The Schuylkill 16 Week 15: A dent in Villanova's armor?

Boy, this week's rankings are all over the place. Villanova and Temple are still 1-2, but the Owls snatched a first-place vote on the basis of the Wildcats' loss.

Princeton is up to fifth, St. Joe's is ninth and Penn State just barely edged out Bucknell for 11th.

All the way at the bottom, Penn's upset of Cornell didn't just propel the Quakers out of the cellar for the first time since December 2, it pushed them two spots up to 14th.

Now Penn sits above Delaware, which strikes me as crazy, but that's democracy for you.

Here's a question to discuss, especially as we get ready for Temple-St. Joe's at the Palestra on Saturday: Will the Hawks make the Atlantic 10 Tournament? After tonight's loss at Xavier, the Hawks are in 13th place in the conference with a 3-9 record, half a game back of 3-8 St. Bonaventure. The bottom two teams of the 14 miss out.

It's a good thing that Fordham is 0-12, or there would be at least a slim chance that both St. Joe's and La Salle could finish at the bottom of the standings. At least one of the teams will make it to the first round.

Here we go:

1. Villanova, 14 points (12 first-place votes)
- "Apparently the Wildcats' defense stayed on campus Monday night instead of making the trek down to the Wachovia Center." (Mario Machi)

2. Temple, 25 points (1 first-place vote)

3. Drexel, 47 points
- "How good is the CAA?!? Drexel might be better off in the ACC than the CAA, at least for this year." (Mario Machi)

4. Rutgers, 55 points
- "I feel so uneasy listing Rutgers third in this week's poll that I am using the comment box to share this discomfort with the world." (Jon Solomon)
- "You may want to sit down for this one. Rutgers' game with UConn Saturday could have major implications on who gets a bye in the Big East Tournament. I'm not even sure their fans remember how to get to MSG." (Jeff Shafer)

5. Princeton, 65 points
- "Princeton has held every Ivy League opponent under 55 points, and now has a legitimate shot at winning back the crown for the P's." (Max Wheeling)

6. La Salle, 84 points
- "If you combined La Salle's and Penn's walking wounded to form a Big 5 All-Injury team, how many games would they win (healthy, of course)? Seriously, doesn't Dr. John have some managers or walk-ons who can suit up? " (Jeff Shafer)

7. Rider, 107 points

8. Lehigh, 119 points
- "Lehigh has a good chance at being Kentucky's punching bag in the first round of the Tournament." (Jon Mozes)

9. Saint Joseph's, 120 points (1 last-place vote)

10. Lafayette, 139 points

11. Penn State, 150 points (3 last-place votes)
- "Big Ten basketball stinks. Penn State has zero Big Ten wins. By the transitive property, Penn State is last in the Schuylkill 16." (Joe McNamara)
- "Perhaps my Nitts could win a conference game if they moved back to the A-10." (Tim AumAn)

Comment of the week:

- "Penn State will probably wake up in Chicago on Thursday just like Nick Catrambone did on a recent visit to Chi-town: they won't be quite sure what city they're in, they'll have a headache and they'll know they didn't score enough last night." (Daniel Simpson Day)

12. Bucknell, 151 points

13. Delaware State, 157 points (1 last-place vote)
- "I can't believe I missed out on Lehigh-Delaware State. Only 172 lucky people got to see the MEAC vs. the Patriot League in the ultimate Culture Shock Game." (Todd Falkenberg)

14. Penn, 166 points (1 last-place vote)
- "Sure, Penn is still not a very good basketball team, but how many other squads in the area have a top 25 win to their credit?" (Fred David)
- "My apologies to the Quakers. They've finally found a way to bump my write-in candidate, Neumann-Goretti High School, out of the rankings. That's what a win over Cornell will do. The Palestra was rocking like it was 2007!" (Mario Machi)

15. Delaware, 174 points

16. Monmouth, 195 points (6 last-place votes)