Soft Pretzel Logic

Ryan writes:

Has anyone else felt like that their teams have been a victim of a Jim Burr call. Such as the call against Villanova durning the NC State game last Sunday night. This guy may need to retire soon.

I'll leave the straight answer to that question to you all, but I will say the call that I presume you're referring to -- the foul with 0.4 seconds left that sent Gavin Grant to the line for the game-winning free throws -- was really dumb.

I asked Mike Jensen about it on today's College HoopsCast and he agreed.

In addition to Villanova's trip to Orlando, we talked about:

-- The freshman guards leading Drexel and Penn this year
-- Visits to Philadelphia this week by some of the top mid-major teams in the country: Ball State and Gonzaga at St. Joseph's, Ohio at Temple and Creighton at Drexel
-- The Hawks returning to action after a 10-day layoff
-- and some of the big games on the national scene lately, including Arizona-Kansas, Xavier-Indiana and North Carolina-Ohio State.

Plus, I got exclusive interviews with Virginia guard Sean Singletary and his mother, Jacqui, after the championship game of the Philly Classic.

Speaking of the Philly Classic, I'll share some of my thoughts on it after the jump.

I call it an upset, and listening to Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez I think he thought it was one too.

But the Pirates dominated this game from start to finish, routing Virginia, 74-60, to win the Independence Bracket of the Philly Classic.

Neither team shot well, but it sure seemed like Seton Hall made all the big shots. The Pirates were 25-for-69 from the field (36.2%), 7-for-23 from three-point range (30.4%) and 17-for-25 from the line (68.0%) for an average of 1.09 points per possession. Nine assists to a mere six turnovers, 43 rebounds (19 offensive) and 16 fouls committed.

The Cavaliers shot 20-for-61 from the field (32.8%), 7-for-28 from three (25.0%) and 13-for-18 from the line (72.2%) for an average of 0.92 points per possession. Twelve assists to 16 turnovers, 50 rebounds (20 offensive) and 21 fouls committed.

That three-point percentage tells a lot of the tale, even with all the rebounds. Adrian Joseph, who torched Penn last night, did next to nothing tonight -- six points on 2-for-7 shooting, including 2-for-5 from beyond the arc.

Sean Singletary tried awfully hard to put the team on his back, but I can't help thinking he did too much. He doesn't get the line of the game, but it's worth posting anyway:

Laing does get the line of the game, as well MVP honors for the bracket. The minutes played might be as impressive as the points total:

The play of the game was a bit tough this time, but I think this one sums up the night pretty well. With 14:44 gone in the second half, Virginia's Mamadi Diane knocked Seton Hall's Jeremy Hazell to the floor as Hazell fired up a three-pointer.

The shot hit nothing but net, and although Hazell missed the free throw it was one of those moments where you just figured it wasn't the Cavaliers' game.

Because it's the last game of this tournament, a few more quotes than usual. First from Virginia coach Dave Leitao:

"What I thought might be a game that might be wide open, they decided to make into a little bit of a backyard kind of game and really took the game from being pretty and just came after us on both ends." -- Leitao on Seton Hall's style.

"We played defense over 80 minutes in this tournament for about seven."

And a bunch from Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez:

“Just tell him to call it both ways. He’s going with the chalk. He knows that Virginia’s favored.” -- Gonzalez to the referees with 6:20 left in the first half.

"They’re going to treat him like Michael Jordan. Just stay in front of him.” – Gonzalez gives instructions to Paul Gause on how to guard Sean Singletary.

Finally, this one from after the game. I didn't know until tonight that Gonzalez's wife was pregnant to the point of expecting, but someone asked about it, and Gonzalez replied: "Now that we beat Virginia, I’m going to tell her that it’s okay for her to have the baby."

So that wraps it up from a very long two days of basketball at the Palestra. Thanks to all of you who've read along with the coverage. Time to get some sleep.

To the surprise of probably everyone except the very big contingent of Seton Hall fans in the house, the Pirates lead at the half, 40-29. Brian Laing is the game's leading scorer with 14 points and right now he is at the top of my all-bracket first-team ballot.

The Hall shot 17-for-38 from the field (44.7%), 5-for-15 from three-point range (33.%) and 1-of-2 from the line (50.0%) for an average of 1.18 points per possession. And at last, a team with more assists than turnovers: seven of the former to four of the latter.

The Cavaliers shot 9-for-28 from the field (32.1%), 4-for-11 from the line (36.4%) and 7-of-10 (70.0%) from the line for an average of 0.86 points per possession. They recorded seven assists and 10 turnovers.

Sean Singletary certainly disappointed, shooting 3-for-11 from the field and 1-for-4 from three.

Back to the action.

Well, we did get a decent game in the end. Penn won, 71-67, taking the lead for good with 3:01 to play on a jumper by freshman guard Tyler Bernardini.

The game was played at a frenetic pace – 85 possessions for Navy and 82 for Penn. Both teams are used to that, though.

Navy took a whopping 72 field goal attempts, but made only 22 of them (30.6%). The Midshipmen made five of 28 three-point attempts (17.9%) and 18 of 23 free throws (78.3%), resulting in an average of 0.79 points per possession. They recorded eight assists, 18 turnovers, 44 rebounds (16 offensive) and 32 fouls committed.

Penn attempted a more modest 46 field goals and made 19 of them (41.3%). The Quakers shot 3-for-12 from three-point range (25.0%, though 3-for-6 in the second half) and 30-for-42 from the free throw line, resulting in an average of 0.87 points per possession. They recorded nine assists, 22 turnovers, 43 rebounds (six offensive) and 20 fouls committed.

Play of the game goes to Bernardini, whose diving baseline layup from the right side with 1:32 left in the game pushed Penn's lead to two possessions, 62-57.

Navy quote of the night: “The dumbest 1300 sat guy I’ve ever seen in my life.” Navy coach Billy Lange talks to the bench about one of his players with 13:40 left in the first half.

Penn quote of the night: “It’s nice to be able to win one of those ugly games.” – Penn coach Glen Miller after the win.

Line of the game goes to Navy's Greg Sprink, who turned in one of the most inefficient 22-point games you'll probably ever see.

Now it's time for the glamor game of this whole tournament, Seton Hall-Virginia.

Okay, now THAT was really ugly.

Navy leads at the half, 26-23, after 20 minutes of basketball that featured 40 possessions per side. So that works out to 0.65 points per possession for Navy and 0.57 for Penn.

Yikes.

The Midshipmen shot 9-for-32 from the field (28.1%), 1-for-10 from three-point range (10.0%) and 7-for-11 from the line (63.6%), with two assists and 10 turnovers.

The Quakers shot 8-for-26 from the field (30.8%), 0-for-6 from three-point range (uh, I think that's 0.0 percent, but my math stinks) and 7-for-13 from the line (53.8%), with four assists and 13 turnovers.

To the second half we go, thankfully.

Drexel just won a great game, 54-52. The Dragons held a nine-point lead with 6:03 left, but Loyola rallied to within a point thanks to a clutch three from the left corner by Gerald Brown. Drexel made its free throws down the stretch, though, and never gave up the lead because of it.

So the Dragons are the champions of the Liberty Bracket. I guess that's worth something to someone.

Drexel shot 20-for-48 from the field (41.7%), 4-for-10 from three (40.0%) and 10-for-17 from the line (58.8%). 0.83 points per possession, 12 assists, 16 turnovers, 33 rebounds (7 offensive) and 18 fouls committed.

Loyola shot 17-for-56 from the field (30.4%), 4-for-19 from three (21.1%, but that was a big one late) and 14-for-20 from the line (70.0%).

It was a slow game: 65 possessions per side.

Play of the game is a hard one. I think I have to go with my gut, though, and give it to Frank Elegar for making both free throws when he was sent to the line with 13 seconds on the clock to give Drexel a 53-49 lead.

Loyola quote of the game: “That guy went to DeMatha, He knows I coached at [Archbishop] Carroll... That’s DeMatha vs. Carroll at its finest.” – Greyhounds coach Jimmy Patsos berates the ref with 12:05 to play in the first half. Okay, so I'm biased because I know about both those schools having grown up in the D.C. area. But I wasn't the only person on press row who got the joke.

So here's another to make up for it, from Patsos after the game: "[The] Philly team got all the breaks, and I mean that like the basketball gods were looking out for Drexel. They play here more than us."

Drexel quote of the game: "I've been a coach for 19 years and I've never coached anybody with his shirt on backwards... and he actually played with it on backwards." -- Bruiser Flint on Kenny Drexel, who took the floor for Tribbett during the first half.

Or something like that.

Line of the game goes to Frank Elegar, who was named the bracket MVP. I probably would have given MVP to Gerald Brown for his combined effort over the two games, but Elegar certainly had a good game today.

21 points in 21 minutes, yet you can legitimately say he didn't have an efficient game.

I was asked to submit an all-bracket first team and here's I wrote down:

G Gerald Brown (Loyola)
G Gerald Colds (Drexel)
G Tramayne Hawthorne (Drexel)
F Eugene Myatt (Howard)
C Frank Elegar (Drexel)

Alright, I'll be back in a few hours for Penn-Navy.

Loyola with a 25-20 halftime lead. Again, we look at assist-to-turnover ratio as the key stat: 7 to 10 for Loyola and 6 to 13 for Drexel.

The Greyhouds were 9-for-24 from the field (37.5%), 2-for-8 from three-point range (25.0%) and 5-for-8 from the line (62.5%) for an average of 0.74 points per possession.

The Dragons shot 7-for-19 from the field (36.8%), 1-for-4 from three (25.0%) and 5-for-11 from the line (45.5%) for an average of 0.58 points per possession. Not good.

But I'm pretty sure that if Frank Elegar hadn't picked up two fouls in the first eight minutes, that all would have been pretty different.

Off we go again.

After two almost identical halves, Robert Morris ends up cruising to a 72-53 win. The Colonials outscored Howard 36-26 in the first half and 36-27 in the second half.

The tempo was moderate: 69 possessions for Howard and 71 for Robert Morris.

Robert Morris finished the game having shot 30-for-63 from the field (47.6%), 7-for-16 from three-point range (43.8%) and 5-for-6 from the line (83.3%). The Colonials only attempted one free throw in the entire second half.

They averaged 1.02 points per possession and recorded 24 assists, 20 turnovers, 38 rebounds (15 offensive) and 26 fouls committed.

Howard shot 18-for-50 from the field (36.0%), 3-for-18 from three-point range (16.7%, including a frigid 2-for-13 in the second half) and 14-for-25 from the line. They averaged 0.77 points per possession and recorded seven assists, 23 turnovers, 35 rebounds (16 offensive) and nine fouls committed.

Nine fouls committed in a game. Who'd have thunk it.

The play of the game came with 14:20 on the clock in the second half. Robert Morris guard Tony Lee drove to the basket in traffic and hit a really nice over-the-back-of-his-head layup off the glass to give the Colonials a 50-30 lead.

Robert Morris quote of the game: "The problem with first year coaches [is], they get so hyper and they're so up to getting their guys to play hard that it's sometimes without a purpose and some function." -- Colonials coach Mike Rice after the game, talking about the flow of his offense.

Howard quote of the game: "We've got to have games closer than that. We can't have teams run away from us, and then they're shooting like it's practice." -- Bison coach Gil Jackson

Line of the game from a rather unspectacular boxscore goes to Robert Morris forward A.J. Jackson.

Off to Loyola-Drexel. Should be a pretty good game even though neither team's fan section is as big as it was yesterday.

RMU leads at the half, 36-26. The Colonials shot a reasonable 14-for-33 from the field (42.4%) and 4-for-10 from three (40.0%), to go with 4-for-5 from the line (80.0%). They averaged 1.02 points per possession.

Howard shot 7-for-19 from the field (36.8%), 1-for-5 from three (20.0%) and 11-for-13 from the line (84.5%) for an average of 0.72 points per possession. Not many attempts from the field, but nice to see the Bison (both teams, really) making their free throws.

Hey, it's something, especially compared to yesterday.

The real glaring stat is assists to turnovers: 10 to 11 for Robert Morris and three to 17 for Howard. Ouch.

We're back courtside at the Palestra for the consolation game of the Liberty bracket between Howard and Robert Morris.

The attendance report is bleak: to be honest, probably fewer than 100 fans in the stands right now and they're pretty spread out. I know these aren't the marquee teams in the field, but I would have hoped for better than this.

For example, Howard brought a decent traveling contingent to its game against Penn here last week, but there are no Bison fans here at all right now as far as I can tell.

Anyway, off we go.

Virginia wins, 100-85. The result was never in doubt, but the two teams did tie for 50 points apiece in the second half.

For the game, Virginia shot 34-for-72 from the field (47.2%), 10-for-14 from three-point range (41.7%) and 22-for-30 from the line (73.3%). 1.22 points per possession, 17 assists, 21 turnovers, a whopping 56 rebounds (and an even more impressive 25 on the offensive end) and 30 fouls committed.

Penn shot 26-for-56 from the field (46.4%), 6-for-21 from three (28.6%) and 27-for-40 from the line (67.5%). The Quakers recorded 0.96 points per possession, 20 assists, 19 turnoverse, 26 rebounds (9 offensive) and 23 fouls committed.

That rebounding margin is the glaring stat, as is the tempo -- 82 possessions per side. Virginia dictated that, but Penn was effective the few times it could get out on the fast break.

Play of the game goes to Penn's Remy Cofield, if only because it was the most stunning basket of the day in any game. With 6:05 left in the first half, Cofield drove to the basket, took some good contact along the way, went flying to the floor and while he was falling he threw the ball up in the air.

Somehow -- I still don't quite know how -- the ball ended up falling into the net. As sweet as Virginia's many threes and dunks were, that was the play that really drew oohs and aahs from the crowd.

Quote of the day, Penn edition: "Not all actually. I just threw it up there." -- Cofield on whether he expected the shot to go in.

Quote of the day, Virginia edition: "I knew the Penn fans would be all over me about those free throws. I'm sure they remember that about my time at Penn." -- Virginia forward Ryan Pettinella on the cheers he got from the Penn fans in the building when he missed the two free throws during the first half.

Line of the day goes to Virginia guard Adrian Joseph, who hit all kinds of shots in all kinds of impressive ways throughout the game:

To sum up the day, I would say this. It wasn't the best basketball and it wasn't the kind of atmosphere I think the tournament could have and deserves. I do think, though, that one of the tournament's goals was achieved in having all eastern teams in the field: each of the eight coaches knew full well the importance of playing in the Palestra.

Four games in a day make for a long time spent in a backless seat typing on a table that isn't quite fastened in place. But I'm doing it again just over 10 hours from now for good reason.

Virgina winning easily, 50-35. Lots of orange in the house, a couple of "Let's Go, Wahoos!" chants, and I think I just saw a few people singing the Good Old Song.

The high point for Penn was when former Quaker Ryan Pettinella stepped up to the free throw line, missed both attempts and got a big ovation. The fans around here have seen that a few times, it has to be said.

Other than that, the Cavaliers had the run of things. 17-for-35 from the field (48.6%), 7-for-13 from three (53.8%) and 9-for-14 from the line (64.3%). They averaged an impressive 1.38 points per possession.

A pretty quiet night for Sean Singletary so far: 1-of-7 FG, 1-of-2 3pt and 4-4 FT for nine points to go with three assists, a steal and three turnovers. But he got by far the biggest cheer of any game today when his name was announced during the starting lineups.

Penn shot 11-for-28 from the field (39.3%), a paltry 1-for-10 from three (10%, which you probably knew) and 12-for-17 from the line (70.6%). The Quakers averaged 1.12 points per possession.

Nice to see both teams go above 1.0 points per possession.

The biggest stat of all, though, is on the boards: 12 offensive for the Cavaliers to eight defensive for the Quakers.

Interesting to see the two ADs, Penn's Steve Bilsky and Virginia's Craig Littlepage (a former Penn player and coach) chatting in the front row courtside. And as I type, Littlepage is talking to Phillies president David Montgomery, another Penn alum.

No sign, however, of Gov. Rendell, a regular at Penn games. Just saw Rendell, sitting two seats over from Montgomery in their assigned seats near the top of the chairback section.

Seton Hall makes a nice comeback in the second half to hold off a Navy team that played a lot better than I thought it would, 79-75.

The Midshipmen shot 25-for-66 from the field (37.9%), which tells you what you need to know about the second half (10-for-30/33.3%). 13-for-37 from three (35.1%) and 12-for-19 from the line (63.2%). 0.89 points per possession, 18 assists, 22 turnovers (15 in the second half), 40 rebounds (13 offensive) and 25 fouls committed.

The Pirates shot 26-for-64 from the field (40.6%), 4-for-12 from three (17.4%) -- including 1-for-9 in the second half -- and 23-for-40 from the line (57.5%). 1.04 points per possession, 12 assists, 19 turnovers, 50 rebounds (20 offensive) and 18 fouls committed.

50 rebounds is quite impressive, but can someone please make a free throw?

Play of the game came with 9:14 left in the 2nd half. Paul Gause stole a Navy pass and fed it on a bounce to Brian Laing for a pretty breakaway slam.

Navy quote of the day: "If I say Bruiser's teams don't come after it he's going to come after my team and beat me." -- Mids coach Billy Lange talking about Drexel, which beat Navy 86-70 in a Philly Classic preliminary game at the DAC.

Seton Hall quote of the day: "He was shot out of a cannon -- he had his quickness, he had his energy going." -- Pirates coach Bobby Gonzalez talking about guard Paul Gause, who finished the night with 13 points, sevne rebounds, six assists and four steals.

Line of the day goes to the aforementioned Laing:

Okay, time for Penn-Virginia, and it looks like there's a pretty big crowd for it.

At last, we have a basketball game. And not just because Navy leads 43-39 at the half.

The Midshipmen shot 15-for-36 from the field (41.7%) in the first 20 minutes, 8-for-24 (33.3%) from three and 5-for-9 (55.6%) from the line.

The Pirates shot 13-for-37 from the field (35.1%), 3-for-14 from three (21.4%) and 10-for-15 (66.7%) from the line. Okay, that's not so great, but overall it was a lot better than what we saw this afternoon.

Midshipmen forward Adam Teague's four threes were the highlight. Seton Hall really couldn't stop him, though I can't say they tried all that hard on some of the shots.

Here we are at the evening session, with Navy and Seton Hall a minute or so from tipoff. The crowd isn't huge, but there are people sitting in the upper rows of the 200 level on the side opposite press row, which makes me think the final attendance will be pretty good.

Already a good bit of Virginia orange in the house, along with two sections of Seton Hall blue. But the neutrals seem to be rooting for Navy.

BH, if there ever was some.

That's short for Bad Hoops. The abbreviation was, as far as anyone around here knows, coined by veteran Associated Press college basketball writer Jack Scheuer. He wasn't here to see it (or to see me steal his catchphrase), but he didn't miss much.

Drexel won the game, 56-40.

The Dragons shot 20-for-45 from the field (44.4%), 7-for-14 from three (50.0 percent) and a truly foul 9-for-23 from the free throw line (39.1 percent, and apologies for the pun). 0.76 points per possession, 15 assists, 26 turnovers, 42 rebounds (8 offensive) and 22 fouls committed.

Robert Morris shot 16-for-54 from the field (29.6%), 1-for-16 from three (0.63 percent -- wow), and an even worse than Drexel (by percentage) 7-for-19 from the line (36.8%). 0.55 points per possession, 12 assists, 21 turnovers, 36 rebounds (11 offensive) and 21 fouls committed.

Then again, isn't this place known for not having the best basketball played on its floor?

The play of the game, since it probably ought to be something defensive, was a ferocious block by Frank Elegar on Colonials guard Mezie Nwigwe. Nwigwe drove hard to the post for a layup, but Elegar got all ball and shoved his arm down so hard that it knocked Nwigwe on his rear end right onto the floor.

We have a tie for the Robert Morris quote of the game. The first comes from coach Mike Rice, who yelled at Dallas Green with 3:07 left in the game: "Dallas, this is your only chance, Dallas, because you’ve been really bad today.”

On the very next play, Green fouled Drexel's Adrian Hynes-Guery as he scored a layup.

The second is also from Rice, postgame: "I got my first technical in the Palestra. I can always say that."

The Drexel quote of the game comes from Bruiser Flint, of course: "I told them it's my fault, because I should have made everyone come to my house and hang out with me [for Thanksgiving]... Guys were trying to rush home and they played that way. I knew we were in trouble last week when guys were asking me, what are we doing for Thanksgiving?"

And the line of the day pretty well has to go to Frank Elegar, even though he didn't score much:

That wraps up the afternoon session. I'll be back in a couple hours for the night session, which starts with Seton Hall-Navy at 7 p.m.

I really would not want to be in Robert Morris' locker room right now. As the Inquirer's Mel Greenberg, who's here to cover the game for the paper, said: "If the real Robert Morris had shot like that, we'd be under a monarchy."

It's 32-14 Drexel at the half, as the Colonials shot 6-for-25 from the field, 0-for-8 from three and 2-for-3 from the line, for an average of 0.38 points per possession.

Read that again.

Now, to make you feel better: the Dragons shot 12-for-21 from the field, 5-for-8 from three and 3-for-7 from the line for an average of 0.88 points per possession.

At least we had a little drama at the halftime buzzer, as Colonials coach Mike Rice got t'ed up for yapping at the refs. By the way, if that name sounds familiar to you, it is: Rice was an assistant at St. Joe's from 2004 to 2006.

Two of Rice's assistants also have Philly ties: Jimmy Martelli, also known as Phil's son, and former Penn guard Andrew Toole.

No surprise, then, that Phil is sitting a few rows back behind the Robert Morris bench with his wife, Judy, and St. Joe's athletic director Phil Martelli.

Keeping with the local ties, the Colonials also have a forward named Dallas Green. Then again, this one wasn't born in 1980... and he's from Indianapolis.

As for the crowd, it's bigger than the Loyola crowd was but not by too much. There are probably two sections' worth of Drexel fans, plus the band. Not much, but better than canned music any day.

Loyola wins it, 73-58.

The Greyhounds shot 24-for-63 from the field (38.1%), 4-for-18 from three (22.2%) and 21-for-23 (91.3%) from the line. 1.01 points per possession, 16 assists, 10 turnovers, 38 rebounds (12 offensive) and 21 fouls committed.

Howard shot 20-for-53 from the field (37.7%), 2-for-13 (15.4% -- yikes) from three and 16-for-20 from the line. 0.81 points per possessions, 10 assists, 18 turnovers, 38 rebounds (9 offensive) and 19 fouls committed.

The play of the game came with 8:06 to play in the second half. Loyola's Joe Miles drove to the basket but Jeron Smith swatted the layup away hard. Except the ball went straight to Greyhounds guard Tony Lewis, who scored uncontested.

Howard quote of the game: “That’s not what you do on the playground, is it?” -- Bison coach Gil Jackson yells at his team for not running the offense well with 7:33 left in the first half.

Loyola quote of the game: "It's a real honor to get your first win in the Palestra as a head coach. I got a win here as an assistant, to get a win here -- this is just an unbelievable place." -- Greyhounds coach Jimmy Patsos after the game.

And the Line of the Game goes to Loyola guard Gerald Brown:

Loyola led at halftime, 36-25. Howard shot 7-of-24 from the field, 1-of-5 from three and 10-of-11 from the line, turned it over 11 times (to three assists) and committed 11 fouls.

So yeah, that's 14 points from the field in a half, and a paltry 0.67 points per possession.

Loyola shot 12-of-33 from the field, 3-of-11 from three and 9-of-19 from the line, turned the ball over six times (to a much more respectable nine assists) and committed 12 fouls. The average was 1.00 points per possession, which at least tastes a little better than the Bison's offering.

Still... yikes.

Welcome to the Palestra, where as always it’s cold outside but short-sleeves warm inside. We’re just underway in the first game of the Philly Classic between Loyola, Md., and Howard. I’m not planning on liveblogging every game in full, but throughout today and tomorrow I’ll bring you highlights, anecdotes and some analysis from each game.

So check back throughout the weekend for new posts.

To answer Fred's question, you bet I'll be keeping an eye on the stands to keep track of the attendance. The crowd right here isn't all that big right now -- under 1,000, I'd say -- but there's a nice traveling contingent of Loyola fans and a good few people who seem to be here just to watch a basketball game.

I'm sure there will be many more here for the Drexel game.

By the way, I’ll be keeping one eye on Delaware State-Delaware when that kicks off, too.

Greetings from a sunny, not-too-cold Franklin Field. I'm here to cover the Penn-Cornell football game for the Inquirer. Later this afternoon I'll head next door to the Palestra to cover the Penn-Howard basketball game, also for the paper.

To be honest, I'd rather be out on the Main Line for the Villanova-Delaware showdown. I wanted to see Omar Cuff, the Blue Hens' stud running back, in person. And I'd really like to be at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn., where a sellout crowd of more than 60,000 is watching Harvard and Yale play for the Ivy League title as I write this.

Both clashes are among Mike Jensen's Games of the Week for good reason.

The rest of this post, though, is going to be about basketball. Unfortunately, I don't have anything insightful to say about Temple's shocking 25-point collapse yesterday to the College of Charleston because I'm still stunned myself, so I'll leave it to Mike Jensen and Mike Kern to break it down from San Juan.

But the game I'm covering this afternoon has a nice little storyline to it. Howard coach Gil Jackson spent 16 years as an assistant coach to Fran Dunphy at Penn before leaving for Washington in 2005.

Today, he makes his first trip as a head coach to the arena he called home for a very long time, facing his old team in a preliminary round game of the Philly Classic.

I talked to Jackson on Thursday, and yes, I started with the rather obvious question of what it would be like to come out of the visitors' locker room for once.

It turns out he's done that quite a few times before.

"I used to go in there at around 4 o'clock and get dressed in the visitor’s locker room, so I’m familiar with that," he said, "but it will be strange talking to a team there, getting a team ready to take the floor from that side of the court. That’ll be a little strange, and sitting on that side of the bench, and the Red and Blue Crew being against you and not for you."

But Jackson won't be the only person on the Bison bench familiar with the surroundings today. You might remember a former Drexel guard named Randy Hampton. He's playing in the Washington neighborhood known as Shaw now, and Jackson is very happy to have him.

"He’s very athletic but he’s only 6-[foot]-4 -- he’s a slashing time player, strong, can finish," Jackson said of Hampton. "He’s working to improve his outside shooting, and he’s a very good defender when he concentrates and a very good rebounder because of his athleticism."

Hampton is also a D.C. native, and while at Dunbar High School he was the DCIAA (their public league) player of the year. He was a Washington Post first-team All-Met player that year as well, and take a look at who else was on that team: Jeff Green, Dwayne Anderson and Abdulai Jalloh among others, with Rudy Gay the Player of the Year.

Between that and the fact that Hampton's mother works at Howard, it didn't come as too much of a surprise when Jackson noted that "sometimes when my wife and I walk around Washington with some Howard gear on, people say, 'Oh, you have Randy Hampton playing for you.' "

Well, it did surprise me in one respect. Find out about it after the jump.