Friday, April 5, 2013
Friday, April 5, 2013

POSTED: Sunday, March 24, 2013, 12:00 AM

Ramon Galloway, who spent his first two collegiate seasons as South Carolina before transferring to La Salle, is 12 points shy of becoming the 11th Explorer to reach 1,000 points in his first two seasons at 20th & Olney.

POSTED: Saturday, March 23, 2013, 3:18 PM

One of the many thing Khaliff Wyatt did on Friday was make 12 free throws, giving him 62 over his last six games and  200 for the season, pushing him past Hal Lear (189) for the Temple single-season record.

He is now one of only seven players in Philadelphia Division I history to have made 200 foul shots in a single season. Wyatt could jump up a few more notches Sunday afternoon and could reach No. 2 in the Owls advance to next weekend, but Villanova's Bob Schafer (262) in out of reach, in one of those records that will never be broken.

(The NCAA Division I record is 355, on a record 444 attempts, by Furman's Frank Selvy in 1953-54.)

 PHILADELPHIA DIVISION I PLAYERS WITH 200+ FTs IN A SEASON
 Player  School  Season  GP 
 FT  FTA  Pct.
 Bob Schafer
 Villanova  1953-54  31  262 
 377 
 70.1 
 Paul Arizin
 Villanova  1949-50  29  215  278  77.3
 Michael Anderson 
 Drexel  1985-86  31  208  278  74.8
 Cliff Anderson
 Saint Joseph's
 1966-67  26  204  279
 73.1
 Ahmad Nivins
 Saint Joseph's 
 2008-09  32  203
 258  78.7
 Tom Gola
 La Salle
 1954-55 
 31  202  267  75.6
 Khaliff Wyatt
 Temple  2012-13  33  200  240  83.3
POSTED: Friday, March 22, 2013, 8:26 AM

Ed Barkowitz points out in Friday's Daily News that Big 5 teams are 6-1 in NCAA Tournament games in Dayton, Ohio, where Temple opens its postseason Friday afternoon just two days after La Salle kicked it's off its postseason with a victory there.

The results (*No. 1 seed):

 Date  Round  Score
 March 12, 1981
 First Round
 Saint Joseph's 59, Creighton 57
 March 14, 1981
 Second Round
 Saint Joseph's 49, *DePaul 48
 March 15, 1985
 First Round
 Villanova 51, Dayton 49
 March 17, 1985
 Second Round
 Villanova 59, *Michigan 55
 March 13, 1986
 First Round
 Temple 61, Jacksonville 50 (ot)
 March 15, 1986
 Second Round
 *Kansas 65, Temple 43
 March 20, 2013
 First Round
 La Salle 80, Boise St. 71
POSTED: Thursday, March 21, 2013, 2:17 AM

Thanks to La Salle's 80-71 victory over Boise State, two Philadelphia teams will partake in separate NCAA Tournament games at the same site away from the city on the same day for just the ninth time in the 75-year history of the tourney.

And that doesn't include times when two schools have faced off against each other (Penn-Villanova, 1971 and 1972;Temple-Drexel, 1994) or when the site was the City of Brotherly itself (1964, 1970, 71, 1975 and 1978).

Our favorite of all these, was the 1979 Friday doubleheader in Raleigh, N.C., when Temple was dropping a 75-70 game to St. John's and the Owls' cheerleaders started a "Let's Go, Quakers" chant for Penn, which was to take on Iona in Game 2. Penn, of course, topped Iona and teamed with St. John's two days later to take down Duke and North Carolina in what ACC tradiltionists refer to as Black Sunday.

POSTED: Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 3:24 AM

The Sixers have lost 13 consecutive games away from the Wells Fargo Center, the third-longest, one-season road slide in franchise history and just eight road drops away from setting a club record.

They pick up with a West Coast trip Wednesday in Los Angeles, and things don’t look promising until the club hits Sacramento next weekend. Looking down the darkened road, the record-setting game would come in Miami (where the Heat are 30-3) on April 6.

Here’s a look at the worst one-season road losing streaks in the team’s 50 seasons in Philadelphia, as well as a look at their next eight away-game opponents (with that team’s home and overall records going into Wednesday’s games):

 SIXERS' LONGEST ONE-SEASON ROAD LOSING STREAKS
 No.    Season  First Loss    Last Loss    Broken  By
 20  1987-88    Dec. 28  March 4  March 6    Indiana Pacers  
 15  1972-73  Jan. 9  March 20  (End of Season) 
 13  2012-13  Jan. 2  March 10  Current  —
 12  1972-73  Oct. 10  Nov. 19  Nov. 28  Buffalo Braves
 11  1973-74  Dec. 21  Feb. 9  Feb. 11  Atlanta Hawks
 SIXERS' NEXT EIGHT ROAD GAMES 
 
 No.  
 
 Date
 
 Opponent
 Home  
 W-L
 Overall 
 W-L
 14  March 20    Los Angeles Clippers    26-8  46-22
 15  March 21  Denver Nuggets  30-3  47-22
 16  March 24  Sacramento Kings  18-15  24-44
 17  March 25  Utah Jazz  24-9  34-33
 18  March 29  Cleveland Cavaliers  13-20  22-45
 19  April 3  Charlotte Bobcats  9-24  15-52
 20  April 5  Atlanta Hawks  21-12  37-30
 21  April 6  Miami Heat  30-3  52-14
POSTED: Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 1:49 AM

Now that Andrew Bynum has officially joined Jason Richardson on the Sixers' "Done For The Season" list, we can crunch some numbers and see just how much exactly the club's big offseason trade cost ... Tap, tap, tap ... Tap, tap, tap ... Tap, tap, tap ... Whirl ... Whirl ... and ... Cha-Ching!!!! ... And the answer is ... 

Twenty-Four Thousand, Two Hundred Thirty-Nine Dollars and Ninety-Eight Cents ...

... PER MINUTE!!!!

POSTED: Monday, March 18, 2013, 2:31 AM

Villanova and North Carolina have met in the NCAA Tournament five times ... and four of those times, the winner of the game has gone on to win the NCAA Championship:

 Year     Round  Winner  Title Game
 1982  Regional Final  North Carolina, 70-60     North Carolina 63, Georgetown 62
 1985  Regional Final  Villanova, 56-44  Villanova 66, Georgetown 64
 1991  Second Round  North Carolina, 84-69  Duke 72, Kansas 65
 2005  Regional Semifinal     North Carolina, 67-66  North Carolina 75, Illinois 70
 2009  Semifinal  North Carolina, 83-69  North Carolina 89, Michigan St. 72  
POSTED: Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 1:14 AM

The improvement made by Villanova guard Ryan Arcidiacono is none more evident than if you slice the Wildcats' season up into thirds (tacking the opener against Division II District of Columbia onto the first third).

Over the last 10-game stretch, the freshman out of Neshaminy has shot better, especially from the arc (41.0%), and kept better control of the ball (1.86 assist-to-turnover ratio). 

Here are how his numbers break down:

   Nov. 9-
 Dec. 16    
 Dec. 22-    
 Jan. 30
 Feb. 3-
 March 6    
 Record  7-4  6-4  6-4
 Points  124  115  138
    Avg.  11.3  11.5  13.8
       
 Field Goals  29-96  33-92  38-91
    Pct.  30.2%  35.9%  41.8%
       
 2-Pt. FG   9-27  11-26  13-30
    Pct.  33.3%  42.3%  43.3%
       
 3-Pt. FG  20-69  22-66  25-61
    Pct.  29.0%  33.3%  41.0%
       
 Free Throws      46-56  27-33  37-45
    Pct.  82.1%  81.8%  82.2%
       
 Assists  39  31  39
    Avg.  3.5  3.1  3.9
       
 Turnovers  31  27  21
    Avg.  2.8  2.7  2.1
       
 Assists/TO  1.26  1.15  1.86
POSTED: Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 8:32 PM

Bubbles will begin bursting Wednesday afternoon, when the last wave of conference tournaments get underway, and La Salle, Temple and Villanova will have their eyes and ears and hands glued to tubes and websites everywhere.

Here are the next games for the last eight teams in and the first eight teams out in Joe Lunardi's Bracketology from ESPN:

 Seed    Team  W-L  Next (Time)  Opponent (W-L)
 11  Iowa St.  21-10  Thursday (9:00)  Oklahoma (20-10)
 11  Wichita St.  26-8  Done  —
 11  Villanova  19-12  Wednesday (7:00)  St. John's (16-14)
 11  Temple  23-8  Friday (9:00)  Massachusetts/GW
 12  La Salle  21-8  Friday (6:30)  Butler/Dayton
 12  Kentucky  21-10  Friday (7:30)  Arkansas/Vanderbilt
 12  Boise St.  21-9  Wednesday (11:59)    San Diego St. (21-9)
 12  Virginia  21-10    Friday (2:30)  N. Carolina St./Va. Tech
 Out  Tennessee  19-11  Thursday (3:30)  S. Carolina/Mississippi St.
 Out  Mid. Tennessee    28-5  Done  
 Out  Mississippi  23-8  Friday (10:00)  Missouri/Texas A&M/Auburn
 Out  Baylor  18-13  Thursday (9:30)  Oklahoma St. (23-7)
 Out  S. Mississippi  23-8  Thursday (1:00)  UAB/S. Methodist
 Out  Alabama  20-11  Friday (3:30)  Tennessee/S. Carolina/Miss. St.  
 Out  Iowa  20-11  Thursday (9:00)  Northwestern (13-18)
 Out  Arizona St.  20-11  Wednesday (3:06)  Stanford (18-13)
POSTED: Saturday, March 9, 2013, 2:34 AM

There is little doubt that Mike Schmidt and Ryan Howard will go down as the two greatest sluggers in Phillies history, but their careers have been anything but parallel.

For instance, Schmidt’s career batting average rose steadily through his first nine years in the majors (1972-80), while Howard’s has been declining. The same goes for many of their numbers, including the biggie — home run percentage (HR per 100 AB).

It's amazing how close some of their totals are through nine seasons. The two are within four hits, eight doubles and 17 home runs of each other at corresponding points of their careers ... Howard enters 2013 with nice round totals of 300 home runs and 200 doubles ... Schmidt's RBI and walk totals have always been close ... Schmidt would play into 1989, so nine years was his career's mid-way point, although he was two years younger than Howard when he started in the majors.

About this blog

Boop – who goes by Bob Vetrone Jr. when he is undercover or paying bills – has been at the Daily News since 1982, after working for five years at the Philadelphia Bulletin up to its closing. Along with helping to build the sports scoreboards most nights, he has had great input into the papers’ special sports pullouts – March Madness, Broad Street Run, Record Breakers, Greatest Moments – as well as its day-to-day, award-winning event coverage.

A 1980 graduate of North Catholic, he took some evening college courses. Those lasted right up until the first conflict with a Big 5 doubleheader.

His favorite books growing up were the NBA Guide and the Baseball Encyclopedia, which was, for all intents and purposes, the Internet before there was an Internet.

He has been immersed in sports statistics since the early 70s, when his father (long-time sports writer, broadcaster and the Daily News’ Buck The Bartender), would take him into the Bulletin newsroom overnight in the summer and let him update the Phillies statistics in a little, black spiral notebook. But things have changed tremendously in the decades since … He now uses a big, black spiral notebook. Email him at boopstats@phillynews.com.


Reach Bob at vetronb@phillynews.com.

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