniels got a steal and took it to the house. He now has 27.

Keith Cothran just got called for a very questionable block.

Media timeout with 3:37 left and the Colonials up 66-60.

Carl Elliot airballs a shot from the right baseline with two on the shot clock, Maureece Rice gets up to put it back with one left and it hits the rim. As the clock resets, Dokun Akingbade tips it in. 62-56 GW.

Will Daniels has scored Rhode Island's last five points, and it's 58-54 Rhode Island until Travis King answers at the other end to make it 60-54.

Daniels has 25.

Open from the right side and he hits it to give GW a 54-46 lead with 12:10 left. Big shot, and now the Colonials fans are really alive.

Then Travis King hits a three to make it 57-46. But Jimmy Baron answers with a three at the other end and it's 57-49.

This thing ain't over yet.

A layup from the right side. He has seven and GW leads 51-44.

Gone for reaching across the face of Seawright as the two contested a loose ball.

A Rhode Island fan in the front row of the stands to my right slams on the hockey boards in celebration, scaring at least half the media in earshot.

Damian Hollis just got called for his fourth foul, which is big. Regis Koundjia, who also has four fouls, replaces him.

Daniels misses a three that was watched almost silently by an expectant crowd.

At the other end, Koundjia hits a three from the left to make it 49-42 GW.

We might be about to find out, because he just hit another three, this one from the right side to make it 46-42 with 16:00 left.

A three to open the scoring for the half and make it 44-39 with two minutes gone.

I mentioned a while back that I'm sitting next to the writers from the Rhode Island student paper.

That publication has by far the greatest name of any newspaper in the country: The Good Five Cent Cigar. Though the writers admitted they weren't quite sure of the history of their newspaper's title, the conventional wisdom seems to be that it came from Thomas Riley Marshall, who was Woodrow Wilson's Vice President.

In 1917, Marshall grew bored in some debate or another and uttered the phrase: "What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar."

The Rhode Island paper is not that old; in fact, it was only formed in the 1970s. There was another student publication at the time, and the writers here told me that "we put it out of business within three or four years."

With a name like that, it's no wonder.

44-36 George Washington. If the second half is anywhere near this good, we're in for a heck of a lot of fun in the final 20 minutes.

Stat of the game by the length of the Boardwalk is 15 Rhode Island turnovers compared to only three for GW. The Rams shot 11-for-27 from the field and 4-for-10 from 3, while GW shot 19-for-44 from the field and 2-for-8 from three. Rhode Island had the edge on the glass, 22-19, including seven offensive rebounds to GW's nine defensive rebounds. But the Colonials' 10 offensive rebounds to Rhody's 15 defensive boards isn't too shabby, ether.

The Colonials recorded nine assists, while the Rams recorded only five. On defense, six steals and two blocks for GW; one steal and two blocks for Rhode Island.

A midcourt jumper, and now he has five points.

Akingbade works free again underneath and makes a nice layup. 38-31 GW, and Jim Baron is not pleased.

Baron and Hobbs have to be near the top of the Most Active In Game rankings among the A-10 coaches.

Rice still can't get a bucket, as Mbang skies to block his driving layup.

Media timeout with 3:38 to go after some roughhousing under the Rhode Island basket. The refs are talking it over, which is never a good thing.

They are off to the scorer's table to report their decision... and now they step away and go back to talking to each other. What is this, a Supreme Court decision?

It might be, as we now have five people in the discussion -- three refs and two head coaches. Four more to go. I'll volunteer, anyone else want to join?

Finally, they break it up. "Do you know what the hell they called?" a writer from the Rhode Island student paper next to me asks.

I have no idea. But apparently the public address announcer does:

"The result of the play is a foul on No. 23 Regis Koundjia. There is also a technical foul on number 23, Regis Koundja. He has three personal fouls and there are seven team fouls on George Washington."

Okay then.

Mbang hits the two shooting FTs. Now Jimmy Baron comes to the line for the technical free throws, makes the first and misses the second. But he gets the ball back to inbound it at midcourt. 40-34 GW.

By Dokun Akingbade, after a good passing sequence around the outside by GW. Akingbade let out a big yell as he threw it down, and so did the Colonials fans.

Daniels just got whistled for his second foul. 36-31 GW with 4:40 left in the half.

Travis steals a pass and Elliot takes it the other way, gets around the defender and hits an off-balance running layup off the backboard. 32-31 GW, but Daniels of URI has the hot hand with 12 points.

Yes, I used this post title once already.

Ray Parrillo is here covering the game for the Inquirer, and his pregame prediction was that there would be a lot of fouls. He was right -- there have been nine so far, three since the last media timeout and two in the last ten seconds.

Will Daniels at the line now, and he makes both from a shooting foul to give Rhode Island a 29-26 lead.

Pretty open from the left side. 25-22 Rhode Island, and Daniels is the high scorer with eight.

Rice misses again, this one a baseline jumper.

But Hollis swats him. Gets the arm, though, and is whistled for it. Cothran makes both to tie it at 22.

Damian Hollis with a layup to make it 22-20. Diggs hits the deck real hard and stays down.

He's back up and walking off under his own power, holding a piece of gauze over his nose. It was a loud fall, so good to see he's not hurt too badly. Apparently he took an elbow from Mbang.

The best name in the tournament, Joe Mbang, hits a wide open 3 from left of center to tie it at 18. Whistle. Keith Cothran called for a foul off the ball. GW can't score at the other end. Cothran then hits a baseline jumper to give URI a 20-18 lead with 11:17 to play.

Rice, meanwhile, has gone cold. He's missed his last three shots.

Rob Diggs with a layup for the Colonials to tie it.

Media timeout at 10:53. 20-all.

First media timeout comes at 15:43, and it's still 14-11. Great atmosphere and a fast-paced game thus far. This is much, much better than yesterday.

Rhode Island cuts GW's lead from 12-4 to 14-11. Karl Hobbs is not pleased.

Rhode Island's top player missed a pullup jumper from the right a few seconds back, and a free throw just now before making the the second from the stripe to get off the schneid.

And now a layup to give him three points and put this post to bed.

Maureece Rice opens the scoring with a three from the left corner.

At the other end, Jimmy Baron answers with a three of his own from just left of the top of the arc.

And Damian Hollis answers with another three from the left side at the other end. 6-3 GW with under 90 seconds gone.

Here we go, folks.

Just under a minute to go until tip of the Atlantic 10 Tournament championship game between 3-seed George Washington and 4-seed Rhode Island. There's a pretty big crowd, which I would say is 60-40 in GW's favor. The Colonials fans are spread out across both sides of the floor and behind the baskets, while the Rhode Island fans are in a curve from behind the Rams' bench to behind the Horseshoe End basket.

I'm not sure there are more GW fans here than there were last night, but there are WAY more Rhode Island fans here than there have been yet.

At the moment, I count 20 yellow foam hats, but I suspect a few are being hidden on chairs at the moment.

The house is actually loud for once, which is good.

Oh, and about the comments. Like it or not, the A-10 is getting two bids, and it's not a mid-major until Kyle Whelliston says it is. Which he might one of these years, but he hasn't yet.

Whoa. All of a sudden, there's a huge Rhode Island student section. It's all those fans behind the basket, chanting "Rhody! Rhody! Rhody!" This is going to be fun.

The last count before tip is 24 hats. I'm not counting anymore, if you don't mind.

George Washington coach Karl Hobbs clears his bench. Maureece Rice finishes with 22 points.

I'm not going to bother writing an extra post with the final score.

But before then, apparent fan favorite Johnny Lee hit a great off-balance driving layup with 46 seconds left, got the and-one and made the free throw to give GW a 60-37 lead.

And just to make us wait even longer for the game to end, Dominic Green shot a 3 with 26 seconds to go that got stuck between the rim and backboard.

Now it's finally over. GW wins 60-40. On to the final, where the Colonials will face Rhode Island tomorrow at 6 p.m. here at Boardwalk Hall. Talk to you then.

49-29 George Washington with 3:55 to go. The public address announcer reads an ad for an energy drink, and a video ad for the drink is shown on the jumbotron.

I don't normally drink that kind of stuff, but in a game like this it might actually be useful.

5:24 to play and GW's up 46-29. Maureece Rice still has 20. The GW fans behind me are trying to get some chants started, but they're going nowhere.

20 points for Maureece Rice and 20 points for Saint Louis.

41 overall for George Washington.

Luke Meyer hits a layup, then Rice gets fouled.... and misses the front end of a one-and-one! So it's now 22-20 Saint Louis.

GW has now doubled up Saint Louis, 32-16. Maureece Rice has as many points as the Billikens do.

Oh, Luke Meyer hit a layup. Finally.

Then Rice gets a steal and takes it the other way for a layup. 34-18, and Rice has tied Saint Louis yet again. Timeout Saint Louis.

There's now 12:30 to go and the score is as above.

30-16 GW. 14 for Rice. Still not much to get excited about.

GW works it around the perimeter, then Carl Elliot makes a superb cut inside, and beats the clock with a layup high off the glass. 25-16 Colonials at the half.

Stats: Neither team shot terribly well. GW was 11-for-30 from the field and 2-for-10 from 3, but Saint Louis was really awful -- 4-for-17 from the field and 0-2 from 3. The Billikens had a big edge on the glass, 21-14, but then again the Colonials had a lot more shots. The stat that really stands out, though, is Saint Louis' 13 turnovers. That will take down the number of shots in a hurry.

Maureece Rice crosses over, takes a step back and nails a jumper from just inside the fre throw line. 20-10 GW, and Rice has 12.

18-10 GW with 7:17 to go in the half.

Maureece Rice has 10 of the Colonials' points.

A bunch of GW fans wearing the big yellow hats just got here. And they're carrying more for people. So now we have 23 hats by my count.

Now 24. They're multiplying. Even if by a small percentage.

The Billiken himself (herself?) is her, I think for the first time. To be safe, I'll use the gender-neutral "it." Anyway, "it" is a humanoid form with a large white foam head, really big cheeks, a toothless smile and pointy ears that are blue with a white border.

Ah, found a picture. This is a Billiken.

The Xavier players just walked behind the Horseshoe End basket and got a nice round of applause from their fans.

And Maureece Rice hit a 3 with 12:40 on the clock to give GW an 11-8 lead.

Six points apiece.

Some numbers from Rhode Island-Xavier...

The Musketeers shot 7-for-28 from 3 in the game: 3-for-13 in the first half and 4-for-15 in the second half.

Rhode Island had the edge in rebounding, 40-34. Xavier got 15 offensive boards, the Rams 12.

Drew Lavender led all scorers with 18 points on 7-of-19 shooting. The Musketeers took 66 shots overall.

The final book's running scoreline does not list missed field goal attempts, but Xavier only made four field goals over the final eight minutes of the game, all layups. Rhode Island held the Musketeers scoreless from 8:08 remaining to 4:42 remaining.

I think I can count the number of Saint Louis fans in the house on one hadn't at the moment. Okay, maybe two. Not as many GW fans as I thought would show up given that it's a Friday.

So far, only four of those oversized foam hats. This is what they look like, by the way.

There's a group of eight GW fans behind me, seven who look of student age and one who looks older. One of the people of student age has one of those stuffed animal horse heads on a stick, but I don't know what it's for.

Saint Louis

F 32 Luke Meyer
F 15 Ian Voyoukas
G 25 Tommie Lidell
G 21 Kevin Lisch
G 00 Dwayne Polk

George Washington

F 42 Dokun Akingbade
F 21 Regis Kouindja
G 22 Damian Hollis
G 33 Maureece "Mo" (in the words of the GW fans) Rice
G 25 Carl Elliot

The hat count sneaks up to five just before tipoff.

Rice opens the scoring with a floater in the lane at 19:19. Lisch answers with a three 19 second s later.

He said the A-10 should get two teams in the NCAA Tournament, and now it's going to happen. Xavier should get an at-large, but one of Rhode Island, George Washington and Saint Louis will also be in the field.

The final score is 79-71.

He went over the back on Kahiem Seawright.

Seawright to the line for two. The first is good. The second is too, off the front and back rim in that order. 72-64.

Lavender drives and misses, the putback is no good, and Cage gets the third chance in. Timeout Xavier, down 72-66 with 1:02 left.

The Musketeers are out of timeouts. The Xavier band plays the "Blues Brothers" theme, not for the first time tonight.

On the inbounds, Baron throws the long ball to Bitee, who's well ahead of Lavender and makes the layup. Xavier can't score at the other end, Burrell fouls Seawright, and the fans sense that it's getting to be over. 74-66 Rhody before the free throws.

Seawright misses the first and makes the second. 75-66 with 49.5 left.

Jimmy Baron drives to the basket puts up a ridiculously off-balance floater, it hits the rim, goes up, Baron tips it back in with maybe one finger. Xavier misses at the other end.

70-64 URI with 1:36 remaining.

Baron is very much the "offense" side of Rhode Island's offense-defense substituting.

Picked up going over the back on Lamonte Ulmer as the Ram grabbed a rebound. The front end of the one-and-one is good, and the back end is too.

66-61 Rhode Island. Hmm.

Drew Lavender drives to the basket and hits the layup off the glass. And one on Darrell Harris (as opposed to Darnell Harris of La Salle). Darrell is a lot taller.

Will Daniels drives to the basket and Doellman blocks him with authority. Xavier moves it up the floor and B.J. Raymond nails a 3 from the right side to give the Musketeers a 61-58 lead.

Then Daniels goes down in a heap as the ensuing play goes by. He's holding his knee, which is never a good sign. He's standing now, trying to make it off under his own power, and he is. The strides are getting easier as he crosses the court, which is a great sign.

Grr.

Rhode Island was winning close for a while, but Xavier just took the lead on a breakwaway slam by Justin Doellman with 9:40 to play. Rhode Island then tied it on a layup by Keith Cothran at the other end.

56-all with 9:01 to play.

They somewhat regularly chant "Let's go, Muskies!" Every time I hear it, I think of this. I might be the only person on the planet who does so, but makes a title game between the Muskies and George Washington all the more compelling.

A putback by Justin Cage with 1:30 or so left. 34-33 Musketeers, and their fans make some noise.

The score stays there the rest of the half, as Xavier can't get a shot off at the buzzer.

Rhode Island's Keith Cothran fouled Derrick Brown going up. The refs called it intentional. It was certainly hard.

It felt strange for a moment seeing an intentional foul called in a Xavier game.

Midway through the half and Rhode Island's up, 19-13.

Just got an email from another one of the Philly.com staff that I'm on the front of philly.com. Yikes.

Joe Mbang at the line for Rhode Island. A guy in the Xavier band, whose entire head is painted white save for a blue X on his forehead and blue paint under the eyes, holds up a not-quite-life-sized cutout of Justin Doellman to try to distract the shooter.

Mbang hits both free throws. So much for that.

There are four of them, right behind the guy who's blogging for CSTV. He's going back and forth with them, and it's rather funny.

(The CSTV blog is really good, by the way. It has writers at all the major conference tournaments writing simultaneously. I happen to know that the guy covering the ACC Tournament is a Philly native. Not that you should stop reading this one, but maybe you can have the two open in separate windows at the same time.)

The Xavier student section has gotten a lot bigger, maybe 50 now. Brandon Cole just hit two free throws for the game's first points -- answered by a long Daniels 2-point jumper. The Musketeers students make an "X" with their hands during free throws instead of holding them straight up, but you probably knew that already if you follow the A-10.

The adult fans behind me were doing the thing the Syracuse and Connecticut fans (among others) do where they stand and clap rhythmically until their team hits a field goal. Problem is, it wasn't really all that rhythmic. It was more like everyone clapping slower than normal but at their own pace.

Believe it or not, I'm still here.

(And, to be honest, I can't quite believe it myself.)

Anyway, we're just a few minutes from tip time between 4-seed Rhode Island and top-seed Xavier. The crowd is very spread out, but reasonably big by the standards set over the last few days. It's very, very pro-Xavier. There's a decent Musketeers student section up above the linescore board at the Horseshoe End, maybe 30 of them.

Oh, they just moved down. To the same corner where the St. Joe's students were last night, between the Musketeers' bench and the basket.

I don't see any Rhody student section (there, I finally said it) as such. But I can already tell who the most annoying fan of the night will be. Of course the guy is right behind me, and his, uh, drink has barely been touched thus far.

Rhode Island starts Bitee Parfait (Jr.) and Jimmy Baron (the head coach's son) in the backcourt, Will Daniels and Kahiem Seawright in the front, and Darrell Harris at center.

Xavier starts former Oklahoma Sooner Drew Lavender and Stanley Burrell in the back, and a frontcourt trio of Justin Cage, Justin Doellman and Brandon Cole. They're all listed as forwards, with Doellman contesting the opening tip.

JoeDeMayo, Gene Steratore and Ray Perone are the refs.

From Dayton-Xavier, the top-seeded Musketeers spread the ball around well in their convincing win, but forward Justin Doellman had a big game on the boards as well:

From Fordham-Rhode Island, freshman guard Brandon Butler had a game-high 22 points, including an impressive 6-for-6 outing from three-point range. URI forward and all-conference first-teamer Will Daniels gets the edge, though, for getting it done at both ends of the floor:

From Saint Louis-Massachusetts, it has to be Billikens star Tommie Liddell for doing pretty much everything possible except dishing out assists:

And finally, from St. Joe's-GW, props to the all-time leading scorer in Philadelphia high school history, game-high scorer Maureece Rice:

One other thing before I call it a night. In the overtime period against Saint Louis, UMass shot 2-for-10 from the field. Both made shots were from beyond the arc. The Minutemen took five shots from that distance in all. UMass missed their first five shots in overtime and three of their last four. Yes, that adds up to all but one of the shots they took, but you get the point.

Just not a good night at all on offense for the Hawks. St. Joe's finished the game having shot a paltry 24.4 percent from the field -- 5-for-22 in the first half and 6-for-23 in the second half. The final tally from beyond the arc was 3 made shots on 21 attempts. Making one of six attempts in the first half is one thing, but the Hawks were 2-for-15 in the second half, which is pretty unbelievable for a team that's 35th in the country in 3-point field goal percentage.

George Washington coach Karl Hobbs said he thought there was some fatigue from last night's game, but Phil Martelli ascribed it to a lack of skill. I'm sure that guy who was screaming behind me is still annoyed (to be polite), but when you go eight deep in a game and four of them are freshmen, they can both happen at the same time.

If these two teams meet in Atlantic City next year, there's every reason to think St. Joe's will win easily. But it just wasn't to be on a night when Ahmad Nivins' game-high 18 points came on 2-of-3 shooting from the field. He was 14-of-18 from the line, so at least he was able to get the contact even if he wasn't getting shots, but still.

Pat Calathes was 3-for-9 from the field. Rob Ferguson was 1-for-9 and didn't score until fewer than two minutes were left in the game. It's not all that hard to figure out, and give the Colonials credit for making sure the Hawks' big men didn't get good looks.

Finally, the announced crowd tonight was 5,488, and this was the first time it really looked the part.

Finally, Boardwalk Hall is really alive. Let's get this thing rolling.

The post reads from top to bottom, instead of from bottom to top as I've done in the past. So if you're following live, you might want to click the "Permalink" button and just refresh that page.

Saint Joseph's

F 52 Rob Ferguson
F 34 Ahmad Nivins
G 23 Garrett Williamson
G 13 Darrin Govens
G 12 (as such) Pat Calathes

George Washington

F 42 Dokun Akinbaye
F 23 Regis Koundjia
G 33 Maureece Rice (who gets by far the biggest cheer from the GW fans -- the Philly native's family is surely here)
G 22 Damian Hollis
G 23 Carl Elliot

This is by far the biggest crowd we've seen yet. On the whole, it's very pro-Hawks, but the Colonials' fans are loud too.

A St. Joe's student section of 40 or so is behind the Hawks' bench, while a bigger GW student section -- I'd say 50, going up more rows but across fewer seats -- is behind the Colonials' bench. I count five of the oversized yellow foam tricorner hats that have become a fashion staple in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of D.C. in recent years.

19:28 1st: Akingbade swats Garrett Williamson's drive to the basket.

18:33 1st: Rice opens the scoring with a drive to the basket. The refs

17:28 1st: Akingbade hits a jumper, it's 6-0 GW and Phil Martelli calls timeout.

16:48 1st: A jumper by Carl Elliot makes it 8-0. The teams are getting up and down the floor a lot, which is exactly what St. Joe's doesn't want.

16:27 1st: Ahmad Nivins hits two free throws to get St. Joe's on the board.

16:08 1st: Rob Ferguson gets whistled for his first foul of the night.

15:49 1st: D.J. Rivera hits a long 2. Elliot replies with a 3 and it's 13-4 GW.

15:20 1st: Media timeout. The St. Joe's student section has moved from behind the bench to the corner at that same end of the floor. There are quite a few more of them than there were earlier. And I now count six foam tricorners in the stands, not all of which are being worn by GW students. The Colonials' fans have definitely brought it tonight.

Sorry for dropping this all on you at once, but the wireless internet went haywire for a bit just after tip.

14:07 1st: About tempo. GW is 166th at 66.9 possessions per 40 minutes, which might not seem all that great. St. Joe's, however, is 296th at 62.8 possessions per 40 minutes, which is a fairly big difference.

12:16 1st: Eight of those hats. 15-6 GW.

10:50 1st: Govens hits a 3 to make it 17-9. At the oter end, Elliot (I think -- it happened really fast, as GW would want) drove to the hole and Nivins blocked his shot into the glass, bringing the St. Joe's fans to their feet.

10:04 1st: St. Joe's has cut the deficit to 17-11. GW Karl Hobbs is none too pleased, and calls time.

8:27 1st: Govens knocks it away from Elliot, grabs the ball off the floor and takes it for a layup. 17-15 GW.

7:02 1st: The GW students have been forced up to the upper deck, I presume by arena security. Man, I hate it when that happens. There's plenty of seats to allow them down.

5:46 1st: Rob Ferguson had a chance to tie the game, but missed the second of two free throws. 19-18 GW.

5:17 1st: Carl Elliot drives to the basket, and from pretty much under the backboard throws it up off the glass and in. He was fouled on the way (hence the awkward shot), and he makes the free throw. 22-18 GW.

4:51 1st: Injury timeout. It's Koundjia, who's holding his arm while walking off under his own power. Applause all around. And for those of you who care about this sort of thing, the man who blew the whistle is Joe DeMayo.

3:46 1st: Rice coolly sinks a 3 from the top of the key. 25-18 GW.

3:35 1st: Media timeout. One of the non-students with the big tri-corner hats was just on the jumbotron. There are six GW students behind the basket at the Horseshoe end, one of whom has an enormous inflatable kangaroo on his shoulders. Sweet.

3:09 1st: Rice hits another 3, this one from the left side, and it's 28-20. Rice has a game-high 10.

2:39 1st: Rice throws an alley-oop for Diggs, who can't get up for the jam, but after coming back down he gets a layup in. 30-20 GW, and Phil Martelli calls time.

1:48 1st: Koundjia is back in and gets a nice ovation from the GW fans. The Colonials force St. Joe's to call time instead of giving up a five-second violation on the inbounds play.

0:25.6 1st: With two on the shot clock, Koundjia inbounds the ball to Carl Elliot, and D.J. Rivera fouls Elliot as soon as he catches the ball. Geez.

The Colonials do not hold for last shot. St. Joe's takes a while to get up the floor, and Carter has to launch what ends up being an airball. It's halftime, and an impressive GW leads 33-21.

Stats: Yikes. St. Joe's shot 22.7 percent from the field in the first half (5-22) and 1-of-6 from 3. Ahmad Nivins was held to only one basket on two attempts from the field. But his 6-of-8 from the line has him as the Hawks' leading scorer with eight points. St. Joe's has 10 turnovers to a measly three assissts.

GW shot 48.1 percent from the field (13-27) and 3-of-7 from 3. Rob Diggs is the leading scorer with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting; all the makes were inside the arc. GW has eight turnovers to ten assists.

33 possessions in the half for St. Joe's, 32.375 for GW. So we're looking at a tempo that is definitely closer to the Colonials' than the Hawks'.

19:36 2nd: Pat Calathes opens the half with a 3. Good sign. 33-24 GW.

18:56 2nd: Calathes drives to the basket for a layup, 33-26. Much better from Calathes, and St. Joe's, to start the half.

18:16 2nd: Joe DeMayo rather emphatically whistles Koundjia for a charge. St. Joe's fails to score on the ensuing possessions. 34-28 GW.

16:15 2nd: Govens hits a 3 from the left side to make it 34-31 and wake the St. Joe's students up.

15:48 2nd:The ball goes out of bounds to St. Joe's, and we have a media timeout. The wireless internet has gone spotty again

15:32 2nd:Ferguson misses a 3 from the left that would have tied it.

14:06 2nd: A lack of a travel by GW and a foul on D.J. Rivera have the St. Joe's fans upset at DeMayo. But he whistles the Colonials for a travel a few seconds later. Pretty much all the Hawks fans are referring to DeMayo by name, and he certainly does ref a lot of their games.

11:46 2nd: After a prolonged scrum for a loose ball, Damian Hollis gets whistled for a foul and we have a media timeout. Which lets me bring up something I've wanted to mention all night: GW's mascot. Because he's one of two George Washington mascots in D.C.

Here's the only picture of him I could find on Google Images. And here's the other George, a version somewhere between seven and 10 feet tall who runs down the first base line at Washington Nationals games à la the Sausage Races in Milwaukee. To give you a better iidea of how big he is, check out this picture.

I think the Colonials' version is rather underwhelming. But the team's offense is not -- it just went up 41-31 with 10:15 left in the game. It does not look good for the Hawks.

10:01 2nd: A St. Joe's fan behind me yells, "Come on, guys, you aren't freshmen anymore!" Well, they are, and I think they might be showing a bit of fatigue at the moment, because GW is running them hard.

9:30 2nd: Diggs banks in a driving layup and it's 43-31. St. Joe's throws the ball out of bounds.

1:22 2nd: After Williamson steals it and Hollis blocks his drive without a whistle, Elliot gets it on the break and is away for a layup. 52-43 and it's pretty well over now.
8:37 2nd: Williamson drives to the basket for a layup and gets the and-one on Koundjia. The free throw is good and it's 43-34. At the other end steal, a drive by Rivera, Hollis blocks it but Akingbade fouls Rivera going up. First free throw good. Second off the front iron. But it ends up with St. Joe's as Elliot can't push the rebound to a teammate.

8:03 2nd: Nivins forces his way for a layup. Off the inbounds, a travel on GW. 43-37. Hold the phone.

7:26 2nd: Media timeout after Rivera committs what a guy behind me loudly describes as "a weak-[synonym rear end] loose ball foul." There are two empty plastic cups atop the hockey board in front of him, and I will just leave it at that if you don't mind. Here's a stat for which I have to credit this guy, because he told me: Rob Ferguson has yet to score. That's big.

The fan I mentioned earlier is now yelling "We love Bill Conlin!" at the Daily News reporters in front of me. As many readers as the paper can get, I'll take.

6:21 2nd: Ferguson might not have any points, but he now has three fouls. Elliot makes one of two FTs, and GW gets the rebound up 46-37.

3:46 2nd: Rivera grabs a loose ball, and on the break plays a pass behind his back to Nivins who can't hit the half-layup-half-dunk, though he's fouled going up. It's been that kind of night for St. Joe's. Nivins made both free throws, so it's 48-41.

3:14 2nd: Govins plays a bounce pass to Rivera on the right wing and it goes out of bounds.

2:16 2nd: After GW does a really good job of stopping St. Joe's from getting a good look, Rivera finally gets one from three -- and it goes in and out. Calathes fouls Akingbade on the rebound. The first free throw is good, and the second is as well. 50-41 GW.

1:58 2nd: Ferguson finally scores. After missing a 3 from the right corner, he got his own rebound and put it in off the glass. 50-43 GW. Is it a sign of anything that Ferguson's on the board? I'm not sure the Hawks can overcome a 7-point deficit at this point. The hole last night wasn't this big.

0:45.5 2nd: Nivins misses the first of two free throws and makes the second. He had to have both, really. 54-46 GW as Ferguson fouls Travis King. It's Ferguson's fourth. King makes both. 56-46.

0:30.2 2nd: Elliot is whistled late for fouling Govens while shooting a three. Neither side's fans are pleased, and Martelli's just about laughing at it. Govens misses the first, makes the second and makes the third. Karl Hobbs calls timeout for some reason.

0:17.8 2nd: The guy behind the basket with the Kangaroo and his friends are chanting "Ferguson... Ferguson..." It's 57-48 GW.

0:11.6 2nd: The GW students in the upper level chant "We killed the Hawk!" The reply is obvious.

FINAL SCORE: 58-48. So that's it for St. Joe's this season, and that's it for the Philly representation in this year's A-10 Tournament. It will be Xavier-Rhode Island in the early semifinal at 6:30 tomorrow and Saint Louis vs. George Washington in the late game at 9.

Wow. 1:54 to play in the extra session, and Saint Louis has a 71-65 lead. UMass doesn't look like it'll do a thing about that, having jacked up two airballs on the way to a goose egg from the field thus far.

With 1:22 left, Kevin Lisch makes the second free throw after missing the first and it's 72-65.

1:11 OT: As I switch into full commentary mode, Gary Forbes hits a 3 from the top of the arc to make it 72-66. UMass presses, but St. Louis breaks it and Tommie Liddell drives for a layup... which he misses... but Saint Louis gets the rebound.

0:48 OT: Brandon Thomas fouls Liddell. He makes the first, and misses the second off the front rim.

0:35 OT: Wow. Life drives to the basket and misses a layup, A-10 Player of the Year Stephane Lasme misses the putback, and Thomas misses that putback. The ball goes out of bounds off a Saint Louis player and UMass gets it back.

0:32 OT: Life curls off a screen, gets open and nails a 3 to make it 73-71.

0:18.1 OT: Liddell goes over and back!

0:06.3 OT: Lowe is stripped by Liddell and lands on top of him and is called for the foul. Liddell hits the first and misses the 2nd! It's 74-71.

At the buzzer: Forbes brings it all the way down the floor, gets off a 3 and it hits the front of the rim!

Game over, and with it goes any kind of shot UMass had at the NCAA Tournament. But at least we've now had our first upset of this year's A-10 Tournament -- and if St. Joe's wins tonight, you have to give them a much better shot against the Billikens than they would have had against the Minutemen.

Back in a bit for the Hawks' showdown with George Washington.

With 4.7 seconds to go, Saint Louis and UMass are tied at 65-65. UMass tried to run the shot clock down, and Minuteman guard/trash-talker-to-Temple James Life drove to the basket and got a layup attempt off before the horn, but it bounced off the glass without hitting the rim and the Billikens get the ball.

Now we have our second timeout of this stoppage of play as both coaches try to draw something up that the other side won't figure out.

On the inbounds pass Kevin Lisch took the ball all the way down to the arc and got himself a decent look, but the ball hit the front of the rim. So we go to overtime for the first time in this year's tournament.

I got to sit down with ESPN.com bracketologist and St. Joe's color analyst Joe Lunardi for a few minutes over dinner before the Saint Louis-UMass game. We talked about Villanova and Penn's potential seeds in the NCAA Tournament, Drexel's chances of making the field of 65, and this year's A-10 Tournament.

His latest field is here. Drexel is a 12 playing Virginia in Columbus; Villanova is a 9 playing Vanderbilt in Sacramento; and Penn is a 14 playing Memphis, also in Columbus.

You can listen to the interview by clicking here and downloading the file. My thanks to Joe for sparing a few minutes once again.

Punchline to the song the UMass band plays as the final minute before the start of the second half ticks down:

"Whaddaya mean it's last call?"

That speaks well of the winter social scene in Amherst, I'd say...

Not that big a crowd for the first game of the evening doubleheader, but it's definitely a pro-Minutemen bunch. There might even be fewer Billikens fans here tonight than there were yesterday, or at least they're more spread out. There's a UMass student section of about ten or so, and for the first time all tournament it's behind the Horseshoe End basket.

Also, major props to the UMass band for a great rendition of CBS' college basketball theme music.

And major lack of props to me for being too busy earlier to write more about Fordham-Rhode Island. It was by far the best game of the tournament yet, as the light blue Rams clawed back from an 11-point halftime deficit for a 73-69 win. Fordham took a 66-63 lead on a Marcus Stout 3 with 5:53 remaining, but URI kept scratching and took the lead for good on a tough driving layup by Jimmy Baron with 11 seconds to go in the game.

Fordham held for last shot and Brenton Butler tried to dribble his way open, but he traveled with 0.9 seconds left and Keith Conran sank two game-clinching free throws at the other end.

Some things I meant to post yesterday and earlier today...

Duquesne's coach reflects on an extraordinary season

One of the stories in the A-10 that hasn't gotten nearly enough play locally or nationally is how Duquesne recovered from having five players shot at the beginning of the season.

Dukes coach Ron Everhart was asked about this after his team lost to St. Louis last night, and I figure the best thing to do is just reprint verbatim what he said:

"I think that in a lot of ways, there's a lot of reflecting to do from a coaching perspective. I think, one, I couldn't be any more proud or honored to be the coach of Duquesne University. The type of support that we have there with our athletic director and our president, with the people on campus reached out to support these kids in some tough times, it was just phenomenal.

And I think, two, I'll always look back on this year as one where I'm very, very proud of the effort that our kids gave throughout. The way they handled adversity, the way they handled success, the way they handled failure -- I thought [it] was very mature, very resilient. I think in that way, along with the fact that all of the kids who got shot got up and walked out of that hospital, [it] probably has been, for me, one of the most rewarding years of my life."

No need to analyze words when spoken that well.

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St. Louis' win at Duquesne's tempo

So I wrote a whole long thing about the tempo of St. Louis-Duquesne last night and never got around to posting any quotes about it.

"What we did in practice in preparation for Duquesne's pressure was to just play against six guys all the time," Billikens coach Brad Soderberg said. "And yet, when we played them, if I could do it over again I'd have us practice against seven."

"I'm glad we survived that game," he concluded.

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Headcount

The attendance for the evening session yesterday was 5,068. The attendance for the afternoon session today was 4,762. The latter number seemed a bit more accurate.

Halftime and Rhode Island has a 44-35 lead. With about two minutes to go before tip, a group of five St. Joe's students in the front row of the Horseshoe End basket started doing the long chant the Hawks student section does before tip. Then two other St. Joe's fans a few rows up at midcourt on my side of the floor joined them.

I think I've used up the two sets of Rams line, but given the lack of any Hawks on the floor, what the heck was that chant for?

During a media timeout a moment ago, the jumbotron camera caught a guy just sitting there talking on his cell phone.

I have no idea if the guy's famous, but nice to point him out for not paying attention to the game.

Rhode Island takes the floor to a fight song that sounds more than a little like that of another team that wears a light shade of blue, North Carolina. Fordham's band plays the Mickey Mouse theme, with a bass guitarist prominently featured.

The Fordham student section just got here, all 12 or so of them, including Lucha Libre Mask Man from yesterday. A lot more maroon Rams fans than there were for the Richmoand game.

Rhode Island's student section is five people in the front row behind the light blue Rams' bench. Give them credit. But what looks like the URI dance team is banished to the upper level, right above the scoreboard at the Horseshoe End of the court. They've all got shiny white pom-poms and are dressed in white shirts, and are chanting and moving their arms in unison. The cheerleaders are courtside, so it's not that, but... oh, they're moving! They're being escorted down by a security guard. We'll see where they go.

UPDATE: The dance team has moved in with the student section behind the URI bench. There are also 10 or so more students than there were at tipoff.

With 1:21 to go and the Musketeers up 72-51, Xavier coach Sean Miller has cleared his bench. The XU student section is chanting "Wright State's dancing," which they are (at almost the exact same level as Penn, which is worth thinking about), but I'm not quite sure how that gets under Dayton's skin.

A Dayton reporter next to me answers that question in a hurry: Wright State is located in Dayton. Yep, that'll do it.

Then again, Cincinnati finished last in the Big East...

Xavier runs out the clock and 72-51 is your final. Fordham-Rhode Island next, and I must say that I don't see any Fordham maroon or Rhode Island light blue anywhere in the stands.

I was going to say "Rams" instead of the school names on second reference, but I realized mid-sentence that both schools have that nickname.

The day begins with No. 8 Dayton playing top seed Xavier, a definite rivalry game between two schools located about an hour apart. There are far more Xavier fans in the house, including a student section of 20 or so that threw up a huge pile of shredded newspaper when Stanley Burrell hit a 3 for the Musketeers' first points. The Dayton fans (and there are a good number of them, too) were louder before the game, but not so much anymore. Then again, that might be because there's a large Xavier contingent sitting right behind me.

I'll be back throughout the day with other stuff. Until then, some stories from yesterday.

From St. Joe's-Temple: Ray Parrillo with a recap, Mike Jensen with the Temple side of things, Mike Kern with a recap and Rich Hofmann with a column on Phil Martelli. Plus audio I recorded of the Temple and St. Joe's postgame press conferences.

From Villanova-DePaul: Dana Pennett O'Neil's recap, John Smallwood's column on surviving and advancing, Shannon Ryan's recap and sidebar, and Bob Ford's column on the fact that only four Villanova players took shots in the game.

Mike Kern and Kevin Tatum on Penn's Ibrahim Jaaber winning Ivy League Player of the Year.

Steve King on Lincoln University's trip to the Division II NCAA Tournament.

And Mel Greenberg on the start of the CAA women's tournament.

Alright, so here we are with 2:00 or so to go before tip, and this place is still really empty. As in, there are a few full rows behind the horseshoe end of the court, and just about no one in the 10 or so rows of seats that sit between the end of the court and the giant painting that serves as the concert stage wall. and is the signature piece of art here at Boardwalk Hall.

This is my first time here, and I find the place pretty impressive, even if it's not necessarily meant for basketball. It's been beautifully restored inside, and I really like the colored lights along the sides of the arched ceiling.

There are somewhere between 20 and 30 Temple students in the upper level across the floor from and at the same end as the Owls' bench, and a section of probably 40 to 50 St. Joe's students behind the Hawks' bench. The PA guy for the tournament is the guy who does Temple games at the Liacouras Center, but rest assured he's totally objective (no, he really is).

As more atmosphere-like things happen, I'll bring them to you over the course of the game.

But here's something important on the floor: Darren Govins is starting for St. Joe's. He's joined by Pat Calathes, Rob Ferguson, Ahmad Nivins and Garrett Williamson. Temple starts Dion Dacons, Dionte Christmas, Dustin Salisbery, Mark Tyndale and Sergio Olmos to jump at center.

13:31 1st: Ooh. Ryan Brooks just hit a 3 from the left side to give Temple a 12-7 lead, and that prompted Phil Martelli to call timeout. There are a decent number of Temple fans here overall... not as many as St. Joe's brought, but given that the place is so empty, it's all relative, I guess.

8:43 1st: For lack of any atmosphere, some game info. Brooks just hit another 3, this from the left corner, to give Temple a 21-14 lead. He's the game's high scorer with 10 points; Rob Ferguson has seven points, or half the Hawks' total.

2:51 1st: I'm a bit surprised there haven't been any rollouts from the St. Joe's fans, given that I recognize at least one of the fans in their student section (the first pictured) as being among the higher-ups.

1:53 1st: Darrin Govens ties it at 27-all with a three from just to the left of the top of the arc.

1:20 1st: Dion Dacons answers by getting open for a backdoor-ish layup to make it 29-27. I saw the George Washington players sitting behind the Stage End basket (for lack of a better way to put it) earlier, but they're gone now. The Colonials get the winner of this game and neither team has shown all that much.

Halftime: Dustin Salisbery wakes the crowd up by nailing a 3 at the buzzer from about halfway between the midcourt and 3-point lines. Temple leads 32-28. Back in a bit.

Stats: Temple shot 13-of-29 from the field (44.8 percent) and 5-of-10 from 3. 18 rebounds, five on offense. Seven assists, six turnovers, two blocks and three steals.

St. Joe's shot 11-of-26 from the field (42.3 percent) and 4-of-10 from 3. 15 rebounds, three on offense. Eight assists, four turnovers, one block and two steals.

Brooks is the game's high scorer with 10; Ferguson still leads St. Joe's with seven. St. Joe's bench, consisting of Jawan Carter and D.J. Rivera, didn't score. Brooks scored all 10 of Temple's bench points, with Chris Clark the only other player off the Owls' bench.

17:22 2nd: Calathes just tied the game at 32-32 woth two free throws, but Mark Tyndale answered with a three from the right corner. The St. Joe's students are banging on the hockey boards to make some noise, which is the closest thing to creative noise creation I've seen tonight.

16:19 2nd: Another Brooks 3 makes it 38-32. Carter answers with a three of his own to make it 38-35. Brooks is a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc so far.

12:20 2nd: Tyndale drives to the basket, gets fouled going up by Pat Calathes, and the ball bounces off the back iron, around, and into the basket. Phil Martelli is complaining rather loudly about something... that Pat Calathes had a piece of loose tape covering an injury, maybe. So Calathes had to come out and Garrett Williamson is in. Tyndale made the free throw and it's 47-39 Temple.

11:28 2nd: After a three by Salisbery, Calathes gets hit with a charge. There's a media timeout, and it's 50-41 Temple.

10:19 2nd: Brooks misses a 3 at last, from the left side. At the other end, Carter hits a driving layup to make it 50-45, and here we go.

9:36 2nd: Carter goes all the way to the basket uncontested for a layup. Ten seconds later, Fran Dunphy calls timeout. The St. Joe's students briefly chant Carter's name, but I'm sort of stretching here.

9:10 2nd: Brooks drives to the basket and gets it up over the outstretched hand of Nivins and off the glass for a layup to make it 52-47.

7:51 2nd: St. Joe's has a basket ruled out by the officials, who whistle Ahmad Nivins for touching the ball while it was in the cylinder. The Hawks fans roar their disapproval... and it happened right in front of me... and I think they're right.

7:00 2nd: A quick look at the coaches reveals Phil Martelli pacing with his arms behind his back, and Fran Dunphy standing still in front of his assistants with his arms crossed. Martelli looks quite unemotional, if I can use that as a word. Dunphy does not.

6:22 2nd: Nivins takes a pass from beyond the halfcourt line and, while going up, redirects the thing in for a layup. Quite a move. It's 54-51 Temple and Martelli calls time.

3:32 2nd: The ball goes all over the place, but Dacons saves it, and Salisbury sends it inside to Tyndale who gets the layup over Ferguson. 56-51 Temple, and Martelli calls time.

3:00 2nd: Carter nails a 3 from the top of the arc. 56-54. At the other end, Tyndale drives to the basket and gets fouled by Ferguson but the layup does not fall after a suspenseful roll. Media timeout. And yes, I've pretty well given up on the atmosphere theme. After the timeout, Tyndale misses the first free throw, but makes the second and it's 57-54.

2:27 2nd: Nivins puts back his own miss to make it 57-56.

1:50 2nd: Williamson misses a layup, and while going up to put it back Tyndale fouls him from behind. Williamson makes the first and misses the second (!) and we're tied at 57-all.

1:38 2nd: D.J. Rivera is whistled for his third foul, and a woman in the stands yells, "That's okay, baby!" I guess that's his mother or some other relative. Mark Tyndale makes one of two free throws (missing the second as well!) and it's 58-57 Temple.

1:05 2nd: Temple forces the shot clock down to three seconds, and Carter drives to the basket and gets fouled by Christmas. It's his fourth, and Carter -- how about this? -- makes both free throws to make it 59-58 St. Joe's.

0:22.5 2nd: After Tyndale airballs an off-balance 3, Pat Calathes gets fouled at the other end. He makes the first, then Fran Dunphy calls time. The Temple band plays one of the Sith Lord theme songs from Star Wars: Episode I.

0:11.4: Brooks misses a 3, then fouls Calathes after the rebound. Some St. Joe's fans behind me start chanting "Back to Broad Street!" Calathes makes both, it's 63-58, and I'm pretty sure that will do it.

0:06.3 2nd: Mark Tyndale drives for a layup that St. Joe's wisely doesn't contest. then fouls Carter on the inbounds pass. Carter misses the first free throw... and makes the second. 64-60.

0:03 2nd: Tyndale gets an uncontested slam. Govens is fouled on the inbounds and makes the first and the second. That'll do it. Final score is 66-62.

So it's St. Joe's vs. GW tomorrow at 9 p.m. I'll be here for that game and all the other ones tomorrow, so if you see me, do say hello.

Midway through this season, Duquesne coach Ron Everhart threw caution to the wind and decided to have his team start pushing the tempo like crazy for all 40 minutes.

As a result, the Dukes entered tonight's game with the 16th-fastest tempo in the country, 73.1 possessions per minute. St. Louis, on the other hand, is 266th at 64.0 possessions per minute. So I figured that I'd try to keep an eye on the tempo tonight to see who wins this battle, and whether it has an impact on the result of the game.

I'll do the calculations at each media timeout. Now of course I didn't think of doing this until after the game started, so I'm starting at the sub-8:00 timeout of the first half.

6:31 1st, 26-24 Duquesne: Duquene 26.85 possessions, St. Louis 25.245 possessions.

3:52 1st, 34-28 Duquesne: Duquesne 30.85 possessions, St. Louis 29.375 possessions.

If you take this out a little, St. Louis averages 6.4 possessions per 4 minutes and Duquesne averages 7.31. So with four such chunks gone, St. Louis' average is 25.6 and and Duquesne's is 29.24. Therefore, Duquesne is winning easily, because the tempo is above both teams' average.

Halftime, 43-37 Duquesne: After a buzzer-beating three by Reggie Jackson (amen to that), Duquesne has 38.75 possessions to St. Louis' 36.75. The Dukes average 36.55 possessions per half while the Billikens average 32.0, so the Dukes are still clearly winning the tempo battle.

14:09 2nd, 53-52 Duquesne: This comparison is weakened because the timeout didn't come until nearly two minutes after the 16:00 mark, but Duquesne has 47.125 possessions and St. Louis has 45.275. The averages with 24 minutes played are 43.86 for Duquesne and 38.4 for St. Louis. The game is definitely at Duquesne's pace, but might not be above it anymore.

11:32 2nd, 59-54 St. Louis: Duquesne has 51.075 possessions and St. Louis has 49.275. The averages with 28 minutes played are 51.17 for Duquesne and 44.8 for St. Louis. So while the Billikens have surged into the lead, they've done it at the Dukes' pace, even if the tempo now is just a fraction below Duquesne's average.

5:00 2nd, 73-71 St. Louis: I missed one because the sub-8:00 media timeout came rather late in the block of time and I got caught in a conversation. Oops.

3:47 2nd, 75-71 St. Louis: Duquesne has 64.5 possessions and St. Louis has 60.7. hrough 36 minutes played, Duquesne averages 65.79 possessions and St. Louis averages 57.6. This discrepancy comes from the big differences in field goal attempts and offensive rebounds, which shows why the possessions formula (FGA + 0.475 * FTA - OR + TO) is nothing more than a formula. Still, St. Louis is definitely winning at Duquesne's tempo.

1:00 2nd, 78-76 St. Louis: Interlude to note that this place is quite empty at the moment. Yeah, there are 40 minutes remaining before the Temple-St. Joe's tip, but it's still not a good sign.

0:06.5 2nd, 78-77 St. Louis: Man, Duquesne's Scott just had a chance to tie the game at 78-all, but blew the second of two free throws. St. Louis' Ian Vouyoukas will now go to the free throw line for a one-and-one, and I have a suspicion he'll do something that will stop the game from going to overtime.

As in, miss the first shot! Aaron Jackson had the ball stripped by Kevin Lisch, then Jackson got it back and threw the ball towards the basket as the horn sounded. It would have counted, but it hit the back iron, and St. Louis wins, 78-77.

The final possession count was 71.925 for Duquesne and 66.6 for St. Louis. Wow, is that a big discrepancy, accounted for mainly by the 18-shot difference in field goal attempts. I would think, though, that the offensive rebounding differential (17 for Duquesne, 7 for St. Louis) would negate that, but apparently not.

Anyway, the final numbers are below Duquesne's average, but still higher than St. Louis' average. So you get the point, if you didn't already.

Two games are in the books. In the opener, 8-seed Dayton rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit to easily take out 9-seed UNC-Charlotte, 81-63. Line of the Game honors go to Flyers guard Brian Roberts:

In the second game, 5-seed Fordham barely held off a game 12-seed Richmond to escape with a 63-61 win. In a game with seven ties and 13 lead changes, the Rams got the last advantage on a layup-and-one by Marcus Stout with 30 seconds remaining.

At the other end of the floor, Fordham jammed Richmond into calling a timeout with eight seconds to play, then Kevin Anderson got a piece of a shot that landed in Rams forward Sebastian Greene's hands. Greene was fouled with 0.4 seconds to play, made the first free throw and purposely missed the second to end the game.

Line of the game, though, goes to one of the guys on the losing end. Richmond's Dan Geriot had a career high in scoring, scored half his team's total points in the first half, and set the high mark for individual scoring for Richmond this season with this effort:

Fordham won the game despite shooting 1-of-10 from three-point range. Marcus Stout was the main player responsible for that, as he made exactly none of seven attempts from beyond the arc.

But the Rams shot 52.2 percent for the game because they converted 23 of 36 2-point attempts. Bryan Dunston was the Rams' leading scored with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting, all from inside the arc (and most from inside the paint, too) and he did not go to the line at all. Stout was 7-of-8 from 2-point range and 3-of-4 at the free throw line.

The announced crowd for the afternoon session was 4,406 fans. Props to the 10 or so Fordham students who stood together -- including one in a Lucha Libre wrestler's mask -- as well as the loud Dayton band. Richmond, for whatever reason, did not bring a band (to round things out, Charlotte did).

There were already a good few St. Joe's and Temple shirts scattered among the crowd when the second game ended, so it looks like there could be a big crowd tonight.