ESPN's 'GameDay' coming to the Palestra

WHEN TIM Legler heard about Saturday's La Salle-Temple ESPN broadcast from the Palestra, he knew he wanted to be part of it.

The ESPN NBA analyst, a 1988 La Salle graduate who got his master's at Penn's Wharton School, made a few phone calls and, just like that, he was on board as the color man with John Saunders for the telecast, which will immediately follow "College GameDay" from the Palestra.

"It's going to be awesome," Legler said. "The tie-in on both sides, obviously being very close to La Salle to John [Giannini] and being in that building which was my home court for 4 years, which I still will contend is the greatest environment for college basketball in the country. I played in some great arenas when I was at La Salle. I don't think anything compares to it."

There is the La Salle connection and there is the Fran Dunphy connection. He was a La Salle assistant for the last three seasons of Legler's La Salle career.

Jay Bilas, who will be there for "GameDay," played at the Palestra twice during his Duke career, once in 1983 as a freshman against La Salle and again as a senior against Saint Joseph's.

Coach K was just getting started at Duke in 1983 and Duke beat La Salle by a single point. K had his first great team in 1986, a team that would finish 37-3 and lose to Louisville in the national championship game.

Bilas has one specific memory about his first game at the Palestra and much more context on the second game.

"I remember that a guy named Albert 'Truck' Butts kicked my ass," Bilas said. "I'll never forget the name because that truck ran over me. It was a great lesson. Sometimes, guys get a nickname for a reason."

Duke played St. Joe's home and home in 1985 and 1986. The 1986 Hawks eventually won the Atlantic 10 championship. They played Duke very well until the loaded Blue Devils pulled away late.

"We had a tremendous amount of respect for St. Joe's and how good they were," Bilas said.

He was not thinking about the atmosphere back in 1983.

"The first one I had no idea, couldn't even enjoy it," Bilas said. "The road was unusual. We were 18 years old. We had no idea what was going on. It was more enjoyable the second time because you could take in what was going on around you. I can sit here and pretend I remember [details], but I don't."

Bilas called a St. Joe's-Ohio State game at the Palestra a few years ago and he definitely remembers that they gave away little foam basketballs. They made an announcement before the game not to throw the balls on to the floor, that St. Joe's would get a technical. Bilas remembered that the crowd chant during the first half was: "Hold your balls, hold your balls."

So he is definitely looking forward to coming back with "GameDay," especially because it will bring back so many memories for one of his "GameDay" partners, Digger Phelps, the onetime Penn assistant.

"I played at Carmichael, Reynolds and Cole Field House," Bilas said.

Those classic gyms at North Carolina, North Carolina State and Maryland have all been replaced.

"The great thing is that the Palestra is still there," Bilas said.

This will be the first college game Legler calls for ESPN. So, this week, he is thinking back to all the games he played at the Palestra, especially the one where the Explorers had No. 4 North Carolina on the ropes in 1987, the year La Salle played in the NIT championship game.

"I still have flashbacks," Legler said. "They had Kenny Smith and Jeff Lebo and J.R. Reid. We were absolutely clocking them."

Then, North Carolina started to close. It came down to a block/charge call. It was called a charge against La Salle's Richie Tarr. UNC made some late free throws and won the game.

"That game will always haunt me," said Legler, even though he hardly missed.

"I think I had 25 in that game," Legler said.

He had a great game and has a great memory. He had exactly 25.

Lebo, from Carlisle High, was a much more hyped player than Legler. That night, Legler was easily the better player.

What Legler described as "one of the best days of my life" was when he picked up the Daily News between his sophomore and junior seasons and read that college basketball had adopted the three-point shot. Then, he saw the distance and just started smiling.

His first Big 5 game was against Temple. He remembers hitting his first five shots.

"They all would have been threes," Legler said. "I had five shots that totaled 130 feet and counted for 10 points."

Those last two seasons, the man who won the NBA's three-point contest one year, made about half of his threes. He is certain it was even more than that at the Palestra.

"The proximity to the fans behind the basket is what always separates places that are good to shoot and places that aren't," Legler said. "Something about the perspective of that particular building, how close everybody was to the court gives you so much better depth perception. I played in a million arenas. Some places have soft rims, some don't. When I was at La Salle, the Palestra had some soft rims. I felt like I couldn't miss in that building."

And it was the building that cemented his decision to attend La Salle. Foremost, there was his connection with then-head coach Lefty Ervin and assistant Joe Mihalich and the relationship they developed with Legler's parents.

"When I came up on my official visit, they took me to the Palestra," Legler said. "It was a doubleheader. La Salle played Villanova and I believe it was at least one overtime, if not two. And then St. Joe's played Temple in the second game. It was completely packed, streamers were coming out. It was mind-blowing."

Sadly, they don't have the doubleheaders anymore. Thankfully, they still have days like Saturday, "GameDay" in the morning, Temple-La Salle at noon, maybe even some streamers if rumors are correct, clear the building, head for Abner's or the New Deck and then return for St. Joe's-Penn at 7. Only in Philadelphia, only at the Palestra.