Bob Vetrone Jr.
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.
Bob Vetrone Jr.
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 |
Bob Vetrone Jr.
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 |
Bob Vetrone Jr.
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.
Bob Vetrone Jr.
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 |
Bob Vetrone Jr.
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!!!!
Bob Vetrone Jr.
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 |
Bob Vetrone Jr.
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 |
Bob Vetrone Jr.
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) |
Bob Vetrone Jr.
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.
