I'm sure most of you have heard this by now, but just in case you haven't, Temple and Drexel will be a part of ESPN's 24-hour college basketball marathon on Nov. 17.

It will be the Dragons' second straight appearance on what has become college basketball's unofficial Opening Day. They will travel to Niagara for an 8 a.m. tipoff, while Temple will visit Georgetown at 4 p.m.

Yes, that means Fran Dunphy and John Thompson III will meet for the first time since JT III left Princeton. I'm hoping to be in Washington for the game and I suspect I'll be writing quite a bit about that storyline.

You might recall that Niagara is coached by La Salle grad and former assistant coach Joe Mihailich. The Purple Eagles have four players on their roster from the Philadelphia area: Villanova transfer Bilal Benn (Cherokee and Cardinal Dougherty), sophomore Kashief Edwards (Imhotep Charter), freshman Scooter Gillette (Neuman-Goretti) and senior Tyrone Lewis (Harry S. Truman of Levittown).

Lewis is the big star. He led Niagara in scoring last season with 16.2 points per game.

Here's the full schedule. You have to love the 6 a.m. Monmouth-St. Peter's tipoff.

12:00 a.m.: Cal State-Fullerton at UCLA, ESPN
2:00 a.m.: San Diego State at St. Mary's, ESPN
4:00 a.m.: Northern Colorado at Hawaii, ESPN
6:00 a.m.: Monmouth at St. Peter's, ESPN
8:00 a.m.: Drexel at Niagara, ESPN
10:00 a.m.: Clemson at Liberty, ESPN
12:00 p.m.: Northeastern at Siena, ESPN
2:00 p.m.: Arkansas-Little Rock at Tulsa, ESPN
4:00 p.m.: Temple at Georgetown, ESPN
5:30 p.m.: Binghamton at Pittsburgh, ESPN (CBE Classic)
6:00 p.m.: UNC-Charlotte or Elon vs. Coastal Carolina or Duke, ESPN (Presesason NIT at Durham, N.C.)
7:00 p.m.: Tennessee Women vs. Texas Tech Women, ESPNU (at San Antonio)
7:30 p.m.: Arkansas vs. Louisville, ESPN2 (at St. Louis)
8:00 p.m.: Gonzaga at Michigan State, ESPN
8:00 p.m.: Northern Illinois at Illinois, ESPN360.com
9:00 p.m.: Duquesne at Iowa, ESPNU (CBE Classic)
9:30 p.m.: Connecticut Women vs. Texas Women, ESPN2 (at San Antonio)
10:00 p.m.: Memphis vs. Kansas, ESPN (at St. Louis)
11:30 p.m.: TCU or CS-Northridge vs. Texas State or Arizona State, ESPN (Preseason NIT at Tempe, Ariz.)

It's Wednesday, so it's time to take a look at what the local Division II and Division III football programs are up to.

West Chester
Last week: Home loss vs. California (Pa.), 30-23
This week: 9/19 at Millersville, 1:00 p.m.

Delaware Valley
Last week: Road win vs. Kean, 30-17
This week: 9/19 vs. Wesley, 1:00 p.m.

Rowan
Last week: Road win vs. Lycoming, 29-7
This week: 9/19 at SUNY-Cortland, 1:00 p.m.

Ursinus
Last week: Road loss vs. Lebanon Valley, 27-20
This week: 9/19 at Juniata, 1:00 p.m.

Widener
Last week: Road win vs. Curry (Mass.), 22-17
This week: 9/19 at Ithaca, 1:00 p.m.

Lincoln
Last week: Home win vs. Southern Virginia, 29-8
This week: 9/19 vs. Shaw, 1:00 p.m.

Cheyney
Last week: Road loss vs. Gannon, 30-9
This week: 9/19 at LIU-C.W. Post, 1:00 p.m.

KYW's Matt Leon has posted audio of Villanova coach Andy Talley, Penn coach Al Bagnoli and Delaware Valley coach Jim Clements from this afternoon's coaches luncheon.

We close this post on a somber note: NCAA president Myles Brand has lost his battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 67. Brand's time as the head of college sports' governing body was not without controversy, but in the end he will likely be remembered for the good he did in the position - especially creating the APR system.

Sports Illustrated's Alex Wolff has written a column with his memories of Brand's tenure. He refers in the piece to two previous stories about Brand, which you can read here and here.

ESPN.com's Pat Forde wrote a feature piece about Brand a few months ago that you can read here. There is also a lot of information at the NCAA's official website.
 

One of the nice things about the summer lull in college sports news is that I get to catch up on all the magazines I didn’t have time to read during the spring.

That includes the April issue of Basketball Times, in which Hoop Scoop’s Clark Francis ranked the 50 best head coaches in college basketball. Lists like these are always great for starting conversations, so let’s have at it.

Francis doesn’t say much about his criteria, except that Rick Pitino tops the list “based on the way the Cardinals played this season.” The column was also written before the NCAA Tournament, which might be why Roy Williams came in second.

Mike Krzyzewski is third, Jim Calhoun is fourth and John Calipari is fifth. The top-ranked local coach is Villanova’s Jay Wright, who comes in 22nd. That seems a bit low to me, and I suspect it might to some of you as well.

Coaches also ranked ahead of Wright include Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan, a Chester native, at No. 12, Minnesota’s Tubby Smith at No. 13 and UNLV’s Lon Kruger at No. 18.

The coaches immediately ahead of Wright are Michigan’s John Beilein at No. 19, Gonzaga’s Mark Few at No. 20 and George Mason’s Jim Larranaga at 21. Davidson’s Bob McKillop follows Wright at No. 23, Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl is No. 24 and Georgetown’s John Thompson III at No. 25.

I personally think Kruger, Smith and Larranaga are too high. Kruger has got UNLV back on the winning track, but not anywhere close to where it was under Jerry Tarkanian, and Smith’s greatest successes came when he was at Kentucky. And I like what Larranaga has done a lot, but VCU has been the better team in the CAA since Mason’s Final Four run.

Wright, on the other hand, is ushering Villanova through a sustained period of success, and it looks like that will continue with the incoming recruiting class. I’m sure the rankings would have been different had they been conducted after the NCAA Tournament, but even without that I think Wright deserves more credit than Francis gave him.

Two other local coaches made Francis’ ranking: Temple’s Fran Dunphy at No. 48 and Phil Martelli of St. Joseph’s at No. 50. I think those ratings are fair.

Some other notable names on the list: Maryland’s Gary Williams at No. 26, Notre Dame’s Mike Brey (formerly of Delaware) at No. 36 and Siena’s Fran McCaffery at 46.

I also can’t help noting that now-former USC coach Tim Floyd was ranked No. 29. I think we can safely say that Floyd wouldn’t deserve to be in this list if it was assembled today. We don’t deal with the Pac-10 that much on here, but I think we can agree that we won’t miss him or his recruiting methods all that much.

After ranking the Top 50 coaches, Francis ranked what he called the “Next 50.” He ranked 30 “Coaches in Mid-Career” and 20 “Up-and-Coming Coaches.”

La Salle’s John Giannini made it to No. 25 on the Mid-Career list, and Penn State’s Ed DeChellis was No. 28.

Notable names included Dayton’s Bryan Gregory at No. 5; Rhode Island’s Jim Baron at No. 8; Northwestern’s Bill Carmody (formerly of Princeton) at No. 10; Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin at No. 16; American’s Jeff Jones at No. 19 and Cornell’s Steve Donahue at No. 23.

I’m not sure about Mick Cronin. Maybe he can turn Cincinnati around, but the Bearcats’ 8-10 record in the Big East this season was underwhelming. They also haven’t beaten local rival Xavier since the 2004-05 season.

Anthony Grant, who moved from VCU to Alabama in March, is the at the top of the Up-and-Coming list. Notable names include Marquette’s Buzz Williams at No. 3, Providene’s Keno Davis at No. 5, Oregon State’s Craig Robinson (Barack Obama’s brother-in-law) at No. 11.

Two former St. Joe’s assistants are on that list as well: Mike Rice (now at Robert Morris) at No. 12 and Matt Brady (James Madison) at No. 20.

One name not listed: Drexel's Bruiser Flint. Surprising? I think you can make a case for him to be somewhere in the "Next 50."

But wait, there’s more. Francis also ranked the Top 100 assistant coaches and the Top 50 “Low-to-Mid-Major” assistant coaches.

Notable names on the first list include West Virginia’s Billy Hahn, the former La Salle head coach, at No. 3; now-former Villanova assistant Pat Chambers at No. 31; Rutgers’ Jim Carr at No. 50; Temple’s Dave Duke at No. 60; Penn State’s Kurt Kanaskie at No. 81; Villanova’s Jason Donnelly at No. 83; Geoff Arnold of St. Joe’s at No. 92 and La Salle’s Walt Fuller at No. 96.

Notable names on the second list include Drexel’s Tony Chiles at No. 21; Penn’s John Gallagher at No. 32; Robert Morris’ Andy Toole (who played at Penn) at No. 36; and Delaware’s R.C. Kehoe at No. 37.

Yes, there are a lot of local names on those lists, and we know some better than others.

What do you think of all this, especially the head coach rankings?

Hello, goodbye. (Charlie Riedel/AP)

We've barely just finished the regional finals and already the coaching carousel is spinning at top speed.

The Lexington Herald-Leader is reporting that Kentucky is on the verge of hiring John Calipari to replace Billy Gillispie as its basketball coach. At the same time, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that Calipari has met with his players, and WMC TV in Memphis reports that Calipari rejected a counter-offer to stay with the Tigers.

ESPN.com's Andy Katz reports Kentucky's offer is for eight years and $35 million, while the Herald-Leader story linked above says it is for six years and $40 million. That story's author, Jerry Tipton, notes on his blog that Calipari is currently making $3 million a year at Memphis

As for Calipari's replacement, the Commercial Appeal story linked above reports that Calipari is lobbying for former Memphis assistant and current UTEP coach Tony Barbee to get the job.

But a more intriguing name has come from WEHT TV in Evansville, Indiana. The station reports (as have others) that Memphis requested and received permission to speak with Missouri's Mike Anderson.

Nothing like trying to steal the coach of a team that beat you. Though I'm sure the Memphis fans would love to see their team play the 40 Minutes of Hell system, and Anderson has previous Conference USA experience with Alabama-Birmingham.

You might wonder what Drexel coach Bruiser Flint thinks of all this, given how close he is to Calipari. I wondered the same thing as soon as the news broke and am trying to get a hold of him. I'll let you know when I do.

Until then, Herald-Leader columnist John Clay IV is doing a great job of rounding up all the Calipari news on his blog and Twitter feed.

There's more Twitter chatter in the widget below, which updates in something close to real time. If you like it, I'll try to find other uses for it down the road.

Got a hastily-printed press release from the UConn sports information department just now that included a quote from the school's director of sports medicine, Dr. Jeff Anderson.

"Coach Calhoun has not been feeling well for the past several days and it is best that he not coach the team today for precautionary reasons," Anderson said.

Huskies associate head coach George Blaney will run the show in Calhoun's absence.

More information from the Associated Press here.

I have been told by multiple sources here at the Wachovia Center that one of Calhoun's former assistant coaches, Penn's Glen Miller, is in the building today. One of them even suspected he'd be sitting in the section right behind me.

Of course it wouldn't really happen, but I'm just saying...

And further on the subject of former assistants, by far the loudest noise of the day went up in here when the PA guy said Cal State-Northridge is beating Memphis, 52-50, with 12:14 left in the game. It's now 64-61 with 8:33 remaining.

Here at the Wachovia Center, Texas A&M leads BYU, 70-55, wtih 6:13 left.... make that 72-55 with 5:59 left. In other words, the Cougars aren't coming back in this one.

Click here for Philly.com's NCAA Tournament scoreboard.

Temple coach Fran Dunphy (left) and Villanova coach Jay Wright (right) were the centers of attention at the Palestra this morning. (Alejandro A. Alvarez/Staff Photographer)

The morning after Selection Sunday is always one of my favorite times of the college basketball season.

Even though it usually follows a night with far too little sleep, the reward for getting up before sunrise is a trip to the Palestra for the Coaches vs. Cancer March Madness Tip-Off Breakfast.

We talk all the time about the sense of community that exists among the City Six schools, but this day more than any other is when it is made clear to the region and the nation.

The breakfast brings together coaches, administrators and hundreds of fans, and as you walk down the ramp to the arena floor it seems like everyone in the building knows each other by first name.

In addition to a range of fundraising activites for Coaches vs. Cancer, the highlight of the morning is hearing Final Four picks from all six of the region's coaches and a panel of local media members.

This year's media panel included Howard Eskin, Joe Juliano, Dick Jerardi, Mike Kern, Dei Lynam and Harry Donahue.

As happens every year, I tried to record it, and as happens in more years than I would like, my audio recorder bombed during the recording. So I give you some transcribed highlights from what I could recover.

Eskin started by complimenting Fran Dunphy's mother for cheering La salle when the Explorers beat Temple, then picked Alabama State to win the play-in game and Memphis to make the Final Four "because I'm always a John Calipari guy because all the coaches here can't stand him except Bruiser."

"The one thing that I can go against here," Eskin continued, "because Phil [Martelli] thinks North Carolina's going to win the national championship, they're out. Phil never wins these things. Never."

"Why don't you save it 'til this afternoon," Martelli retorted. "Go on this afternoon - you don't know what you're talking about. Do that for four hours. Don't waste these people's times."

Eskin got the last word in, noting that the St. Joe's coach "did it this morning with Angelo, so I'm just following your lead."

The feud between Martelli and Eskin is well known. Yet Eskin said that Martelli's endorsement of Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was enough to pick the Orange to make the Final Four.

Villanova coach Jay Wright was asked to weigh in on the matter.

"I like when he and Phil go at it - I think that's what everybody comes for," Wright said. What did [Eskin] say about Boeheim? I don't listen to him."

Penn coach Glen Miller admitted that he fell asleep during the six-overtime Syracuse-Connecticut game, but added that he'll be paying plenty of attention to the Huskies for the rest of the month.

"Bruiser's rooting for Memphis for his ticket upgrades, and I'm rooting for Connecticut," said the former assistant to Jim Calhoun, who said he has UConn facing North Carolina in the national championship game.

"No bias there?" emcee Neil Hartman of Comcast SportsNet asked Miller.

"Excuse me?" Miller replied. After a dramatic pause, he admitted to "a little bias."

Donahue, who calls Temple basketball games on the radio, told a story about one difference between working with John Chaney and Fran Dunphy. Apparently Chaney let Donahue and color man John Baum travel on the plane, but after landing they were responsible for their own transportation.

Dunphy allows the radio guys on the team bus, but Donahue said the price of admission is being regularly told "how little I know about the game."

La Salle coach John Giannini picked quite a few upsets: North Dakota State over Kansas, Cornell over Missouri "if they can beat the press" (good luck with that), and Western Kentucky over Illinois.

He also said that American will "go right at Jay's guys" against Villanova, and "make it more difficult on them than some people may realize."

Giannini would know at least something of what he speaks, as the Explorers played the Eagles last season before AU threw a scare into Tennessee in March.

Inquirer college basketball writer Joe Juliano joined the chorus picking a Villanova-Pittsburgh East Regional final, but went for the Panthers over the Wildcats on the theory that DeJuan Blair will have learned his lesson after losing at the Spectrum.

His upset pick was Missouri out of the West region, taking down Memphis and Connecticut on the way.

Then came Bruiser Flint's turn. As Hartman said, the stage was his to explain why Memphis will win the national championship.

"Why should I?" Flint retorted. "I did it last year - I sat behind the bench and watched the game. The guy's won 30 games four years in a row, he's got two guys that aer the all-time winningest seniors in the history of college basketball, they're good. They're good."

He continued, and even without the audio I'm sure you'll be able to hear this part in your minds.

I know Cal gets on you guys' nerves, he thinks all this stuff up, he runs it by me before he gets it... everybody gets upset. But the guy wins basketball games. But the greatest thing - and Glen knows about this - if they play UConn in the final eight, that will be one of the all-time handshakes before a game that you will ever see in history.

Please, people, tell me you're going to show it on camera. Calhoun and Calipari hate each other. No, no, no, I don't think you all understand. These two guys HATE each other. First thing Cal said to me last night: "Ooh, I can't wait until the final eight." I was like, "You're crazy - why don't you get there first?"

Pay attention to it if they make it. That's going to be the greatest handshake of all time when those two guys stand next to each other.

As for his Final Four picks, Flint couldn't quite send Villanova all the way.

"I'm not going to say they're going to go to the Final Four, because you know, those Villanova guys get a little crazy," he said, picking them to lose the regional final to Pittsburgh. "I'm a St. Joe guy - if Villanova goes to the Final Four again, Phil, we might have to go up there and break some windows."

Mike Kern had some of the best - and most honest - quotes of the morning.

"All I do, I root for the local teams to go as far as they can because to me, that's what it's all about," he said. "I root for Dunph to win, Jay to win, Drexel's women, whoever's playing basketball games."

In particular, he'd like to see Villanova play Duke in the Sweet 16.

"I just think it will be one of the great matchups in the tournament," Kern said.

Kern closed his remarks with a paragraph or so about the region's coaches that I thought was especialy profound, and summed up really well why our local college basketball scene is such a special thing.

"We get to deal with these guys all year, and you just have to understand how lucky you are in Philadephia to have a group of guys who not only can coach - because they can do that - but they get it," he said. "We bump heads with them every now again, and sometimes they're even right. But don't take these guys for granted, because I think too often we do, both for what they do with their teams and what they do away from their teams. They may not always be here. So don't take this for granted."

I'll second that.

After the panel session I got interviews with all six of the coaches. Unfortunately, my interview with Fran Dunphy got totally screwed up by my audio recorder, but the other five made it okay.

Technology screwing over a web guy. Who knew?

There's a little bit of news tonight: the NCAA Women's Tournament field has been released, and La Salle guard Darryl Partin is transferring. Philly Hoops Insider has that news, though there's no word on where Partin is headed.

I'll be back tomorrow, and in my next post I'll give you my picks for the Midwest region. Remember to join Philly.com's Hoops Hysteria contest, and in particular to join me and your fellow blog readers in our pool group.

ATLANTIC CITY - I admit this was supposed to get out before today's games started. But in addition to having my laptop stolen last night, my inbox was overstuffed and I couldn't get the ballot sent until I got to Boardwalk Hall today.

Although La Salle and St. Joe's have already played today, I asked voters to not count those results in their ballots. I'll be back later with thoughts on and multimedia from today's action.

Before we get there, however, breaking news this evening: Penn's student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, is reporting that Quakers guard Harrison Gaines will transfer.

Gaines' father, Harry, wrote a press release that the paper received, which included Harrison staiting that Penn "wasn't a good fit ... I believe my long-term satisfaction lies in joining another university team."

Gaines also said in the release that he is seeking to join a "fast-paced, inclusive basketball program" and "a school where I have confidence in the basketball team's leaders."

This is obviously a huge blow for Penn and in particular for Quakers coach Glen Miller. I am not very well-versed in the details of what is going on here but Gaines' contributions on the court have been clear for all to see. How Miller replaces Gaines' talents on offense - and how this affects the rest of the program off the court - will be major questions this spring and summer.

Okay, back to the Schuylkill 16, and this is the final ranking of the season. It has been a resounding success, by far the most popular college basketball feature I've done in this blog's three-year existence.

I offer a profound and public thank-you to all of the voters who participated. Some were anonymous and some were not, and you'll hear from many of them one last time here today.

If I'm still doing this next season, I hope the ranking will return. It's been a lot of fun to put together and I hope you've enjoyed reading it. Next week I hope to put together some data with average ranking over the season and also a comparison of where each team started and ended in the ranking.

1. Villanova, 10 points (10 first-place votes)
- "Villanova playing for seeding, and more importantly a trip to the Wachovia Center." (Josh Wheeling)

You wouldn't bet against it right now, would you?   

2. Temple, 24 points
- "Temple rights the ship in time for their trip to Atlantic City, but those losses last week mean Temple's going all-in this week." (Fred David)
- "Will a ranked Xavier team once again fail to win the A-10 tourney? There are a lot of teams that could knock them off - they could face two Big 5 teams in a row." (Josh Wheeling)

3. Penn State, 26 points
- "Penn State, even despite the loss on Saturday, looks like a legitimate tournament team. 3rd in S-16 = trip to NCAA S-16?" (Fred David)
- "Lunardi has PSU as one of his last four in. I still think Temple edges the Lioins for second, though." (Josh Wheeling)
- "The similarities between PSU basketball and football just keep increasing, now that the hoopsters have an upset loss to Iowa when they (probably) controlled their own destiny." (Zach Klitzman)
- '] I swear we've seen this before. Last-second loss to Iowa douses hopes of big game on national stage. As a consolation, maybe the Nits will get to play Southern Cal in the NIT." (Jeff Shafer)

Did I not call this last week?

4. La Salle, 44 points
- "Welcome back to respectability." (Jeff Shafer)
- "I'm going out on a limb and will predict that Friday evening will produce an all-Philly semifinal in the A-10." (Dave C.)

Again, ballots were submitted before today's games. But we can have fun with hindsight.

5. Saint Joseph's, 46 points
- "I can't wait until the Hawks shock everyone to make it to the A10 finals just to blow a halftime lead and lose at the buzzer." (Patrick Carney)

6. Rider, 67 points

7. Rutgers, 74 points
- "Won two of their last 20 games. By my estimation the Knights overachieved." (Jeff Shafer)

8. Drexel, 76 points

9. Delaware, 94 points

10. Princeton, 101 points
- "Princeton could be the only team in the S16 to finish their season with a victory." (Jon Solomon, PrincetonBasketball.com)

A public thanks to Jon for posting about my lost computer bag on his blog.

11. Lehigh, 111 points

12. Penn, 125 points
- "Congratulations to Penn for going 5-2 on the road and 1-6 at home in conference play this season.  Without a doubt, Penn has the worst fans in the Big 5 and despite the lucky win in Manhattan on Saturday, the team earned the coveted 16th spot in my poll." (Fred David)
- "As a Penn student, I'm going to forget everything about this season except for Kevin Egee's buzzer beater against Columbia." (Zach Klitzman)

13. Lafayette, 131 points

14. Bucknell, 135 points

15. Delaware State, 147 points
- "Alas, Delaware State's hopes ended last night to Hampton. But actually winning a game in their conference tourney bumps them all the way up to ninth in my totally objective poll." (Fred David)   

Which is the point, of course.

16. Monmouth, 149 points
- "It's been a fun regular season y'all, looking forward to doing it again next year." (Fred David)

As am I. But the correct word is "youse."

The craziness continues.

First of all, you simply must read Dick Jerardi's column in this morning's Daily News. It is significant enough that they even tried to do a mock bracket. But the truly impressive accomplishment is what Jerardi was able to take what he's learned from Indianapolis in recent years and teach a new group of people how to go through the process.

That is really impressive.

Second, we have a new special section for conference tournament coverage. Click here to get everything you need to know about the A-10, Big East, ACC and all the other leagues.

Now for tonight's action. We've got a trio of great rivalries playing out on the best possible stage: conference tournament finals.

We start with George Mason facing Virginia Commonwealth in the CAA final in Richmond, taking places as I write this post. Then at 9, picture-in-picture will be in order as Niagara meets at-large candidate Siena in the MAAC and St. Mary's squares off once again with Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference.

That Niagara-Siena game is loaded with Philly ties, by the way. Purple Eagles coach Joe Mihalich and players Tyrone Lewis, Bilal Benn, Austin Cooley and Kashief Edwards all hail from our area, while Saints coach Fran McCaffery and guard Ronald Moore are area natives as well.

You could have a heck of a debate about which game has bigger implications for the NCAA Tournament field. Siena is smack on the bubble, while if St. Mary's plays well tonight and loses they could get back in shape with Patty Mills back at full health. Gonzaga probably gets in regardless of result.

I'd be interested to know which one you'll be watching.

Tomorrow, I hit the road (okay, the escalator at 30th Street Station) and head for what should be a great day of blogging in New York. At noon, I'll be at CBS headquarters for a media session with many of the network's NCAA Tournament broadcasters, including Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery, Jim Nantz, Jay Bilas and Ian Eagle.

After that, I'll hop on the subway and head over to Madison Square Garden for Georgetown-St. John's in the Big East Tournament. If I can get away with it, I'll try to open a liveblog and we can talk hoops for a while, but I'm not guaranteeing anything.

As soon as the final horn sounds in that game, I'll get back on the train and return to Philadelphia for Princeton-Penn at 8 p.m. It's the Palestra's last game of the season, which will give us a good opportunity to reflect on the Quakers' troubles and everything else we've seen on 33rd Street this year.

Then it's off to Atlantic City on Wednesday, and we'll be courtside at Boardwalk Hall at noon sharp for the tipoff of Saint Louis-La Salle.

Can you handle it? I think so. In fact, I bet you're still hungry. So fill yourself up with new editions of the City Six rankings table and the Schuylkill 16 RPI teamsheet compilation. The Schuylkill 16 will return Wednesday morning after Princeton-Penn.

Note that Drexel's overall record includes the (bad, to put it nicely) CAA Tournament loss to Towson, but the conference record only includes regular season games.

We have reached the greatest time of year for college basketball fans. March Madness has not truly arrived yet, but Championship Week is the opening act for the biggest party in sports.

Before we get there, however, we need to take a look back at an exhilarating weekend of hoops.

There were big games and clutch finishes all over the place. Cornell clinched the Big Dance's first automatic bid, Pittsburgh smacked down Connecticut for the second time this season, an incredibly young Kansas squad claimed the Big 12 regular season title, DePaul finished a perfect 0-18 in Big East play, and Penn State made me look like I might actually know what I'm talking about by losing at Iowa.

Sunday gave us a thrilling Missouri Valley championship game between Illinois State and Northern Iowa, a Duke-Carolina game whose tipoff wasn't broadcast on CBS because of it, a double-overtime win by Niagara over Rider in the MAAC semifinals, George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth winning the CAA semis and the College of Charleston knocking Stephen Curry's Davidson out in the Southern Conference semifinals.

You might have seen the end of the Niagara-Rider game on ESPN2, which cut away from Santa Clara-Goznaga to show it. If you missed it, the 'Nova fans in particular will be interested to read Bilal Benn's monster line from the game later on in the post.

Oh, I forgot the 29-foot buzzer-beater Penn's Kevin Egee hit at Columbia, giving the Quakers a chance to finish conference play at .500 if they beat Princeton tomorrow. There's video of the shot after Benn's line.

And did I mention the four-year probation sentence that Florida State got slapped with? Give me your best interpretation of what "FSU" stands for in the comments, and if I like one enough I might come up with a prize. Apparently it's not just free shoes anymore.

While it's not quite Sunday anymore as I wirite this, it's nonetheless time for this week's compilation of RPI teamsheet data from Basketball State. It includes Sunday's conference tournament results with one exception: the Portland-St. Mary's West Coast Conference tournament semifinal, which did not tip off until 11:30 p.m. But from what I can tell, the result of that game should not have affected this data very much.

This week's wild card conference is the SEC. Even though all of its teams have suffered really bad losses this season, talk persists of at-large bids. I wonder if the football stadiums next door to the basketball arenas have something to do with that. I wouldn't mind if none of them got in, but someone's got to win the conference tournament. What do you think?

Note that for the Big East, Atlantic 10 and Big Ten, teams are listed in order of conference tournament seeding, not official standings. I figure that makes more sense as we start to look towards this week's games. SEC teams are split by division.

I picked a heck of a time to get sick.

Sore throat, runny nose, general sense of grogginess while sitting at my desk attempting to run the whole of Philly.com at night all week... yeah. Not so good.

Between my health and the ugly forecast for central New York this weekend, I'm bailing on the trip to Cornell and Columbia.

But there's so much to do next week that having a few days around here should help me rest up. And since none of the local teams are at home this weekend, I might even check out some other sports for a little while, heaven forbid. Or maybe the Flower Show.

(A sports guy at the Flower Show? Huh?)

Anyway, here we go with this week's rankings. They may look simple enough, but the raw numbers are pretty messy after Villanova. Penn State moves up to second, but has two fourth-place votes. Temple holds on to third place despite losing to La Salle, while St. Joe's is fifth despite two third-place votes. Delaware got votes ranging from seventh to 13th place.

Speaking of screwy results, which was worse: Temple's loss to La Salle last week or Georgetown's loss to St. John's tonight?

1. Villanova, 13 points (13 first-place votes)
- "Inching toward playing fewer games in the BE tourney.  Stack up against anyone in the top 10." (Rob Falcone)
- "The Wildcats are just playing for seeding right now, so a great week in Madison Square Garden will more than make up for that slip-up against the struggling Hoyas." (Fred D.)

I don't think we can over-estimate the value of getting the double-bye for 'Nova or any other Big East team.

- "Only legit tournament team on this list." (Jeff Shafer)

Objections from State College?

2. Penn State, 33 points
- "Penn State might have a solid 20-9 record, but that's only because they're 12-0 vs. InsideRPI sub-150 teams, according to Lunardi." (Zach Klitzman)

Or from the selection committee?

- "The losses at home to Temple and at the Palestra to Rhode Island are the only games that you can even remotely harp on the Nittany Lions for losing." (Josh Wheeling)

Good thing they squeaked past Indiana.

3. Temple, 40 points
- "Forget about aiming for an at-large bid, thanks to those two losses the Owls are another slip-up away from losing that A-10 Tourney bye." (Josh Wheeling)
- "Apparently I jinxed the Owls with my comment last week.  Now it's A.C. or bust for Fran and his gang." (Fred D.)

I'm sure Dunphy appreciates the confession.

4. La Salle, 54 points
- "Don't be too surprised if the Explorers win a couple games in the A-10 tourney." (Josh Wheeling)

There's still plenty of shaking out left to do in the standings, but the Explorers could do some serious damage if the draw falls right for them.

- "La Salle makes its upgrade from bottom feeder to spoiler official.  Now if they could only figure out a way to stop losing the easy games (see: Cornell, St. Bonaventure) they could take the next step to contender." (Fred D.)

All I'll say is you try making those trips, especially going to Olean in February when the Bonnies are decent for the first time in years. Then factor in Vernon Goodridge not playing against Cornell. Still, both games were certainly winnable.

5. Saint Joseph's, 59 points

6. Drexel, 86 points

7. Rider, 90 points

8. Rutgers, 101 points

9. Delaware, 116 points

10. Princeton, 137 points
- "If the Tigers win out, they can look forward to a date with Alabama State in Dayton. That should really excite the Ohio-based alumni." (Jeff Shafer)
- "Princeton controls its own destiny in the Ivy race?  When did that happen?" (Zach Klitzman)

Not only that, we could still have a three-way tie for first place with the Tigers, Cornell and Dartmouth or Yale. Click here to read the scenarios, if you can make any sense of them.

11. Lehigh, 145 points

12. Penn, 153 points
- "Now is the winter of all Penn fans' discontent." (Fred D.)

Since I'm not making the trip this weekend, I'd be interested to hear from Penn fans out there what the crowd is like at Levien Gymnasium on Saturday night. That game usually draws thousands of Penn alumni from the New York area, but I wonder if some of them won't show up this year because of the team's struggles.

t-13. Bucknell, 169 points
- "The Bison with a dominating win over its conference and Schuylkill 16 rival and jump up all the way up to the 12th spot in my rankings!" (Fred D.)

We celebrate where we can these days.

t-13. Lafayette, 169 points

15. Monmouth, 196 points
- "Lost by 31 to Wagner. I mean, Wagner is the best team on Staten Island." (Jeff Shafer)

Now that is high praise.

16. Delaware State, 207 points