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Saint Joseph's held its men's basketball media day this afternoon on Hawk Hill, and as you would expect, there was a big cluster of reporters gathered around Phil Martelli from the very start.

The first few minutes of converstation were about Hagan Arena, the sparkling new edition of what used to be Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse. But then came a question about matters on the floor, as Martelli was asked if "the challenge is any greater than in past years."

And we were off to the races, as Dick Jerardi might say.

To be honest with you, I think it is more challenging. Call it the way it is: we haven't had any of you guys around all year. We really are, in this city, this year, an afterthought. And I'm okay with that.

You have a team coming off a Final Four that has established itself as one of the premier programs. You have a two-time Atlantic 10 champion. You have a team that plays in the best building in college basketball. You have a La Salle team that has really allowed their players to grow up.

I just think that Bru's team - I think, the last time I checked, I might be incorrect on this, but I think they've beaten us two of the last three times ... So there's a lot of great things going in Philadelphia. But certainly, I'm very aware of the fact that there hasn't been a word written about St. Joseph's.

So there is more of a challenge. There is more of a responsibility to take our proper place in this city and in this league. The preseason predictions are what they shoudld be: we were picked 10th. And probably, if I went back and picked my ballot, I picked us 10th or 11th. It's alright, though. It is what it is, and it is what it should be for right now.

I asked Martelli what his expectations are this season for senior guard Garrett Williamson. That answer was also quite interesting.

Garrett was voted captain by his teammates, and I think that speaks volumes. But I want Garrett to be a basketball player this year. He has [an] unbelievable work ethic [and] he has a defensive ability comparable to anybody that I've ever had. He has leadership. He is truly the consummate team player.

But he hasn't taken enough shots in college basketball. So he spent the whole summer not playing basketball, but shooting the ball, shooting the ball, shooting the ball. It's going to be important that he gets shots in the air and has a chance to become a complete player, and not just a complementary player.

I'm anxious for Garrett to have that opportunity, and his response has been very good during this preseason.

You can hear Martelli's remarks in full in the audio player below. But first, a few words about Hagan Arena.

This was my first time there, as I was out of town on the day of the facility's dedication ceremony. It is really nice, and everything is as modern as you would expect.

But it is not as different from the old Fieldhouse as I expected it to be. In fact, a lot of the elements are exactly the same, particularly the roof and the sideline walls. The seats are all new, but those elements of the exterior have not changed.

The real difference is in the endline seats. The walls behind both baskets were completely blown out, and a second level of seating was added. This basically doubled the size of the student section, as well as the size of the seating area behind the opposite basket.

The main concourse that you walk through after coming in from the parking lot has also been redone, with a new floor and new lighting.

You can see it all for yourself in the photo gallery above.

[ Listen with own player ]

Returning to college basketball a bit faster than I thought we would...

The Big 5 just announced its 2010 Hall of Fame class, and it's a big one: John Chaney, Rollie Massimino and Speedy Morris.

You knew they'd all be inducted at some point, but to have it happen in the same year is quite something.

The date and location of the ceremony have not yet been announced. Villanova plays La Salle on Nov. 18 at the Pavilion and Temple on Dec. 13 at the Liacouras Center. As far as I know, the dates of the Temple-La Salle games have not been announced yet.

I wonder if they'll do it when Temple plays at Penn, which will be in mid-January from what I've heard. Massimino has at least a marginal connection to Penn, having served as an assistant to Chuck Daly for one season, and Fran Dunphy was an assistant to Morris at La Salle for three seasons.

I also wonder if people will complain about Massimino's induction. I think he deserves it because of the national championship. Or, to put it another way, I don't see how you can't induct him - especially when Harold Jensen, Dwayne McClain and Ed Pinckney are already in. If you're going to have a place to honor the best players and coaches in Big 5 history, then Massimino should be there, even with everything that came afterwards.

What do you think?

Here are the bios for each coach that the Big 5 sent along:

Chaney, 77, spent 10 seasons building Philadelphia's Cheyney State (now Cheyney University) into a Division II power before taking the helm at Temple for the 1982-83 season. In his 24 years with the Owls, Chaney led Temple to 17 NCAA Tournament appearances and five regional finals.

Known as a great educator and a fiery, inspirational leader, Chaney and his teams became regarded for their discipline, teamwork and defense. He finished his college coaching career with 741 wins, including a record of 516-253 at Temple. Chaney twice was national coach of the year and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001.

Massimino, 74, was an assistant to Chuck Daly at Penn in the 1972-73 season before commencing a remarkable 19-season career as Villanova's head coach from 1973-92. As the leader of the Wildcats, Massimino led the program into the new Big East Conference in 1980 and oversaw Villanova's subsequent transformation to a national power.

Villanova made the NCAA Tournament 11 times under Massimino, including the famed 1985 national championship upset of Georgetown as well as four other trips to the elite eight. Overall, Massimino compiled a record of 357-241 (.596) at Villanova.

Morris, 67, was the head coach at La Salle for 15 seasons from 1986-2001. In his first year at La Salle he led the Explorers to a 20-13 record and the NIT final. From there it was more success with MAAC titles and NCAA appearances in each of the next three seasons, culminating with a 30-2 campaign in 1989-90 that produced the national player of the year, Lionel Simmons.

La Salle made the NIT the following season before claiming another MAAC title and NCAA bid in the 1991-92 season, completing a run of six straight postseason berths. In all, Morris would go on to finish with 238 wins at La Salle, the most in school history.

An alert reader sent along a note that Morris began his coaching career with a two-year stint as the Explorers' women's coach, from 1984-86. I asked Mel Greenberg about this and he noted that Morris was one of the first Division I coaches to make the jump from the women's game to the men's game.

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?

We finally have the answer to the season's last big question: Ahmad Nivins of St. Joe's has won the Robert V. Geasey Trophy as the Big 5's Most Outstanding Player.

You could argue for Dionte Christmas, and I would have if asked to vote at the end of the regular season. You could argue for Dante Cunningham, and if ballots were cast this week he'd probably have won it.

But regardless of timing, if you take either of them off their respective teams would it have anywhere near the kind of impact as St. Joe's without Nivins? No.

Having said that, the award is for Most Outstanding Player, not Most Valuable. But Nivins' numbers make one heck of a case: 19.2 points and 11.8 rebounds a game and 61.2% field goal shooting in an average of 39.3 minutes per game.

That last number is really something for a big man.

Cunningham averaged 16.1 points and 7.4 rebounds a game and shot 52.5 percent from the field, by comparison. Christmas averaged a City Series-best 19.5 points per game, but as a guard it's not as easy to make a straight statistical comparison to Nivins.

Who would you have chosen?

All-Big 5 First Team

C Ahmad Nivins (St. Joseph's)
F Dante Cunningham (Villanova)
G Scottie Reynolds (Villanova)
G Dionte Christmas (Temple)
G Rodney Green (La Salle)

All-Big 5 Second Team

F Lavoy Allen (Temple)
F Dwayne Anderson (Villanova)
G/F Reggie Redding (Villanova)
G Corey Fisher (Villanova)
G Tasheed Carr (St. Joseph's)

A press release from the Big 5 just landed in my inbox announcing this season's winners of a bunch of awards given out by the Herb Good Basketball Club. The highest-profile of them was Villanova coach Jay Wright, who won the Harry Litwack Award for Eastern College Coach of the Year.

Wildcats forward Dante Cunningham won the George Paull Award for the Big 5's Most Improved Player, and Penn's Zack Rosen, who won the Dave Zinkoff Award for Big 5 Rookie of the Year.

That Rosen won the Zinkoff award surprises me somewhat, as I thought it would go to Juan Fernandez. Then again, Fernandez didn't play the full season.

The only other freshmen in the Big 5 who got significant minutes were Bryant Irwin and Chris Prescott of St. Joe's. While both contributed, I think we can fairly say that Rosen and Fernandez were at the top of this year's rookie class.

This is the second straight year that a Penn player has won the Zinkoff Award. Tyler Bernardini won it last season.

The Big 5 Player of the Year award has not been announced. I don't know when it will come but my guess is tomorrow.

Other award winners include:

- Cy Kaselman Award (Big 5's most accurate foul shooter): Scottie Reynolds, Villanova

- Palumbo Award (Big 5's top scorer): Dionte Christmas, Temple (19.5 points per game/662 total)

- Harry Merrill Sportsmanship Award: Kevin Egee, Penn

- Eddie Gottlieb Award (Outstanding 76er): Andre Iguodala

- High School Standouts: Cameron Ayers (Germantown Academy), Maalik Wayns (Roman Catholic), Denzel Yard (Franklin Learning Center), Dalton Pepper (Pennsbury High)

- All-Philadelphia Area Player of the Year (non-Division I): Malcolm Ingram, Philadelphia University

- All-Philadelphia Area Squad (non-Division I): Malcolm Ingram (Philadelphia University), Dominique Curry  (Cheyney), Russell Frederick (Philadelphia University), Ralph Hegamin (West Chester), Charles Jones (Widener), Kevin Misevicius (Cabrini), John Noonan (Ursinus) Dave Smith (Gwynedd-Mercy).

By the way, I'm going to be liveblogging the Phillies game tomorrow afternoon here on Philly.com, starting at around 2:45. I hope you'll join me (though we'll have to keep the talk to baseball, at least for most of the game).

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.

[ Listen with own player ]

ATLANTIC CITY - After Temple's win today, I thought back to something I read in a column by Dick Jerardi earlier this season. I couldn't remember exactly when, so I went back in our archives and found it.

When Jameer Nelson chose Saint Joseph's over Temple in 1999, the Hawks began a domination of the Owls that lasted until last season. Prior to Nelson's arrival on Hawk Hill, John Chaney's team had owned St. Joe's.

Could Lavoy Allen have a similar impact on the series? When the Owls sophomore chose Temple over St. Joe's, among others, it was not clear exactly what it meant. It is becoming clearer now.

If the meaning was clear back, then, the change in momentum from the Hawks to the Owls is practically transparent now.

Temple's win over St. Joe's today was its fifth straight in the series, with a three-game sweep this season following the final two of three last year.

Allen specifically might not be the reason for the streak - though he played well today despite an ankle injury that, as Dunphy said afterwards, might have led other players to want to sit the game out.

To me, if any one person is responsible for Temple's resurgence, it is Dunphy himself.

This was not a banner day for the Owls' offense, with Dionte Christmas' 1-for-10 performance from the field especially glaring. But Dunphy's players are definitely running his system, and they are doing it well. St. Joe's was not able to answer the Owls' fluidity on offense with sufficient offensive flow at the other end.

Indeed, take Christmas' performance out if the box score and the rest of the Owls combined to shoot 27-for-50.

The biggest performances came from Sergio Olmos and Ryan Brooks, both 6-for-12, and Semaj Inge, who was 6-for-9. Brooks also made three of four three-point attempts.

Also significant was Craig Williams' 4-for-7 afternoon, all from beyond the arc. It wasn't just that Williams made those shots, it was how he made them: the hits were all pretty open, which speaks well of Williams' ability to move off the ball.

It was also an indictment of the St. Joe's defense, frankly, because none of the Hawks' frontcourt players got out to guard the 6-foot-9 forward. Phil Martelli knew that to do so meant Olmos or Allen could be left open inside for easier shots. But to send a guard against Williams created a mismatch, and Williams' height means he can shoot over a zone.

Nor is this the first time Williams has exploited a mismatch against St. Joe's this season. He hit two threes at the Palestra and three at the Liacouras Center, and in the first game I remember specifically asking Phil Martelli about the mismatch problem. It's in the postgame audio here.

And by the way, Williams is a freshman. Chew on that for a moment.

Time to hand out the day's awards. The game of the day was Duquesne's 78-74 upset of Rhode Island, in part because an upset and in part because... okay, entirely because it was an upset. There haven't been any others so far, so why not?

The Dukes played an extremely efficient game, shooting 52.8 percent from the field and averaging 1.286 points per possession. Although Rhode Island won the rebounding battle 43-29 and pulled down 24 offensive boards, that's in part because they missed 36 of 63 field goal attempts. Duquesne did pretty well at its own end, pulling down 13 offensive rebounds to 19 defensive boards for the Rams.

Rhody star Jimmy Baron scored 26 ponts on 8-for-20 shooting, including 8-for-16 from beyond the arc. But I couldn't help thinking that he disappeared late, though some will argue that was because of Duquesne's defense.

Consider that after Duquesne took the lead for good with 6:50 left in the game, Baron took only two shots. He made the second, a three-pointer with 47 seconds left. Obviously everyone knows to deny Baron the ball, but given his ability to shoot from other planets I figure you should do whatever you have to do to get him the ball.

The award for best fans of the day goes to Temple. I've lived in Philadelphia for seven seasons now and this was the first time I've ever seen Owls fans, especially students, outnumber and out-shout Hawks fans.

Temple's students also win the prize for best accessory of the day, because they had rollouts. Nothing can top that, although the giant Dionte Christmas head was neat. So were the basketball-shaped hats the Dayton band wore.

Both will have chances to win again tomorrow after the Flyers beat Richmond, 69-64. They'll meet Duquesne in the second semifinal.

The award for best name of the day goes to Dayton's Luke Fabrizius, or I should say Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuke Fabrizius. That's how the Dayton fans pronounce it when Fabrizius hits three-pointers, which he did three times tonight.

The shot of the day does not go to any Atlantic 10 team. It goes, of course, to Dwayne Anderson of Villanova, as the Wildcats held off Marquette by the very last millimeter of their fingernails at Madison Square Garden.

Temple's press conference was starting just as Anderson's shot went in, and we near the dais could hear the gasps from near the televisions all the way across the press room.

Joe Juliano, Bob Ford and Mike Kern were in New York for their respective publications, and there's also a photo
gallery from the game.

There's a poll attached to Kern's recap that asks whether Villanova will beat Louisville. I think you have to give them a decent chance, because the Wildcats are clearly playing with momentum and the Cardinals didn't have to work too hard to beat Providence.

And you know the 'Nova fans will be in full throat tomorrow night - maybe even by New York standards.

Before closing the post, I've added yet another new feature here on the blog: a video player with college sports stories from the Associated Press. Right now it's focused on the Big East tournament but there will be loads of other content there over the next few weeks.

Okay, that will wrap things up for tonight. You'll find all the mutltimedia offerings below, including video highlights from the Temple and St. Joe's press conferences. The remarks by Tasheed Carr and Ahmad Nivins are particularly worth watching.

I'll be back tomorrow night with live coverage of Temple-Xavier.

[ Listen with own player ]

ATLANTIC CITY - Just our luck: St. Joe's and Temple are tipping off at the same time as Villanova's Big East Tournament quarterfinal.

I do not have access to ESPN on press row, but I'll try to keep an eye on the score in some form. If there are big plays, you're welcome to comment on them.

A reminder that I can only offer updates from this game during media timeouts because of Atlantic 10 restrictions on live-blogging. But I'll give you as much as I can, and of course you all can and should say as much as you want.

What I know I can give you is an interview with Joe Lunardi that I recorded just now. Listen to it in the audio player below, but be aware it was recorded before Northwestern lost to Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament's first game of the day.

So let's get this thing going. All that bureaucracy doesn't make this game any less significant - the Owls have to keep winning to keep their NCAA Tournament dreams alive, and the Hawks would surely like nothing more than to personally end Temple's season.

(And by the way, your eyes do not deceive you: Games 24 and 25 were last night's doubleheader and Game 26 was Xavier's win over Saint Louis in today's first game.)

[ Listen with own player ]

ATLANTIC CITY - Let's conclude today by taking a look back at the action and assembling the multimedia all in one place.

The best game of the day was definitely Duquesne's 91-81 win over Massachusetts. The Dukes were up by as many as 19 points during the first half, but the Minutemen stormed back to draw within a point on a floater by Ricky Harris with under two seconds left before halftime.

UMass took a two-point lead a few times, including with 11 minutes left in the game. But after Duquesne forced the eighth tied score of the half two possessions later, the Dukes re-asserted themselves for good and pulled away for the win.

The game was full of interesting statistics, including great efficiency for both sides. UMass averaged 1.10 points per possession and Duquesne averaged 1.223. This despite the fact that the Minutemen missed 43 of the 76 field goal attempts they took, including 26 of 34 missed attempts from three-point range. But they got 19 offensive rebounds and shot a respectable 7-11 from the free throw line (though that isn't too many attempts.)

Duquesne shot 50.9 percent from the field for the game, including 11-for-24 from beyond the arc. They made a total of 28 field goal attempts and recorded assists on 20 of them. Also impressive was the 14 overall fouls committed, with only two players committing three fouls.

The best fans of the day were St. Bonaventure's. Sorry, St. Joe's and La Salle. But it's worth noting that one of the St. Joe's students I know told me she was disappointed with the Hawks fans' turnout.

You wonder whether things would have been different if they'd reversed the order of games and had La Salle and St. Joe's (plus Xavier and Temple in the second round) play at night. Just saying.

We'll close with a noteworthy line from each game and the various multimedia offerings. Tonight you get audio of the La Salle, St. Joe's and Charlotte press conferences, and video highlights of the St. Joe's press conference.

The La Salle audio is a bit choppy because of some glitches with the feed that came into my recorder. I've cleaned it up as best I can, but if you want more, click here for a quote sheet with La Salle and Saint Louis.

I'll talk to you again tomorrow. There's certainly a lot to discuss overnight - including what you think of the fact that Phil Martelli only used seven players in today's win.
   

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