By Mel Greenberg
The Guru/'s visit to Durham, N.C., earlier in the week for the Duke-Stanford game included the usual visit to his favorite steakhouse where he often dines with his good friend Lindy Brown, the Blue Devils women's media contact.
Since we promised to give the Angus tradition the headline that is why it leads and also to whet the appetite of our Temple friends since we will return with the Owl delegation after the New Year.
Lindy brought along a graduate intern from his staff which created a reunion of sorts in that one Kate Burkholder, who helped bring the Guru's blog to new dimensions as a Rutgers student, is now handling several Duke sports and is the No. 2 contact for women's basketball.
Of course, with Lindy in charge, that is like being vice president of the United States.
However, all of the Guru's friends in Durham give her work to date glowing reviews.
The Guru also presented some Phillies memorabilia since the one thing wrong she did as a life-long fan is pick this particular season to stray far from home at the close of the baseball season.
But the Guru noted the Phillies did not become a postseason participant again after a long absence until she visited spring training two seasons ago.
On the trip, two gentlemen revealed themselves as the culprits who have posted a link from the Duke fan board to the Guru's blog.
And the Guru spent a little time in the afternoon with Duke senior associate athletic director Jacki Silar, who is now the chair of the women's basketball committee.
Part of the chat included looking ahead to this year's mock bracket in February, which will include four active coaches in, what unintentially is a Big 12 vs. Big East showdown -- Notre Dame's Muffet McGraw and DePaul's Doug Bruno from the Big East schools and Oklahoma's Sherri Coale and Texas A&M's Gary Blair from the Big 12.
Coale is also the president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association.
The Guru pointed out something called to his attention by colleague Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press -- Last year we all played the role of someone on the actual committee.
The three persons with coaching experience but not active were Joe Ciampi (Auburn), Marsha Sharp (Texas Tech), and Theresa Grentz (Illinois).
The question becomes what happens in terms of leaving the room when we start talking about the schools for selection and bracketing since all four are expected to be in the mix with the Big 12 duo right now looming among the higher seeds.
Also, during a flight delay on the return trip, the Guru learned he was sharing the plane with Nora Lynn Finch, the new associate commissioner for women's basketball for the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The two have a long association dating back to her previous role as North Carolina State senior associate athletic director and also as the first chair of the NCAA committee.
The Local Schedule
Drexel is at Penn at The Palestra at noon for the annual neighborhood showdown on Friday, while new Temple coach Tonya Cardoza gets her first taste of Big Five action Saturday when the Owls visit Villanova at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Temple is carrying an 18-game win streak, including four straight perfect 4-0 titles into the City Series. Villanova could easily be 3-0 but is 1-2 after losing in overtime to La Salle and St. Joseph's.
The Hawks will be hosting Seton Hall at the Palestra at 1 p.m. on Monday, the same time Drexel hosts Richmond.
On Monday, Delaware visits Villanova at noon in a game in which one Elena Delle Donne will be an invisible force.
Why?
Had she chosen Villanova for basketball from her original final four choices, she would either bei in uniform as a Wildcat or on the bench as a redshirt (with Harry Perretta anything is possible and he is usually proven right).
Had she chosen to also play basketball this season along with volleyball when she rejected Connecticut, she would be in uniform for the Blue Hens and the Pavilion would have a sizeable crowd over the visit.
On Sunday, Rider is at La Salle at 1 p.m. making it a pseudo homecoming to the immediate area for Broncos coach Lynn Milligan, who was formerly an assistant at St. Joseph's.
Unitl further notice, like 24 hours from now when the Guru sets up the Temple-Villanova game, that is all, expect a quick hello to the Wildcats' Laura Kurz from all her friends with the Blue Devils at Duke, which she originally attended before transferring to the Main Lne.
-- Mel
Philly.com discussions are intended to be civil, friendly conversations. Please treat other participants with respect and in a way that you would want to be treated. You are responsible for what you say. And please, stay on topic.
These boards are monitored by Philly.com staff. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us in our sole discretion and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. Personal attacks, especially on other board participants, are not permitted. We reserve the right to permanently block any user who violates these terms and conditions.