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Just a couple of feet away at the Palestra, away from the microphone, Owls coach Fran Dunphy said with a hint of a smile, "I'd say, 'Better than yours.' "
Martelli still had the microphone. "He said, 'Better than yours!' And you all think he's the good guy and I'm the bad guy," Martelli said.
This was the 10th anniversary of the breakfast, and 60 tables filled the Palestra floor as the coaches bantered and NCAA predictions were offered. Since 1993, Coaches vs. Cancer has raised $23 million nationally. Coaches vs. Cancer of Philadelphia has raised more than $3 million since 1996.
Three Big Five teams are in the tournament. Temple was an automatic qualifier after beating St. Joe's on Saturday night in the Atlantic Ten tournament, and the Hawks and Villanova got in as at-large teams. So jibes flew yesterday in the celebratory atmosphere.
"I thought I remembered reading in the paper how no Big Five teams were getting in the tournament," Sixers president Ed Stefanski said.
During his turn at the podium, Drexel coach Bruiser Flint offered that his former boss at Massachusetts, John Calipari, would have Memphis in the Final Four. Mentioning all the similarities with the UMass Final Four team of 1996, Flint guaranteed it.
"I'm going to have good seats right behind the bench," he said. "I'll wave at you."
The centerpiece of the breakfast had little to do with March Madness. Oakcrest High basketball coach Dave Lewis accepted the organization's annual Charley Dinsmore survivor award and said that 90 minutes later he would be admitted to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and start another round of chemotherapy for the cancer that affects his white blood cells.
As the NCAA tournament begins tonight, Lewis will still be in the cancer unit, staying there until Friday afternoon.
"Everyone there is basically in the same boat. They have something they didn't want," he said.
Lewis said he has used his illness as a teaching tool with his basketball team, telling the players: "It's not something to be afraid of. It's something to fight."
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