Sweet 16 Villanova: Where's All the Love?

Villanova University, who defied the odds this year to make the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, faces off tonite with the number one seed in their bracket, the storied Kansas Jay Hawks.

In the days since last weekends games, I've heard some talk on the radio and have seen some internet chatter featuring some significant scheudenfreude towards the Wildcats coming from those in the St. Joe's community and vice versa.

Now, I love me some scheudenfreude. Nothing makes me happier than when the Lakers or the Celtics have a losing season. I hate all of the NFC East teams. I almost hate Mets fans as much as I hate the actual Mets themselves (smarmy fucks). The Rangers, Devils, Isles, and Pens? Hate'em. This sort of hatred is part and parcel to being a Philly fan and, on some level, tied to geography and history.

But rooting AGAINST another Big 5 school just because your favorite Big 5 school is out of the NCAA tournament? Don't get it. At least, not anymore.

And it's not like I don't have a little credibility here. Take the St. Joe's-Villanova rivalry. I did go to St. Joe's (before transferring elsewhere), so I definitely get the rivalry. I've been to SJU/Villanova games, albeit this was back before St. Joe's had a national reputation (during the end of the Jimmy Boyle era). When I went to the games, Villanova was about 3 years removed from their NCAA title and Rollie Massimino was busily trying to extract his team from it's Big 5 city series obligations so the Villanova program could go "big time" with the context of the Big East conference.

I remember hating Villanova and it's students at that time because, by eschewing the Big 5 in favor of Big East play, they were pretty much telling the Big 5 they were too good for City Series play anymore. By the way, for background purposes, I believe the Big 5 is probably the coolest thing in all of college sports. It's an interconference super-conference based on regional rivalries. If you can think of something like that in all of Division I college sports, please bring it to my attention.

So with that information in mind, you can see that yes, at one time, Villanova was well-worthy of true scheudenfreude status from St. Joe's, Temple, LaSalle, and Penn folks (yes, you too, Drexel). Villanova was telling all of us they were too good for us.

Well, not anymore. Especially since Jay Wright took over Villanova.

Jay Wright has stood by the Big 5 affiliation pretty much since he took over the program. Not to the extent that Phil Martelli does, by having St. Joes' Big 5 home games at the Palestra, but he's done a magnificent job of putting more emphasis back on City Series play. He's a Council Rock High kid, so Wright definitely understands the importance of the Philadelphia college basketball scene and the Big 5.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not asking you to go out and buy Villanova gear or to memorize the Villanova fight song (which, if you know the words, is annoyingly catchy....check it out here).

All I'm asking is that you don't openly root for Kansas out of Big 5 scheudenfreude and to root for Villanova in a detached, dignified way.

That is, unless, you have Kansas in your bracket pools.

Newsflash! Bobby Knight is a Dick!

Speaking of college basketball coaches, 950 WPEN had Bobby Knight on a couple of days ago to talk about some of the Sweet 16 games this weekend. Jack McCafferey, the longtime Delco writer, was sitting in for Jody Mac and attempted to conduct the interview with a man, who, it seemed like couldn't be bothered to talk to a lowly radio guy. The interview itself was a complete train wreck; Knight gave Jack nothing during the interview and eventually, abruptly, cut the interview off.

Now, Bobby Knight may have been a great basketball coach, but his dealings with McCafferey in this interview illustrates my biggest problem with Knight. Bobby Knight is incapable of seperating how he deals with his kids versus how he deals with his peers. He treats both other adults and his kids the same way; like shit. And I never really had a problem with how he treated his players. That to me was always a case of "buyer beware".....you knew that Knight was medieval in his tactics with his players, so if you went there and didn't like how Knight did things, well, you got no sympathy from me.

But adults that needed to deal with Knight on a daily basis were subjected to the same condescending bullshit that he gives the teenagers he instructs on the basketball court and no one should have to deal with someone like that in a professional setting.

3 Philly Teams in the NCAA Tourney

This is one of my favorite times of the year. St. Paddy's day, with it's irresponsible binge drinking and rowdy Irish women, always seems to occur at the same time with the NCAA tournament. Not to be underestimated is the anticipation that comes with the winding day of Spring training and having MLB Opening day right around the corner (2 more weeks!).

A nice little gift that the sporting gods have given Philadelphia is that 3 teams from the Philadelphia area have made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1999.

Each of Temple, St. Joe's, and Villanova made it to the NCAA Tournament as a result of their work in their recent conference tournaments.

Temple, sort of the long shot in the group, got their bid the hard way. Temple defeated St. Joe's in the finals of the Atlantic 10 tournament on Saturday night by a score of 69-64 in one of those games that will probably enter Philadelphia college basketball folklore for the magnitude of the game between two long time local rivals. Before this game, St. Joe's and Temple had never met for the A-10 title before.

St. Joe's was up at half-time, and then Temple seemed to simply blow past the Hawks behind junior guard Dionte Christmas. Christmas had 22 points on 8 of 14 shooting, which was in direct contrast to the struggles of Hawks' swingman Pat Calathes, who never seemed comfortable in posting his 14 points. Calathes, usually an excellent outside with a 40% average from 3-point land, hoisted up 10 3's making only 2.

As a result of the win, Temple got the automatic bid for the Atlantic 10 conference. That left St. Joe's at the mercy of the NCAA selection committee, which saw fit to admit St. Joe's as an 11 seed in the Eastern bracket (ironically, higher than the Owls, who drew a 12 seed in the Southern bracket).

The team that turned the dancing duo into a traipsing threesome (no McGreevey jokes, please) was the Villanova Wildcats. Some thought the 'Cats would be in as long as they won their first round game in the Big East tournament against Syracuse, which they managed to do easily. They eventually got thumped by Georgetown in the Big East tournament and had to sit and wait for the NCAA selection committee, just like the Hawks. Their prayers were answered in the form of a 12th seeding in the Midwest bracket of the tournament.

The first round matchups for the teams are as follows:

Thursday 12:30pm: Temple (12) vs. Michigan State (5)
Friday 7:10pm: St. Joe's (11) vs. Oklahoma (6)
Friday 9:50pm: Villanova (12) vs. Clemson (5)

Quick Asides

- Can't believe the Sixers beat the Spurs on the heels of taking out Detroit. Wow. Just. WOW.

- After yesterday's 7 - 1 drubbing at the hand of the Pens, John Stevens better update his resume as I think if the Flyers miss the playoffs, he is likely going to be fired.

St. Joe's, Temple Advance in A-10 Tourney

Both St. Joe's and Temple won in their respective A-10 tournament games, meaning that 2 of the 4 teams remaining in the A-10 tourney are Big 5 teams.

St. Joe's beat Richmond by a score of 61-47 in a game I monitored on my PC at work and was unable to see (damn work). Rob Ferguson scored 16 points on 6 of 6 shooting. Bob Cooney of the PDN sings the praises of Tasheed Carr in his game recap this morning.

Temple took down fellow Big 5 school LaSalle in a game that was much closer than the scored indicated. The final score was 84-75, but it was a 2 point game with under a minute to go. Dionte Christmas had 29 points to pace Temple.

Games in the A-10 tourney continue today with St. Joe's playing No. 12 Xavier at 6:30pm and Temple plays Charlotte at 9pm. According to the TV Guide (listings may vary depending on where you live and what cable system you may or may not have), these games should be on CN8.

Flyers Fall to Leafs; Will St. Joe's Make the NCAAs?

I had no expectations of a Flyers win going into last night's game. The Leafs have been surging since their core group of players, when confronted with waiving their no-trade clauses, decided to take over the team and actually play hockey down the stretch. They publicly targeted last night's game and tonites game as games they had to win and win in regulation in order to catch the Flyers.

Furthermore, I also knew that last night's game was played in Toronto. I've been watching hockey for a long time and one thing I know is that a team based in the US will never catch a fair break as far as officiating goes in a Canadian rink. I'm not complaining; it is what it is.

Both of these thoughts came into fruition last night, as the Leafs huffed and puffed and blew in the Flyers' house by a score of 4 - 3 in OT. Sure, the Flyers got a point, but they could have demoralized the Leafs with a win, making tonite's game easier.

The Leafs played desperately for most of the game, but to no avail as a combination of Martin Biron (played tremendously) and bad luck worked against them.

The Flyers, on the other hand, counterpunched well, breaking out to a 3 goal lead after 41 minutes of play. Vinny Prospal was tremendous in the game, picking up two assists. Prospal is definitely giving Holmgren something to think about this offseason as he is steadily building chemistry with Danny Briere.

Then, the meltdown occurred. Randy Jones, who must have pictures of John Stevens, coughed the puck up on the tying goal and had the game winner go in off of his skate as he passively tried to fish for the puck in the waning minutes of overtime. I'm sure Randy will be patted on the head by Stevens and given his 20 minutes of icetime tonite, however. How do I know that? The guy Stevens went after in the lockerroom to the press after the game was Scottie Upshall, who took a ticky-tack penalty that led to the Flyers' first goal.

This leads me into my point about officiating games north of the border. There were several non-calls against the Leafs for similar violations to the one Upshall took. Replays showed the blatant hold Mats Sundin had on Jason Smith in the Flyers' zone. Kubina probably carried the puck as he caught a clearing attempt by Marty Biron. Announcers pointed out on several occasions that the Leafs were changing in such a way that they should have gotten at least 2 too many men on the ice penalties. I mean, these are just the kind of things that just don't get called at the Air Canada Centre against the home team.

The two teams meet tonite in South Philly. The Leafs barely beat the Flyers last night and they probably played the best they played all year. I don't expect the Leafs to duplicate the effort, and fully expect a Flyers win tonite.

(Photo courtesy of yahoo.com; (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn))

Will St. Joe's Make the NCAA Tournament?

St. Joe's starts their journey into the A-10 tournament today at 2:30 as they face Fordham in the first round of the tournament. If they get past Fordham, Richmond, a team they've already beaten, sits waiting.

St. Joe's probably needs to get to the finals of the tournament, at the very least, to be looked upon favorably for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. There is a very real threat that all of the Philadelphia schools will get shut out of the tourney this year. As three of the Philadelphia Big 5 are in the A-10 and are all playing good ball, I do believe one of them will come through and win the A-10 tourney.

Other Philly schools in the A-10 tourney include LaSalle, who plays Duquesne at 6:30pm today and Temple, who got a first round bye and will play tomorrow.

The Philadelphia Holy War

Ever since my 2 years spent at St. Joe's University before transferring to Penn State, I've always enjoyed Big 5 basketball. I admit I wasn't one of those kids who grew up sneaking into the Palestra to catch some Big 5 triple-header. I blindly followed the Villanova Wildcats because that's who the hot team was in the middle 80s when I was growing up. Mostly, it was because they were the most successful local college basketball team. Occasionally, we would root for the Temple Owls (Terence Stansbury and Nate Blackwell were tremendous), but mostly, it was all Villanova, all the time.

Fast forward to my freshman year at St. Joe's. I was blissfully unaware I was supposed to dislike Villanova University. This was all explained to me before the first SJU-Villanova game I attended as a student. It wasn't tough to understand.

Villanova was on the bucolic Main Line, with it's lush lawns and finely manicured colonial mansions. St. Joe's was on City Line Avenue, which is essentially an industrial corridor, and bordering the more blue collar Overbrook. Villanova folks tended to be snobby and standoffish; St. Joe's folks were a little more earthy and real. I mean, we were tougher than Villanova people; we were taught by Jesuits. Jesuits have also been known over the years as "God's Marines" for their intelligence and toughness as well as their alleged roles in various conspiracies.

I quickly found comfort in hating Villanova insomuch as when you go to a school with no football team, you have to take your hated rivalries where you can get them. So for me, a kid that vigorously celebrated the 1985 Villanova National Championship, I now had a hatred for Villanova.

When I transferred to Penn State, my vitriol for Villanova subsided for the most part, but it still comes up when they play St. Joe's, in what is now known as "The Holy War".

Last night was a renewal of bad blood between the Hawks and Wildcats at the hallowed Palestra. It wasn't much of a game as St. Joe's took Villanova out by the woodshed and beat them by a score of 77 - 55. The game wasn't really as close as even that score indicates. St. Joe's came out running and Villanova obliged by turning the ball over repeatedly in the first half. Villanova's stagnant offense pretty much doomed them from the start and they had no answer defensively for either Pat Calathes and Rob Ferguson, who both had 20 point nights. St. Joe's shot 47% from 3-point range as a team, with Rob Ferguson shooting 5 of 6 beyond the arc.

I was lucky enough to watch the game on CSTV and the atmosphere was pretty wild. Even though the game was at the Palestra, it was a St. Joe's home game on the schedule (I was always considered that a kind of a big middle finger to Villanova, who has a history of trying to back out of the Big 5, whereas St. Joe's always embraced the Big 5). The St. Joe's kids were jumping and screaming throughout the game and they had a lot to be excited about.

The only downside to the telecast was having to listen to Tom McCarthy call the game on CSTV. For reasons I can't explain, I don't like McCarthy (not happy with his move of coming back with the Phillies). The color guy was Steve Lappas, the former Villanova coach, who wasn't that bad, and provided good insight during the game.