Soft Pretzel Logic

1. The first snowfall of the season.

2. My first cold of the season, which not even a roasting Palestra last night could help.

3. Attention moving away from the Eagles and towards basketball.

Mike Kern and Kevin Tatum recap last night's Penn-North Carolina game, while Mike Jensen looks at the scene and notes that Roy Williams had to do a bit of coaching despite the blowout.

Dana Pennett O'Neil nails the point I was trying to make yesterday about big-time schools and where they play their non-conference games. You have to give UNC a lot of credit for its road schedule this year, but my point still stands. As Dana said:

The last time Syracuse left the state of New York for a pre-Big East game, state troopers arrested Jim Boeheim at the border for desertion.

From down south, here are recaps from the Raleigh News and Observer (along with a photo gallery), the Durham Herald-Sun and the Greensboro News & Record.

Going back to the local scene, I was pretty shocked that St. Joe's lost to Holy Cross last night. The Crusaders are a good team, but any time you don't score a two-point field goal in the entire first half at home that's a bad loss.

Dick Jerardi notes that the Hawks' defense wasn't so great either, as Holy Cross shot 50 percent from the field. Jeff McLane wonders whether the Hawk himself (or is it herself this year? Let me know) could have done a better job.

There's better news from the A-10, as conference TV broadcaster CSTV has agreed a deal to get local games on Comcast SportsNet and CN8.

A columnist in the Penn State Daily Collegian, their student paper, pays homage to the Palestra and takes a few shots at the Nittany Lions' home floor.

And speaking of the Palestra, props to a guy who played his college ball there and still shows up on a regular basis: new Sixers GM Ed Stefanski. Mike Jensen, Dick Jerardi and Rich Hofmann look at how Stefanski got from 33rd Street to South Broad Street by way of the New Jersey Turnpike.

I finally got this week's podcast up on the site. You'll notice that the sound quality is a lot better; I did some tweaking of the recording equipment and am pleased to say that I no longer sound like I'm talking into a tin can.

You'll also notice that the file size of the mp3 in the podcast feed is a lot bigger; I'll work on fixing that for next week.

Anyway, this week I was joined by Mike Jensen and Joe Juliano. We discussed a lot of things, including:

-- An in-depth look at the Penn-Villanova game

-- A discussion of just how deep this Villanova team is

-- Drexel's really bad week

-- The impact of St. Joe's playing three games in three days, and how close the Hawks are to being ranked

-- Whether Temple will look past Thursday's game against Towson to Sunday's game against Villanova

-- La Salle's trips to Bucknell and Morgan State this week (yes, I realize we haven't talked about the Explorers in a while)

-- Penn's big game against North Carolina tomorrow night

-- All that star power the Tar Heels have, including Wynnewood native Wayne Ellington and stud point guard Tywon Lawson

-- And the national games of the week: Memphis vs. USC in New York tomorrow night and Kentucky vs. Indiana on Saturday.

Also, here's some good stuff to read:

-- Mike Jensen and Mike Kern on the BCS matchups

-- Mike Jensen on Wayne Ellington's homecoming

-- The Washington Post's Adam Kilgore's in-depth analysis of the football coaches' poll, which might just leave you seriously questioning its legitimacy

-- ESPN.com's Gene Wojciechowski's plea for a football playoff

-- and Storming the Floor's update on the whereabouts of former Temple big man Anthony Ivory (scroll down a bit, but read the other stuff too).

I wish I could be watching Temple-Providence, but we don't have ESPNU here in the Philly.com newsroom.

We do, however, have a poll asking readers which of the local teams is the best in the region. So far, Villanova is winning in a landslide.

So let's have a look around today's stories, because there are a lot of them.

-- Austin Scott pled not guilty to a range of assault charges yesterday.

-- Jeff McLane also writes about Penn State's offensive line, which is living up to that perennial nickname "big eaters." We also learn that Dan Connor is a finalist for the Walter Camp Award.

-- Joe Juliano takes a look around the local small-college football scene, as a number of local programs get ready for the playoffs.

-- Mike Kern wonders why Hawai'i isn't getting any respect.

-- Drexel won at Florida Gulf Coast, 77-58, thanks to a career high 22 points from Tramayne Hawthorne.

-- Bad news at Penn, which lost guard Darren Smith for the year due to a broken kneecap suffered against Drexel. Smith was definitely going to be one of the Quakers' main scoring options this year and those hopes for a fourth straight Ivy League title just took (no pun intended) a big hit.

-- Speaking of Penn, there are no more single-game tickets left for the North Carolina game. Jay Bilas has some thoughts about the Tar Heels' win over Davidson last night.

Okay, now for a little bit of fun. Line of the Day makes its return this afternoon with a frankly astonishing game last night between Troy and Dallas-based Paul Quinn College. The Trojans won in overtime, 133-131.

The Basketball State boxscore reports that Troy recorded a "NASCAR" tempo of 109.3 possessions and an average of 1.22 points per possession. The Paul Quinn stats aren't included (the team is NAIA) so the stats don't go into the Basketball State machine), but the Yahoo box score has them.

Both teams attempted 92 or more field goals each, including 41 three-point attempts each. Whoa.

This being a new season of LOTD, I've redesigned the template a bit and added the NBA's efficiency model statistic. It is used by Basketball State and a few other sites as well.

The formula (which I am thankful I don't have to do by hand) is:

((Pts + TReb + A + Stl + Blk) - ((FGA - FGM) + (FTA - FTM) + TO))

Our first winner of the season is Troy's Justin Jonus:

I hate to move on from the first post on here ever to get nine comments, but we do have some other stuff to discuss.

Literally a day before Centre County issued a gag order against everyone involved in the Austin Scott rape case, Dana Pennett O'Neil of the Daily News got an exclusive interview with Scott. The first part ran today.

There's better news in State College, though, as attention turns to Saturday's prime-time showdown with No. 1 Ohio State. That attention will include College GameDay, as well it should.

We move to I-AA ball, as Mike Jensen looks at the football-playing Savage family of Springfield, Delaware County. The older brother, Bryan, started at Wisconsin but transferred to Hofstra, which visits Villanova this coming weekend. The younger brother, Tom, is a pretty big-time recruit at Cardinal O'Hara.

On the basketball scene, Joe Juliano was at the Barnes and Noble in Rittenhouse Square a few nights ago as Phil Martelli held forth on his new book.

Which reminds to point you all towards the exclusive video interview Philly.com got with Martelli over the weekend, as well as video highlights of Midnight Madness on Hawk Hill.

Down I-76, Drexel and Penn both got frontcourt recruits.

And is what you see below going to become the new summer home for this blog? If the state funding is approved, this will be the stadium for Philadelphia's Major League Soccer team.

After the jump, Crunchy Numbers.

Between Temple going for its third straight win against Miami (Ohio) and Penn hosting first-place Yale, this looks to be one of the better weekends of local college football we've seen in a while.

Naturally, I'm not going to be in town for it.

So talk among yourselves, and before I go here are today's headlines:

Recaps from Rich Fisher and Mike Kern of Rutgers' win over South Florida. More BCS chaos is always a good thing, though I'd like to know from you whether South Florida losing helps or hinders the not-as-famous schools' cause.

Mike Jensen's interview with Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, who's looking pretty good right now given the state of his football teams. Plus the latest Heisman Watch.

Bernard Fernandez's Nittany Line column about offensive lineman Rich Ohrnberger.

Jeff McLane on how Indiana is remembering their late coach Terry Hoeppner.

Kevin Tatum's preview of Miami-Temple, which will be on Channel 17.

USC's plane hit some serious turbulence landing in South Bend today.

And a basketball story: Zach Berman talks to former Neumann-Goretti stars Rick Jackson and Scoop Jardine, who are trying to repeat their act at Syracuse.

Over to you. Back Monday.

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?

We begin with breaking news from the Daily News that Penn State defensive end Jerome Hayes will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

Elsewhere in the People Paper, Bernard Fernandez recaps the Wisconsin-Penn State and interviews some alums who aren't too concerned about the various controversies this season.

On the national scene, Mike Kern breaks down how Ohio State and South Florida rose to the top of the BCS standings, and writes his usual Monday wrap of all the big local and national action.

In the Inquirer, Frank Fitzpatrick writes the second part of his series on college athletics fundraising. It takes a hard look at controversial Oklahoma State booster T. Boone Pickens, as well as a few glances at big money that has come to Penn State and Temple recently.

Jeff McLane writes about Penn State's big uglies in the trenches, and their big role in the Wisconsin win, and wonders whether College GameDay will show up for the Ohio State game. It wouldn't surprise me; it also wouldn't surprise me if the show goes to Columbus this week.

And speaking of the Nittany Lions, Mel Greenberg looks at the women's hoops squad's first season under new coach Coquese Washington.

Now for the local Sagarin chart:

24. Penn State (28) - home win vs. Wisconsin (44)
38. Rutgers (39) - road win vs. Syracuse (115)
109. Delaware (99) - home win vs. Northeastern (165)
111. Villanova (113) - road loss vs. Massachusetts (82)
124. Temple (141) - road win vs. Akron (94)
148. Lehigh (141) - road loss at Yale (90)
155. Delaware State (161) - road win at North Carolina A&T (239)
175. Lafayette (164) - road loss at Harvard (146)
187. Penn (184) - road win at Columbia (224)
242. La Salle (242) - road loss at Marist (236)

If you're a Temple fan, you're ecstatic that your team beat a Top 100 team on the road and got the kind of jump it deserves for it. And maybe you can start to dream of jumping Villanova with another win or two if the Wildcats don't run the table.

If you're a Villanova fan, you're hopefully satisfied with how your team played, not least because UMass is the fifth-highest I-AA team in Sagarin. You're also probably really looking forward to that Delaware game at the end of the season, and perhaps wondering if a playoff berth might be at stake that night if you do run the table.

If you're a Penn fan, you're even more scared of Yale running back Mike McLeod than you already were, because he's the biggest reason why the Ivy League has a Top 100 team in a pretty bad year overall for the league. And you're even more aware of just how bad Columbia is when your team wins a road game but falls two spots in the ranking.

If you're anyone else, you see how hard it is to move up if all you do is beat a bad team. And if you're me, you're an idiot, but you've been called worse plenty of times before.

After the jump, the national Top 10 table.

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.

NEW YORK -- If you don't mind, I'd like to have a small rant for a moment...

This might well be the worst big city in the country to be in during college football season.

Yes, the TV networks do their studio shows here, and the split-national feeds usually get the biggest games of the week nationwide. But this city itself doesn't really have much to offer the college football landscape in the way that other big cities do, nor does it have really deep ties to a nearby program.

Think about it. Boston has Boston College; Chicago has Northwestern and Illinois; Los Angeles has USC and UCLA; San Francisco has Cal and Stanford; Miami has, well, Miami; Dallas and Houston have Texas, Texas A&M and a wide range of lesser I-A teams.

In Philadelphia, we have strong ties to Penn State even if it's far away, as well as Temple and some high-level I-AA programs in Lehigh, Delaware and Villanova.

It seems to me that New York has really only attached itself to Rutgers, New Jersey's state school, as the Scarlet Knights have risen to national prominence in recent years; similarly, Syracuse and Connecticut have links here that have varied in strength over time but have never been really strong.

And of course, there's Notre Dame, which has perhaps had deeper ties to the five boroughs historically than any of the above schools.

But when you get down to it, all New York really has are three I-AA schools, two of which are pretty bad. Hofstra's doing well this year, but Fordham and Columbia perennially occupy the lower ends of the Patriot and Ivy Leagues.

I'm at the latter's football stadium to cover Penn's trip here, over 100 blocks away from Columbia's actual campus and a pretty long subway ride from just about anything else in Manhattan.

It's a very picturesque setting on the Harlem River, but it makes Philadelphia's college football landscape look a lot better from afar.

Now, on to the headlines...

Penn State's latest scandal dominates the coverage in the Inquirer and Daily News today. Phil Sheridan writes a column at the top of the Inquirer's front page about the impact of the rape allegations against Austin Scott on the school's clean image.

Jeff McLane provides the news angle, and between the two stories it's worth remembering that Scott does have to be proven guilty in court no matter what we say about all this. The Daily News' Bernard Fernandez talks to Scott's mother, who says she thinks her son will be proven innocent.

There's also the matter of a pretty big football game today between the Nittany Lions and No. 19 Wisconsin at Beaver Stadium.

In his College Football Report, Mike Jensen leads with LSU's five-for-five performance on fourth down last week and wonders what today's big upsets will be. Games of the Week leads with Purdue at Michigan and LSU at Kentucky.

The local college preview boxes include Rutgers at Syracuse, Villanova at Massachusetts, Temple at Akron and Penn at Columbia.

We have some basketball stories as well, including the big news that St. Joe's guard D.J. Rivera will not play this semester for academic reasons. It was one thing to lose Jawan Carter on a transfer, but to now be down two guards is a different story. Still having Rivera for A-10 play should keep the Hawks in the hunt for a league title.

Villanova will have four co-captains this year: Scottie Reynolds, Dante Cunningham, Shane Clark and Dwayne Anderson. None are seniors, which isn't something you see too often.

And finally, Mel Greenberg looks at the Temple women's team, which made sure Dawn Staley wouldn't leave for brighter lights this past offseason.

UPDATE: It just crossed the AP wire that Nittany Lions running back Austin Scott has been accused of raping a woman at her on-campus apartment.

It's not quite the kind of holiday we'll have on the blog next month when the season starts, but the start of basketball practice is nonetheless a pretty big deal.

The biggest party tonight looks to be out on the Main Line, where Villanova has reloaded its backcourt and is looking to charge to a fourth straight NCAA Tournament bid. And given that 50 Cent showed up on this day at the Pavilion last year, who knows what'll happen this time.

We begin today's roundup with Dick Jerardi in the Daily News, who tries to figure out what we know so far and figures there isn't much. He's got an eye on Temple as well as the Wildcats, writing that the Owls "might be the most fascinating" team in the City 6 at the moment.

The Inquirer gives October Madness the info box treatment, and we end up with a nice little clip-n'-save version of all the big games this year. I'm already trying to figure out what our citywide doubleheader days will be, and I'll let you know as soon as I can.

We have a bit of news on the Temple front: 6-foot-10 Owls freshman Michael Eric has been declared ineligible by the NCAA Clearinghouse. Fran Dunphy is not happy, to say the least.

On the women's side, Mel Greenberg turns the spotlight on Rutgers as the Scarlet Knights begin their first season after the Final Four berth... and Imus. He also takes a quick look around the local scene.

Now to football, and the big local news is that Villanova quarterback Antwon Young's season is over thanks to a torn ACL.

Temple plays at Akron tomorrow, and both teams are coming off dramatic wins. But Akron's shouldn't have happened, according to MAC officials -- hey, does this sound familiar? -- and you can see video of why here.

Penn State hosts Wisconsin tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. on Channel 6 in what might pass for the biggest game of the weekend on any of the Disney networks.

Bernard Fernandez writes that Anthony Morelli's teammates are standing up for him. Jeff McLane writes about defensive end Maurice Evans, a big talker who's backing it up with his play.

And we have the latest on the Joe Paterno road rage controversy. He addressed the subject on his radio show last night, and you have to love this line from JoePa:

"I pointed my finger at [the woman driver]," Paterno said. "I did not give her the middle finger, even if I knew what that meant."

... this thing you all are reading right now is a blog.

(A cheap way of getting hits, I realize, but I did all the production work on that video and I know a lot of you are Eagles fans.)

Anyway, there's a lot of good stuff in the local papers today. Start with Joe Juliano's On Local College Football notebook, which has details of Penn and Villanova's injury problems at quarterback.

Mike Kern's Thursday column leads with Missouri's trip to Oklahoma, which is the College GameDay roadshow this week even though the game isn't on any of the ESPNs, ABC, CBS, Versus (which has Cal-Oregon State) or even CSTV.

It's a national broadcast on Fox Sports Net, which has the Big 12 cable contract. So in theory it would be on Comcast SportsNet here, but because the game kicks off at 6 p.m. and the Flyers play at 7, I don't think we're getting the game at all. Such is life.

Given that I've taken a couple shots at Florida State on here, it's only fair that I highlight a Seminole who actually gets it right: sophomore Myron Rolle, a South Jersey native who attended the Hun School.

And Jeff McLane offers a midseason Penn State report card. No grade inflation here, believe me.

Back in 2002, Villanova played its Big 5 game against Penn at the Wachovia Center. Seated in the upper deck, the Penn student section brought rollouts that said "We're High" and "What's the score down there?"

I mention this because I'm currently sitting in the press box on top of the upper deck at Franklin Field, covering the Georgetown-Penn football game for the print edition of the Inquirer. I've done this before, but it had been a while since I last made the trek all the way up the steps... and as many of you probably know, there are a lot of steps.

Anyway, while I'm waiting for the game to start, let's have a look around the media this morning on a day of college football that has some intriguing games.

We start with Mike Jensen's College Football Report, which leads by asking how close we are to BCS chaos. I hope we get it, because then we might get a playoff, and I happen to think the college presidents are full of it when they say a playoff would hurt the student-athletes. But not as full as the university coffers after a bowl trip filled with money and free stuff.

Games of the Week leads with Wisconsin at Illinois and an intriguing I-AA showdown between Delaware and New Hampshire.

Jeff McLane previews today's Iowa-Penn State game, in which both teams have a lot in common.

Props to TCNJ for beating Rowan on a last-second field goal, but no props to Louisville for losing at home yet again.

Nationally, pride of place goes to Florida-LSU tonight at 8 p.m. on Channel 3. The Atlanta Journal Constitution's Tony Barnhart (who's also a CBS pundit) picks Florida to upset Mike VI and the rest of the Tigers.

But since he wants people to call him crazy, I'll do so (politely -- he does know what he's talking about) and say LSU wins. Tiger Stadium at night is the toughest place to play in college football, and I think the home team rides that energy to a win and another big step on the way to the national championship game.

All is not well in Gainesville, as Gators safety Tony Joyner has been in trouble with the law of late. He was reinstated for tonight's game, but Florida Times-Union columnist Gene Frenette thinks Urban Meyer didn't do so out of principle. "[T]he truth is a key player had a classic entitlement moment and chose to break the law," Frenette writes, further wondering "if Joiner would make the trip if the opponent was Western Kentucky."

I'll let you take that one up among yourselves.

The Red River Rivalry game between Texas and Oklahoma had national title implications until last weekend, when both teams lost games they probably shouldn't have. But the game could still affect the Big 12 title game, and the Dallas Morning News' Chuck Carlton says that's enough to get both teams up for the trip to Dallas.

No, I won't include the sponsor of that game in this post, or anywhere else on the blog. But I will note that for the second week in a row, we don't get the best 3:30 ABC regional game of the week. Such is life.

The game here is underway -- Penn just went up 14-0, in fact -- so I think I should get back to watching it.

At least I feel like I'm one of them, given how long I've been away from the blog. And I won't be around this weekend either because of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. So you'll have to get your Sunday roundup elsewhere, but that obviously isn't too hard.

Mike Jensen is an outsider in Ann Arbor, where his survey of 87 Michigan fans reveals some interesting emotions among Wolverines fans about coach Lloyd Carr.

Daily Pennsylvanian columnist Ilario Huober comes to this weekend's Penn-Villanova game as an outsider, but looks through the history books to find what he thinks should be a good rivalry. It certainly deserves a prominent spot on the local college football scene.

But we have insiders, too. Joe Juliano writes about the first ever game between Widener and Rowan, while Jeff McLane profiles Penn State running back Rodney Kinlaw.

And Mike Kern looks over the whole college football landscape, from Notre Dame's struggles to the weekend preview box for Penn-Villanova and Temple-Bowling Green.

That Notre Dame story also includes the Couch Potato Guide, highlighted by South Carolina-LSU (CBS) and Penn State-Michigan (ABC) at 3:30 p.m. Plus the Big 5 game, of course, which will be on CN8 at 6 p.m.

Have a great weekend.

Does it matter that Penn State "ho-hummed" its way to a 45-24 win over Buffalo yesterday with a trip to Michigan coming next week?

Who should be the Nittany Lions' starting running back?

Are the Wolverines back on stable ground after beating Notre Dame senseless, 38-0?

Will Notre Dame be 0-4 a week from today? The Irish host a Michigan State team that has played pretty well so far next week.

Is Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese right that his conference's teams need to stop playing the Norfolk States of the world?

If you're a Temple fan, just how upset are you this morning at that overturned touchdown yesterday?

Does Villanova's big-play offense make the Wildcats a contender for the playoffs after wins over Lehigh and Maine?

Did Penn coach Al Bagnoli make the right decision when, with the ball at his own one-yard line on fourth down late in yesterday's game, he had his punter intentionally take the safety instead of trying to punt, allowing Lafayette to go down the field and win the game with a field goal because the safety cut the Quakers' lead from four to two?

And finally, what does it say that Penn has one offensive touchdown this season and Temple has five, and both have more than Notre Dame, which has none?

You tell me.

Okay, I realize my sporting tastes aren't the same as a lot of people's, but going straight from the Women's World Cup into College GameDay makes for one of the best mornings of ESPN programming I've ever seen.

Mike Jensen's College Football Report leads with Notre Dame-Michigan, which looks to be the sporting equivalent of 110,000 people driving by a car wreck all at once. I'll be flipping back and forth between that game and Tennessee-Florida, which figures to be yet another statement of intent on the Gators' part.

(By the way: if you got the print Inquirer today you'll note that in the Big Ten Network item in this story, the Temple kickoff is listed as 3:30 p.m. It's actually at noon, and the online version of the story has been corrected.)

Jeff McLane profiles Buffalo coach Turner Gill, a former Nebraska star who played in some very famous games and is now one of only six African-American head coaches in Division I. His Bulls go to Penn State today. It's a very good story. McLane also gives five keys to this afternoon's game.

On the local scene, here are previews for Temple-Connecticut, Norfolk State-Rutgers, Maine-Villanova and Lafayette-Penn. It's 'Nova's first home game and Penn's first game of the season.

And speaking of the Wildcats, there's big news out of the Pavilion: assistant coach Ed Pinckney is leaving to take a job with the Minnesota Timberwolves. It should be nice to see him reunited with Randy Foye... and I can't help thinking that it's where another Villanova star, Howard Porter, lived for so long. That doesn't mean anything, but I just find it an interesting coincidence.

Pick your preferred form of embarassment: last week's loss to Applalachian State or yesterday's 32-7 undressing by Oregon. Regardless, the natives are clearly restless in Ann Arbor, Mich. Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom says Lloyd Carr shouldn't be fired, while his colleague Drew Sharp says "Michigan quit" and Carr should offer to resign.

I get the impression that Albom is the proverbial one guy in front of the huge mass of people with pitchforks and torches trying to stop them all from charging ahead to battle. The one guy pretty well never wins that fight, even if he is a bestselling author and TV commentator as well as a writer.

But on the bright side, Mike Hart guaranteed that Michigan will beat Notre Dame next weekend.

On the even brighter side, Notre Dame is also 0-2 after being whacked by Penn State at a frothing Beaver Stadium last night. If any Penn State fans who were there do read this blog, I'd love to know what the atmosphere was like from you. It sure looked special on TV.

Jeff McLane recaps the game by highlighting Austin Scott's 116 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries. I was particularly impressed in the fourth quarter, when the Nits called 18 run plays and only three pass plays.

The last touchdown drive was particularly impressive: 10 plays, all rushes, for 63 yards over a span of five minutes and 12 seconds of game clock. The very definition of a running game that just beats an opponent's defense into submission.

Shannon Ryan's sidebar on Jimmy Clausen's rough night has one of the best ledes I've ever seen.

Mike Jensen wasn't too impressed with anyone in a gold helmet, writing that the Irish "won the miscue battle."

On the local scene, Temple kicked Vegas in the rear by losing to Buffalo, 42-7, while Villanova impressed in a 30-20 win over Lehigh.

And the rest of the regional wrap-up.

Finally, in the other big game of the day nationally, Pat Forde recaps how LSU turned Virginia Tech into boudin sausage (mmm, sausage). I know there are some Hokie fans around here, and all I can say to them is you have to tip your hat to the Tigers and their fans. I'm not sure anyone goes into Baton Rouge at 9:15 on a Saturday night and wins.

And I'm not sure Pete Carroll comes out of the Superdome in January with a win over them, either.

Lots of good stuff today...

It's Thursday, so start with Mike Kern's weekend preview column in the Daily News. Of note, two of Penn State's opponents this month are in the Fraud Five, but that might not be too surprising. There's also the always-useful Couch Potato Guide.

Kern also previews Temple's first ever MAC game and writes the Villanova and Temple info boxes for the weekend. The Wildcats are at Lehigh, which is about as close as we come to an all-local game outside of Villanova-Penn (or maybe Delaware).

On to Penn State-Notre Dame, and you get coverage of both sides of the ball in today's papers. The Daily News' Bernard Fernandez writes about a greater Nits emphasis on the passing game, while the Inquirer's Jeff McLane profiles Sean Lee, perhaps the next in line at Linebacker U.

The Inquirer's Shannon Ryan reports that Charlie Weis thinks this weekend's game is "us against the world." That might be less one-sided than Weis wants to think...

Joe Juliano was at the weekly local football coaches' luncheon and reports on the small-college scene.

On the basketball side, Juliano reports on the release of Villanova's Big East schedule. Thus far, there are six games on ESPN, one on ESPN2 and one on CBS. I see a chance to pile up a lot of wins in late February and March, and that could serve the Wildcats very, very well come Selection Sunday. As always, your thoughts are welcome.

Finally, Dick Jerardi gathers memories of Jameer Nelson's late father, Floyd "Pete" Nelson, who will be buried in Chester tomorrow.

In perhaps the biggest news to hit the Philadelphia-area college football scene in a very long time, Vegas has Temple as a three-and-a-half-point favorite over Buffalo. It's the first time in four years that the Owls have been a betting favorite. It's not my area of expertise but I know it matters to a whole lot of people.

In games of far more consequence, Shannon Ryan and Bernard Fernandez report on Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis' decision to have much-hyped freshman quarterback Jimmy Clausen start against Penn State on Saturday.

Jeff McLane reports that Joe Paterno doesn't think Appalachian State's win over Michigan was the greatest upset of all time.

And a story from yesterday on how much scalpers are getting for Saturday's game.

Because if it's Sunday...

Before going through today's football stories, I highly recommend Phil Sheridan's column on why the Philadelphia Eagles' website should not be considered a legitimate news source.

Now for the college stuff. And as you might imagine, there's a lot of it. Shannon Ryan writes that Penn State did what Michigan did not, which is win your fluff home opener without much trouble.

(I'll come back to the Wolverines' loss to Appalachian State in a moment, but let me get through the local stuff first.)

Jeff McLane notes that redshirt sophomore Mickey Shuler replaced the suspended Anthony Quarless at tight end and caught his first ever touchdown pass. Bob Ford considers JoePa, who made it out of the tunnel without much trouble despite that not-quite-healed-yet leg.

Villanova hung around with Maryland for a while, but Joe Juliano reports that the 'Cats only ran 14 plays in the second half to Maryland's 43. The final score: 31-14.

Kevin Tatum considers the Temple-Navy game and relays coach Al Golden's belief that it was a "moral victory."

After the jump, the national scene.

It's Saturday, so start with the return of Mike Jensen's College Football Report. As always, it includes the Top 10 Topics and the Games of the Week. This week's edition includes the Games of the Season as well.

Kevin Tatum and Mike Kern recap the Temple-Navy game. I'll have some thoughts of my own to share shortly, but there was definite proof last night that the Owls have no intention of being tossed around anymore like they've always been.

Villanova goes down to College Park, Md., today to play the Terrapins. Maryland hasn't always done what it's supposed to do against Division I-AA teams, so this one might at least be entertaining for a bit longer than it should be.

Meanwhile, Florida International goes to Penn State today trying to reverse the image created from last year's 0-12 season and brawl at Miami. I somehow doubt the folks in Happy Valley will be all that accomodating.

Clearly, though, the biggest game of the day -- and yes, the Spectacle of the Week, winning the contest by (and with) one vote -- is East Carolina at Virginia Tech.

A few weeks back, Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post wrote something on his blog that I found to be quite salient.

Why do we have to wring some sort of grandiose tales of societal healing out of sporting events? In what way does football provide comfort to the people who actually need to be comforted; say, the victims' parents? If any of my relations were ever struck by tragedy, how exactly would a four-yard run up the middle on second-and-eight make me feel better?

I get as sick as anyone of the overhyping of not just college sports, but sports as a whole. I find it particularly aggravating when a media outlet -- and ESPN is first in line with this -- takes a storyline and sticks to it the entire way through, even when what is going on in front of our eyes is something different. Perhaps even the opposite thing entirely, or at least something that proves the Chosen Storyline to be false in some form.

But there has never been any doubt to me that there is no other thing on a college campus that brings people together better than sports. I would be perfectly happy if some famous professor did it, or the medical research facilities, or an orchestra, or anything else. For better or worse, though, sports is the thing that gets it done.

What happened at Virginia Tech is of a completely different scale than anything we've seen in a long time. But be honest with yourself:

Does anything bring the St. Joe's and Villanova campuses together like basketball (especially when they're playing each other)?

Is there any other thing besides sports that Temple University does at any point during the year that would put 25,000 of its students, staff, faculty, alumni and anyone else with a connection to the institution in the same place at the same time for three and a half hours?

I would love to hear an answer proving that something else can do so. I genuinely mean that. But I doubt it will happen.

So I find Mark Schlabach's column on ESPN.com today to be particularly worth reading. The players at Virginia Tech genuinely understand just what it is they are doing by playing football as I write this post.

"People can say the Yankees and Saints are on a much larger scale than ya'll," Hokies quarterback Sean Glennon says in the story. "But in the town of Blacksburg, I think we're on the radar as much as the Yankees are in New York and the Saints are in New Orleans. The people in this community really love Virginia Tech and they love the Hokies."

Do you honestly want to not believe him? Do you think he wasn't being genuine? As cynical as this sports summer has been, I want to think that this game today really does matter, and that the people of Blacksburg really have been waiting all summer for this day, and that it really does mean something to them.

If that's not so, I'll stand up and say I was as much a victim of the media hype as anyone else. But I rather doubt it.

What about you?

I didn't forget... I just... uh... well, anyway.

The Inquirer's Ray Parrillo reports on Rutgers' 34-11 win over Buffalo, witnessed by the third-largest crowd in school history and quite a different football culture from the last time those two teams met.

Shannon Ryan reports that Anthony Morelli is playing the role of nocturnal sheep as well as Penn State quarterback for Joe Paterno, then asks and answers five questions about this year's Nittany Lions squad. Elsewhere in State College, Anthony Scirotto is working his way through the legal system.

But that might all be irrelevant around here if people can't see Penn State's games. The Big Ten Network isn't available on Comcast Cable -- and probably won't be for a while.

In the Daily News, Mike Kern previews the Temple-Navy game, even though it's the second half as I write this.

Dana Pennett O'Neil predicts that Penn State will beat Florida International tomorrow 42-0.

And Steve King reports on the state of things at the Orange Bowl as Randy Shannon takes over at Miami.

I was at the Phillies game today. I consider that a valid excuse for not posting today's stories until this late. I'm sure you saw it too, but that was definitely the game of the year. Just unbelievable from start to finish.

(Jim Salisbury's video take on it is here. I was behind the camera.)

Anyway, Rutgers is playing its first football game of the season as I write this. The Inquirer's Ray Parrillo profiles Scarlet Knights defensive tackle Eric Foster and the pipeline from Florida to Piscataway that he's been part of.

Kevin Tatum takes a look around the Mid-American Conference, which is definitely trying to stick its neck out there this season, and Joe Juliano surveys the local smaller-college scene.

In the Daily News, Mike Kern pulls double duty with Temple and Villanova previews.

That's it. I'll be at Temple-Navy tomorrow night, so you can look forward to that. And let me know if you're going, and what kind of a game you think it will be.

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.

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.

I am definitely not a morning person. But when it's this nice out, with the sun shining and some of the runners out in the infield getting warmed up, I can't help being excited. It's the sports equivalent of the moment when an orchestra is tuning up onstage in front of the audience.

Joe Juliano leads the Inquirer's coverage with a recap of Texas' victory in the Distance Medley Relay. Juliano also previews today's USA vs. the World races with a profile of Tyson Gay, who wants to challenge 100-meter sprint world record-holder Asafa Powell on the big stage.

Jeff McLane recaps the college women's races, led by Michigan's great win in the 4x1500m relay. Nice to see how much it means to the Wolverines.

Sam Carchidi writes a great column about the Masters runners.

Juliano, McLane and Keith Pompey's notebook is led by Coatesville's win in the high school boys' DMR.

The Inquirer also has two good photo slideshows.

In the Daily News, Ted Silary recaps the day for Chestnut Hill Academy shot putter Wayne Crawford, who finished in second behind another football player. He'll have quite the decision to make when he gets to North Carolina in the fall. Steve King writes a preview of USA vs. the World and throws in a few other tidbids.

The same is true for Frank Litsky of the New York Times, whose USA vs. the World preview highlights the 10-year-long rise to prominence of Tyson Gay.

In the Washington Post, Camille Powell tells us something I didn't know: that the Championship of America plaque weighs 30 pounds. Carl Little writes that Matt Centrowitz's record-setting time in the high school boys' mile is nothing special.

Two non-Relays stories. First, six Penn State football players, including Anthony Scirotto and Justin King, were charged yesterday after a brawl they were involved in four weeks ago. Frank Fitzpatrick and Bernard Fernandez have the details. Second, Dick Jerardi's story on St. Joe's guard Jawan Carter's transfer to Delaware.

The runners, of course, are the football players waiting for this weekend's NFL draft. Specifically, Penn State's Tony Hunt and Rutgers' Brian Leonard.

Speaking of Rutgers and football, women's hoops coach C. Vivian Stringer got herself a pay raise to the same base salary as football coach Greg Schiano.

Elsewhere on the women's hoops front, the Big Two Five gave out its awards last night, and La Salle and Temple cleaned them up.

Drew McQuade, whose son knows a thing or two about competing (and writing) at Franklin Field, leads the Daily News Penn Relays preview with a feature on the field events. There's also a sidebar on Penn throwing coach (and bodybuilding expert) Tony Tenisci, a list of the big names to watch, and a really neat audio slideshow of yesterday's events by David Maialetti.

In the Inquirer, Jeff McLane recaps day one of the decathlon and heptathlon. Rick O'Brien profiles Villanova's Drew Eckman, whose father also ran in the Penn Relays.

And the Daily Pennsylvanian examines one of the more interesting Penn Relays mysteries: exactly what is Team Jamaica Bickle?

See you all tomorrow morning at Franklin Field.

Photo of a runner taking a nap on the track by the Inquirer's Michael S. Wirtz.

Dana Pennett O'Neil writes an insightful column in this morning's Daily News about the fact that six of the Ivy League's eight head men's basketball coaches are African-Americans, now that Princeton has hired Sydney Johnson.

Between this hire and Harvard hiring Tommy Amaker, It's been a topic of quite some discussion in the league this year. I've talked to a few coaches about it, and Joe Jones' quote in the Daily News pretty well sums it all up. And while I don't want to get political about the issue on here, I will say that most of the people I've talked to haven't really much cared what the coach's skin color is because both the hires this year have been quality people well-suited for the jobs.

But here's a bombshell: Comcast SportsNet reports "multiple sources" said Larry Brown was in the running for the job. Oh my. I'd love to know your opinion of what that would have been like.

Mike Jensen was at Colleen's last night to watch the Herb Good Basketball Club give out its annual awards.

Ibrahim Jaaber is the Big 5's Player of the year, as previously reported. Scottie Reynolds is the top freshman. Bruiser Flint is the top coach, even if his players aren't eligible for the all-Big 5 teams, though Bashir Mason won the Guy Rodgers award for top playmaker. Read the rest of the awards for yourself, though I think it's pretty cool that the award for the top area small-college player is named for John McAdams.

A football story: Penn State's Paul Posluszny is playing the waiting game ahead of this weekend's NFL draft.

On the Penn Relays front, the Inquirer's Joe Juliano looks at the democratization of the winner's podium, while Rick O'Brien profiles Chestnut Hill Academy shot putter and sprinter (yes, you read that right) Wayne Crawford. And Mike Kern gets us ready for those "L-U" chants with a profile of Lincoln University's track teahm.

Finally, a pause to mourn the death of David Halberstam. I didn't know him, and I haven't read nearly enough of his writing, but I know enough history to know that this country lost one of its truly great writers yesterday, and that is something worth taking time to remember this afternoon. Peter Gammons, the Inquirer's Dick Polman and Newsweek's Jon Meacham pay tribute, while the New York Times and Harvard Crimson have compiled a range of his journalistic works over the years, including some of his sportswriting.

Yep, he was in the paper this morning. Why? Because he gave a speech to the Philadelphia Kixx late last week, and they promptly went out and won the MISL championship over the weekend.

Penn State's women's basketball team apparently has a new coach, Notre Dame assistant Coquese Washington. She would be the first ever African-American to head the program. She also has no connections at all to the Nittany Lions' former coach, Rene Portland, which is understood to be a good thing.

The Daily News runs its spring football reports today: Penn State has some tall wide receivers, which is something new (or at least different from the last two years), while Temple's game had no kickoffs or punt returns. Nothing wrong with avoiding the heavy hits in practice.

And one Penn Relays story, since I know I have a few readers here from Cherry Hill: Theresa Catuna, runner up in the state indoor 3,200-meter championship, will run Thursday night at Franklin Field.

Because it's going to be in the 50's and rainy at the end of the week, which is of course when I'll be outside all day at Franklin Field.

But before you stop reading, print these stories out (or buy the paper)...

Shannon Ryan's recap of the Penn State Blue-White game, which attracted 71,000 people and included some classy remembrances of the Virginia Tech massacre.

Kevin Tatum's recap of Temple's Cherry-White game, with the unresolved question of who picked up the loose ball at the end.

And Keith Pompey's profile of the Pleasantville High boys' 4x800-meter relay team, which is the odds-on favorite to take home the Championship of America this year. Don't miss the Tidbits sidebar, either.

Now stop reading and get out.

Two good stories about some of the deeper issues in college athletics.

Veteran Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Tony Barnhart (who you often see on TV during SEC football games) writes about the impact of the one-year rule in college basketball and who's behind it.

SI.com's Lester Munson writes about a lawsuit currently being filed against the NCAA which claims that the NCAA's scholarship limit is arbitrarily set and is below the number actually needed. If the NCAA loses it could be out $334 million. Better make sure the chalk keeps doing well in basketball so that the rights fee goes up if the case is lost.

Joe Theismann has been offered the chance to call college games for ESPN.

And two posts on Andy Katz's blog about coaching news.

But print these stories out and take them with you...

First, news broke this morning that veteran Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland stepped down last night. The Inquirer's Mel Greenberg broke the rumors about this happening in this morning's paper.

On the men's side, there's a great story by Frank Fitzpatrick in this morning's Inquirer about the big money in this year's Sweet 16. The four No. 1 seeds' combined profit for the 2005-06 season was $27.4 million, compared to a combined $15.7 million profit for the other 12 teams.

Elsewhere in the Inquirer, Mike Jensen profiles the wacky ways of Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl. The more I watch him, the more I can't help rooting for the Volunteers, even though I have Ohio State winning tonight in my bracket.

Mike also previews the other game in San Antonio tonight, Texas A&M vs. Memphis, with an eye towards all those Aggies fans that are probably caravaning down to San Antonio as I write.

One of many local ties to this weekend's action can be found on the Sixers' bench. Assistant coach Mike Bibby recruited many of the players who will take the floor for USC tomorrow night, and Bibby reminisces with Marc Narducci.

Bob Cooney is in San Jose for the Daily News, and he sets up the Jamie Dixon-Ben Howland Pitt-UCLA and defense-offense Southern Illinois-Kansas games.

Mike Kern is in San Antonio, where he previews a regional of football schools in a football stadium and the Tennesee-Ohio State rematch.

More from both papers about Scottie Reynolds' decision to stay at Villanova.

Somewhat related to that, there's a really eloquent column by Michael Wilbon in today's Washington Post about why it's actually not a bad thing that Greg Oden and Kevin Durant want to stay in college. I know this might be shocking to some people (and I know a lot of people in Philadelphia aren't that fond of Wilbon), but is it really such a bad thing that the two players want to make the decision for themselves?

Two stories from North Broad Street: a look back on the Temple women's basketball season, and news that veteran Owls track coach Jack St. Clair died yesterday.

And a few from the Ivy League: Ibby Jaaber has been invited to the Portsmouth NBA predraft camp, former Princeton coach Joe Scott regrets setting expectations high, and a Trenton Times columnist's editor forgot to turn the caps lock key off.

Not much going locally, so time to crack open the good old RSS reader for some interesting stories nationwide...

The University of Iowa has bought a bunch of domain names critical of their coaches, like firekirkferentz.com. Not that he's in any trouble, but it's an interesting tactic.

If you think you're superstitious, check out these tales of Thad Matta and John Thompson III.

The Kansas basketball team is more than happy to rack up frequent-flyer miles this week.

Ken Pomeroy asks if you really know Texas A&M. Maybe you do, maybe you don't.

Speaking of JTIII, the Georgetown coach bought Egg McMuffins for the Hoyas student fans camping out for East Regional tickets earlier this week.

Raleigh News and Observer columnist Caulton Tudor writes that Georgetown's potential Elite Eight opponent, North Carolina, has "the dignity of ACC men's basketball" on its shoulders in the wake of the conference's poor performance in the NCAA Tournament thus far.

But the women are doing pretty well, including Duke's win over Temple yesterday.

Clemson is giving out 1,200 free tickets to tonight's NIT game against Syracuse. But you have to be 12 or younger to get them.

In the St. Joe's student paper, dueling columns on whether the Hawks' adoption of Boston College's football team is a good thing or not.

And Princeton basketball coach Joe Scott has stepped down to take over at the University of Denver. I have a suspicion that quite a few people in Old Nassau don't mind.

I need some new headline material... but these stories don't:

Mike Jensen recaps the first two rounds, hitting a bunch of notes but echoing a chorus of questions about Ohio State center Greg Oden.

After spending a few days in the same venue as Billy Packer, Phil Sheridan stands up for the little guys.

John Smallwood says Kevin Durant and Greg Oden should leave for the NBA.

David Aldridge considers the success of Tim Floyd, Lon Krueger and John Calipari -- coaches whose college teams are all still standing after disastrous stints in the NBA.

And on the women's side, Temple faces No. 1 Duke at 5 p.m. Mel Greenberg has a preview from Raleigh.

A first "the Law won" reference of the day, courtesy of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

That same newspaper calls tonight's Villanova-Kentucky game "icing on the cake" for the SEC Wildcats, and a columnist tries to stop fueling the Tubby Smith fire... though I'm not sure he succeeds.

While the Hatfields are away in Chicago, the McCoys have taken over Rupp Arena.

And a Facebook group advocating that Princeton coach Joe Scott be fired has 87 members. I just did a quick search and found 37 Facebook groups advocating the same for Tubby Smith.

And there's a lot of it... but then again, there are a lot of commercial breaks.

Start with Inquirer and Daily News recaps of the Penn-Texas A&M game, along with columns by Sam Donnellon and Mike Jensen.

After the jump, what other papers are saying about the local teams.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/sports/ncaabasketball/15aggiescnd.html?ex=1331611200&en=11e62beedbcaa51b&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

In Chicago, Villanova is getting ready for tonight's big game against Kentucky. Jay Wright says Mike Nardi is "close to 100 percent," but Shane Clark's knees are in quite a bit of pain. Curtis Sumpter, however, is at full health and has the full attention of the Wildcats' younger players.

Meanwhile, Phil Sheridan and Dick Jerardi attend the trial-by-populism of Kentucky coach Tubby Smith. Jerardi also notes all the Philly connections in the Chicago sub-regional.

In Winston-Salem, John Smallwood reports on Michigan State's win over Marquette and Boston College's win over Texas Tech.

Back in Lexington, Mike Kern reports on Louisville's emphatic win over Stanford.

In New York, Marc Narducci pays a visit to CBS' NCAA Tournament studios to see how the men and women behind the scenes decide what games we see, and talks to Jim Nantz and Billy Packer about calling four games in one day.

And here at home, a columnist in the Villanova student paper laments the lack of Cinderellas.

For a while in the first half, Penn stood toe-to-toe with Texas A&M and might actually have been the better team on the floor.

The Aggies committed three turnovers in the first 5:14, all of which came as a result of passes that were too strong or simply off the mark. Penn held A&M without a field goal for a stretch of nearly six minutes over the middle of the period, and when Dallas native Justin Reilly's long two-point jumper made the score 11-9 with 8:44 left in the half, Penn fans might have been forgiven for being a little bit optimistic.

But every time Penn's offense made a move, Aggies coach Billy Gillespie's defense countered and made sure the Quakers never came close to the lead. During the opening stretch in which Penn missed its first seven field goal attempts, Gillespie made his players focus on the guards and Mark Zoller while allowing Steve Danley and/or Brennan Votel to move almost at well on the perimeter. Danley had two moments in which he had the ball at the top of the arc without anyone near him, but Gillespie bet Danley wouldn't shoot and was proven right.

Then, with 14:40 left on the clock, Votel decided to have a crack at the basket and nailed a three. Gillespie responded by pushing his players farther out and making it even harder for Penn to do anything but pass the ball around high screens. Ibrahim Jaaber, Kevin Egee and Justin Reilly made some difficult baskets inside, but Acie Law IV responded to Reilly's first points with the first three of his seven straight for A&M.

Gillespie's defense became even tighter after that. Penn only made two field goals in the final five minutes from eight attempts and a shot clock violation in the final five minutes of the half. A&M started to assert itself on the boards as well as the half went on, including one possessions with 2:26 left where they pulled down three straight offensive rebounds leading to a Josh Carter three that made it 29-16.

Penn had its chances, and was helped by Antanas Kavaliauskas picking up two early fouls, but once A&M asserted itself there was never any question as to who the better team was.

As the second half begins, I don't see that changing.

Plenty of good stuff to read today.

Let's start with Penn-Texas A&M. In the Inquirer, Kevin Tatum reports that Quakers coach Glen Miller is "striving" for "a mistake-free game, or something close to it."

In the Daily News, Mike Kern profiles Steve Danley, who can take it as a compliment that he does better work off the court than he does on it. As in, considering running for the Pennsylvania legislature, interning at the White House and nearly winning a Rhodes Scholarship. Yes, he goes to an Ivy League school, but might as well take advantage of it.

Elsewhere in the Inquirer, Mike Jensen profiles sensational Aggies guard Acie Law IV, who would be "this season's Jameer Nelson" if not for Texas rival Kevin Durant.

Ibrahim Jaaber gets the New York Times treatment.

The Penn student paper reports that Glen Miller is "optimistic" about Danley's health; the forward has been suffering from pretty bad back pain lately.

The Lexington Herald-Leader says Penn plays "an un-Ivy-like transition game."

Friend of the blog and ESPN.com columnist Joe Lunardi predicts a 91-78 win for A&M. He also has Villanova beating Kentucky, 63-60, then losing to Kansas, 73-62.

After getting the Quakers in its home town last season, the Dallas Morning News' Rachel Cohen reports on the transition from Fran Dunphy to Glen Miller. She also writes that A&M "seem[s] more comfortable playing from behind than ahead" at times.

As a bit of an aside, there could be a scandal brewing in College Station over why so many athletes end up in the agricultural school instead of "appealing majors." I just looked through the bios of the 20 players on A&M's roster, and of the 11 who have declared majors, seven are agriculture-related.

The Houston Chronicle profiles Law, finds Penn stuck in traffic in the lane, and also reports on the A&M majors question.

The Chronicle also runs a really nice profile of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which plays its first ever NCAA Tournament game tomorrow against Wisconisn.

As for Villanova, assistant coaches Dwayne McClain Brett Gunning and Patrick Chambers offer their insight to the Daily News on how to beat Kentucky, while the Inquirer's Shannon Ryan profiles SEC Wildcats big man Randolph Morris and reports that Mike Nardi was kept out of practice yesterday.

The Inquirer's Frank Fitzpatrick cracks open the history books to look at the last time Villanova faced Kentucky in the postseason. That game in 1949 came just after the seeds of a major point-shaving scandal in the NIT were planted, with Kentucky doing quite a bit of the gardening.

Back to the present, and there are other games on Kentucky's home floor today besides Penn-A&M. Top seed Ohio State will be right in the middle of the prime time spotlight with its game against Central Connecticut State. Daily News columnist Sam Donnellon profiles Buckeyes guard Mike Conley, Jr., who hit the game-winning bucket in the Big Ten Tournament final and was the tournament's leading scorer but still doesn't get the kind of attention Greg Oden does.

As in, a banner headline in the Lexington Herald-Leader declaring Oden to be a "Perfect specimen," and a list of all the other great big men to have ever played in Rupp Arena.

Rick Pitino's in the house at Rupp, Mike Kern reports in the Daily News, and should get quite a reaction -- one way or the other -- from the fans today.

Daily News columnist John Smallwood is in Winston-Salem, and he profiles Belmont senior Boomer Herndon's fight against cancer that preceded this afternoon's far less important game against Georgetown. As you'll see, Smallwood has a bit of a personal investment in this particular story.

Smallwood also passes along the quotes of the day from Hoyas coach John Thompson III and Texas Tech's Bobby Knight.

In Buffalo, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski visited Christian Laettner's high school, and to no one's surprise, it's reported on in Kentucky.

That (thankfully) is all.

N.C. State beat Drexel, thanks in large part to the Dragons' poor foul shooting late but despite an electrified crowd at the DAC.

Jay Wright admitted that Mike Nardi "struggled" at practice yesterday, and Nardi had to cut it short as a result. Nonetheless, Wright paid tribute to his senior class for leading the way to the Tournament this year. Villanova's top freshman, Scottie Reynolds, originally hails from Chicago and is going home for the Kentucky game.

Phil Sheridan steps up and corrects his own math, amending yesterday's column to note that he meant to propose adding three teams to the Tournament field so that there can be three play-in games.

He also furthers the point by making an argument that I wholeheartedly agree with, which is that the play-in teams should be at-large contenders going for a 12-seed instead of having the little teams that won automatic bids knock each other out before the big dance begins.

Niagara, with two Philly players and a Philly coach, beat Florida A&M in this year's play-in game to earn the right to play Kansas.

The Raleigh News and Observer's N.C. State beat writer notes that the Wolfpack didn't wilt in the DAC heat, while reporting on the arena that's nearly 1/10th the size of the one that hosted this year's ACC Tournament.

The Lexington Herald-Leader profiles Kentucky freshman Orestes Meeks and tells the Wildcats fans out there 40 things they didn't know about Villanova (emphasis on "they"). A writer for the website does a long piece on -- gasp -- Rick Pitino coming back to Rupp to coach.

Elsewhere in Lexington, the Penn student paper runs a travelogue which makes an American history reference that isn't quite as obscure as the one selection committee chair Gary Walters made on Sunday.

I don't know what time my next post will be today, so I ask you a favor.

Please go out and buy an Inquirer and a Daily News today. It will cost you one dollar and ten cents. That is less than the cost of a trip on the commuter trains or the subway or the bus; less than the cost of a cup of coffee and a donut at Dunkin' Donuts; and way under half the cost of anything you could possibly get at Starbucks (believe me, I know firsthand).

Both papers are chock full of NCAA Tournament coverage today, and I am sure you will want to read it all. So again: Please go buy both newspapers today.

I promise it's the right thing to do.

Things to read today:

Mike Jensen's quite funny interview with Bruiser Flint.

John Giannini's reflections on a below-expectations season at La Salle.

Mel Greenberg's preview of the A-10 women's tournament, which will be contested beginning today out in Cincinnati.

A(nother, but at least this one's in the Inquirer) profile of Brown basketball coach Craig Robinson, whose brother-in-law and pickup basketball partner is Illinois Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. It's written by Frank Fitzpatrick and it's very well done. Though I'm convinced Robinson is now much more known for that relationship than for his day job, even if his day job got him the stage to stand on in the first place.

Kevin Tatum's preview of tonight's Penn-Yale game at the Palestra, which you should go to even if you don't care about Penn, because if the Quakers win you'll be able to say you were there in person when the first automatic bid to this year's NCAA Tournament was clinched.

Bill Fleischman's preview of Drexel's foray into the CAA Tournament.

Mark Zoller's reflections on four years at Penn as he heads into the final home games of his Quakers career.

Ed Barkowitz's preview of a bunch of mid-major conference tournaments that either start today or have already tipped off.

And accompanying spotlight on Marist's Jared Jordan, who's being scouted by the NBA.

Something I thought about while perusing a few other newspapers' blogs...

Tonight on your way home from work or class, or tomorrow morning on your way out, take four quarters and a dime with you. Go to the newsstand, or the nearest newsbox, or the Wawa, or the guy at the top of the platform in City Hall station, and buy the Inquirer and the Daily News.

It really doesn't cost all that much, and it will give you something to do.

When you're done reading, you can tear it up and make confetti to throw after the game's first basket, but if anyone asks I didn't tell you to do that.

(I do have a decent idea of who's reading this thing, though, and I know a lot of you already do that.)

And for heaven's sake, don't throw it on the floor.

Two things:

1. A great story and photo slideshow about Drexel men's basketball team manager and fan hero Calvin Hicks.

2. Former Penn Relays chief clerk Herman Mancini died Sunday at age 94. He was the guy that got everyone in and out of the paddock on schedule. If you know anything about the Relays -- and believe me, they will be a big part of this blog when the time comes -- you know that he performed one of the most crucial jobs at Franklin Field.

Mondays always start with Dick Jerardi's weekend wrapup, including what I think is the right team at the top of his Top 15: UCLA.

Jerardi also gets a scoop from Dave Mallon, formerly of St. Joe's: he was detained in London trying to get to a basketball team in England to sign a contract but didn't have his work permit papers in order. After being stuck in a detention area for 12 hours, he flew back to Philly for the St. Joe's-Temple game.

On the women's side, Temple fell at GW and finished second in the A-10. There's certainly no shame in that, because the Colonials are ranked eighth in this week's poll.

Over the weekend, Penn beat Harvard and Dartmouth, Villanova beat Rutgers, Temple beat Charlotte, Drexel beat Towson to clinch fourth place in the CAA, St. Joe's lost (badly) at Richmond, and La Salle pretty well blew its shot at the A-10 Tournament by losing to George Washington.

National news after the jump.

In which I don't wear fedoras but don't quite do this either.

Big win for Drexel last night, getting revenge over William and Mary and turning the DAC into a hornet's nest. Bob Ford watches the knife hovering over Drexel's head as Selection Sunday looms.

Big game tonight at the Palestra between St. Joe's and Temple. For yet another year, Hawks fans are starting to believe their team can make a run in the A-10 Tournament.

The Penn student paper considers the psychology of free throws, and a columnist writes that Brian Grandieri has discovered the lost art of the mid-range jump shot.

The Villanova student paper trusts in Dante Cunningham as the Wildcats get ready for their final three games of the regular season.

SI.com's Seth Davis investigates the possibility of an Ivy League basketball tournament, even though he agrees with me that it's a terrible idea.

Out in Bethlehem, Bucknell got a win over Lehigh to keep up the chase against Holy Cross in the Patriot League.

On the football side, Marc Narducci talks to Camden native and former Tennessee lineman Turk McBride ahead of the NFL scouting combine.

National news after the jump.

I missed Dick Jerardi's usual midweek column in Newsstand this morning. Thank you, RSS reader.

There really isn't anything locally. So let's see what's up around the country.

Tom Izzo was "pumping his fists and stomping his feet" trying to inspire his team to victory over No. 1 Wisconson.

Notre Dame beat DePaul, as Irish guard Collin Falls atoned for his mistakes committed in the game between these two earlier in the season.

UConn men's coach Jim Calhoun says this year's Huskies are stuck in "the worst offensive struggle that I can remember."

Rick Barnes is now 12-2 against Bobby Knight after Texas' 80-51 blowout of Texas Tech.

Kentucky snapped a three-game losing streak by not blowing it in the clutch for 70-63 win over LSU.

And North Carolina has a chance for revenge over N.C. State tonight in Chapel Hill

Okay, I will agree that Villanova's offense is in a bit of a funk. Not sure that it's pulling a Punxsutawney Phil and hibernating, as Dana Pennett O'Neil writes in the Daily News, but it's definitely not doing so much these days.

(Dana gets immense bonus points for the Punxsutawney Phil reference, though I'm tempted to revoke a few of them because I've now had to type the word Punxsutawney three times.)

In the Inquirer, Shannon Ryan makes an equally important point: Villanova was whistled (hint about what I thought of the refs) for 27 fouls, including four each for Scottie Reynolds, Curtis Sumpter and Dante Cunningham.

Going back to the ground floor of the building, Steve King profiles Penn's Ibrahim Jaaber's transition from two-guard to point guard.

Up Broad Street, Temple has some new assistant football coaches, including running backs coach Kevin Gilbride. That would be the son of Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride.

And finally, a story in the Inquirer about the Drexel lacrosse team. I've never heard of the guy who wrote it, though.

Leading off and playing... oh wait, that's next month. Anyway, start with Dick Jerardi's weekend wrapup, which tells you about Villanova-Georgetown and Drexel-Creighton, among other things.

Villanova plays the early Big Monday game tonight at Marquette. I'm still completely convinced that the Wildcats are in the field of 65, but enough people aren't that the Daily News' Dana Pennett O'Neil asked around to see what the team thinks. The Inquirer's Shannon Ryan reports that "must-win" is "a don't-say term" on the Main Line, so Curtis Sumpter said something else.

Penn notched two impressive wins this weekend, over Columbia on Friday and Cornell on Saturday. A columnist was not asleep on press row and says the Quakers won with defense, which might also serve them well next month.

The Delco times declares this a "satisfying" season locally, even if it's not as spectacular as the last few have been.

It's a big day on the local college hoops scene, as Villanova hosts Georgetown and Ivy leader Penn has a chance to knock joint second-place Cornell out of the title race. If you can't get into the Wachovia Center this afternoon, it might be worth heading to the Palestra tonight for what should be one of the better Ivy League games this season. Then again, Big Red coach Steve Donahue -- a longtime former assistant of Fran Dunphy -- is 0-17 against the Quakers.

Mike Jensen gets the day started in the Inquirer with the Weekend Tip-Off. Let him know if you've seen ESPNU anywhere; I have it, but I'm pretty sure I don't count for the purpose of the exercise.

Here are the Inquirer and Daily News recaps of Penn's 73-54 win over Columbia last night. The Quakers shot an astonishing 12-of-12 from 2-point range in the second half. I'm not sure I've ever seen a team not miss a shot from inside the arc in a half. Media, Pa., native Brian Grandieri led Penn with 17 points on 8-for-8 shooting, including a bunch of 10-to-15-foot baseline jumpers that just floored backcourt mate Ibrahim Jaaber as well as Lions coach Joe Jones (read the stories to get the quotes).

The Hoyas come to the Wachovia Center today on a serious roll, led by 7-2 center Roy Hibbert. 'Nova shut him down last time, but Georgetown is playing much better now than they were when they last faced the Wildcats, so it will be real interesting to see what happens this time.

Pro scout Jim Clibanoff ponders hot Carolina freshman Brandan Wright, and likes what he sees but still has a lot of questions.

And finally, a column from yesterday's Daily News by Rich Hofmann about cheating in sports. I can only say "Amen" to the last line.

I'll be at both games today, so say hello if you see me.

No newsstand today, sorry. I'll have plenty to say over the weekend.

Okay, I take that back -- one story. Penn Charter grad Sean Singletary is coming back for his senior year at Virginia, and he had this to say about it:

"I really don't put too much consideration into [turning pro] at all," Singletary said. "I came here to graduate and become a man through college and through experience. I haven't done that yet, and I realize it's going to take me another year to fully grow."

I guess I'll start with the good news: wins for La Salle, St. Joe's and Villanova.

The Explorers needed the win more, Mike Jensen writes in the Inquirer, and got it, 77-72, over visiting Temple. In the Daily News, Bob Cooney reports on how pleased John Giannini was that his team didn't blow a lead this time. La Salle still needs another win and some help from St. Bonaventure to get to Atlantic City, but now it's at least more possible than it was at this time yesterday.

St. Joe's beat George Washington to take over fourth place in the A-10. In the Daily News, Mike Kern relays a quote from Phil Martelli that should be plastered all over the city. When asked whether his players follow the conference standings, he said, "Don't they go to ESPN or Philly.com to see?" You can't get better advertising than that, folks. In the Inquirer, Ray Parrillo notes that the Hawks did something they couldn't do a few weeks ago in D.C. -- fight off a late Colonials rally.

Villanova embarrassed Cincinnati last night at the Pavilion, 64-48. I watched the whole game on TV and it was obvious that the Bearcats really are that bad. In the Inquirer, Shannon Ryan says the Main Line hadn't had this much fun since 50 Cent came to Midnight Madness. In the Daily News, Dana Pennett O'Neill writes that 'Nova held Cincy scoreless for a stretch of 11 minutes, 33 seconds in the first half.

There's the good, now for the bad: Drexel pretty well killed its at-large bid chances by losing last night at William and Mary, 60-47. Beating Creighton might not be enough now, much less making a run in the CAA Tournament.

In the student section, the Villanova paper looks at teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble, and a columnist breaks down the 10 kinds of people you see on Jumbotrons.

National news after the jump.

I guess I'll start with the good news: wins for La Salle, St. Joe's and Villanova.

The Explorers needed the win more, Mike Jensen writes in the Inquirer, and got it, 77-72, over visiting Temple. In the Daily News, Bob Cooney reports on how pleased John Giannini was that his team didn't blow a lead this time. La Salle still needs another win and some help from St. Bonaventure to get to Atlantic City, but now it's at least more possible than it was at this time yesterday.

St. Joe's beat George Washington to take over fourth place in the A-10. In the Daily News, Mike Kern relays a quote from Phil Martelli that should be plastered all over the city. When asked whether his players follow the conference standings, he said, "Don't they go to ESPN or Philly.com to see?" You can't get better advertising than that, folks. In the Inquirer, Ray Parrillo notes that the Hawks did something they couldn't do a few weeks ago in D.C. -- fight off a late Colonials rally.

Villanova embarrassed Cincinnati last night at the Pavilion, 64-48. I watched the whole game on TV and it was obvious that the Bearcats really are that bad. In the Inquirer, Shannon Ryan says the Main Line hadn't had this much fun since 50 Cent came to Midnight Madness. In the Daily News, Dana Pennett O'Neill writes that 'Nova held Cincy scoreless for a stretch of 11 minutes, 33 seconds in the first half.

There's the good, now for the bad: Drexel pretty well killed its at-large bid chances by losing last night at William and Mary, 60-47. Beating Creighton might not be enough now, much less making a run in the CAA Tournament.

In the student section, the Villanova paper looks at teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble, and a columnist breaks down the 10 kinds of people you see on Jumbotrons.

National news after the jump.

One of the four is worse than the other three...

In a game where there was no love lost, there was very little attractive basketball in Penn's 48-35 win over Princeton. The Tigers came in wanting to take it slow, and as with any good relationship, the Quakers obliged. But when it got late, Penn finally asserted itself. While I wouldn't say they took advantage of Princeton's offensive ineptitude, the Quakers consummated the victory when Ibrahim Jaaber stole a Justin Conway pass and took it to the other end for a slam dunk. That put the home fans in a very good mood, and I'll leave it at that.

The Penn student paper called the game "Ugly with a capital 'U'," but also says that the Quakers were "smothering Princeton's offense" all night. A columnist tries to spread the love among the coaching staffs. The Princeton student paper only sent one writer, and he noted that defense usually wins. As opposed to some other kind of cliché.

A Trenton Times columnist says the romance is gone from this once-great rivalry, while the Bucks County Courier Times leads with a rollout about Anna Nicole Smith.

Elsewhere in the region, Villanova welcomes Cincinnati to the Main Line tonight, and Mike Nardi says the Wildcats' offense "is fine" despite the team's recent lack of scoring.

(Get your mind out of the gutter. Not least because the snow's pretty dirty at this point.)

Villanova's women lost at home to Notre Dame last night. The Irish were the latest team to come to the Pavilion "seeking revenge for all the years of frustration [the] Wildcats have caused them." 'Nova coach Harry Parretta actually said that "their guards just took advantage of us."

On Hawk Hill, it's the second time around tonight for St. Joe's and GW.

And Dick Jerardi talks to former La Salle women's coach John Miller, who you might recall left in the wake of the Gary Neal-Mike Cleaves scandal. Yeah, the one about... oh never mind, that's really enough.

National news after the jump.

As with every Monday, start with Dick Jerardi's College Hoops Wrap. Then give props to Community College of Philadelphia for being in his Top 15.

Temple got a win that was different from its previous three, Mike Kern reports in the Daily News, but was also familiar -- a high-scoring blowout. There are now 10 teams within two games of first place in the A-10.

Villanova's also in the middle of a big jam in the Big East.

And Joe Lunardi writes that "one of these years I'm going to spend the night" in the Palestra's upper press box.

National news after the jump.

I wish I could come up with a better subject for my 100th post on the blog, but I can't. I forgot two stories from this morning that I wanted to include in Newsstand.

First is a story on the rapid rise of Temple's Dionte Christmas in this morning's Daily News.

Second is a column about former Penn State basketball player John Amaechi, who you might have heard by now is revealing his homosexuality in a forthcoming book. I know it's a touchy subject with a lot of people, so I don't want to get too deep into it, but the author of the piece is at least one of the more prominent columnists in the country.

Say what you will about the Daily News, but that sounds like a bargain to me.

College hoops gets the back page this morning as Dana Pennett O'Neil heads to Indianapolis to participate in a mock-bracket-making session with the U.S. Basketball Writers association. It's a truly fascinating piece and it is a reminder of just how much better the NCAA Tournament selection process is than the results that the BCS computers spit out.

In said mock bracket, only Penn and Villanova made it -- though as it was done over the weekend, Drexel hadn't beaten Hofstra yet. As the automatic bids were done as a matter of procedure and not a matter of debate, GW won the A-10 and Hofstra won the CAA whether anyone liked it or not. Villanova got a 6-seed in the St. Louis regional and was sent to Sacramento to play New Mexico State. Penn got a 13 in the East Rutherford regional and was sent to Spokane to play Southern Illinois.

The story gets real deep into why the teams were sent where they were: to avoid intra-conference matchups and to avoid more than two teams in a conference get seed protection, which isn't allowed. Funny how the Big East got two in a down year. But I disagree with the assertion that Penn "hadn't traveled far in recent years." I would have thought playing in Dallas last season took care of that.

Finally, O'Neil busts some myths, mainly that the committee counts the teams from each conference and that the RPI matters. But she does provide a list of factors that the committee uses.

Here's the full bracket they came up with (as a PDF).

I said it yesterday and I'll say it again: Drexel had to win last night's game and did so. Kevin Tatum reports the details from Long Island, where the Dragons snapped Hofstra's 28-game home winning streak. They also stopped a four-game losing streak to the Pride. And a former Philadelphia Daily News writer of some renown gives props to Frank Elegar.

The Drexel student paper profiles the school's pep band.

Dartmouth guard Leon Pattman, by far the Big Green's best player, won't travel to Penn this weekend. Abner's could be in for a very long couple of days.

Down in Durham, David Aldridge talks to a pair of Seniors named Wayne Ellington and Gerald Henderson. Their sons, of course, are freshmen of the same name.

From eight miles down the road, Mel Greenberg reports on No. 1 Duke's win over No. 2 North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Big, big win for Duke, which has now won this season at UNC, Maryland and Tennessee.

Also on the women's side, Philly native Dawn Staley will be an assistant coach with the U.S. national team through the 2008 Olympics.

And something I was looking for yesterday but didn't find: the list of Delaware's football recruits for this year.

National news after the jump.

Say what you will about the Daily News, but that sounds like a bargain to me.

College hoops gets the back page this morning as Dana Pennett O'Neil heads to Indianapolis to participate in a mock-bracket-making session with the U.S. Basketball Writers association. It's a truly fascinating piece and it is a reminder of just how much better the NCAA Tournament selection process is than the results that the BCS computers spit out.

In said mock bracket, only Penn and Villanova made it -- though as it was done over the weekend, Drexel hadn't beaten Hofstra yet. As the automatic bids were done as a matter of procedure and not a matter of debate, GW won the A-10 and Hofstra won the CAA whether anyone liked it or not. Villanova got a 6-seed in the St. Louis regional and was sent to Sacramento to play New Mexico State. Penn got a 13 in the East Rutherford regional and was sent to Spokane to play Southern Illinois.

The story gets real deep into why the teams were sent where they were: to avoid intra-conference matchups and to avoid more than two teams in a conference get seed protection, which isn't allowed. Funny how the Big East got two in a down year. But I disagree with the assertion that Penn "hadn't traveled far in recent years." I would have thought playing in Dallas last season took care of that.

Finally, O'Neil busts some myths, mainly that the committee counts the teams from each conference and that the RPI matters. But she does provide a list of factors that the committee uses.

Here's the full bracket they came up with (as a PDF).

I said it yesterday and I'll say it again: Drexel had to win last night's game and did so. Kevin Tatum reports the details from Long Island, where the Dragons snapped Hofstra's 28-game home winning streak. They also stopped a four-game losing streak to the Pride. And a former Philadelphia Daily News writer of some renown gives props to Frank Elegar.

The Drexel student paper profiles the school's pep band.

Dartmouth guard Leon Pattman, by far the Big Green's best player, won't travel to Penn this weekend. Abner's could be in for a very long couple of days.

Down in Durham, David Aldridge talks to a pair of Seniors named Wayne Ellington and Gerald Henderson. Their sons, of course, are freshmen of the same name.

From eight miles down the road, Mel Greenberg reports on No. 1 Duke's win over No. 2 North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Big, big win for Duke, which has now won this season at UNC, Maryland and Tennessee.

Also on the women's side, Philly native Dawn Staley will be an assistant coach with the U.S. national team through the 2008 Olympics.

And something I was looking for yesterday but didn't find: the list of Delaware's football recruits for this year.

National news after the jump.

If you follow St. Joe's, Penn or Drexel, you know that if your team scores 100 points in a game you get a free cheesesteak at Abner's at 38th and Chestnut. It so happens that the two teams in the city (proper) that don't have that promotion are the ones who hit the century mark last night.

The dynamite blew up in La Salle's face as the Explorers lost to Duquesne, Ray Parrillo writes in the Inquirer. In the Daily News, Bob Cooney offers the consolation that the Dukes "might be the feel-good story for all of college basketball."

Mike Jensen reports in the Inquirer that Temple hit triple digits for the first time in 616 games against St. Bonaventure. Mike Kern notes in the Daily News that the Bonnies are 0-28 against Temple in Philadelphia.

Drexel has a must-win game at Hofstra tonight, and Bruiser Flint says he's running out of out of "Knute Rockne speeches" to give his team.

Wisconsin visited Penn State last night, and Frank Fitzpatrick profiles Badgers coach Bo Ryan. The Chester native "wears expensive suits and earns more in a year than his father did in a lifetime," but flashes his blue-collar roots just as much while on the bench.

I am so jealous of David Aldridge, who paid his first ever visit to Krzyzewskiville last night.

And Villanova's new athletics center should be open this fall.

The local football teams did well on signing day. Villanova got what might be the best recruiting class in program history. It's led by Terrell Wilkes, who runs track in addition to running the football, and picked a place that has a nice reputation for doing both pretty well/

Temple got the MAC's best recruiting class including a quarterback from one of the better programs in the Washington area: DeMatha High School quarterback Chester Stewart.

Penn State missed out on Broderick Green, leaving the Nittany Lions without a real marquee recruit. Joe Paterno didn't even hold a press conference. Green went to Southern California, which got three of the top 14 running backs in the country. But Linebacker U. did get more linebackers.

And Rutgers got the top player in New Jersey for the first time in school history.

Villanova won the Big 5 mud wrestling championship last night, Shannon Ryan reports in the Inquirer. Ray Parrillo reports on Phil Martelli's apology to the city for such a bad game. Jim Salisbury apologizes to the "Palestra purists" out there for "the Holy Bore," but praises Villanova's defense.

In the Daily News -- which used "Holy Bore" as its back page teaser headline, by the way -- Dick Jerardi reports that a woman in the stands yelled out, "Somebody please make a basket." Dana Pennett O'Neil relays Phil Martelli's admission that the game was "boys against men and we had all the boys." And Rich Hofmann outdoes them all by adding apologies to James Naismith, ESPN2, Dr. Jack Ramsay and all the ships at sea.

The Penn student paper prints the expletive from Martelli that didn't make it into either the Inquirer or Daily News.

By the way, if you were that woman in question, please email me because I'd love to get a fan's perspective on what it was like to watch the thing from in the building.

Elsewhere in the Daily News, Dick Jerardi does double duty by filling out his 65-team dance card. Penn and Villanova are in, Drexel is not. He has Duquesne from the A-10, which would be one hell of a story. He also has eight from the ACC and six from the Big East, Big 12, Pac 10 and SEC.

In the Inquirer, Mike Jensen previews the first Ellington-Henderson showdown by talking about practice.

It's football recruit signing day, and Penn State is in the hunt for a big-time running back, Broderick Green, to replace Tony Hunt. The Nittany Lions are also looking to junior colleges.

Villanova's getting a hotshot safety, Cardinal O'Hara's John Dempsey. They're also getting a quarterback from the Prep, Chris Whitney.

Temple's getting some speed on both sides of the ball with Daryl Robinson, a North Catholic grad-to-be who can play running back and cornerback.

And finally, some lists: One with players going to the local colleges and coming from the local high schools; and another with all the commitments of players across the region to colleges across the country.

National news after the jump.

Sorry this took a while, but the servers here have been acting screwy all day.

What do you know, an actual rivalry in Rivalry Week. I loved the opening segments last night where ESPN had friends/relations/spouses on opposite sides talking trash at each other. I can only wonder what tonight's segment will be like (and what it would be like for Penn-Princeton).

In the Daily News, Dana Pennett O'Neil speaks the truth about the Civil War that is local hoops these days: St. Joe's and 'Nova have been kicking everyone else's butt in the City Series. In the Inquirer, Shannon Ryan wonders whether we'll be watching a Vegas show, Snoop Dog or a basketball game tonight. In the Delco Times, Jay Wright makes no assumptions about tonight, thus adhering to the first rule of Big 5 games. And in the Penn student paper, a writer cracks open the history books lest her fellow students find better things to do in the library.

The Temple student paper chats with John Chaney's top assistant, Dan Leibovitz, who's now the "basketball coach-slash-pizza delivery guy" at Hartford.

Tomorrow is national signing day for college football, and the Inquirer has two good stories. First, the tale of P.J. Shirdan. The Monsignor Bonner player didn't play at all his senior year because of injury, but is going to West Virginia because the Mountaineers coaches were impressed by a DVD of his games from years past.

Second, Ray Parrillo reports on how Rutgers' success last season has translated into a bumper crop of recruits from South Jersey.

And on the women's and political sides of things, Penn State women's hoops coach Rene Portland has settled a lawsuit brought against her by a former player who accused Portland of booting her off the team because Portland thought she was a lesbian.

It's Monday, so start with Dick Jerardi's weekend wrap-up. He leads with 'Nova's rather ugly win over Louisville, then asserts that he's "not sure it's going to matter much in the long run" that Penn lost at Yale. I gotta disagree with that one, and I'll defer to the NCAA Selection Committee to describe why come Selection Sunday.

Temple routed La Salle, 89-64, after scoring 56 in the first half of a Big 5 game. Whoa. John Chaney was in the house, giving Mark Tyndale as much of an earful as Fran Dunphy.

St. Joe's beat Dayton to give Phil Martelli one more career win than the good doctor, Jack Ramsay. Apparently Gov. Rendell was in the house, which might not please the folks at the school where he got his law degree. And someone hit the fire alarm a few seconds before they were supposed to hit the final buzzer.

Drexel beat Towson, but that loss to ODU is going to sting a lot. More on this subject on the College HoopsCast to come this afternoon.

Penn beat Glen Miller's old team on Friday, then lost to Yale for the third time in the last four years on Saturday. So much for that undefeated Ivy run. A columnist in the Penn student paper wonders whether Miller was right to say this is a good thing.

And after Villanova's win over Louisville, David Aldridge made Villanova's case for an at-large bid. Dana Pennett O'Neil reports that Scottie Reynolds is taking advice from Kyle Lowry.

National news after the jump.

It's Monday, so start with Dick Jerardi's weekend wrap-up. He leads with 'Nova's rather ugly win over Louisville, then asserts that he's "not sure it's going to matter much in the long run" that Penn lost at Yale. I gotta disagree with that one, and I'll defer to the NCAA Selection Committee to describe why come Selection Sunday.

Temple routed La Salle, 89-64, after scoring 56 in the first half of a Big 5 game. Whoa. John Chaney was in the house, giving Mark Tyndale as much of an earful as Fran Dunphy.

St. Joe's beat Dayton to give Phil Martelli one more career win than the good doctor, Jack Ramsay. Apparently Gov. Rendell was in the house, which might not please the folks at the school where he got his law degree. And someone hit the fire alarm a few seconds before they were supposed to hit the final buzzer.

Drexel beat Towson, but that loss to ODU is going to sting a lot. More on this subject on the College HoopsCast to come this afternoon.

Penn beat Glen Miller's old team on Friday, then lost to Yale for the third time in the last four years on Saturday. So much for that undefeated Ivy run. A columnist in the Penn student paper wonders whether Miller was right to say this is a good thing.

And after Villanova's win over Louisville, David Aldridge made Villanova's case for an at-large bid. Dana Pennett O'Neil reports that Scottie Reynolds is taking advice from Kyle Lowry.

National news after the jump.

Temple routed Richmond, 80-59, to stay out of last place in the A-10. Dionte Christmas did play, combining with Mark Tyndale for 48 points. Tyndale said the win afterwards "might have been our biggest game of the season."

La Salle blew a 14-point lead and lost to Charlotte, 87-80. The collapse began when Explorers guard Ruben elbowed Charlotte's Carlos Williams after they roughhoused it a bit on an inbounds play. That drew a technical foul and down it went from there. But Darnell Harris shook off his ankle injury and got 13 points to easily pass the 1,000 career points mark.

Daily News writer Bill Fleischmann profiles Army coach Dave Magarity, who replaced Maggie Dixon as Black Knights coach after Dixon died last spring. Magarity attended Cardinal Dougherty and Episcopal Academy, and his family still lives in Mount Airy.

Elsewhere in the Daily News, Ted Silary offers his 30th annual list of the top high school players in the city, some of whom have already committed but all of whom are surely worth watching.

In the Inquirer, Marc Narducci previews what could be a record-breaking night for Philadelphia University coach Herb Magee. He goes for the all-time Division II wins record against Wilmington College at 7 p.m.

The St. Joe's student paper previews tonight's game between the Hawks and Saint Louis at the Fieldhouse; watch it at 8 p.m. on ESPN2.

The Penn student paper got to the Penn-St. Joe's game later than I did, but reflects on a successful campaign to get students in the house before tipoff.

And the folks up in Providence get ready for Quakers coach Glen Miller's return to Brown, including praise for Philadelphia as "the best college basketball city in the country."

National news after the jump.

No newsstand today because actual work calls. I built up a widget to display the latest college sports headlines on Philly.com that you can see on the right side of the blog, but beyond that you're on your own. Sorry.

In honor of that famed former Philadelphia paper, the Bulletin, an afternoon edition of Newsstand.

Villanova lost to Pitt, 65-59. In the Inquirer, Shannon Ryan writes about how the Wildcats' fans left the building. David Aldridge write an eloquent column about Pitt coach Jamie Dixon's sister, Maggie, who died last year at age 28 and would have an amazing story even if Army hadn't won the Patriot League last season. In the Daily News, Dana Pennett O'Neill reports on something truly extraordinary: an actual atmosphere at the Wachovia Center.

Drexel got Frank Elegar back last night, and he scored 16 points as the Dragons beat Northeastern, 67-41. Huskies coach Bill Coen called the Dragons' defense the best in the CAA.

Down a division, Cheyney State has suspended its athletic director but won't say why.

In High and Inside, Chuck Bausman says that "college basketball has never been more important" to the Philly area, but advises that we should "sit back and enjoy the college kids and keep [our] expectations realistic." That might be a first, but it's certainly a welcome one.

The Temple student paper does some investigating and finds something has been missing at Owls games of late: the two ancillary mascots, T-Bird and Baby Owl.

It's Monday, so start with Dick Jerardi's weekend wrap in the Daily News.

It's also Big Monday, and the Bill Raftery Show comes to the Wachovia Center tonight as 'Nova hosts No. 9 Pitt. In the Daily News, Dana Pennett O'Neill profiles the basketball bloodlines of Panthers guard and Friends Central grad Mike Cook. In the Inquirer, Shannon Ryan writes that the Wildcats will try to do unto Aaron Gray as they have unto two other big men this season, Roy Hibbert and Kevin Durant.

At the other end of Broad Street, and speaking of Philly-Pittsburgh games, Temple's Dionte Christmas suffered a laceration on his left hand at Duquesne on Saturday. That's his non-shooting hand, but it required 17 stitches. He's questionable for the game at Richmond on Wednesday.

The Penn student paper reports that a football game took place at the Palestra on Saturday, while a columnist says that the worst is over for Penn.

National news after the jump.

Some articles to read or to print out for your commute in tomorrow morning:

This column by Bob Ford on Drexel's struggles to get attention.

This column by John Feinstein about Fran Dunphy's return to the Palestra which blows the cover on the weekly media pickup basketball game. Wednesday at noon, if you didn't know.

This long piece on Pitt center Aaron Gray, whose Panthers come to the Wachovia Center to face Villanova on Big Monday.

This story that I can't help thinking wouldn't have been written had Notre Dame not beaten Villanova.

This recap of North Carolina's rout of Arizona and this column about the lack of joy in Mudville, known to the rest of us as Tuscon.

This piece about a missed dunk by Kansas' Julian Wright against Colorado. UPDATE: Watch it here.

In the Inquirer, Frank Fitzpatrick goes feature-length to look at whether former "little ragamuffin" Drexel should be allowed in the Big 5. There are some interesting reader comments on the story too.

In the Daily News, Bill Fleischmann spotlights Bashir Mason. Behind the Insider paywall on ESPN.com, Joe Lunardi offers some unsolicited advice for the BracketBusters matchups. He proposes that the Dragons be sent to Creighton. Ouch.

The Big 5 inducted its 2007 Hall of Fame class last night -- former La Salle star Jen Zenszer, former Penn star Diana Caramanico, and the late former Palestra public address announcer John McAdams. In the Inquirer, Mel Greenberg salutes McAdams' famous greeting that began every game he called. In the Daily News, Bob Cooney reminds us that McAdams was not a member of the HOF until last night, even if everyone thought he already was. And of course I'm one of those who thinks he should have been inducted before he died.

In the Penn student paper, a columnist focuses on Diana Caramanico, who's now the girls' coach at Penn Charter. I wonder how she felt getting blown out at her alma mater, Germantown Academy. Caramanico is married to a former Penn men's player of some renown, Geoff Owens. Geoff's grandfather is of even more renown -- Paul Owens was the architect of those great Phillies teams of the late 70's and 80's.

I was at the ceremony last night and I would describe it as small but elegant, with Don Tollefson emceeing and Dan Baker accepting on behalf of McAdams. There really isn't much more to say about it than that on here; apologies to those of you were expecting more. But be sure to tune into Monday's College HoopsCast, because I'll have exclusive interviews with Zenszer, Caramanico, Baker and another special guest.

On the football side of things, Bernard Fernandez of the Daily News reports from the Senior Bowl on the good-looking NFL future for Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny. But the Eagles probably won't draft him.

The national news is thrown out this morning, because after last night's action it really doesn't matter.

As I walked home last night from the Palestra, I kept repeating to myself the indisputable fact that Philadelphia is a football town. But when I woke up this morning, I saw something that I really didn't think was possible anymore: college basketball on the back page of the Daily News. A great job by Yong Kim to get a shot of Dion Dacons' foul on Mark Zoller that led to the winning free throws.

On the inside pages, Mike Kern says "it really doesn't get much better" in his recap, accompanies by a Yong Kim shot of Dionte Christmas with his jersey pulled over his head. Rich Hofmann breaks out the history books in his column, going back to the 1960s to detail Fran Dunphy's first trip to the Palestra.

Three (!) stories in the Inquirer, led by Mike Jensen's recap. You have to feel bad for Fran's mother, Josephine, who told Mike before the game that she was "going to have a heart attack." I saw her after the game and can attest to the fact that this thankfully did not happen, but I'm sure it wasn't easy for her.

Jim Salisbury's column takes another shot at the 2,619 people who didn't show up last night while describing the range of emotions in the building. Finally, Kevin Tatum puts some spit-shine on the evening by talking to the Palestra's famed custodian, Dan Harrell, who arrived at Penn in the same year that Dunphy did.

The Penn student paper declares last night's win to be an exorcism by pulling out a headline not seen since 1993. And maybe it was because the current senior class had never beaten Temple before. And Dunphy takes Mark Zoller's remark about playing against one's father as a compliment.

The Delco Times recounts a game that wasn't hyperbole.

Of course, there were other games last night. In D.C., St. Joe's lost to GW. The Inquirer's Ray Parrillo puts the Hawks' 20 turnovers in neon. St. Joe's blew a 14-point lead, which Phil Martelli called a "damn shame" in the Daily News.

La Salle beat another young team, Richmond, thanks to 18 points from Darnell Harris. In the Inquirer, Marc Narducci notes that Harris got the rest of the night off with 1:48 to go and now stands four points shy of 1,000 for his career. In the Daily News, Bob Cooney doesn't care how ugly the game was.

Drexel won at UNC-Wilmington for the first time, setting up an enormous game against Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday at the DAC.

Temple's women lost at home to Rutgers, which used a 21-6 run midway through the second half to seal the win.

And finally, Philadelphia U. coach Herb Magee tied Clarence "Big House" Gaines for the all-time Division II wins record at 828 with a 63-56 victory at Holy Family.

A few notable things that have come across since I finished Newsstand:

St. Joe's will play in the 2008 Maui Invitational. Start saving now.

A preview of tonight's Penn-Temple game from the great Ivy League (and Patriot League) site Basketball U., which wonders "if the Dunphy Exiles will be sporting cherry and white tonight and sitting behind the visiting bench to show their displeasure with their alma mater for forcing Dunphy to take a higher-profile job for double his old salary." Unfortunately, you have to pay to read the site's stories, but there's some good stuff in in there.

Penn fans will also have to go to the wallet for a new feature on the athletic department's website: streaming video of games. Live home men's and women's hoops and wrestling, and apparently some archived footage too. $10 for the rest of the season.

Over the Mason-Dixon line, George Washington coach Carl Hobbs says he doesn't get the RPI. His Colonials face St. Joe's tonight. And Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow got a contract extension through 2013.

One of these days this thing will actually come out in the morning...

It was Villanova over Providence, 82-73, in "the place where good, bad and indifferent Villanova teams went to die," according to Dana Pennett O'Neil of the Daily News. In the Inquirer, Shannon Ryan writes that Curtis Sumpter was on the floor earlier than expeceted and that the 'Cats got 26 points off 22 Friars turnovers. The Providence Journal pays tribute.

A big night tonight at the Palestra, as Fran Dunphy works from the visitors' bench for the first time in his career as a head coach. In the Inquirer, Kevin Tatum hears from Penn guard Ibrahim Jaaber, who says anyone who doesn't feel the emotions of the night is "telling a story." In the Daily News, Mike Kern hears from Penn radio analyst and former Quakers player Vince Curran about the Penn alums who've been rooting for Temple and haven't quite adopted Glen Miller yet.

The Penn student paper spotlights high-scoring Dionte Christmas, while a columnist calls for Dunphy to receive "an ovation and nothing more" from the fans. Philly.com citizen blogger and Temple student Kris Gochenour plays the stereotype about Penn fans while admitting that he actually doesn't mind the school that much. He also does something I can't do in the name of objectivity, which is take a shot at the fact that the game isn't anywhere close to sold out.

Elsewhere in the Inquirer, Ray Parrillo profiles former St. Anthony's High pitcher Ahmad Nivins. The rest of us know Nivins as the starting center for St. Joe's -- and Phil Martelli calls him one of the "five best players" in the A-10. Elsewhere in the Daily News, Dick Jerardi writes about the strength of the Missouri Valley Conference, and the weakness of Billy Packer. And Jay Wright is ignoring those Sixers rumors that came up yesterday.

National news after the jump.

Villanova heads to Providence tonight to play basketball in the hockey arena that is the Dunkin' Donuts Center. You can watch the game on Channel 17 at 7:30 p.m. We thank the Big East for its television contract.

No jokes about coffee or donuts in the Inquirer or Daily News this morning, but there are profiles of the Wildcats' starting guards. Shannon Ryan takes Scottie Reynolds, "court-savvy" but trying to replicate the "energy and swagger" of a certain Kyle Lowry. Hmm. Dana Pennett O'Neill takes Mike Nardi, who isn't as hard on himself anymore as he used to be. The Providence Journal also highlights the backcourt, but in a more general fashion.

Elsewhere in what some call The Daily News -- now the People Paper of people in the Philadelphia suburbs -- Chuck Bausman goes High and Inside to praise CN8 for airing tomorrow night's Penn-Temple game instead of "Backstage with Barry Nolan." I actually like Barry Nolan, although for a show that doesn't air on CN8. Having said that, my cable doesn't come from CN8's parent company, so I won't be able to tape the game. But I will be there, which is even better.

Speaking of that game, the Temple student paper has its previews this morning. The lead story takes a historical perspective. There are certainly some familiar themes. Penn's Mark Zoller says facing Fran Dunphy will be like "playing your father." And a columnist says the game "has all the ingredients for the front page of a tabloid." I'll be shocked if it makes the back page of one.

National news after the jump.

We don't stop for snow or ice, but we do stop for meetings...

It's Monday, so start with Dick Jerardi's weekend wrap in the Daily News. It includes looks at Villanova-Texas, Drexel-Delaware, and the fact that Duke has won 25 of its last 28 games against N.C. State. Jerardi's top 15 starts with UCLA, puts the team that beat UCLA at No. 5, and puts winless Iona (0-18) at the bottom.

St. Joe's got a very impressive 82-74 win over Xavier, thanks to 20 points from freshman guard Jawan Carter. According to Dick Jerardi Bob Cooney (Serves me right for assuming!), Hawks coach Phil Martelli is usually good at prognosticating, but he "didn't see this coming." In the Inquirer, Ray Parrillo says Carter will have a more enjoyable time watching film this week. The Hawks are good, folks. The A-10 (and a certain Big 5 team coming down the pike in a few days) would be well advised to realize this before learning the hard way.

La Salle lost at Saint Bonaventure. I'll be generous this time and say that this is not a good result. The Daily News correspondent at the game says the lights went out on the Explorers both literally and figuratively. At least the Bonnies beat Saint Louis at home this season. Then again, so did Temple.

The Penn student paper reports on Quakers men's soccer goalkeeper Dan Cepero, who was drafted by Red Bull New York of MLS last week. Apparently, he's a history major, but he had to do some Wharton-esque marketing to get himself noticed by the pros.The Drexel student paper has a nice feature on the school's biggest fan, Calvin Hicks. You'll recognize him once you see the photo.

National news after the jump.

Just two stories today to give you the Texas view of Villanova's win yesterday over the Longhorns:

Texas falls to Villanova 76-69 by Mark Rosener of the Austin American-Statesman

For once, Durant is merely ordinary by Joseph Duarte, The Houston Chronicle

As far as I can tell, none of the other main Texas newspapers sent writers. You can find all the Philadelphia Inquirer stories about yesterday's games here.

Penn beat La Salle in a barnburner, 93-92, at Tom Gola Arena. In the Inquirer, Ray Parrillo pays attention to Quakers coach Glen Miller, even if his players might not have been doing so in the first half. In the Daily News, Bob Cooney gives props to the Penn seniors Ibrahim Jaaber and Mark Zoller, who carried the load as the Quakers rallied in the second half. The Penn student paper notes that after hitting 6 of 8 three-point shots in the first half, Darnell Harris was defended in the second half by a freshman with a torn labrum.

Elsewhere in the Daily News, Dana Pennett O'Neil profiles Kevin Durant, as Jay Wright worries that more people will come to see Durant than Villanova. All together now: Durant is averaging 34 points and 13.5 rebounds per game in Big 12 play.

Dick Jerardi blows the lid off plans for a Thanksgiving-weekend tournament at the Palestra, with one Philly team a year to be included. It will be a sort of round robin like that Las Vegas tournament this season that had Kansas and Florida starting at home then playing two games -- including the one against each other -- in Vegas.

This year's Big 5 Hall of Fame class will have three members: the late John McAdams, Diana Caramanico and Jen Zenser. McAdams was the legendary public address at the Palestra for 24 years until he died in 2005; Caramanico is the all-time leading scorer in Penn women's history; and Zenser is one of the top players in La Salle women's history. Much more to come on this later.

Joe Lunardi adds his props for the Palestra.

Xavier beat visiting UMass, thanks to 8-for-18 three-point shooting and a 15-of-22 night from the line. The Minutemen, by contrast, were only 2-of-4 from the stripe.

USC beat Arizona, leading the Los Angeles Times to call for defibrillators at the Galen Center.

Duke beat Wake Forest, as Episcopal grad Gerald Henderson went 2-for-4 on slam dunks.

A story out of Louisville on a topic that is making its way around the country: the use of male practice players in women's basketball. Back in December, one of the contributors to Mel Greenberg's women's blog wrote from experience that she has no problem with it. Asking the players sounds like a fine idea to me.

Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt wanted to be a journalist and has a few opinions on the state of sportswriting.

A football story: Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston (R), an Athens native (though he doesn't represent that district) voted against a resolution congratulating Florida for winning the national championship. The resolution passed, 414-1. A resolution congratulating Boise State passed unanimously, 415-0.

A soccer story: Penn's starting goalkeeper was drafted by Red Bull New York of Major League Soccer. I confess that I got a phone call about this from Penn's athletic department yesterday but didn't have time to post about it. Nonetheless, it made the paper this morning. Chalfont, Pa., native Mark Totten, who attended James Madison, was drafted by Chicago.

Finally, one non-sports story: Art Buchwald, the veteran humor columnist, died yesterday. I read his stuff on a regular basis growing up. When I told Dan Rubin this, he was rather surprised. This is his final column.

A long one today, just to warn you. First, Villanova thumped Notre Dame, 102-87. The Inquirer's Shannon Ryan leads with a loud 19 points and nine rebounds for Dante Cunningham, who is "not one of the most expressive players in college basketball." In the Daily News, Dana Pennett O'Neil asks Dr. Jekyll to meet the Sixers and Mr. Hyde to meet the Harlem Globetrotters, and compares the Wildcats to all four. The South Bend Tribune takes a shot at the Irish defense. The Chicago Tribune leads with Irish guard Tory Jackson's busted lip as a metaphor for the game, which apparently took place in Philadelphia.

I'll highlight a career high 27 points for 'Nova freshman point guard Scottie Reynolds. Reynolds was 8-12 from the field, 2-3 from three-point range and 9-10 from the free throw line. 'Nova as a whole shot 56.7 percent from the field, which for my money should win a game just about every time.

Temple won an A-10 game for the first time this season, 85-79 over Saint Louis. Mark Tyndale tells Mike Kern in the Daily News the Owls have had longer and harder practices. What an idea. In the Inquirer, Mike Jensen highlights big scoring nights for Tyndale, Dionte Christmas (22 points each) and Dustin Salisbery (25 points).

St. Joe's lost at Fordham in OT, 56-55. In the Inquirer, Ray Parillo writes about the Hawks' "warts," as Phil Martelli calls them, and reports that the Fordham students rushed the court when the game ended. In the Daily News, Dick Jerardi said St. Joe's should blame itself for allowing its car to be stolen.

Drexel beat Northeastern at the DAC, 67-41. Kevin Tatum of the Inquirer notes that the Dragons held the Huskies scoreless for the first 5:30 of the second half. Bill Fleischmann of the Daily News says Drexel needed the win despite its 12-4 record.

Previewing tonight's Penn-La Salle game at Tom Gola Arena, a columnist in the Penn student paper answers a question posed by a headline in the sports section earlier this week. I bet the editors who wrote the headline were real happy about that. Nonetheless, I'll agree that Penn's stretch of three Big 5 games in a week will define the team as much as, if not more than their Ivy sweep of Cornell and Columbia did.

Boston College center Sean Williams and forward Akida McLain, both juniors, were dismissed from the team last night for violating team rules. It's not the first time they've been in trouble.

On SI.com, Seth Davis talks to NBA scouts about the top prospects this year, while Grant Wahl admits he got it wrong about Oregon.

Elsewhere in the Pac-10, Arizona isn't shooting well of late. The Wildcats play at USC tonight and at UCLA on Saturday, so now would be a good time to do something about that.

Oklahoma fans have it good -- they only need their team to make six three-pointers in a half to get free food. I find that a lot easier than the 100 points Abner's requires to give out free cheesesteaks to fans of Penn, Drexel and St. Joe's.

Another Big East team learns not to play the Connecticut women in the first game after a Huskies loss, prompting an extraordinary headline in the Hartford Courant.

A football story: Hawaii QB Colt Brennan is staying for his senior season, which is great news. It gives ESPN another year of excuses to fly crews to Honolulu, and gives the rest of us reason to stay up late watching him rack up mammoth amounts of passing yards. And another: Between Mike Shula's $4 million buyout and Nick Saban's new 4-year, $32-million contract, Alabama could be spending $355,158 a month on the pair before giving a cent to assistant coaches.

A local one: Penn's football schedule is out, and the Quakers will play Georgetown for the first time since 1937.

And one more, of a much more somber nature: 19-year-old South Florida running back Keeley Dorsey died yesterday after collapsing during a team workout.

Is that enough for the day?

A lot of good stuff, starting locally as always. La Salle beat the New Jersey Institute of Technology last night, 78-59, at Tom Gola Arena. It was another big night for Explorers freshman Rodney Green, who scored 18 points and pulled down five rebounds. Bob Cooney in the Daily News writes that on an uneventful night, the Explorers got a spark from sophomore guard Brad Cohen, a walk-on who got himself a basket with 1.1 seconds to play. Kevin Tatum in the Inquirer notes that NJIT coach Jim Casciano has deep Philly roots -- he was raised in Montgomery County, played at Drexel and coached alongside Rollie Massimino at Villanova.

Speaking of the 'Cats, they host Notre Dame at the Pavilion tonight at 7 p.m. In the Inquirer, Shannon Ryan profiles Irish guard and South Jersey native Russell Carter, who ranks third in the Big East in scoring. In the Daily News, Dick Jerardi focuses on Rob Kurz, a Penn Charter grad who's been through more than his share of problems on the way to a starting spot. The South Bend Tribune calls the Pavilion "a 6,500-seat zoo sure to be the loudest and most difficult place the Irish play this season."

By the way, Notre Dame has the fourth best offensive efficiency in the country, and Irish bench player Luke Harangody is the second-most efficient player in the country.

There are three other games tonight: St. Louis at Temple, St. Joe's at Fordham and Northeastern at Drexel. The first two of those tip at 7 and the Drexel game tips at 7:30.

In his weekly column, Jerardi looks at Wisconsin's Alando Tucker and goings-on in the A-10, among other things. Though I must admit, I like seeing a post player be smart enough to stand his ground and take a charge instead of continuing to move his feet.

One of the things Jerardi notes is the strength of the Pac-10, where Washington is 10-1 out of conference and 1-5 in it. Joe Lunardi says that "realistically," the Huskies are out of the running for an NCAA Tournament bid.

The Inquirer joins the Greg Oden Watch.

Nationally, there is a report out of Dallas that the Texas-Oklahoma State game did in fact finish. The Cowboys won in triple overtime, 105-103. I watched the whole thing, and it was truly gripping stuff. I'll have more to say on the game later.

Pitt beat UConn at the Peterson Events Center, 63-54. The key stretch was a seven-minute, 46-second stretch of the second half in which the Huskies were held without a field goal. Pitt's Aaron Gray had a huge night, with 22 points and 19 rebounds -- one short of Dick Vitale's predicted 20 -- despite injuring his wrist in a pregame shootaround.

Virginia beat Maryland with 25 points from Penn Charter grad Sean Singletary, and the John Paul Jones arena's student section talked trash at the Terrapins.

A football story: Arkansas quarterback Mitch Mustain has been given permission to transfer, in part because Razorbacks offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn took the Tulsa job. Malzahn was Mustain's coach in high school. I can hear the wailing in Fayettville from here.

Finally, there's been a quarantine of the horses used by the Rhode Island equestrian team due to fears of an equine virus that is spreading across the country.

Edit: Will Bunch's identical twin, Attytood, is on the Oden case as well. Mike Jensen and I discussed Oden in the inaugural College HoopsCast that we did last week. You can listen to it by clicking here. If you right-click that link it will let you download the MP3 of the show.

Gonzaga lost a West Coast Conference game for the first time in almost two years, 80-75 at St. Mary's. If this keeps up, Kyle Whelliston might have to start talking about the 'Zags again, which worries the Mid-Majority greatly.

Kansas beat Missouri, but only by three points -- 80-77. Of course, this being one of the country's great rivalries, you throw out Missouri's winless record in conference play before you start lining up at 6am five days in advance for tickets in the student section. Jayhawks freshman Sherron Collins scored a career-high 23 points, but was more notable for the pattern he shaved in his hair. I was wondering what that was.

Elsewhere in the Big 12, Oklahoma State hosts Texas tonight. The Dallas Morning News compares Longhorns star freshman Kevin Durant with Cowboys star senior Mario Boggan. It's Texas' last game before playing Villanova this weekend, by the way.

Marquette beat Louisville at Freedom Hall in the early Big Monday game, prompting the Louisville Courier-Journal to use the words "dirty" and "immature" in the same headline. Okay, so it was Pitino who called the Cardinals immature (multiple times, no less), but still.

Across the way in Lexington, the SEC's best team heads to South Carolina to face the SEC's worst team tonight. But Wildcats coach Tubby Smith isn't terribly happy with the way his team's playing at the moment. Nonetheless, Kentucky is winning with defense. What a surprise.

Folks in South Bend are shocked -- shocked, I tell you -- that Notre Dame is playing two freshman point guards, but the Irish are off to their best start since the 1978-79 season. Virginia Tech has expectations for once, now that it's ranked for the first time since 1996.

North Carolina's women beat UConn, where growing pains aren't allowed, in a really good game, 82-76. Tar Heels guard Ivory Latta had an off night, but that didn't matter because she hit The Big Shots -- a three with 1:01 remaining and two free throws with 39 seconds left. The game wasn't sold out, but literally every story I've read about it this morning describes Carmichael Auditorium as a sauna or something close to it. Geno Auriemma wonders why Michael Jordan hasn't bought a fan for the place.

Finally, the Penn student paper got the day off yesterday -- the more your tuition is, the less you go to class, but at least MLK Day is a holiday worth celebrating -- so this morning's edition details the Columbia student section's attempts to taunt the Quakers on Saturday night. Not that it did them any good.

You probably already know what happened over the weekend; if not, Dick Jerardi's Monday wrap-up column in the Daily News has all the pieces. Suffice to say it was pretty bad, and I don't just mean for the Eagles -- Villanova, Drexel, St. Joe's, Temple, La Salle, the Sixers, the Flyers and the Wings all lost. Jeez.

Only Penn won, sweeping Cornell and Columbia to go 2-0 in the Ivy League right out of the gate. But one of the school's student newspaper bloggers -- he must be an Eagles fan or something -- says the title race isn't over.

The Hawks fell to Rhode Island, who hadn't won at the Fieldhouse since 1999. Then again, St. Joe's didn't shoot 55 free throws this time.

Syracuse beat Villanova with a bunch of former Orange greats in the house -- including Roosevelt Bouie, Dave Bing, Derrick Coleman and Rony Seikaly, whose No. 4 jersey was retired.

Duke finally won an ACC game, beating Miami after showing up at the arena in "professional attire" instead of warmups.

Out west, Chauncey Billups -- excuse me, Aaron Brooks -- hit the game-winning shot with two seconds left as Oregon beat Arizona in Tuscon. Another big win for the Ducks, who've certainly proven their worthiness to me after some questions coming into conference play.

Stanford swept Washington and Washington State, but the students at Maples didn't rush the floor. Ray Ratto praises the young Cardinal in the San Francisco Chronicle, but says the "label shoppers" in the stands "probably should have rushed the court."

On the women's side, No. 7 Connecticut visits No. 2 North Carolina tonight; watch it at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. The game is sold out, but then again it isn't in the Dean Dome -- it's in Carmichael Auditorium, where the Tar Heels men played in the Jordan/Worthy era. A Hartford Courant writer wonders whether Geno Auriemma's right that this game really doesn't matter all that much. But I rather doubt that, given that the writer also says that losing three straight to Sylvia Hatchell "wouldn't be any worse" than losing three straight to Pat Summitt and Tennessee.

A football story: Florida held its championship celebration on campus and 50,000 people showed up.

And another: there's a big debate in Dallas going on about renovating the Cotton Bowl, and how well the famed stadium can compete with the new stadium that pro football team in town is building a few miles up the highway.

Finally, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi answers readers' mail (Insider subscription required) and offers to come to a school to teach bracketology as an elective. Now, I happen to know for a fact that Joe's reading this blog, because he told me last week he would be doing so. And I can only say that Joe should offer that service to the local schools first before branching out!

UPDATE: Two more football stories that are worth of attention: Ohio State star wide receiver Ted Ginn and running back Antonio Pittman will head to the NFL Draft, but Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm is staying for his senior season.

Villanova beat Georgetown in D.C. last night. Dana Pennett O'Neil of the Daily News says that as Scottie Reynolds goes, "so go the Wildcats," and the freshman point guard went quite well in front of a bunch of his high school friends from nearby Herndon, Va. The Inquirer's Shannon Ryan says that Villanova did the hard work despite the hard hats that were passed out to the Georgetown student section. Ken Pomeroy writes for ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) that the 'Cats overcame one of the nation's most underrated shot-blockers, Hoyas center Roy Hibbert. The best? UConn's Hasheem Thabeet.

Drexel won its 10th straight, though the Daily News correspondent notes it "doesn't take much to beat James Madison."

Ray Parillo was at the BCS national championship game for the Inquirer and details a night of trouble in paradise. Mike Kern was there for the Daily News and wonders whether Ohio State coach Jim Tressel should have voted for Michigan after all. He also reports that there are "better jobs out there" than that held by SEC commish and BCS chairman Mike Slive, who doesn't see a playoff coming any time soon. But this story out of Atlanta says Slive says a plus-one system for the BCS title game would be a good idea.

Speaking of Villanova and Georgetown, ESPN.com's Pat Forde says Florida pulled off the best underdog performance in a national championship game since the '85 Villanova hoops team. "Urban Meyer undressed The Vest," he says, though there's no reference to taking Tressel to the cleaners. The Boston Globe's Bob Ryan 'fesses up to being wrong about whether the Gators deserved to be in the game, and notes that the first team to hold the championships in football and basketball at the same time is not named USC or Notre Dame. Washington Post columnist Mike Wise calls Tressel "an impulsive, macho Texas hold 'em player" who blew the game by going for it on fourth down in the first quarter.

A Florida fan calls the horde of Ohioans who flooded Glendale last night "the rudest fans I have ever met, and I don't mean that in a bad way."

At the same time as the football game, Kansas State was hosting Texas Tech in the second half of the Big Monday hoops doubleheader. A game notable for the matchup of coaches Bob Huggins and Bobby Knight, but more memorable this morning because Wildcats star frosh Bill Walker ruptured his ACL and is done for the year. Another injury casualty last night was Nevada star Nick Fazekas, who hurt his left ankle, though he returned to the bench later -- and the Wolf Pack beat Boise State anyway.

And finally, here's a way to find every college football venue in the country using Google Earth. It came from a Syracuse football blog, which I would think leads to some kind of one-liner about the Orange having some free time these days.