Soft Pretzel Logic

I can't promise this will work all night, but we're going to try. Welcome to the Palestra's first game of the year, as Penn faces Drexel.

I'm fairly sure, looking at the crowd, that this is Drexel's home game. The Penn student section is even smaller than I expected it to be, while Drexel's is at least twice as big and goes all the way up to the last row behind the east basket.

I plan on blogging this game much the same way as I did last year's Penn-St. Joe's game. I won't be telling you about all the baskets, but will instead be focusing on the atmosphere -- the rollouts, creative chants, and so forth.

Off we go with our first game of the year...

Here are the starting lineups:

Drexel

G 0 Tramayne Hawthorne (junior)
G 3 Scott Rodgers (junior)
G 23 Jamie Harris (freshman)
F 25 Randy Oveneke (senior)
C 15 Frank Elegar (senior)

Penn

F 24 Jack Eggleston (freshman)
F 33 Cameron Lewis (junior)
G 5 Darren Smith (sophomore)
G 14 Michael Kach (senior)
G 21 Brian Grandieri (senior)

17:59 1st, 5-1 Drexel: I am fairly sure this is the last thing Glen Miller wanted. Here we are barely two minutes into the game and Brian Grandieri has two fouls already. Senior Aron Cohen comes in to replace him.

17:09 1st, 7-3 Drexel: Penn gets its first field goal of the game, a dunk by Cameron Lewis. They are counted as field goals, I guess

16:27 1st, 10-6 Drexel: An actual field goal, a three by Cohen that bounces on the rim three times before falling in. Rodgers responds with a three of his own.

15:46 1st, 10-6 Drexel: Media timeout, and Bruiser Flint has cursed at least twice in his first five seconds of talking. We have a rollout from Penn: "Drexel University Men's Basketball / You're D.U.M.B.," and a two-roll rollout from the Drexel fans at the same time: "THERE's NO DEBATE... / AT PENN"

I think Drexel wins that round, but if you want to really be creative you can say that Drexel is far closer to the presidency right now than Penn has been since 1828.

And there is, finally, what looks like a Penn student section. Some day, they might arrive before the game starts.

11:32 1st, 22-13 Drexel: Nothing much at the moment, but I wanted to relay something I saw before the game. Someone from (I believe) the Drexel athletic department was walking around near the press room with a trophy that had a Drexel pom-pom and a Penn pom-pom in the cup and what I suspected was a street sign sticking out of it.

Then I saw the other side of the thing, and that's indeed what it was. The sign said "33rd ST," meaning that this so-called "Battle of 33rd Street" apparently has more than just bragging rights to it.

You tell me which prize is more substantive...

7:26 1st, 32-17 Drexel: I will get to that scoreline later, but for the second time tonight both student sections unveil rollouts at the same time. First, from Penn: "You can't spell Flint without N-I-T." And from Drexel: "OATMEAL: NOT THE ONLY SOFT QUAKER PRODUCT"

The edge just barely goes to Penn, I think, in an attempt to credit Drexel's good shooting instead of knocking Penn's clearly inexperienced defense.

And in an attempt to keep things clean.

Halftime, 37-24 Drexel: Word around here is that Bruiser Flint had his team practice here yesterday, and it paid off in a big way in the first half. Drexel shot 42.9 percent from the field, including 6-of-12 from three-point range.

Tramayne Hawthorne leads all scorers with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-7 from three. Most of those looks were pretty open. Aron Cohen was Penn's leading scorer with six points on 2-of-4 shooting, all three-point attempts. But Penn did out-rebound Drexel, 23-18. The Quakers pulled down nine offensive rebounds and the Dragons grabbed four.

Also of interest: Glen Miller used 13 players in the first half. Flint used eight.

15:46 2nd, 41-29 Drexel: The rollout contest is over, and Drexel has won it, "DID BEN FRANKLIN POP HIS COLLAR TOO?"

I sure hope not. I can't really bear the thought of this country having been founded by a guy with a popped collar.

11:15 2nd, 44-34 Drexel: After Frank Elegar picks up his third foul, we get the media timeout. Bruiser comes back to the bench screaming, "We don't need no heroes!"

For the third time, we get both rollouts at the same time. Drexel: "STOP WASTING TOAST. FEED THE HOMELESS." Penn: "The NCAA Committee and a Real College / Two things that rejected you"

The Penn students chant,"You're all homeless!" and the Drexel students reply with a weak round of "Scoreboard..." and then do better with the old standard "Daddy's trust fund!"

Brendan Quinn of the Evening Bulletin, sitting next to me on press row, says Penn wins that round. "I usually go with the working-class cheers, but that was pretty good," he adds.

6:59 2nd, 47-41 Drexel: Penn uncorks one of the best rollouts I've seen that student section produce in years: "Do any of you even know what a trust fund is?"

Penn has scored on its last two possessions via backdoor passes to Brian Grandieri. Of all things. And for at least a minute or two, we have a game.

3:44 2nd, 47-41 Drexel: A reminder that it was 37-24 at the half.

1:28 2nd, 49-47 Drexel: Threes by Jack Eggleston and Aron Cohen have pulled Penn within two. Whoa.

1:08 2nd, 49-48 Drexel: Brian Grandieri drives to the basket and misses the shot, but draws Elegar's fourth foul. He makes the first free throw, but not the second. A big bullet dodged by the Dragons.

0:22 2nd, 52-49 Drexel: Freshman guard Gerald Colds hits an enormous three-pointer, pushing Drexel's lead to four. The DAC Pack explodes. At the other end, Brian Grandieri is fouled, misses the first three throw and makes the second.

End of regulation, 52-52: Good heavens. Mike Kach is fouled, makes the first free throw, misses the second, Brian Grandieri grabs the rebound and misses the putback, but Jack Eggleston grabs that rebound and ties the game.

3:40 OT, 57-53 Drexel: Frank Elegar throws down an emphatic slam and Penn misses at the other end. Penn has done a pretty good job of containing Elegar all night, but that was quite a reply.

2:09 OT, 60-57 Drexel: After two Brian Grandieri free throws tie the game, Colds hits another monster three to put Drexel back in front.

0:52 OT, 62-57 Drexel: You have to give the Penn kids some credit for actually trying to figure out what the Drexel students might come up with. Their last rollout: "This is your house? / Where do you sleep?"

Final: 67-59, Drexel: Drexel finally clamped down on defense and Penn ran out of gas. But a fun game nonetheless, one which was much closer than I expected.

And of course, Drexel beats Penn for the first time since 2003, and gets that trophy with the 33rd Street sign in in. Which is what really matters, right? Watching the Drexel fans celebrate, it sure seems that way.

After a 251-day summer hibernation, the Palestra reopens its doors tonight for its 81st season of college basketball.

There is little doubt that Villanova, Saint Joseph's and Temple are (in approximately that order) the three most significant programs in the region. And I say that knowing that Drexel is running neck and neck with Villanova in the readership survey, and that none of the other teams are close.

But the heart and soul of the game in this city resides in an Ivy League school's arena on 33rd Street, under the arched roof of a place whose claim to being "college basketball's most historic gym" is more than just hyperbole.

So while the Owls' game at No. 7 Tennessee tonight features the most glamorous of all the local teams, and while Villanova begins its season tonight at home on the Main Line, it seems appropriate to me that tonight's clash between Penn and Drexel should be at the top of the marquee.

After all, we haven't often seen a city rivalry game be a season opener, especially in recent years. No, Drexel isn't in the Big 5, but when the Big 5 Classic was played there was an unofficial rule that City Series games weren't supposed to be scheduled before the Classic's annual spot on the first Saturday in December.

Today's College HoopsCast is up, featuring the Inquirer's Mike Jensen. He's in Knoxville today to cover the Temple-Tennessee game, and you should definitely read his story on the last time these two teams played. Also be sure to read the Daily News' roundup-style preview of Penn, Drexel, Temple and Villanova.

Voting in the poll continues. Penn and La Salle made some moves but it's definitely a two-horse race now, between Villanova and Drexel.

Drexel 689
La Salle 138
Penn 134
Temple 34
Saint Joseph's 178
Villanova 745
Somebody else 35 (still all unspoken for)

If you're going to the Pavilion tonight, enjoy it. Let's see how much Corey Stokes and Corey Fisher play.

If you're going to the Palestra, look for me. I might liveblog it; I haven't decided yet.

And if you have ESPN360.com or a satellite dish that carries FSN South, you'll be able to see Temple-Tennessee.

Above all, enjoy the start of the season. We've been waiting long enough for this, haven't we?

It all starts tomorrow, finally. For today, we have a few things.

-- Today's College HoopsCast features Inquirer women's basketball writer Mel Greenberg, as well as an exclusive with ESPN.com bracketologist and St. Joe's radio analyst Joe Lunardi.

-- Elsewhere in the podcast universe, ESPN.com's Andy Glockner (a Penn alumnus) heeds our cry here on the blog and calls out Pat Forde for never having been to the Palestra.

And should Mr. Forde come across this blog, I will be glad to offer tips on where to eat and drink in the neighborhood, as he is known to be fond of that sort of thing.

-- Speaking of Forde and his neck of the woods, you take a guess as to what folks in Lexington, Ky., are feeling like today after Gardner-Webb knocked off Kentucky last night. Sounds from that story like they're doing their best impression of us here in Philadelphia.

-- The latest poll results, but remember voting continues through Saturday morning:

Drexel 644
La Salle 20
Penn 70
Temple 30
Saint Joseph's 144
Villanova 671
Somebody else 34 (and still, none of them say who their team is)

Be sure to check out today's headlines on the right side of the blog, including the Inquirer's Penn preview and a great piece on former Temple coach Wayne Hardin, who was in charge of the Owls the last time they were good.

And the football crunchy numbers, which I've just been too busy to work on until now:

24. Penn State -- home win against Purdue (32)
45. Rutgers -- road loss vs. Connecticut (11)
75. Delaware -- home win vs. James Madison (87)
110. Villanova -- road loss vs. Richmond (81)
132. Temple -- road loss vs. Ohio (112)
139. Delaware State road win vs. Winston-Salem State (190)
172. Lehigh -- road win vs. Colgate (159)
189. Lafayette -- home win vs. Bucknell (228)
199. Penn -- home win vs. Princeton (207)
242. La Salle -- road loss at Wagner (216)

Nothing much to see here this week, but I'm quite amused at how highly ranked Connecticut is even with one loss. Boise State is 28th and Hawai'i is 40th, and I would say both are better teams. The next four teams after UConn, by the way, are Auburn, USC, Virginia Tech and Michigan.

The Top Ten comparison:

If the AP could call the mayor's race within half an hour of the polls closing last night, I think we can safely say Penn has been knocked off its perch as the most-supported team here on the blog.

The current results:

Drexel 404
La Salle 10
Penn 53
Temple 28
Saint Joseph's 107
Villanova 467
Somebody else 7

But the poll will remain open until Saturday afternoon, so keep voting.

Today's College HoopsCast is up, featuring interviews with Drexel's Bruiser Flint and Penn's Glen Miller.

Which brings me to this comment posted by Fred:

JT:

Has it really gotten that bad with the Penn students that they dont turn out for the Princeton game?

I am amazed with the lack of interest in the Penn student body for anything related to athletics.

The FB crowds seem sparse (I think they "announced" 12K for the last home game). And now the interest level has been diminished for the big basketball game.

Are the students really that disinterested? Bored? Are there other more attractive options on campus?

Are students strapped for spending money? (I would think not)

Are marketing and promotional efforts not working?

I think this is quite disappointing, considering that Penn traditionally fields very good teams in both sports (recent football problems aside).

Wow.

I hope the Penn fans on here will chime in with their views on this but I will say a few things. First, as I said yesterday, Princeton being really bad makes a huge difference. The whole buzz around the game was that it was always for the Ivy League title, and that's gone.

For example, I was at the 2003 game and it was jammed to the rafters. That year, both teams were very good -- Penn had Ugonna Onyekwe et al., while Princeton had won the title in 2001 and tied for it a year earlier.

A year later, I believe the Palestra game was over Penn's spring break, which severely diminished the atmosphere. Then John Thompson III left, Joe Scott came in and down the Tigers went.

But I will also say this. Fred asks whether the promotional efforts aren't working. From my experiences on Penn's campus, I've rarely all that much promotion in the first place. Drexel hangs a banner over Market Street; Temple has the marquee on the Liacouras Center, though that is certainly in a prime location. But it's been a while since I've seen promotional material on Locust Walk.

Again, I want to hear from the Penn folks on this, but I get the impression that there isn't much of that in general.

And by the way, check out all those stories in the headline list on the right side of the blog. Today's offerings in both papers are very good, especially Ed Barkowitz's national college basketball preview in the Daily News.

There's been a lot of good stuff out there the last few days, so I thought I'd try to bring it all together this morning.

We begin in State College, where the word of the week is "Grump."

Rich Hofmann would like Joe Paterno to get off his, and say something about the Austin Scott case. Even if it's just saying that he won't say anything more about the case.

Bob Ford goes with the adjective form of the word in this week's Riffing with the Writers video, wondering if JoePa is "getting too grumpy to run the team."

We then move across the Turnpike and across the Delaware to Rutgers, which looks to upset South Florida and screw up the BCS even more tonight. For that reason alone, let us hope they do.

Ford tried to figure out exactly what South Florida is, and it seems like he did so. He took the question up with Phil Sheridan in another Riffing With the Writers segment, noting along the way that the Big East is "a big football conference because they were too big for Temple."

Writing for washingtonpost.com, John Feinstein fires a few good broadsides at the BCS, the NCAA and Myles Brand. Shocking, I know, but it's good stuff. Such as explaining why Brand won't move for a football playoff:

He and his cohorts in Indianapolis are too busy changing the names of division 1-A and division 1-AA and passing rules to make sure basketball coaches stay inside coaching boxes.

It being Thursday, we have Mike Kern's college football column. He leads with Temple trying to manage expectations after winning two in a row, which doesn't exactly happen often. He also previews Miami (Ohio) vs. Temple and Yale vs. Penn.

We also have Joe Juliano's notebook from the local football coaches' luncheon.

We move basketball, and reports from CAA media day in Washington yesterday. Drexel was picked to finish fifth, and George Mason to finish first.

Kevin Tatum writes that Bruiser Flint has made his peace with last year, while Mel Greenberg writes that the Dragons' women's team will stick their projected eighth-place finish on the bulletin board.

There's better news at the DAC, though: the men picked up a recruit, while the women will take inspiration from Hodgkin's lymphoma survivor Nicole Hester.

And finally, a scary prospect for Penn fans. Princeton's athletic director, Gary Walters, has made a statement you might actually agree with. As reported by (Princeton alumnus) Frank DeFord of NPR and Sports Illustrated:

"Is it time," [Walters] asks, "for the educational-athletic experience on our playing fields be accorded the same ... academic respect as the arts?"

I know that for most of us, this isn't even a question because of the value of sports in bringing together the campus community at all of the schools in the City Six.

But DeFord and Walters nail the point that there are still some schools out there are full of people who see sports as a lowbrow, mass-culture thing not worthy of their upturned noses. Including quite a few that play Princeton on a regular basis.

Your thoughts?

You bet my jaw dropped when I saw the story in today's Daily News that La Salle pulled 7-foot-3, 290-pound Jameson Keefe. I had too much stuff to do today but I intend to find out next week whether he'll be the tallest player in Big Five history.

I'd bet, though, that 6-9, 230-pound Vernon Goodridge, a transfer from SEC power Mississippi State, will have a bigger impact when he becomes eligible. We won't see Keefe this season either, as he's redshirting a year.

Still, the biggest jaw-dropper came on Andy Katz's blog today: La Salle backed out of playing Drexel at the DAC, and Drexel isn't happy about it. Katz also reports that Frank Elegar will play for the Virgin Islands at the Tournament of the Americas in Las Vegas this summer. So if any of you Drexel folks needed another reason to go there, you've got one.

Your thoughts on that Drexel-La Salle tidbit?

I'm looking at the bracket for the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament, and lo and behold, it looks to me like Drexel was the first team left out.

The Dragons are ranked No. 16 in the current coaches' poll. There are 16 teams in the tournament field, and of the top 16 in the poll, only two -- Drexel and No. 12 Bucknell -- aren't there.

The two teams in the field instead are unranked Providence, which won the MAAC and will face No. 1 seed Duke; and 17th-ranked Delaware, which will face No. 2 seed Virginia. Delaware won the CAA.

Now, here's the quiz: how did Delaware win the CAA Tournament? You guessed it: by beating Drexel in the semifinals at Vidas Field. The Blue Hens then beat Towson in the championship game.

So I looked at Maryland-Baltimore County, the 15th-ranked team in the poll and the theoretical No. 10 seed in the tournament. I say theoretical because technically, only the top 8 teams in the field get seeds, but it's not that hard to figure out.

The Retrievers' non-conference wins were over Brown, Air Force, Penn, Ohio State and Towson; they lost at Denver and Maryland. Of those, only Air Force was a road game. Towson and Brown are currently ranked. Ohio State got votes in the latest media poll.

Drexel beat then-No. 1 Virginia in Charlottesville, which you might recall was kind of a big deal (and got me a byline in the Inquirer, which was fun).

The Dragons also beat St. Joe's (who finished higher in the MAAC than Providence, but lost to the Friars in the conference title game), Binghamton, St. John's, Lafayette and VMI, and lost at home to Notre Dame. The St. Joe's and VMI games were on the road.

Seems to me that you have to give the non-conference strength of schedule edge to UMBC, and I'm inclined to think that would still be the case even if St. Joe's had beaten Providence. So perhaps this is where the Dragons' lacrosse story becomes something different from what happened to the basketball team.

The women's tournament draw comes down at 8 tonight. I'll warn you now that I might have to write about Penn, because they've got an automatic bid. But it looks like I'll be able to write about Penn State as well.

For your listening pleasure:

N.C. State: Ben McCauley (who does most of the talking), Engin Atsür, Brandon Costner and coach Sidney Lowe

Drexel: Bashir Mason, Chaz Crawford, Frank Elegar and coach Bruiser Flint

Also, something about comments. I'm getting a decent number of spam comments at the moment, so I made a minor change to the system. If you are not authenticated through TypeKey, your comment won't show up immediately, but when I log in to the publishing platform I'll approve it (and believe me, I'm in the system quite frequently so your comment should show up quickly).

But if you are authenticated through TypeKey, your comment will show up right away. So do yourself a favor and register because it will make all our lives that much easier. Thanks.

If you're a fan of mid-major basketball, it cannot get any better than this. A team from what is perhaps the ultimate power conference, the ACC, coming in to this 2,500-seat gym on the second floor of a multi-purpose arena to play a post-season knockout game. The game sold out hours ago, and while I'm actually rather surprised at the large number of Wolfpack fans here, the place is raucous and it has been so for some time now. Read on for the commentary after the jump, starting at the bottom of the post...

A friend asked me how I think Drexel will do in the NIT. My answer: I think the Dragons are going to win it.

Yes, you read that right. I predict that Drexel will send the ultimate statement to the NCAA Tournament selection committee about how bad it was to leave the Dragons out by winning the NIT. And not only that -- I have them beating the other team that had a legit case to be in, Syracuse, in the final.

Yes, that would make it twice this season that Drexel has beaten Syracuse. But of all the games Drexel will play, that's the only result I'm not sure about.

Here's what I have:

NIT North Bracket

1. Mississippi St. beats 8. Mississippi Valley St.
5. Providence beats 4. Bradley
2. Florida State beats 7. Toledo
3. Michigan beats 6. Utah State

Providence beats Mississippi State
Florida State beats Michigan

Florida State beats Providence

NIT East Bracket

1. West Virginia beats 8. Delaware State (with all due respect to the Hornets fans out there)
4. Massachusetts beats 5. Alabama
2. Oklahoma State beats Marist
3. Drexel beats N.C. State

UMass beats West Virginia
Drexel beats Ok. State -- They've won at Syracuse, Creighton and the Pavilion. They can win in Stillwater too.

Drexel beats UMass -- man, what a game that would be for Bruiser.

NIT South Bracket

1. Clemson beats 8. East Tennessee State
5. Appalachian State vs. 4. Ole Miss
2. Syracuse beats 7. South Alabama
3. Missouri State beats 6. San Diego State

Clemson beats App State
Syracuse beats Missouri State

Syracuse beats Clemson -- the Orange feel similarly aggreived at being excluded from the Big Dance.

NIT West Bracket

1. Air Force beats 8. Austin Peay
4. Georgia beats 5. Fresno State
2. Kansas State beats 7. Vermont
3. DePaul beats 6. Hofstra -- but not by much

Air Force beats Georgia
Kansas State beats DePaul

Kansas State beats Air Force

At the Garden

Drexel beats Florida State
Syracuse beats Kansas State

Drexel beats Syracuse

And there you have it.

(Though, in response to a question a friend asks tonight, if I am totally wrong -- which is a very good possibility, believe me -- I will come on here and admit it.)

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.

With Drexel's regular season complete, here are the Dragons' numbers as of this morning. Last week's numbers are in parentheses:

-- Pomeroy: 83 (85)
-- RPI: 45 (49)
-- Sagarin: 72 (79)

-- Record: 22-7 (13-5 conf.)

-- Offensive efficency: 173
-- Defensive efficiency: 23
-- Tempo: 251 (64.8 possessions per 40 minutes)

-- Free throw rate: 25
-- Effective FG % given up: 21
-- Offensive rebounding % given up: 55
-- 3-point FG % given up: 93
-- 2-point FG % given up: 14
-- Block % forced: 27
-- Steal % forced: 36
-- Ratio of threes to all field goals given up: 28
-- Ratio of assists to field goals made: 61

Chaz Crawford

-- Offensive rebounding %: 15
-- Defensive rebounding %: 34
-- Free throw rate: 81
-- Block percentage: 17

Frank Elegar

-- Percentage of team's shots taken while on the floor: 87
-- Free throw rate: 87

Bashir Mason

-- Steal percentage: 40

Now, the question is, can they do it today against Northeastern and tomorrow against (presumably) VCU? Stay tuned.

Drexel was in the field yesterday, but Georgia Tech's win over North Carolina bumped the Dragons out and put the Yellow Jackets in their place. Drexel's now the first team out of the field, and I have a nasty feeling they're going to stay right on that line unless they get to the CAA final. A broken record, yes, but at least the Dragons control their own destiny and you can't ask for much more than that at this time of year.

Villanova's still an 8-seed, but this time faces Texas Tech and has to do so in Sacramento as part of the San Jose regional. Winner gets UCLA, which has a stronger and stronger case for being the top overall seed as other big teams lose.

Penn's still a 13 and still has to go to Spokane, but this time gets Nevada. Winner gets BC or Davidson, and it's also in the San Jose regional. So in theory, there's a possible Penn-'Nova game in the Sweet 16. But that's really stretching it, and that in and of itself might be an understatement.

Another day, another bracket, and this time Drexel's in the field. The Dragons will be helped a whole lot if Georgia Tech, Oklahoma State and Kansas State keep losing.

Drexel gets a 12-seed and gets shipped to Spokane to play BYU in the East Rutherford regional. Winner gets No. 5 Nevada or No. 12 Vermont.

I don't have time to do all the analysis, but it so happens that No. 13 Penn is sent to Spokane as well to play No. 4 UNLV. It's in the San Jose regional, so the Quakers might be out west for quite a while, but I guarantee you that if that happened, the happiest people on the planet would be the people right here in Inquirer and Daily News World Headquarters. Especially the people who control the bags of money that don't quite exist in the basement.

(The second-happiest people would be the writers in Vegas and Reno, it looks like.)

Winner of Penn-UNLV gets Duke or VCU. You can be sure everyone else out there would want Duke-UNLV, but Penn-Duke would be interesting. Definitely more interesting than last year's game. Not saying that Penn could pull it off (against Duke or UNLV), but I genuinely don't know which of those games would be easier.

Villanova is still an 8-seed, and still paired with Stanford in Winston-Salem in the East Rutherford regional. And if 'Nova won that and upset Carolina, they could end up meeting Drexel in the Sweet 16. At the Meadowlands. If only it was at the Palestra.

Just saying. Now, back to the mines.

Ooh boy, Bracketology has gone daily for the rest of the season.

Villanova's an 8-seed, and gets Stanford again in Winston Salem as part of the East Rutherford regional. The winner gets North Carolina, and all I can say is if that game comes to pass watch out for those traveling calls.

Penn gets up to a 13-seed, and on the S-curve (Insider subscription required) is the lowest of them. Nevada is the top 4-seed, and though they're really, really good you still have to prefer the Wolf Pack to some of the other teams the Quakers could get. Including another 4-seed, the very athletic Virginia Tech Hokies.

Drexel jumps up to being the first team out. Joe Lunardi writes in his column that "few teams will be discussed quite as much as Drexel these next two weeks." Get to that game against VCU, and win it, and that discussion will be even longer.

A note about the blog this week. I have actual job work to do for the rest of the week, so there won't be any more Newwstand posts for a while. The Philly.com college sports headlines will still be in the right rail here on the blog, and there's a pretty good list of other media outlets in the links list. I figure you all can do it yourselves from there. I also think I might hold Crunchy Numbers until Wednesday of next week so that I can do a seaon-recapping edition that will include Penn's last regular-season game at Princeton.

I'll be writing about mock brackets and other stuff that comes to mind, but the Newsstand compilations really take a while, so I hope you won't mind that.

Now, back to the show.

As much as I'm at the Palestra tonight to watch Temple-St. Joe's, the biggest reason why I wanted to come to the game was to talk to the Bracketologist himself, Joe Lunardi.

In addition to writing the single most important column anywhere on ESPN.com (with apologies to his editor, Andy Glockner, whose Drive to 65 is also worth reading if you follow a multiple-bid conference), Lunardi is the color analyst for Hawks games on the radio.

And he reads this blog, which is even cooler.

So I made sure to get to the Palestra early enough to talk to Lunardi about the local teams and their chances of making it to the Big Dance. Excerpts of my interview with him are after the jump.

The basketball gods have had us dance around it for the last few weeks, and here it is: No. 14 Penn vs. No. 3 Georgetown in Winston-Salem as part of the St. Louis regional. I've written already about how good and how efficient Georgetown is, so no need to repeat it. Suffice to say that for as much fun as it would be for Penn fans to go against John Thompson III again, there's no way the Quakers are winning this matchup.

It also shows just how badly Penn needs to win out. Joe Lunardi writes that the Hoyas could move up to a 2-seed if they keep winning, but if they do, one of Kansas, Ohio State, Texas A&M and (most likely) Pittsburgh would fall a notch. As good as Georgetown is, those other teams would be even harder to beat. The other 3-seeds are Memphis, Washington State and Southern Illinois, which wouldn't be too much easier.

The 4-seeds, however, are Boston College, Nevada, Butler and Air Force. BC would probably do unto Penn as it did in 2005 (i.e., win by 20 on athleticism alone), but Penn could take the other three teams.

To give you a more statistical idea, Southern Illinois' actual RPI number (as opposed to rank) is 0.6476. Air Force's is 0.6258, Nevada's is 0.6177, BC's is 0.6072 and Butler's is .6065. That is a huge difference.

The winner would get either Sean Singletary's Virginia or Winthrop, who Dick Jerardi says will win their first-round game no matter who it plays.

Villanova stays at an 8-seed against No. 9 Maryland in New Orleans. That would be quite a scene on Bourbon Street. It would also be a game Villanova should win, because I doubt the high-speed Terrapins (13th-highest tempo in Division I) would be able to deal with the Wildcats' defense.

But Maryland's defense is very good -- the fourth-most efficient in the country, in fact. So this would probably be a pretty low-scoring game, something with which the Wildcats are more than experienced enough to handle. The winner would get No. 1 Florida, giving Villanova a shot at revenge against the team that knocked them out last season.

Drexel falls from being the ninth team out of the field to being the tenth team out, which is not a pleasant thought. Their need to get to the finals of the CAA Tournament goes up each day as other bubble teams win.

Bracketology has gone to Mondays and Wednesdays in the run-in to the end of the regular season, so there's new fodder to chew over today.

Drexel's still out, and I don't see a full rundown so I can't tell you whether they're still ninth out or whether they've fallen lower. Penn's in as a 14 with an interesting matchup against Southern Illinois in Columbus within the San Antonio regional. The Salukis are 23-5 and ranked 31st in Pomeroy, and their worst loss is at No. 88 Evansville.

Now, having said that, although SIU is 29th in defensive efficiency, they're 265th in steal percentage and 221st in three-point percentage given up. They're also 124th in offensive efficiency at a tempo of 60.2 possessions per game, which is both far slower and far less efficient than Penn (64th in the latter). They are also -- and this is huge -- 321st in free throw rate given up.

I'm not saying Penn could win this game, but if the Quakers get stuck with a 14 this wouldn't be the worst matchup. The other 3-seeds are Memphis (very athletic, as usual, which always kills Penn), Washington State (flat out really good), and Georgetown. I can't help thinking that Hoyas coach John Thompson III would want no part of a matchup with a team that he was 3-5 against while at Princeton.

The winner of Penn-SIU gets No. 6 Duke or No. 11 Oklahoma State, teams with which Penn fans should be quite familiar.

Villanova got the dreaded 8-seed against Texas Tech in Sacramento as part of the San Jose regional. That's a very winnable game for the Wildcats, as the Red Raiders are 166th in defensive efficiency, 241st in offensive rebounding percentage given up, 154th in 3-point percentage given up and 256th in 2-point percentage given up. It would also be a ton of fun to see Jay Wright coach against Bobby Knight.

The other 9-seeds, by the way, are Arizona, Notre Dame and Alabama. As Villanova played the latter of those two in the regular season, those matchups aren't possible, and Arizona would be questionable because the teams played each other in the second round last year.

The winner of 'Nova-Texas Tech games gets No. 1 UCLA. That game would surely be low-scoring, but I bet the Wildcats could give the Bruins a real serious run.

I'll write that post about why 'Nova is so much more deserving to be in the tournament than Syracuse later.

So I said in the last post that Drexel had the biggest win of the weekend. Turns out I had no idea what I was talking about.

Because the biggest win of the weekend was had by a Drexel team, but it wasn't basketball. It was lacrosse.

The Dragons went down to No. 1 Virginia this afternoon and upset the Cavaliers, 11-10, with two goals in the final ten seconds of the game.

I mean, that's not impossible in lacrosse, because the teams have timeouts. But it's still close to unbelievable. And the same guy scored both goals -- David Ambler, an Abington native. The second goal came with three seconds remaining, so technically he scored twice in seven seconds.

Wow.

It was Virginia's first home loss in 19 games, the Cavaliers' first home-opener loss in seven years, Drexel's first win over Virginia (after losing 15-7 at home last year), and the Dragons' first ever win over a No. 1-ranked team in any sport in school history.

UVa has three guys from the Philly area, by the way: Jon Borror (Media, Pa. / Haverford School), Ken Clausen (Downington, Pa. / The Hill School), and Foster Gilbert (Radnor, Pa. / Haverford School).

Nice to know that Sean Singletary and Jason Cain have some company, if not from the city itself.

More to come on this, hopefully.

So I emailed Joe Lunardi right after posting the Bracketology piece to ask about Drexel, and got a reply in all of 20 minutes or so. Talk about service. Apparently, there was supposed to be a Bracketology on Monday, but some server issues prevented it from being posted.

"Drexel was 8th 'out' on Monday and 9th 'out' today," Lunardi wrote. "Regardless, it's impossible not to have ODU higher than Drexel at this point given their season sweep of the Dragons and a higher place in the conference standings. Hope that helps."

It certainly does.

This week's bracket dovetails nicely with a story in this morning's Inquirer that I forgot to mention: why the A-10 is almost surely a one-bid conference this season, with Xavier having the only shot at an at-large slot.

It so happens that the Musketeers get the auto bid in this week's field. If you care enough, they have an 11-seed in the East (Meadowlands) regional and a game against Arizona in Lexington.

As for the local delegation, Villanova gets the dreaded 8-seed and a date with Stanford in Chicago as part of the Midwest (St. Louis) regional. Joe Lunardi really likes the Wildcats, writing that "this is the week Villanova turns its RPI into gold." A win over Georgetown on Saturday would move them even higher.

A game against the Cardinal shouldn't be too much of a challenge for the Wildcats, as Stanford is 163rd nationally in offensive efficiency, 178th in 3-point percentage and 174th in 2-point percentage. But they're good on defense: Though they're 86th in defensive efficiency, they're also 57th in 3-point defense and 30th in 2-point defense.

The winner of that game gets Wisconsin. The Badgers are really (really) good, but 'Nova-Wisconsin would be an outstanding game. It would play to Villanova's preferred style, too, because Wisconsin is 285th in Division I in the ratio of threes to all field goal attempts.

Penn is back in the field as a 14-seed and has to head out to Sacramento to play Washington State, also in the St. Louis regional. Any 3-seed would be a huge challenge for the Quakers, but the Cougars are fourth-best in the country in the ratio of assists to field goals allowed, which is one of the focal points of Penn's offense. Overall, Wazzu is 12th in defensive efficiency and 21st in effective field goal percentage allowed, but only 86th in offensive efficiency -- nine spots lower than Penn.

I'm rather surprised by what Lunardi did to Drexel this week. Not because the Dragons are excluded, but because they fell from being the fourth team out to being the first team in the "considered" category, which translates to being the ninth team out. If you have an ESPN.com Insider subscription, click here to read the full Rundown. I thought that the Hofstra win would move Drexel closer to being in the field, but apparently it hasn't. And Joe certainly knows what he's doing, so I have to take his word for it.

I might as well just admit it: Kyle Whelliston has one of the coolest jobs in college basketball. He travels all over the country going to nothing but mid-major schools, and writes about them for ESPN.com and his own website, midmajority.com.

For his 75th game of the season, Whelliston was at Harvard-Penn on Saturday night at the Palestra. He would hunt me down and hit me with something for saying that he was quite sought after by many of the other media in the house, so I'll spare that. But he was gracious enough to talk to me for a few minutes about Philadelphia's two players in mid-majordom, Penn and Drexel.

"I think Penn is going to win the league pretty easily," he said. "I think Yale is up there based on luck."

(He said this before Yale lost at Cornell, also on Saturday, putting Penn back in first place in the Ivy League.)

Whelliston also covered the Delaware-Drexel game, and was a bit concerned by what he saw from the Dragons.

"They've sort of lapsed back into having trouble shooting the ball," he said of Drexel."They couldn't really take care of Delaware the way they should have. They have some problems with their offense that are going to be exploited over the next month, month and a half."

Whelliston went to Drexel for grad school, so I wasn't at all surprised to hear that he was at the DAC. But don't you think for a second that he's biased towards anyone. He likes all the mid-majors just the same, except Gonzaga, which isn't one anymore anyway.

(Or is it? Stay tuned.)

Whelliston does maintain a soft spot for Philadelphia, though. The first game of his now-famous 100-game first season was at the DAC, and the second was because that's where the whole Mid-Majority thing got started two years ago.

But what to make of that conference in which half the Philly teams participate, the A-10? Whelliston excludes it because of what he calls on his blog "high-major manifest destiny" (scroll down a long ways, but it's there).

Given that above post was written back in December, and that the the A-10 is not having the best of seasons (Phil Martelli's opinions notwithstanding), I decided to ask his opinion of the conference now. It hasn't changed.

"You've got to pick a side, and I've always said that it's sort of a half-and-half league," he said. "You've got these city teams and you've got these country teams, and the conference itself is very upwardly mobile and trying to grow a lot. Then you have St. Bonaventure and places like that. So I haven't really been covering it."

By the way, the real reason why Whelliston was in town Saturday had nothing to do with the basketball. He was actually here to see Simon Kirke, the famous drummer for Bad Company, play with the Penn band.

"That rock show was so awesome," Whelliston said of the halftime performance. "I actually flew up here a day early so I could attend that rock show."

A big, big win for the Dragons.

Well, we knew this was coming: Villanova's the only team in Joe Lunardi's field of 65 this week. Drexel's the fourth team out and Penn's nowhere to be seen, because the 3-1 Quakers are two games in the win column behind 5-1Yale.

(Have some pity for the Bulldogs, by the way, because they get the play-in game against neighbors Central Connecticut State for the right to face Florida.)

Anyway, Villanova gets what Penn got last week: Air Force. The Wildcats are a 12 and rising -- Lunardi admits that they are an 11 on the S-Curve that he uses to make his seeds. The Falcons, meanwhile, are a 5-seed and falling in a hurry after losing at San Diego State last night.

But in some interesting ways, this is a pretty even matchup. Villanova is 18th and Air Force 19th in Pomeroy, and both teams boast Top 70 offensive and defensive efficiencies. Villanova is 66th in offense and 55 in defense, while Air Force is No. 2 in offense and 49th in defense.

The Falcons shoot extremely well, which could give the Wildcats problems. Air Force is sixth in 2-point FG percentage and third in 3-point FG percentage. But the Falcons are 185th in 2-point defense and 221st in the ratio of threes to all field goals given up, so Villanova could have a reasonable chance to put up some points.

Having said that, Villanova's 271st in 3-point percentage given up and 319 in the percentage of threes to all field goals given up.

The most significant difference between the teams, though, is the tempo. Villanova averages 67.7 possessions per game, while Air Force (which runs the Princeton offense) is 330th in Division I with 59.4 possessions per game.

And one other positive thing for Villanova about the matchup: It would take place in Buffalo as part of the East (Meadowlands) regional, so the fans wouldn't have to travel too far. The winner would get the winner of Kentucky vs. Davidson.

This week, Penn and Villanova are in, and Drexel is the fifth team out. Yes, I'm late with this, but as you might imagine Crunchy Numbers took me a long time and I wanted to get that over with.

The 13-seed Quakers get a cross-country trip to Spokane to face Air Force in the East (Meadowlands) Regional. The Falcons are a lofty 20th in Pomeroy, but Joe Lunardi writes (Insider subscription required) that Air Force is teetering in its seed because of a recent loss at BYU.

Nonetheless, Air Force's offense is astonishingly effective. Second in offensive efficiency, first in effective field goal percentage, ninth in turnover percentage, fifth in 3-point percentage, third in 2-point percentage, seventh in free throw percentage and 14th in ratio of assists to field goals made.

But there's a caveat to all this, and Penn fans already know it -- the Falcons play the Princeton offense. In fact, current Princeton head coach Joe Scott was Air Force's head coach when the program rose to prominence a few years ago. I would have to think that, despite the Falcons' lofty stats, Penn would like nothing more than to play a team that runs an offense that it knows as well as the ghosts in the Palestra's rafters.

Air Force plays at a slow tempo -- 59.3 possessions per 40 minutes, which ranks 332nd out of 336 teams in Division I. Again, the result of the Princeton offense, but Penn averages 10 more possessions per game. Of course it's folly to assume this matchup will actually happen, but it strikes me as reasonably favorable towards Penn compared to the other 4 seeds: Nevada, Oklahoma State and Butler. The winner of that game gets the winner of Kentucky-West Virginia.

Villanova is one of the last four teams in and gets a 12-seed and a matchup in Buffalo against Virginia Tech as part of the South (San Antonio) Regional. The Hokies are good, but Villanova's three spots higher in Pomeroy and plays defense plenty well enough to have a more-than-reasonable shot at winning that game. Having said that, this week's bracket came out before the Hokies lost at home to N.C. State last night, so Virginia Tech certainly wouldn't be a 5 if the thing came out this morning.

The other 5-seeds are Kentucky, Texas and Indiana. Texas would be out of the question because they played the Wildcats in the regular season. But Kentucky and Indiana are both ranked higher in Pomeroy than the Wildcats, at 13th and 9th respectively. Kentucky plays outstanding defense (no surprise there) and is far better at scoring two-point shots than threes, which plays into Villanova's hands. It would be low-scoring and hard-fought, and I like Villanova's chances in a game like that.

Indiana's also very good defensively and is ranked 51st in three-ponint shooting, so that matchup would be more difficult than Kentucky. But I'm not sure whether I really believe in Indiana at the moment, and Jay Wright beat Kelvin Sampson's Oklahoma last year at the Pavilion.

Virginia Tech could well end up with a 5-seed anyway, especially with a good run in the ACC Tournament. So maybe Lunardi's matchup isn't out of the question after all. But the most important thing is that a 12-seed always beats a 5, and if you're a fan of karma Villanova's in good shape indeed.

Finally, Drexel. Mike Jensen made the point on this week's College HoopsCast that Drexel might well be fighting Villanova for one of the last at-large bids. If both teams keep winning I think they both make it. But it always bears repeating that saying you have to get it done and actually doing it aren't the same thing. For what it's worth, Virginia Commonwealth's an 11-seed this week, but got a bit of a bump from the 12-seed Lunardi says its stats should merit.

Whoa.

Drexel forward Frank Elegar, the team's interior linchpin, has been suspended for tomorrow's showdown with Virginia Commonwealth at the DAC on account of the intentional foul he committed at Delaware last Saturday. The CAA didn't render its decision until today, meaning he was able to play against UNC-Wilmington.

The CAA's press release called the foul, committed against Sam McMahon, a "flagrant act."

The game tomorrow will be on CN8 by the way. It's going to be a very good game, even if you don't care about either team that much. It might even be worth waiting a few hours more than you otherwise would to get to the Palestra. Because I know the St. Joe's fans love showing up really, really early for the Penn game.

The best news of the day is that this week's Bracketology has arrived, which means I can actually analyze something instead of just posting stories all day.

Joe Lunardi apparently has a nasty headache from having spent so much time breaking down the ACC, but the rest of us should be in a good mood because Villanova, Penn and Drexel are all in this week's field. Joe, I'll give you some Advil or something at the Big 5 Hall of Fame dinner tomorrow night if your headache hasn't cleared yet.

As I started scrolling through the bracket, the first thing I saw was that Notre Dame was in the field. This made me immediately demand to my computer monitor that Villanova be included too, lest something get thrown in the trash can. They are, and Wildcats should be pretty happy what they see.

Lunardi has 'Nova as a 9-seed against Tennessee in Winston-Salem. There'll be a lot of Volunteers fans in the house for that one, because it's only about 4 1/2 hours from Knoxville, but the winner gets a glamor game against North Carolina. Yep, that team which knocked Villanova out two years ago in the Sweet 16 thanks to what may or may not have been a traveling call on Allan Ray. But the winner of that pod goes to East Rutherford, N.J., and what a scene that would be if 'Nova pulled off the upset.

The Volunteers have a very good guard in Chris Lofton and the nation's coolest coach in Bruce Pearl. I'm already salivating over the prospect of Pearl in his blindingly orange blazer squaring off with Jay Wright's finely-tailored four-piece. But as for the game itself, the Volunteers are a full 18 places behind Villanova in the Pomeroy ratings and are 189th in effective field goal percentage. They're worse at defending two-point shots than three-point shots, which should suit Villanova's ffrontcourt just fine. Tennessee's offensive efficiency is 53rd in the country, but Villanova's is 30th. So that should be a very good game.

Penn gets a 13-seed in frigid Buffalo against Clemson. The Tigers are impressing a lot of people with their 18-2 record, and they're 24th in defensive efficiency, but that's a bit deceiving. Clemson's defense is 205th in 2-point FG percentage given up and 119th in 3-point percentage given up. We all know Penn can score a lot of points. And because Clemson hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 1998, the Quakers will have an experience advantage on the big stage. Plus, you have to like Penn's odds against any team nicknamed Tigers.

The winner of that game gets the winner of a game that is a mid-major fan's dream: No. 5 Nevada against No. 12 VCU, the first-place in the CAA right now and thus projected to take the CAA's automatic bid. Both those teams are very good, but not outstanding -- 64 and 66 in Pomeroy. Penn's at 90, but given how they did against Drexel, they won't be afraid of either of those teams.

Drexel is a wonderful example of just how good the CAA is this year. Though the Dragons have two losses in conference, they get a higher seed than VCU -- an 11, against No. 6 Boston College in Columbus. Which is somewhat funny, because two years ago Penn played BC in Cleveland. The winner gets Marquette or Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the projected winners of the Southland. In part because of a win over Kent State, the Islanders have a decent Pomeroy of 104.

But Marquette is very, very good: 29th in Pomeroy and the 13th-best defensive efficiency in the country. Then again, Drexel is 22nd in defensive efficiency. In other words, that could be a tight, physical, low-scoring game -- and any Philly team has plenty of experience with those.

I think that's it from me for the day. See you at the Palestra tonight.

Before I start, I am honored to be able to say I've hit the Blinq-Attytood exacta. Not bad for the first week.

So let's see if Joe Lunardi still reads me after I give my thoughts on his Bracketology column for the week, because he paints a pretty bleak picture for the local teams. Granted, it came out before the Villanova-Notre Dame game, but the Wildcats aren't in this week's bracket. Beating the Irish should do the trick at least for now. Beating Texas will do even more. Yeah, 'Nova could lose a ton of games the rest of the way, but I have a hard time believing that will happen.

The two City Six representatives this week are Penn and Drexel. The Dragons get an at-large bid, as Lunardi projects that Virginia Commonwealth will win the CAA. But Drexel gets a higher seed -- a 10, compared to VCU's 12 -- which shows the power of those wins against Villanova and Syracuse, though Lunardi claims that the Dragons actually belong at an 11-seed on his S-Curve.

The matchup is against No. 7 Marquette in Chicago as part of the Midwest (St. Louis) regional. I'd certainly take that game if I was a Drexel fan, as the Golden Eagles' offense ranks below 150 in a whopping nine categories. Given the Dragons' strong defense, that's a very winnable matchup. From there, it's either No. 2 Kansas or No. 15 Cal State-Fullerton... and we all know Kansas' recent history in the tournament, right?

Across Market Street, the news is pretty bleak for No. 13 Penn -- a game against high-flying No. 4 Virginia Tech in Buffalo as part of the West (San Jose) regional. It's bad enough to have to deal with the miserable weather in upstate New York in March. The real problem will be dealing with the Hokies' defense, which is ranked in the top 65 in eight categories.

If Penn pulls that one out, they'd face the winner of a 5-12 game between Notre Dame and Massachussetts. Given the teams' current form (and UMass' big men), I'd give the Quakers a better chance against the Irish than the Minutemen -- but I'd give UMass a very good chance of advancing.

One of the many blogs I read each day is the D.C. Sports Bog by Dan Steinberg. I read it in part because I've met the author before and in part because it's a well-written and quite funny take on sports in the next metropolitan area over the Mason-Dixon Line from here.

Well, I was pretty taken aback just now when I read the headline "Washington Post: The CAA Does Not Exist." Apparently, in the Post's weekly bracket projection that came out this past Saturday, no CAA team was included. As in, there wasn't even one given an automatic bid.

But there was one caveat. Steinberg couldn't confirm that this actually happened. I can: it's right here.

I must politely disagree with that bracket. Okay, maybe not quite politely, but I'll try. First of all, I suspect the CAA will indeed get its automatic bid. But there's little doubt in my mind that the CAA should be a multiple-bid conference this year. How can you deny that to a conference with the following characteristics:

-- Four teams in the Pomeroy Top 100 (Old Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth, George Mason and Drexel, in that order);

-- Five teams in the RPI Top 100 (Drexel, Hofstra, VCU, ODU and Mason, in that order);

-- Five teams in the Sagarin Top 100 (VCU, Drexel, ODU, Hofstra and Mason, in that order);

-- And five teams in the top 100 in the non-conference strength of schedule rankings (Northeastern, Drexel, George Mason, UNC-Wilmington and Hofstra, in that order). By contrast, there are only two such teams in the Big East, one each in the ACC and Big Ten and three in the SEC.

On this week's College HoopsCast, Mike Jensen asserted that it's "quite possible" that the CAA could get three bids this year. I also think the CAA is quite strong -- maybe not three bids strong, but certainly two.

Oh, and that Post article calls Villanova a "typical middling Big East team" and seeds it as a 12, and seeds Penn as a 16 in what is "not the finest year for the Ivy."

I feel like I'm going to run out of space if I try to counter those assertions, so I'll let you see for yourself why I see things differently.

Credit where it's due: Inquirer photographer Charles Fox took the picture of Drexel coach Bruiser Flint giving an opinion to the refs during the Hofstra game last week.

Okay, so this one came against James Madison, whose Pomeroy rank is 274 and whose RPI is a whopping 316 -- one spot below Iona, the only winless team in Division I.

Nonetheless, you have to give credit to Drexel for winning its 10th consecutive game tonight, a 65-54 road win over the Dukes. The real test, though, will come Thursday night at the DAC, when preseason CAA favorite Hofstra visits. Hofstra's 9-4 record, including a loss to St. Joe's at Madison Square Garden last month, has led some people to wonder whether the CAA will get the multiple NCAA Tournament bids some thought it would at the beginning of the season.

(By which I mean ESPN.com bracketologist Joe Lunardi, whose remarks to that effect are accessible only to those with an Insider subscription. If you have one, click here and scroll down a ways.)

Anyway, I think it might still happen, especially if Drexel makes the CAA tournament final but loses it. There are four CAA teams in the RPI Top 100: Drexel (18), Old Dominion (75), Hofstra (86) and Virginia Commonwealth (97, and surprising a lot of people). Pomeroy-wise, Drexel (63), ODU (71) and VCU (65) are in the top 100, but Hofstra (120) isn't.

So yeah, that Drexel-Hofstra game should be a good one. At least it's on CN8 if you can't get in the door.