Schuylkill 16 Poll Week 1: 'Nova still on top

No surprises at the top of this week's poll: Villanova, Temple and St. Joe's are still 1, 2 and 3. I was a bit surprised, though, to see the Wildcats extend their lead over the Owls from 19 to 21 points even though both teams got lower (i.e. better) scores than

» READ MORE: last week

.

(Remember, teams get one point for a first place vote and two for second and so on.)

There was definitely movement below the top three, though, with Rutgers moving up and La Salle moving down. Penn got a significantly better score after an impressive performance at No. 1 North Carolina, but did not improve its No. 7 ranking. Its opponent tomorrow, Drexel, moved up four spots.

Before I list the poll results, we had two games over the weekend between teams in the poll: St. Joe's beat Rider at the Wachovia Center, 69-57, and Rutgers beat Delaware at the RAC, 85-77.

Now for the rankings:

- "They have 5 guys who can put up double figures every night." (Rob Falcone,

» READ MORE: DAC Pack

President)

- "Bad news for Temple after losing to the Clemson Tigers: it faces at least three more feline-nicknamed teams." (Zach Klitzman,

» READ MORE: The Daily Pennsylvanian

)

- "Nivins surprised me in both games this weekend.  He looked far more aggressive than last season." (Rob Falcone)

- "Martelli needs to worry less about Nivins and more about PG play and depth." (Dave C.)

- "Former 'Nova assistant Fred Hill collects season-opening wins at expense of former Hawks in clashes of Holy War disciples, edging Matt Brady's Marist Red Foxes and Monte Ross's Delaware Blue Hens." (Bryan Armen Graham,

)

- "Will we have an All-Schuylkill Squad? Early candidate should be Rutgers' Hamady Ndiaye. Expect good things from him." (Dan Levy,

» READ MORE: On the DL Podcast

)

-"Rodney Green and Jerrell Williams impressed me in LaSalle's game against Morgan State.  The student student section could use some work (and a better name...Explorer Entourage? Come on.)" (Rob Falcone)

- "Even without Hansbrough, Penn showed more in defeat than La Salle did in victory." (Marco Anskis,

» READ MORE: Storming the Floor

)

- "Losing by a modest 15 points in the den of universal Final Four pick UNC provides no silver lining, but watching sophomore revelation Tyler Bernardini (game-high 26 points) sure does." (Bryan Armen Graham)

SI

- "Drexel has a huge game this week against Penn.  Penn has a somewhat important game this week against Drexel." (Zach Klitzman)

- "Rider, clearly looking to impress S-16 voters early on, scheduled six out of their first eight games -- including their first three -- against other S-16 teams." (Zach Klitzman)

- "As much as it pains me to say, it's going to be a long, long season in Lewisburg." (Marco Anskis)

- "Egerson and Dawson looked like a good tandem, but when you shoot 40% and force 20 turnovers, you need to find a way to win." (Rob Falcone)

- Princeton freshman Doug Davis was the most exciting thing I've seen at Jadwin Gym since the ice sculpture when they retired Bill Bradley's jersey." (Jon Solomon,

» READ MORE: princetonbasketball.com

)

- "Delaware St.'s 67-64 loss to D-II Cheyney at home still isn't the worst Schuulkill 16 loss of the last four seasons. That'd be Princeton's 51-46 loss to D-III Carnegie Mellon in Dec. 2005." (Zach Klitzman)

Agree? Disagree? Post your thoughts in the comments. And be sure to vote in the

» READ MORE: Readership Survey

; I really want to break last year's record of 2,357 votes cast.

A few news items to consider this evening:

- As has been reported by

» READ MORE: the AP

and

» READ MORE: other

» READ MORE: websites

this afternoon, Fox has announced that it will not match

» READ MORE: ESPN's bid

for BCS rights from 2011 to 2014. Personally, I won't miss Fox's presentation of those games, because I don't think too highly of their announcers and I think ESPN/ABC does a better job with college football and many other sports.

Having said that, reports (and

» READ MORE: this ESPN non-denial

) say that the games will be on cable instead of on ABC, and I hope that doesn't happen. Even without Keith Jackson, the BCS games deserve to be on network television - especially the national championship game.

- The New York Times' college sports blog reports that Bucknell's basketball program has a new tradition:

» READ MORE: Song Night

. But unlike karaoke, this version used an iPod and a fork instead of a jukebox and a microphone.

- Also from the NYT, we learn that Penn State is

» READ MORE: auctioning off the schoolbuses

that transported players to Beaver Stadium from 1980 to 2007. The starting price on eBay is

» READ MORE: $3,200

, and the bus comes with a certificate of authenticity and a fire extinguisher. The winning bidder is responsible for picking up the vehicle or arranging shipping costs.

» READ MORE: Other items

up for auction include a gas-powered deep fryer and a commercial-strength carpet scrubber.

- Legendary former Cal-Berkeley men's basketball coach Pete Newell

» READ MORE: died today

at 93. Definitely read

» READ MORE: this tribute to Newell

by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Bruce Jenkins, who wrote a biography of the coach in 1999.

- Finally, Awful Announcing informs us that

» READ MORE: John Saunders and Bob Valvano

will be the commentary team for ESPN's broadcast of the Penn-Drexel game tomorrow.

I'll be live-blogging from the DAC all morning, so be sure to bring your questions during the game and

» READ MORE: send in your fan photos

afterwards.