A cornucopia of local college basketball

If you want to get a college hoops fix today, you won't have to try hard. You can go to the Palestra for the Philly Hoop Group Classic - Saint Joseph's-Rutgers follows Norfolk State-Fairfield. You can head to New York, where Villanova will try to win the NIT Season Tip-Off against Tennessee after VCU plays UCLA in the consolation game at Madison Square Garden.

You could go to Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City for a Legends Classic doubleheader - Syracuse-Michigan after Georgia Tech-UTEP. Or you can stay home and watch Temple continue play in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando.

And, if that's not enough, you can get on the Pennsylvania Turnpike tomorrow morning, drive 5 hours and get off in Pittsburgh, where Penn will play Pitt at 7 p.m. And, if you have anything left Sunday, Drexel makes its home debut against Binghamton and its coach, Temple's all-time leading scorer Mark Macon. The Owls, by the way, will be finishing up in Orlando on the same day.

Villanova got its first serious test Wednesday and passed easily against UCLA, controlling the game throughout and winning, 82-70. The Bruins are much improved, but could do nothing to keep the ball out of the lane as Corey Fisher and Maalik Wayns got wherever they wanted. Big man Mouphtaou Yarou was a force with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Like Villanova, Tennessee has not lost. The Volunteers have had many more off-court than on-court issues. Coach Bruce Pearl has been in the midst of a recruiting mess for months. Most recently, it was announced that the coach would be suspended for Tennessee's first eight SEC games. But he will be there today, as will his players, a good team that will give the Wildcats a nice test.

Saint Joseph's Phil Martelli will not only be coaching against a former assistant, he will be coaching against one of his sons. Mike Rice was at St. Joe's for two seasons before going to Pittsburgh for a season. When he got the head job at Robert Morris, he brought Jimmy Martelli with him. After two consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and the near upset of Villanova last March, Rice parlayed that success into the Rutgers job. He brought young Martelli with him.

Rutgers and St. Joe's each beat Fairfield and Norfolk in preliminary round games. For what it's worth, Rutgers won the two games by 39 points. The Hawks won theirs by 14 points.

Neumann-Goretti High grads Scoop Jardine and Rick Jackson will be in Atlantic City with Syracuse. Winners and losers tonight play tomorrow night at Boardwalk Hall.

The season is still quite young so any observations are subject to change. But this is a lot of basketball in not a lot of time in a relatively small area. Something will be learned. And lots of hoops will be watched. *