Grades are in for city’s basketball teams

Philadelphia is the capital of college basketball. That cannot be disputed. Name one other city with six Division I teams competing at such a consistently high level. There isn't one.

So how did the City Six fare this year? Well, it was a good year, not a great one. It couldn't be considered great when our perennial power, the Villanova Wildcats, had a sub-.500 record and won't play in the postseason. But overall, it was a good, solid season because our other five teams should all be in postseason play.

Drexel

Grade: A-. Great year for Bruiser Flint's deep and talented Dragons. I don't care what your strength of schedule is, if you win 19 in a row, capture your regular-season league championship and finish 27-6, you deserve to be in the big dance. If these battling Dragons win a game in the NCAA or two in the NIT, raise their grade to a straight A.

Penn

Grade: A-. Nobody in town other than Jerome Allen and Zack Rosen thought the Quakers would be playing meaningful games in March. I know Jerome (who should be Ivy coach of the year) and Zack, the Ivy League player of the year and who should also be the Big 5 player of the year, are bitterly disappointed by the Princeton loss, which cost them a shot at an NCAA Tournament berth. Nineteen wins are probably not enough for an NIT bid, though they should be - Penn beat St. Joe's, took Temple to overtime and beat a Harvard team that beat Boston College and NCAA-bound Florida State. Zack and company will play on, though, in the CBI or CIT. If they win a few there, we'll bump the Quakers up to a straight-A also.

La Salle

Grade: A-. The same rationale as Penn. No one would have predicted 20-plus wins for the Explorers, but by the end of the season, they were playing great team ball and playing as well as any of the City 6. They deserve an NIT invite but probably won't get one. Count on them to do some damage in the CBI or CIT.

Saint Joseph's

Grade: B. The Hawks underachieved. I realize that's a hard thing to say about a 20-win team but they had some bad losses (Penn, for example) and a tough loss to St. Bonaventure in the A-10 Tourney. The Hawks never played up to their talent level. In Langston Galloway, Carl Jones, C.J. Aiken, Ronald Roberts and Halil Kanacevic, they have both talented scorers and defenders. I saw them vs. Villanova and they looked like a surefire top-20 team. They will likely get an NIT bid and two or more wins there will move them up to a B+ or A-.

Villanova

Grade: D. It's not just the terrible losing record - any team and coach can have an off-year - it's the preseason expectations and the often lackluster play. The talent was there as shown by near misses against Marquette, Notre Dame and UConn. I know that the Wildcats had an inordinate number of injuries but so did Penn and Temple. No way around it, the Wildcats pulled the City Six's curve down.

Temple

Grade: A. Heading into the A-10 Tournament, and before losing to UMass in the first round yesterday, the Owls were ranked No. 21 in the country. Considering the early loss of Micheal Eric and the season-long absence of Scootie Randall, what the Owls accomplished during the regular season - national ranking, winning the A-10 title, and beating Duke and Wichita State (a tourney sleeper) - was nothing short of spectacular. Fran Dunphy should be national coach of the year! If the Owls reach the Sweet 16 or better, move this grade up to an A+.

So, the 2011-12 college basketball season was a good year for Philadelphia. Let's hope Franny or Bruiser can keep it going into late March and make it a very good year!

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