Soft Pretzel Logic

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

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

Yikes.

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

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

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

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

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

Beat that.

While working on some other projects before rejoining you en route to Boston on Friday, here are a few topics to discuss:

1. Where did this kind of a performance by Villanova come from?

2. Where on earth did that pullover Bob Huggins was wearing come from?

3. Why can't more games be on Channel 17? (Okay, we know the answer to that one, but still.)

4. At the end of last night's Purdue-Indiana game, Brent Musburger said he hoped to see Kelvin Sampson on the sidelines for the Hoosiers' next game on Saturday. Now, I'm a pretty big fan of Musburger, and you're welcome to not be, but let's focus on this: I thought that was a bit uncalled for in journalistic terms, and I also think Sampson deserves to lose his job. What do you think?

And a bonus: Is this guy the best player in college basketball, and, after last night, has his team shown that it's the best in the ACC?

(Yes, I took a picture of my television, because I can't find any photos of Huggins from the game on the wires yet.)

Well, on this day without any really big games we have a big piece of news. To the surprise of just about no one I can think of, the NCAA has dropped a warning of five "major" violations on Indiana University and its head men's basketball coach, Kelvin Sampson.

ESPN.com's Andy Katz reports that Sampson's job status "apparently will be decided on a game-by-game basis."

Katz's colleague, columnist Pat Forde, notes that the NCAA's report on the Hoosiers "redacted only one name, which would indicate only one current player was named in an alleged recruiting violation."

I can't honestly say I was suprised when I read that line, given what we all know about Indiana's recent recruiting.

As of now, the best column I have read so far on this topic is by Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz, who came out firing from the very first line.

This is what happens when you hire sleaze.

So I open the debate to you all. And I would like to start things off by arguing that even with the Villanova phone card scandal, the coaches around here are about as much the polar opposite of Sampson as can be.

If you were in charge at Indiana, what would you do?

Jack asks:

By the way, how many teams from the A-10 do you think get in this year?

Before last night, I would have been able to make a good case for four: Xavier, Dayton, Massachusetts and Rhode Island in order of probability.

Rhody definitely hurt itself last night by losing at Saint Louis, while UMass took an enormous step by winning at Dayton.

My gut tells me that there is a second tier of A-10 teams comprised of Charlotte and St. Joe's, and that if either wins its big games it could beat Rhode Island to a bid.

Charlotte, with an RPI of 91 and a strength of schedule of 190, took a big step by winning at Clemson. St. Joe's might have a better shot, with an RPI of 48 and a hefty strength of schedule of 64.

Charlotte (schedule here) goes to UMass tomorrow, and could take another big step by winning that game. The 49ers get Xavier at home on Feb. 13, which is their only home game left of much consequence. But they go to Rhode Island for their last regular game of the season, March 8, and there could be a lot on the line in that game.

Now for the Hawks, and it's really this simple: win all your home games. Their next game on City Ave. is against UMass and their last one is against Xavier, which could probably afford to lose that game and not be troubled for an at-large bid.

Yes, that includes Villanova, and yes, that includes a technical road game against Penn. But I can't imagine the crowd tomorrow night being any less than 60-40 in the Hawks' favor.

Having said that, beating Villanova isn't mandatory. It would go a long way, though, because St. Joe's has to go to Xavier, Rhode Island and Dayton in that order -- the last one being on the last day of the season.

A deep run in Atlantic City would also help, knocking off at least one of the above along the way.

Apparently not, Mr. Stengel.

Ladies and gentlemen, the outbreak of bad basketball that began in Fort Myers Manhattan, Kan. a few days ago with Penn's loss at Florida Gulf Coast spread to our nation's capital tonight.

In my old hometown of Washington, D.C., Saint Louis set a three-point-line era record tonight for the lowest points ever scored in a basketball game as the Billikens fell to George Washington, 49-20.

Yep, that's right, 49-20. The game was so bad that I got emails about it from people in two states and the District itself within ten minutes of each other.

The previous record of 21 points had been held jointly by Princeton, which gave up 41 at home to to Monmouth in 2005; and by Georgia Southern, which gave up 61 at Coastal Carolina in 1997.*

But tonight, a team that doesn't even play the Princeton offense set a new record for futility. And frankly, between this, Penn and Savannah State, I've just about had it.

So to try to cheer myself up before going to sleep, I'm going to give a tape-delayed Line of the Day to what St. Joe's did at UMass on Wednesday. Hopefully, it will also help you get over what Rick Majerus' team did tonight.

The eight fouls committed is actually pretty impressive, but still. One for eighteen from three-point range. Wow.

Now for the good stuff:

That's more like it.

* - Hat tip to blog reader Stu Suss for noting my original omission of the Georgia Southern-Coastal Carolina game.

Greetings to those of you coming over from ACC Now, the Raleigh News and Observer's fine college sports blog. UNC's fans came by last month, and with N.C. Stave having paid a visit to Philadelphia this past March, now we just need Wake Forest to play here to make the Tobacco Road quartet complete.

I've got a grand total of five audio clips for your listening pleasure. From Duke, here are Mike Krzyzewski and Gerald Henderson. From Temple, here are Fran Dunphy, Dionte Christmas and Mark Tyndale.

Henderson, of course, is a Merion native who starred along with Tar Heels guard Wayne Ellington for Episcopal Academy before heading down to the Triangle. The nationally-televised game those two played against Neumann-Goretti at the Palestra a few years ago was the subject of some good banter between Henderson and reporters before I turned the recorder on.

Of note, the Dunphy audio is one long clip with two parts spliced together. The first half is his press conference; the second is him talking to me and Mike Sielski of the Bucks County Courier Times outside the locker room after that.

Also of note, some final stats: Mark Tyndale scored 20 points and Dionte Christmas scored 23, the latter of which was notable for Christmas' 5-for-16 performance from the field, including 3-for-11 from three-point range. But he was 10-for-12 from the free throw line.

Duke averaged 1.051 points per possession for the game: a nicely balanced 1.049 in the first half and 1.053 in the second half. Temple averaged 0.870 points per possession in the game; 0.626 in the first half and 1.106 in the second half.

The key state for the game was probably assist-to-turnover ratio: 13 to 14 for Duke and 11 to 20 for Temple.

The crowd was announced at 18,030.

I can't honestly say that there was a great line from this game. So I'm going to steal two from the Rhode Island-Dayton game, a 92-83 win for the Flyers at a jam-packed UD Arena. A few of us caught glances of the streaming video on press row and were quite impressed by Rhody's comeback.

What impresses me most looking at the box score is that Rhode Island averaged 1.23 points per possession and Dayton averaged 1.29. Not much defense there, but I'm sure not complaining.

Here are the lines for the game's two big backcourt stars, Jimmy Baron of Rhode Island and Brian Roberts of Dayton. If there was ever a game when efficiency was meaningless, this was it:

Okay, with all that done, I'm going to call it a night and chill out to a 14-minute LP version of this song that I just stumbled across on iTunes:

(Gratuitous hat tips to Philadelphia Will Do, The Next Mayor and Heard in the Hall. Honestly, I just wanted to get it in here somewhere because it's just that cool.)

I just got a message from ESPN.com writer Andy Glockner, who gets a shoutout here after linking to me on his blog recently. Apparently, Penn's six points in a half against Florida State Gulf Coast is no longer the NCAA record.

The new dubious honor goes to Savannah State, an independent Division I team which tonight traveled to Manhattan, Kan., to face Kansas State. The Tigers scored a grand total of four points in the second half, and the final score was 85-25 to the home team.

As that box score doesn't have the rebounding or turnover breakdown by half, I couldn't figure out points per possession for just the second half. For the game, though, Savannah State recorded 0.399 points per possession.

The Tigers' game line was this:

I will try to get the by-half numbers in the morning.

UPDATE: With a big assist from Howard Richman, who covers Kansas State for the Kansas City Star, I got the splits by half. Savannah State averaged 0.66 points per possession in the first half and 0.13 points per possession in the second half.

And here, in all its glory, is the full second-half line for Savannah State:

I just got a message from ESPN.com writer Andy Glockner, who gets a shoutout here after linking to me on his blog recently. Apparently, Penn's six points in a half against Florida State Gulf Coast is no longer the NCAA record.

The new dubious honor goes to Savannah State, an independent Division I team which tonight traveled to Manhattan, Kan., to face Kansas State. The Tigers scored a grand total of four points in the second half, and the final score was 85-25 to the home team.

As that box score doesn't have the rebounding or turnover breakdown by half, I couldn't figure out points per possession for just the second half. For the game, though, Savannah State recorded 0.399 points per possession.

The Tigers' game line was this:

I will try to get the by-half numbers in the morning.

UPDATE: With a big assist from Howard Richman, who covers Kansas State for the Kansas City Star, I got the splits by half. Savannah State averaged 0.66 points per possession in the first half and 0.13 points per possession in the second half.

And here, in all its glory, is the full second-half line for Savannah State:

UPDATE: The matchups are now official. Let me know what you think:

Rose Bowl: Illinois vs. USC
Fiesta Bowl: West Virginia vs. Oklahoma
Sugar Bowl: Hawai'i vs. Georgia
Orange Bowl: Kansas vs. Virginia Tech

National Championship Game: Ohio State at vs. LSU (just joking, sort of)

We are just moments away from the announcement of the teams that will play in the various Bowl Championship Series games next month, including the national championship game. As we wait for the news, let's take a look at the polls as they now stand:

I find Sagarin's ranking fascinating. We'll see what kind of an effect it has.

Of note, Hawai'i got a vote in each poll.

In the AP poll, the first-place votes were: Ohio State 50, LSU 11, Oklahoma 1, Georgia 1, Virginia Tech 1, Hawai'i 1..

In the coaches poll, the first-place votes were: Ohio State 46, LSU 11, Oklahoma 2, Hawai'i 1.

If it was up to me, LSU and Hawaii would play for the national title. I think the Warriors deserve a shot, and we all saw what Boise State did last year.

If I had to pick four teams for a playoff, I'd probably go with LSU vs. Hawaii and Ohio State vs. Oklahoma for my semfinals. It punishes Georgia for not winning its division of the SEC, but the Bulldogs had their chance to beat Tennessee and got blown out.

A couple of other blogs I read have had posts lately about stuff that's been discussed on here.

First, a post I really should have referred to when writing about the Philly Classic. One of the things I was thinking about a lot when trying to pass a judgement on the attendance at the Palestra was the small crowds at other tournaments I watched during the week.

Yes, the gym was always packed at the Maui Invitational, and the two tournaments at Madison Square Garden drew a few big crowds when teams with big alumni bases in the New York area were in the house.

But so many of the other games I saw -- especially the ones in Puerto Rico and Orlando -- had crowds just as sparse (at least proportionally, given the sizes of the arenas) as the Philly Classic crowds.

Which brings me to this post from David Scott of CSTV.com's Hang Time, who just happens to be a known reader of this blog as well. His weekly report card gives a C- to tournaments with bad crowds, even calling out the CSTV-broadcasted South Padre Island tournament.

The other post of interest is related to the BCS mess, and indeed to this comment from some guy you might have heard of who goes by dmac:

Who should play for the National Championship? Whoever wins the two semifinal playoff games. Oh.

Yeah, I'm with you. So is an old friend of mine, Zachary Levine of the Houston Chronicle, who also falls in the category of blogs that get more hits than I do (at least judging by the comments).

On said blog, The Unofficial Scorer, he took a rare time-out from analyzing Houston teams of no consequence to come up with fields of eight and 16 teams for a college football playoff. He even drew up a selection-committee style field with automatic bids for each I-A conference.

We can only hope to see it some day... and we can really only hope to have enough free time on our hands to come up with that sort of thing.

So I'm watching Arizona-Kansas just now, and Brandon Rush just heaved up a buzzer-beating 3/4-court shot that went off the rim, up off the backboard, then rolled around the front of the rim and out.

Overtime instead of the shot of the year, no matter how many games come after tonight.

What, you thought I'd be watching something else at this hour?

Back tomorrow with some Philly Classic analysis...

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:

I mean, Tyrone Willingham never lost to Navy. Nor did any of the coaches in the 38 years before Willingham's arrival in South Bend, Ind., going back to 1963 -- the last season before today that the Midshipmen beat the Irish.

Including the field goal Weis passed on from the 28-yard line with under a minute to go in regulation.

Plus the fact that Willingham's teams were never 1-8 at any point. They went 10-3, 5-7 and 6-6.

Yet after three years, Willingham was gone.

So what standard should Charlie Weis be held to?

And what must it have been like to be one of the hundreds of Midshipmen in the stands at Notre Dame Stadium today?

By the way, check out the trash talk from Temple fans already starting ahead of Penn State's visit here next week...

I've had more than a hunch for a little while now that Villanova is better than some people outside our region think. It's fair to say that Georgetown and Louisville stand out above the rest of the big east, but I'm willing to put the Wildcats a little higher than others in that big pack below the Hoyas and Cardinals.

Then again, I've also thought that this young Wildcats team would be will served to not have too much attention thrown at it earlier in the season, the better to surprise folks later on (though you can be sure that the other coaches in the conference won't be surprised one bit).

But it looks like the secret's out, and that the coaches opened the door. Villanova is ranked No. 25 in the first ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll of the season, one of five Big East teams in the poll.

The Pac-10 has the most ranked teams with six. The ACC, SEC and Big 12 all have three, and the Big Ten has two.

And it's notable that St. Joe's got two votes. I have a suspicion that number goes up early in the season, even if it's too obvious to say it would jump in a hurry with a win at Syracuse.

Xavier led the A-10 with 38 votes.

In the CAA, Virginia Commonwealth had five votes, Old Dominion three and George Mason two. Keep an eye on Mason, folks. They were picked No. 1 in the conference and have a strong non-conference slate.

Finally, North Carolina is ranked No. 1, and while I usually put more stock in the AP poll, wouldn't it be nice if the Tar Heels are still No. 1 when they come here?

ATLANTIC CITY -- It should not surprise you at all to read that Rick Majerus had the biggest crowd of reporters around him today. The former Utah coach and ESPN analyst is returning to coaching this year at Saint Louis, which will definitely help raise the Atlantic 10's profile.

When I saw the size of the crowd, I knew I had to put everything else aside and record what Majerus said. I wasn't disappointed. He didn't take that many questions, but he didn't have to. When Mike Kern of the Daily News asked Majerus what it meant to return to coaching, he went on a five-minute riff that was more stream-of-consciousness than a straight answer.

But it was great stuff, ranging from what it means to be at practice to how he felt when he found out his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

To listen to that, his views on large conferences and more (including an expletive -- heads up if you don't like that stuff), click here.

Oh, and the part when his cell phone rang is also quite funny.

ATLANTIC CITY -- And if you've read the blog for a while, you know the answer.

Who's the all-time leading scorer in Philadelphia high school basketball history?

That would be George Washington's Maureece Rice, who broke Wilt Chaimberlain's old record while at Lutheran Christian.

He's going to be one of the leaders of this year's Colonials squad, which lost a lot of big players from the team that surged to the A-10 title here last March.

Click here to listen to my interview with him.

NEW YORK -- Okay, I have to admit that I saved the best thing for last.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a big fan of Bill Raftery. He has a great broadcasting style, and of course some of the best one-liners anywhere in sports.

So I couldn't pass up the chance to talk to him today. The main questions were about Villanova and the Big East. But Raftery being a La Salle alum, I had to ask him a few Big 5 questions as well.

We talked about his role in the documentary movie about the Palestra that came out over the summer and the Big 5's reputation on the national college basketball scene.

And he let it slip that he'll be calling the North Carolina-Penn game in December.

Click here to listen.

That's going to wrap it up from here. Sorry about all the technical difficulties earlier.

I'll be back tomorrow from Atlantic City.

NEW YORK -- There are a lot of really smart people in the Big East. But Len Elmore stood above them all today.

That's in part because he's really, really tall. But he's also got a degree from Harvard Law School. Oh, and he's one of the best TV analysts in college basketball.

Which is why a lot of people wanted to talk to him today. I was one of them, and he was nice enough to give me a few minutes of his time.

We started out talking about the coming Big East season and Villanova's prospects in it. And because Elmore is one of the few analysts out there with a really deep knowledge of the Big East and ACC, my big question to him was about the quasi-rivalry that exists between the two conferences.

Click here to listen.

NEW YORK -- It's pretty clear when you start talking to UConn coach Jim Calhoun that he's a New England guy. But the branches of the coaching tree that he's spawned come straight through Philadelphia.

Penn coach Glen Miller and Virginia coach Dave Leitao, whose Cavaliers will come to the Palestra next month (and whose star players, Sean Singletary, is a Philadephia native), both used to be assistants to Calhoun.

And while the Huskies didn't make it to the NCAA Tournament last season, Miller and Leitao did -- along two other former Calhoun assistants, George Washington's Karl Hobbs and Southern Connecticut State's Howie Dickerman.

Calhoun was happy to talk about them all when I asked him. He also spoke at length about scheduling games in the Big East, why football will keep the conference from shedding any of its teams, and the youth of this year's UConn squad.

Click here to listen.

NEW YORK -- It won't surprise you to hear that Georgetown coach John Thompson III was very much in demand today. My offhand guess is that he tied Connecticut's Jim Calhoun in terms of the number of reporters that hovered over his desk, barely trailed Louisville's Rick Pitino, and might have actually beaten Syracuse's Jim Boeheim.

That's how big a deal this year's Hoyas club could be. They were picked first in the preseason poll and center Roy Hibbert was selected as the preseason player of the year.

But Thompson is renowned for his cool temperament, so it was no surprise to hear him talk today about managing expectations, and trying to get his team to not think that it's in the Top 10 in the country (to say the least). Hibbert was much the same.

They also talked about the Hoyas' frontcourt depth and what impact their highly-touted freshman class will have this year.

Click here to listen to Thompson and here to listen to Hibbert.

And yes, you'll notice that Thompson has a pretty dry wit... and that he aimed it rather squarely at me.

NEW YORK -- Jim Boeheim walked down the short flight of steps to where the print reporters were waiting, flashing his trademark wry smile and looking every bit the part of a guy who didn't have to leave the state to get here today.

That's just the way he is, I guess. But he's a Hall of Fame coach for a reason.

And he had plenty to say. He held forth on the youth of this year's Orange squad and the new rules on coaches' decorum on the bench -- including a nice little shot at Connecticut's Jim Calhoun -- and gave his thoughts on Mike Tranghese's earlier remarks about last year.

He also talked about what roles two of his big-time incoming freshmen, Philadephia natives Rick Jackson and Antonio Jardine, will play this season.

Click here to listen.

NEW YORK -- Even though Pittsburgh is one of the Big East's powerhouses, it's hard to not root for Panthers coach Jamie Dixon.

He's been through a heck of a lot of rough water in recent years, and admitted today that he's still recovering from the death of his sister, former Army coach Maggie Dixon.

Jamie talked today about what he learned from his sister, how he'll replace star center Aaron Gray, and the Big East's expansion to 18 conference games.

Listen to it by clicking here.

NEW YORK -- It didn't take long for Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese to get right to his biggest point of the day.

Even seven months after it happened, he was still quite annoyed about Syracuse's exclusion from the NCAA Tournament this past March.

“I’ve studied it, I’ve looked at it, I’ve tried to be objective about it – at the end of the day, I can’t tell you why they didn’t get in,” Tranghese said. “I don’t want our league being taken for granted because we’re 16 teams . . . I have coaches in this room who feel that we’re being arbitrated against.”

To hear Tranghese's remarks in full, click here.

NEW YORK -- Yikes.

I literally couldn't get a decent wireless signal the entire time I was in Madison Square Garden.

But rest assured that I am here, and have a lot of audio to share with you from this morning's Big East Media Day. So stay tuned.

Last week it was Arizona Diamondbacks fans chucking bottles onto the field in Game 1 of the NLCS.

This week, we thank the residents of Oxford, Miss., for making Philadelphia sports look good.

And we thank the Forde Yard Dash for reporting it:

If the goal is to ensure the safety of the players, then surely that should extend to protecting them from trash, bottles and flying high heels (2).

Those were among the garage sale of projectiles fired onto the field Saturday at Mississippi (3) after officials overturned a call that could have given the Rebels a chance to tie or win against Alabama (4).

I certainly would not want to be hit upside the head with a high heel. Getting stepped on is bad enough (which I know from experience).

But hey, in a stadium whose name includes the word Hemingway, I guess it would have to be fancy dress clothes flying out of the stands.

Having taken my lumps on Texas and Connecticut, and betting there's more to come, I'll gladly yield to the fans of those schools.

(Though having been in Dallas for the NCAA Tournament a year ago, there sure seemed to me to be a lot more interest in UT sports than other schools. Hopefully, I'll get there during football season some day.)

But I'm at least glad it stirred you all up. I feel like I'm only talking to tumbleweeds half the time.

Anyway, let's use my mea culpa as an excuse to look at today's headlines.

Speaking of big-time schools, Frank Fitzpatrick writes a truly outstanding story on the front page of today's Inquirer about the fundraising arms race in college sports.

Fitzpatrick has written about this stuff before and will surely do so again, and he really knows his stuff when it comes to this subject. So please read the story and feel free to comment on it here.

As for yesterday's games, pride of place has to go to -- believe it or not -- Temple. The Owls rallied from 17 points down in the fourth quarter to win at Akron, thanks to three fourth-quarter touchdown passes from Adam DiMichele. You Owls fans tell me whether that was more impressive than the fact that it's Temple's second win in a row.

Penn State was very impressive in its 38-7 win over Wisconsin, spurred on by a nice bit of motivation from JoePa. The win certainly moved the spotlight off the Austin Scott situation for a little while.

Rutgers also scored 38 points in beating Syracuse, with Ray Rice once again the center of attention. Before waxing nostalgic about winning a state high school championship at the Carrier Dome, Rice ran for 196 yards and three touchdowns.

Elsewhere in New York, Penn running back Joe Sandberg beat Rice's tally by a yard and a touchdown as Penn put up 59 points on Columbia.

(Fair warning, though: I have heard that the writer of that story isn't very good...)

In Massachusetts, Villanova took a very good UMass team to overtime, but the Minutemen were just too much after that.

And finally on the local scene, I would nominate Delaware's Omar Cuff as the best I-AA player in our region. I wanted to call him the best player in the region at any level, but if you include Penn State and Rutgers that isn't the case. It is if you only include Temple from I-A, though.

Cuff ran for 200 yards and three touchdowns and scored another from a screen pass yesterday. That's 24 of Delaware's 30-point total against Northeastern. Cuff's totals so far this season: 5.1 yards per carry, 20 touchdowns and an average of 123.3 rushing yards per game.

And one basketball story: Joe Juliano surveys St. Joe's at their first practice of the year.

After the jump, the national news.

Yes, I should have done this earlier in the day, but I was the guy behind the camera for the Eagles video on Philly.com and I did the post-production (as such) as well.

Penn held its football media day yesterday. If Villanova's main storyline is its quarterback and Temple's is what Al Golden can do this year, the single biggest theme regarding the Quakers this season is the kicking game.

You might (or might not... or probably don't, to be honest) recall that Penn set a rather dubious mark last season by becoming the first team to ever lose three straight overtime games -- at Yale, at home to Brown and at Princeton. I covered the two road games for the Inquirer and believe me when I say that on any given kick, there was a pretty good chance of all heck breaking loose.

At Yale, Derek Zoch missed a 23-yarder in the second quarter. In the fourth, with the game tied 14-14, Bagnoli was so worried on a fourth-down play that he chose to go for it instead of having Zoch kick a 42-yarder into the wind. A bit of a hazardous kick? Yes, but wouldn't you take your chance with the points?

Does that change when I tell you that in the overtime, Zoch put one off the upright?

No surprise, then: Joe Juliano focuses on the kicking game in his story in today's Inquirer.

Mike Kern notes that it's been four years since Penn last won an Ivy League title. The Quakers' four conference losses last season were by a combined 11 points. That's less than a field goal three points a game. Or something like that.

At the I-A level (one rule of this blog: I will not call it the BCS Subdivision or whatever its name is), Dick Jerardi writes about Rutgers' renaissance under Greg Schiano, and also writes a useful info box. Meaningful college football in the Northeast Corridor is a pretty nice thing to have, isn't it?

Ray Parrillo profiles Conwell-Egan grad and West Virginia superstar Steve Slaton.

Shannon Ryan writes up Penn State tight end Andrew Quarless' suspension. In an update this afternoon, Ryan reports that Quarless could be out 3-4 weeks. The Nittany Lions also got a commitment from defensive end Jack Crawford.

Notre Dame DT Derrell Hand, a former West Catholic star, has been suspended three games for propositioning a prostitute and will miss the Penn State game. Just reporting the facts here, folks.

And finally, if you still want to read more, the Daily News' Ed Barkowitz compiles 50 -- yes, fifty -- things you should know about the college football season.

That should tide you over until tomorrow.

Oh my...

I realize that it's been circulating around the message boards all day, but the AP just confirmed a few minutes ago that Wake Forest men's basketball coach Skip Prosser died today. He was 56 years old and collapsed while jogging.

I know this isn't ACC country, but I watch a lot of that conference and just can't believe this. Maybe it's because I wasn't paying attention so much 14 years ago, but that's how long Prosser was at the helm in Winston-Salem.

My condolences to any readers out there who are Demon Deacon fans.

Update: Tributes from Hang Time and Dick "Hoops" Weiss.

... yeah, pretty much. I didn't so much forget as that I don't have all that much to say. I'm sort of lukewarm on Thaddeus Young, but then again I wasn't as high on Al Thornton as a college player as people seem to be about his pro prospects.

I also thought Julian Wright was a (reasonably above average) cog in a Kansas system that produced an explosive offense at times, but couldn't get it done when it really mattered in the NCAA Tournament. And yes, "when it really mattered" involved a game played in what was basically a northern annex of Pauley Pavilion.

I never saw Jason Smith play a full game, but I like the highlights. I somehow managed to never see Herbert Hill play a full game either. Shame on me for that one, as it should have been easy enough to just sit there and watch the 'Nova-Providence game. But I do think he's being undersold by some people, because 18.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game in the Big East are nothing to sneeze at.

Above all, though, I really like Derrick Byars and think he could be an absolute steal for the Sixers. I don't care that there are other players at his position already on the team, the guy did just about everything for Vanderbilt last season.

He's one of those classic "very good basketball players." He can pass and rebound a bit, and even play some defense, and he can definitely score. As in, 17 points per game last season and a four-year average of 40 percent from three-point range. He also played at least 30 games a year all four years, so that number isn't slanted towards the later seasons.

So those are my far-too-late few cents, and now I'm going to go back to watching soccer and wondering when we'll ever get a MLS team here.

Greetings from the press room of the Wachovia Center, where I'll be doing some video features from tonight's NBA Draft festivities later tonight. Until then, Marc Narducci of the Inquirer and Bob Cooney of the Daily News are live-blogging things. Philly.com also has all the big stories from this morning's papers, including columns from Stephen A. Smith and John Smallwood.

I'll be back later with my thoughts on who the Sixers picked and whatever surprises come along through the night.

I'll come back Thursday night to write something about the NBA Draft. There's going to be a ton of coverage across both papers and on Philly.com, so why not throw my own hat into the ring. In the meantime, here's a taste of what I watch when it's not college basketball season, courtesy of former UCLA midfielder Benny Feilhaber...

Okay, folks, here's a nice little off-season trivia challenge for you. Will 7-foot-3 La Salle recruit Jameson Keefe be the tallest player ever in the Big 5 when he arrives at 20th and Olney?

Thus far, with some help from Daily News assistant managing editor Pat McLoone, I have him tied with Villanova's Tom Greis, and just edging out the late Robert Liburd of Temple at 7-foot-2 and 7-footers even Tom Piotrowski of La Salle and Conor Tolan of Penn.

If you know of anyone taller, let me know and I'll be glad to give you credit. In the meantime, a few national odds and ends...

ESPN.com's Andy Katz reports that Kentucky wants to get out of a game this coming season against UMass at the New Garden in Boston, and is willing to send a $50,000 check to Amherst to do so... make that did so already. UMass AD John McCutcheon. says in the press release that "it is very unprofessional to treat a fellow institution in this fashion."

Now, I'll grant that not-as-Big-as-it-used-to-be Blue has games next season against UNC and Louisville at home; plays in a Coaches vs. Cancer Classic that also includes UConn, Oklahoma and Memphis; and goes to Indiana and Houston, the latter of which will make new coach Billy Gillespie happy.

But UMass loses Rashaun Freeman, Stephane Lasme and James Life going into next year, and the school had already sold 7,000 tickets for the game. So whether or not Kentucky wants out of that game for fear of losing it -- a claim I am always happy to make on behalf of lesser schools who lose home games against bigger schools even if it isn't true -- it seems to me the Minutemen are right to complain.

Also, Cornell forward Geoff Reeves' passport was one of a few valuable objects stolen from the Cornell locker room on Saturday, just a few days before the team leaves for a 10-day trip to France on Wednesday. That's not good, whether you're an Ivy League team or not. If you know where it is, get that thing overnighted to Ithaca, N.Y., if you don't mind.

Remember Jesse Pellot-Rosa, who had a pretty good career with Virginia Commonwealth's basketball team before graduating this year?

Well, the 6-foot-5, 195-pound guard signed a pro contract.

With the Jets.

For lack of anything better to do at the moment, explain that one.

Pellot-Rosa is the guy in the black No. 23 jersey falling for the fake by Drexel's Dominick Mejia at the DAC this past season.

Ray Parrillo, Kevin Tatum and Shannon Ryan compile the local coaches' reactions, pretty much all positive, to the decision to move the three-point line back a foot.

But former Philadelphian, known Soft Pretzel Logic reader and CSTV.com men's basketball editor Bryan Graham makes a very interesting point: the ruling could be a big boost to major-conference teams.

He argues that since mid-major upsets are usually keyed by good guards who hit lots of perimeter shots, moving the line back could knock a few of those points off the board and favor the big-time players who are better at making shots from a foot farther back.

Your thoughts?

(Or your tumbleweeds?)

So you've probably read the stories by now about how the NCAA men's basketball rules committee approved moving the three-point line back a foot from its current 19 feet, nine inches to 20 feet, nine inches.

I've thought about it for a while now and I guess I'm okay with it. I actually like the high percentage of three-point shots taken in the college game relative to the pros, as I think it has a lot to do with the emphasis on good shooting in the college game relative to the more drive-to-the-basket style of the NBA.

(Sorry if there are any Phoenix Suns fans out there, but you know you're the exception to the rule.)

Yeah, you get some big guys taking shots from the arc that they shouldn't. But you also get big guys who develop a good shot and add that to their game along with the ability to play the post well. Rob Ferguson and Curtis Sumpter come to mind right away. And I thought I heard about some player on Penn who's a three-point-shooting small forward, but since people think I write about Penn too much I'd better leave Mark Zoller out of this.

(Oops.)

Do I mind having good straight-up post players in the college game? Of course not. But the passing and shooting in college basketball is one of the main reasons why I prefer it so much to the NBA.

Now, having said that, I find a few problems with this particular decision. First is moving the line by a foot specifically. I can't quite figure out why that's the chosen distance, other than moving a foot for a foot's sake. While I don't want the line moved to the NBA distance, I would have rather seen the line be moved to the international distance of 20 feet, 6 inches. I wouldn't necessarily mind the expanded lane either.

If I had my way, I'd probably have the whole floor be the same as the international floor so that might, heaven forbid, help American basketball players become more used to what they'll see when they play at the world championships and the Olympics. I do find it rather embarrassing when the U.S. gets its clock cleaned by teams that play better basketball by teams that know how to pass, shoot, and use the arc and lane better.

Yes, some of this has to do with player selection, both in terms of who the coaches (and sponsors, ahem) pick, and in terms of which players conveniently decide not to play for the national team. But -- forgive me, please? -- I'd rather see the team that represents the country that invented the game be the smarter team on the floor.

(If you're a fan of the English national soccer team, this may sound familiar to you, but that's for another day and another blog.)

This discussion of the international distance brings me to my other complaint with the line change: the decision to not change the women's distance. Which will of course mean there will be two three-point lines on the floor. That isn't the reason why I'm against it, and I will not be drawn into a gender equity argument here or on the comments because gender has nothing to do with any of this, nor should it.

My problem is that the WNBA line is farther out from the college line. And if part of the point of moving the men's line back is to get closer to the professional line (which must surely have something to do with this), then I think the women's committee really ought to think along the same lines.

Now you might be wondering just what the WNBA line distance is. I had to go to Mel Greenberg to find out (and he had to call the league to find out), but I bet it won't surprise you.

It's not the NBA distance of 23 feet, nine inches.

It's 20 feet, six inches.

Sound familiar? Yep, it's the international distance (click here to see what it looks like -- I'd post it directly but it's not Creative Commons-licensed)

So given all of this, it really seems to me that the most logical thing would have been to move both lines to 20 feet 6 inches. The shooters of both genders would still make a reasonable number of shots, and maybe -- maybe -- it would help everyone involved start reconciling some of the differences between American and international basketball before the national team gets embarrassed again.

I really want to hear what you all have to say about this.

UNC stud freshman Brandan Wright has declared for the NBA Draft, according to the AP, but hasn't hired an agent yet. Still, it's a good bet that he'll go real early.

If he does, it'll be too bad for the fans around here, as he won't be playing at the Palestra with Carolina next season. Of course, he'll come to town with whatever NBA team drafts him.

It just came across that Bob Huggins has made it official: he's leaving Kansas State to take the West Virginia job.

I'd love to know what you all think of this. Huggins was in Manhattan for all of one year, and his best recruit, Bill Walker, tore his ACL and barely played last year. It'll be fascinating to see how Walker reacts to this, as well as the other players Huggins has been recruiting lately.

Oh, and you can bet the most important reaction of all will come from Cincinnati president Nancy Zimpher, who fired Huggins and will now have to see him on the other side of the floor.

Someone asked me if I was going to write about last night's game. I don't know what to say about it that isn't said elsewhere except that I was really impressed by Al Horford and I've finally been convinced that Greg Oden is for real.

But the news that actually matters is that it just crossed the wire that Michigan has hired West Virginia coach John Beilein. And Iowa just hired Butler coach Todd Lickliter. Which means that the Big Ten now has the following coaches:

-- Tubby Smith, Minnesota

-- John Beilein, Michigan

-- Tom Izzo, Michigan State (for now)

-- Bo Ryan, Wisconsin

-- Bruce Weber, Illinois

-- Todd Lickliter, Iowa

-- Thad Matta, Ohio State (for the purpose of this exercise... and I concede that he did at least try to do some coaching in the late rounds of the tournament)

-- Kelvin Sampson, Indiana (even I have to concede that he's a big name, as slimy as much of his work as been)

-- Matt Painter, Purdue (regardless of whether the Boilermakers should have been in the tournament, he's generally done a very good job succeeding Gene Keady)

-- and... because I got convinced to throw his name in... Bill Carmody, Northwestern.

That's quite an elite group -- 10 of the conference's 11 coaches (sorry, Penn State fans). I dare say that on a per-capita basis, it's the best of the BCS conferences, with the Big East second because it has 16 teams.

Big news coming Monday, though. Maybe sooner depending on things.

In the meantime, consider this. One of the undercurrents to pretty much every college basketball season is the shouting between the Big East and ACC over which conference is better. The southern half of the East Coast (plus Boston College) ended the season with the highest conference Pomeroy ranking, while the northern half (plus South Florida) was fifth.

The head-to-head games between the conferences don't conform to the standings, though. In the regular season, the Big East went 6-5 against the ACC, with four of the five losses tallied by teams that didn't make the conference tournament.

In the postseason (NCAA Tournament and NIT combined), the Big East was 4-1. Arguably the two biggest games, Georgetown-UNC and tonight's NIT final between West Virginia and Clemson, both went in the Big East's favor.

Does it mean anything? No, and I'm counting down the ten seconds until someone emails me to make the point. But it's not like bragging ever requires a real excuse.

Mitchell Rosenzweig writes in:

Stan Heath shown the door by Frank Broyles. Arkansas is really not a factor these days.
Who are you hearing as the candidates?
Thats 2 SEC jobs open -- AR and KY

Still have 2 Big 10(11) openings as well
Michigan and Iowa

And 2 in the Ivy. Harvard and Princeton. I know that gets some play around here

Any buzz on any of these?

Its been quiet on this front, and all we know is that Calipari signed a nice extension at Memphis State.

And Little Ricky is content at Louisville. He must like the Big East road trips to NYC, DC, and Chicago a little more than trips to Starkville, Oxford, and other outposts in SEC-land.

Only real news I see is that Ritchie Mckay (ex New Mex) landed at Liberty. He must be liked by Falwell.

I must admit I don't hear all that much of the national coaching rumors. As for the Ivies, I don't know much there either but I can give you a few names. At Princeton, two names I've heard mentioned in the media are Northwestern assistant Mitch Henderson, Georgetown assistant Rob Burke and -- yes, it's getting around -- maybe even Bill Carmody himself. See this story.

Henderson assists Carmody, and is a former Princeton player from the mid-90's. If any Penn fans have any good stories about him (which I gather are out there), do post them. Burke assists JTIII, which certainly puts him in a good place right now.

But rule out another Hoyas assistant, Kevin Broadus, who will take the job at SUNY-Binghamton after the NCAA Tournament is done. Still, I'm not inclined to think Princeton will go "outside the family" this time.

Having said that, if you -- yes, you -- want to coach Princeton, here's the job listing. The qualifications don't seem too excessive.

As for Harvard, rumors abound that New Hampshire and Drexel coach Bill Herrion is a leading candidate. One of the sources of the rumors is this Basketball U. story, which is behind a paywall. Williams College coach Dave Paulsen is another candidate, and has been in the mix for a number of recent Ivy openings.

Harvard is an interesting job in that it's clearly a premier school in terms of name branding, even though the basketball program has never been successful. Yet unlike Princeton, which also has those qualities, Harvard doesn't have the history and culture of a certain way of doing things that Princeton has. New Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust was a professor at Penn from 1971 to 2005, so I would think she knows full well about how important college sports (and basketball specifically) can be on a campus.

On the big stage, I've yet to read anything that disproves the idea that Tom Izzo and Tom Crean are the top two candidates for Kentucky. I was certainly hoping Calipari would get the job for the sizzle of it, but good for Memphis for keeping him around (as an aside, what does it say that I've never referred to the school as Memphis State?).

As for Pitino, no reason for him to leave the Big East. Kentucky's a marquee job, but at Louisville he gets on national TV all the time and he gets to coach in New York, which you can't really do in the SEC unless you win the NIT. Which wouldn't go over well in Lexington.

I think the firing of Stan Heath is absurd, frankly. You might recall that retiring Arkansas AD Frank Broyles (read this piece from a few weeks back to get an idea of just how powerful he is) said that Heath would lose his job if he didn't make the NCAA Tournament. Well, Heath did it and lost his job anyway. No surprise that former Razorbacks coach Nolan Richardson said Broyles should take the job and see how he does with it.

I have nothing on Michigan, but there's news today that Iowa contacted Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl. Pearl said no thanks, and there's no reason for Pearl to leave Knoxville. He's clearly having a ton of fun and gets to coach at one of the rare schools that treats both basketball and football very well.

Speaking of that, go here and listen to Steve Alford talk about why he left Iowa.

From Mitchell Rosenzweig (whose comments I quite like receiving, but... anyone else out there?)

Kentucky

Some early rumored names

Bill Gillespie TAMU
Tim Floyd USC
Mike Montgomery sitting at home collecting $$
Jay Wright Nova
John Pelphrey USA

Gillespie's name got bounced around for a while, but I can't quite see him leaving A&M. As well as he's done, there's something to be said for coaching basketball at a football school because there's less pressure on you.

I certainly can't see Floyd leaving L.A., with the media attention and the recruiting base.

Montgomery... maybe. But is he too nice to deal with the Kentucky hoops culture?

Pelphrey... maybe. Would be much more of a move up than any of the other names, but that's the first I've heard of it.

And as for Jay... here's the thing about that. I heard it too earlier. But I can't see him leaving Villanova. Not for this, and not for much of anything.

He's a Philly guy, coaching at the Big East's Philly school, getting on national TV all the time, surely making good money (but his tailor knows this already, as we all do), getting just about any players he wants in the Philly area and a good few from New York (at least those who don't go to Duke or Carolina).

He plays most of his games on campus and playing the big ones in an NBA arena. He doesn't have all that much pressure because he took his team to a No. 1 seed last year before losing to the national champions, then followed that up with another Tournament trip in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year.

Yes, Kentucky's a big deal, but I just can't see him taking it. And I'm not sure I can see Kentucky wanting a Northeast guy instead of a Midwest guy. Their fans much prefer local/regional players, from what I've seen.

Andy Katz has updated the original story with some potential names: Tom Izzo, Tom Crean, John Calipari, Mark Few and Mike Brey.

Calipari coaching Kentucky... ooh.

UPDATE: Katz has added Gillespie, Wright and Texas' Rick Barnes to his list.

I still don't think Wright goes. And for Kentucky's sake, I hope they don't hire Barnes. Two straight close calls to inferior teams in the NCAA Tournament should answer any questions as to whether Barnes is a good coach.

Thoughts on Alford? Looks like he is leaving Iowa for New Mexico. Not a good sign for Big 10 (11) basketball.

No, but... we interrupt this blog post to report an ESPN.com story that Tubby Smith is leaving Kentucky to take over at Minnesota. To quote Dick Enberg, oh my.

I... don't know what to say about that one. If I had to pick a Big Ten school he'd go to, I would have said Michian, but... wow.

Anyway, about Alford -- yes, it's a big loss for Iowa and the Big Ten, but it gets Indiana out of his hair. And he gets to coach at the Pit, which is no bad thing. Good for New Mexico, too, that they've brought in a big-name coach to put some spice back there again.

So I was thinking more about that column on Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, and I decided to create a poll about it.

I phrased the question like this:

Texas' Kevin Durant and Ohio State's Greg Oden have both expressed interest in staying in college instead of turning pro this year. What do you think?

-- They should stay if they want to, and enjoy college life.
-- They should go. They're ready for the NBA and the money's too good.

Vote in it, and if you have more to say post a comment or email me.

Oh my goodness.

Down in Washington, the D.C. Sports Bog just published an extraordinary exposé on the life of the man whose stats I quote so often on here, Ken Pomeroy.

Forget about the fact that the Bog's author, Dan Steinberg, refers to me directly in his post. The stuff on Pomeroy is pretty astonishing.

First, that he lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Which you could sort of pick up already based on the games he says he goes to in his blog, but I never realized that was exactly where he lived.

Second, that he grew up in the D.C. area, which doesn't much matter to anyone reading this blog. But one Washington-related thing with him of very real consequence is that he thinks very, very highly of Georgetown. The Hoyas have the No. 2 raw offensive efficiency in the country and the No. 1 adjusted efficiency, which has some kind of formula built in based on strength of opposition that I don't quite get (I use the raw stats in Crunchy Numbers in part for that reason).

The Bog reports that Pomeroy has a particular affection (on this Valentine's Day, naturally) for Georgetown center Roy Hibbert, who is No. 8 in offensive rating and No. 2 in effective field goal percentage (despite the fact that he plays almost entirely in the paint).

The most important about Pomeroy's Georgetown obsession, though, is that the Hoyas come to the Wachovia Center on Saturday to play Villanova. I'm going to stick my neck out here and say that if the Wildcats win -- which is a very real possibility because they already beat Georgetown in D.C. this season -- 'Nova had better get some serious respect.

And there's one other thing about Ken Pomeroy that you need to know: in his day job, he's meteorologist for the National Weather Service (this was first reported by the Raleigh News and Observer's ACC Now blog).

That's something we could really use some of around here right now.

Please allow me to do a bit of grandstanding if you would. This is a blog, after all.

On Pardon the Interruption today, Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon proclaimed North Carolina coach Roy Williams to be the best-dressed coach in college sports. With all due respect to both columnists, they're wrong.

You, I, and everyone else knows full well that it's Jay Wright.

I mean, Roy dresses well and all. I even like the argyle sweaters. But you just can't beat Jay Wright in an open shirt, much less his three-piece suits. Or his four-piece suits, for that matter.

All the Philly hype in the Carolina-Duke game has been about Gerald Henderson and Wayne Ellington, but we forgot someone -- Duke's Haddonfield, N.J., native Brian Zoubek. He's getting his first start for the Blue Devils since their first game of the season tonight.

The game's on ESPN (of course), unless you're for some strange reason reading this blog in ACC country, in which case it's on whoever in your market takes the Raycom/Lincoln Financial ACC package. I know of at least one reader down there at the moment.

And it shouldn't surprise you to hear who's calling tonight's game: Mike Patrick and Dick Vitale on ESPN, and Tim Brando and Billy Packer in ACC-land (literally and perhaps figuratively as well).

I can't help posting this tidbit: Morgan State coach Todd Bozeman got in a huge fight over the fact that a restaurant couldn't give his team the kind of sandwiches he wanted.

Holland said an assistant coach for the Morgan State team had ordered 52 sandwiches, requesting Philly steak or chicken. Holland explained that they couldn't handle 52 Philly steak sandwiches but could put together a variety of sandwiches, and the assistant coach told him to do what he could.

When Bozeman arrived to pick up the sandwiches, he was apparently angry about the selection of ham and turkey sandwiches, Holland said.

"He yelled, 'I ain't scared of you country bumpkins. I want my . . . money back!'" Holland said.

He might want to give a call to Ali G or Pat Buchanan.

UPDATE: More -- and more biting, I should say -- punchlines here.

Oh lord. Just saw on SportsCenter the Wisconsin-Indiana highlights, in which the Hoosiers upset the No. 2-ranked Badgers, 71-66.

The Indiana fans rushed the court.

Seriously. Indiana fans rushed the court at Assembly Hall.

That is one heck of a sign of how far that program has fallen.

Now that the Barbaro stuff has settled a little bit, I have time to take a few minutes to read some of the mail I've received (yes, I have fan mail, and I'm very happy about it).

I've been going back and forth with Penn fan Will Weiss about the future of the Big 5. I'm going to condense what he wrote a little bit because his original email was really, really long, but here are the main parts. Oh, and if you want your thoughts on here, please feel free to post a comment or send me an email.

Will wrote:

I am curious as to what you think is the future of the Big 5. I think you can look at the Penn-Temple game and say, that's what Big 5 basketball is all about. The media coverage was incredible, and if only for a night, it was amazing to have the Big 5, and more selfishly Penn in the local spotlight.

Although the atmosphere was at its best, it's hard to ignore the 2,000 plus tickets that went unsold for the game. Then again, it was a cold Wednesday night and this weekend's battle is entirely sold-out. Perhaps more uplifting is the fact that the St Joe's game is sold-out without the additional storyline. It is simply the Big 5 at its best, on a Saturday at the Palestra.

When I try to look into the future I see mixed signals. The rise of big-money conference basketball has undoubtedly hurt the Big 5, although it has made it even more unique. I wonder if 'Nova even "needs" the Big 5.

My reply is this: I do think the Big 5 survives, and I think the number one reason for that is Jay Wright. Whether or not Villanova 'needs' it, Wright really does appreciate the history and tradition. And with Penn and Drexel being at the levels that they are, it allows him to say that his team plays a good non-conference schedule instead of the absolute creampuff stuff you see at Syracuse, UConn and Pitt.

As I'm sure you know well, Syracuse and UConn don't cross state lines until February unless there's a big bag of money down the highway, and it's not like there are that many great teams to play in their own states. Boeheim can claim that the games at the Garden are against good teams, which they are, but 'Nova gets out of its gym and plays genuine road games in genuine road atmospheres.

I'm also very much in favor of including Drexel officially in the Big 5. I understand that teams don't necessarily have the scheduling space to fit Drexel in. Given how large the A-10 and Big East are now, that is clear. But it is certainly worth remembering in the years to come that only La Salle couldn't fit Drexel in this season, not Temple or 'Nova. John Chaney's Owls wouldn't play Drexel, but Fran Dunphy is willing to do it, so hopefully that will stand.

At the very least, there are two easy things to do to include Drexel even if the round-robin can't be expanded. They deserve a flag in the Palestra rafters, and their players should be considered for what the Big 5 calls the "All-City Team." As the point was made to me recently, include Drexel and call it the All-City team or exclude them and call it the All-Big 5 team.

Above all, though, the Big Ten has 11 teams and the Atlantic 10 has 14. So there is no good reason why the Big 5 can't have six.

Will's reply and my response to the reply after the jump.

Can we please end the argument about whether the Pac-10 is the best conference in the country?

As in, now?

Andy Katz provided more information on his ESPN.com blog this morning about the proposed Thanksgiving-weekend tournament at the Palestra. In the midst of a conversation with Phil Martelli about the parity in the A-10, Katz got Martelli to confirm that this thing is (EDIT: is, I say!) going to happen, and that the Hawks will play in it, but not this coming fall. The listed teams are Penn, Drexel, Virginia, Rutgers, Loyola (Md.) and Boston University. I suspect that the field is not yet complete, and I can't help thinking that another big-name team would be nice to have. Given the existing Big East and ACC involvement, I'm thinking Big Ten or Pac-10.

More to come on this, I'm sure.

(Including better copy editing.)

I meant to respond a few days ago to a comment left by a commenter named "Jay Bilas." Well first of all, Mr. Bilas, thanks for taking some time away from your busy schedule, as perpetually jammed with BCS schools as it is, to swing by the blog.

Anyway, you asked:

"Jonathan, if you had the No. 1 pick in the Draft, like a certain Philadelphia team very well might, would you take Oden or Durant? Or somebody else?"

I certainly should have bothered to answer the question before Durant's clunker against Villanova. But I suspect I would have said Oden anyway. There's still a legitimate chance that Durant ends the year as the better college player. But, as a friend said to me at the beginning of last week, seven feet is seven feet. So I suspect that Oden will be the top pick on those ground alone.

I'm always happy to take comments and emails for the blog, by the way. Email me by clicking on my name in the author box or just post a comment after the post of your choice.

Two things worth noting this evening that I think perfectly sum up the extraordinary range of events that take place in college sports.

On one end, you have the Division III men's basketball team at Cal Tech. The school ranked No. 4 in the U.S. News and World Report poll (and just down the highway from the No. 4 school in this week's AP poll) broke a losing streak of 207 games to NCAA opponents on Saturday.

On the other end, you have the Ohio State marching band, which delivered another impressive performance before the start of the big-money BCS national championship game. The so-called "Best Damn Band in the Land" performed its signature "Script Ohio" formation not once, but twice simultaneously -- one set of marchers facing each sideline. There were times when there were three lines of marchers moving side by side, and I swear there was barely a hand's length between the end of one guy's trombone and the adjacent guy's tuba.

Talk about a game of inches.