Which school has the best fans?
In honor of Phil Martelli's tribute to the fans at last night's game.
Which school has the best fans?
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
NOTE: I got the name of the writer who asked Phil Martelli about Villanova fans wrong. See below for the correction.
If you listened to the post-game press conferences from last night, it probably didn't take you too long to figure out that I might have a bit more to say about Phil Martelli's remarks about the atmosphere at the Palestra.
He went there right from the start:
First I want to acknowledge the crowd on both sides. It gives you chills, really, a Saturday night at the Palestra. That's Philadelphia basketball - forget the game, forget the records. The fans on both sides, both teams deserve a tremendous amount of credit for how they supported their teams.
Martelli had more to say when ESPN.com's Dana O'Neil (you might have heard of her), in the house to write a feature, asked for it:
I mean, come on. A Saturday night in January, it's really cold out, they're 4-9 and we're kind of a nondescript 10-7 coming in, and it's full. And people are screaming the whole game. The thing that I love about this, Dana, is mutual respect, and people were cheering for their team. It wasn't one of those one-sided gyms. I didn't hear one time tonight how bald I am. Maybe my wife yelled it one time, but they cheered for their teams. And that, to me, is just Philadelphia. That's what I said to the players: A Saturday night at the Palestra.
As we all know, the Villanova-Penn and Temple-Penn games drew crowds barely half the Palestra's capacity. So I asked Martelli whether the fact that this game was played on a Saturday really made that much of a difference.
It's a big deal... I would say this to you: sure, the night makes a difference. And you're going to back me right here, you're going to put me right into it...
Well, yes. Even though the best time to do this poll is over the summer, when we're all sitting around looking for ways to shoot the breeze and reminisce about long nights in hot gyms that remain only as memories.
But because Martelli went for it, so do we. And this week will be much more fun as a result.
No one has the support we have. I don't care - you could be in any league in this country, in this city, ask anybody. The people that turn out are the St. Joe's people, and they did tonight.
You knew what was coming after that, and I think it was Dom Cosentino of the Bucks County Courier Times who asked it.
(Brendan Quinn of the Bulletin informs me that contrary to what I originally wrote, it wasn't him.)
More fans than Villanova?
Martelli paused.
Next.
Another pause.
For this building, answer your own question. For this building. Is that fair? That's fair. For this building. For this building. Yeah, they'll, they'll - never mind, I'll stop.
And that was the end of the press conference. Great comedic timing if ever there was.
So in honor of Martelli, we pose the question: Which City Six school has the best fans?
Since I figure someone will ask, I'm not just talking about student sections, though obviously that's a big part of it. This is about the complete package at each school. We can vote on student sections another time.
I'll be back tomorrow night with the latest Schuylkill 16 rankings, though the poll will remain in the right rail of the blog all week.
As one one of the other coaches in this town likes to say, the time's yours.
If you're going to go with overall fan base for a school, that's a tough call. Villanova has the numbers, but it's easy to draw when the team is consistently ranked. SJU has spirit, but a lot of their fans are idiots. Penn has history, but again, that's just history. I just know Drexel for sure, does not win in the "overall fan base" category. HOWEVER, if you do a poll for student sections, I would put the DAC Pack pound-for-pound against any student section in the Big 5.— DrexelDragonFan- ILUVPHILLYCITYOFWINNERS!!! WOW...THATS'S NEWS.....A BIG FIVE GAME AT THE PAL ATTRACTS BIG CROWD THEREFORE ST JOES HAS BEST FANS........CANT WAIT TILL MY BIRDS SMOKE THEM AGAIN AT THE PAL, THE LIACOURAS AND A.C///YOU CAN BE BEST FANS WE WILL CONTINUE OUR REBUILDING INTO DOMINANT BIG 5 AND A10 PERENNIAL.......ITS COMING.....TU WON 1700TH GAME LAST NIGHT......LET SHOW YOU SOME NEWS!!!!! " Along with Hall of Fame inductions of Chaney and Moyer, the victory also carried some historic significance in that it is the 1700th win in Temple basketball history. The Owls rank sixth in all-time NCAA Division I victories - trailing only Syracuse, Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky" NOW THAT IS NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO BIRDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DEATH TO THE HAWK AND THE CAT— ILUVPHILLYCITYOFLOSERS
- How can 12 people vote for Penn? That's just ridiculous.— sportzak
- Penn State fans are the best!— pucchino
Comment removed.- As a two time Temple alum, I wish I could vote for them, but commuter schools have a tough time getting fans out, so I would probably have to agree that it is St. Joes (although in more successful times I would have considered Penn as well- Penn v Princeton at the Palestra was one of, if not the, best games to attend in the city for quite a while). Nova has okay fans now, since they're a consistent top-25 team, but there have been plenty of half-empty games at the ski lodge, and Nova's fan base consists largely of d-bags from NY, so that's another strike against them.
- Temple fans epitomize Philadelphia. St Joes and Nova fans go to games cause Daddy paid for it.— Leron
- Leron, your points on Nova and SJU fans are right on. I would add in La Salle and Drexel fans to your comments on Philly. Best in terms of dedication maybe. Those dedicated few that come to an on campus game (Seriously small gym there at La Salle) deserve kudos.— bjps1353
- Right on. Gotta love the Dac PAC and the Gold Rush. Unfortunately, besides Drexel's win over Penn to open the season, neither fan base has had anything to cheer about. LaSalle has failed every major test at home.— Leron
- Penn St. football fans are Duke basketball fans. Front runners.— Leron
- "Temple fans epitomize Philadelphia"...what does that mean? A second city phobia? And college hoops tickets are cheap. So who can't afford to buy their own basketball ticket? This sounds like whining Leron. If you had to man up and pay for your hoops ticket with your own money, more power to you. But whining doesn't make you a great basketball fan— steve53
- Leron, I would say Drexel has done more than just win the Penn opener... We beat SJU at the Palestra, and are on a current 5 game winning streak while we were picked last. Thanks for the DAC Pack love though!— DrexelDragonFan
- Comment removed.
- Nobody Beats the Hawks.... Nobody!— BigDipper
- I like fans that support their team with a turnover meter.— NovaCheatsintheClassroom
Reach Jonathan at jtannenwald@phillynews.com or 215-854-2330.
