Philly's college hoops teams give us some great thrills

THIS PAST WEEK reminded me why my favorite sporting event to watch is either a college basketball game or an NFL tilt (baseball, however, is my overall favorite season to follow). Here in Philadelphia, it was a truly exciting week of college basketball, and things are looking up for our local teams.

It started last Friday when I watched my alma mater, Penn, win at Cornell. Probably only a handful of us watched the telecast, but we saw a truly exciting game. Cornell roared out to a big lead, but the Quakers fought back gamely. With less than a minute to go, freshman Sam Jones hit a deep three-pointer to tie the score. Then, with only seconds to go, Tony Hicks drove the lane, pulled up and hit a 10-foot floater for the win. I couldn't believe what I'd just seen.

Saturday afternoon, my sports day started by catching Temple battle Memphis in a crucial American Athletic Conference showdown. It was a seesaw game all the way, but Memphis made a basket to take a one-point lead with 9 seconds to go. The wise Owls coach, Fran Dunphy, made a bold decision not to call a timeout, even though Temple had one. He let superstar point guard Will Cummings take the out of bounds pass and rush the ball up the court. Cummings appeared to be driving the lane, but artfully dished the ball off to Josh Brown, who put in a beautiful bank shot to win the game just before the buzzer sounded. Wow!

After that game ended, I switched over to catch a glimpse of the Villanova Wildcats exacting revenge on the Georgetown Hoyas by playing their usual brand of uptempo, beautifully choreographed basketball.

Next, I left my TV and headed to Philadelphia University to watch legendary coach Herb Magee go for his 1,000th victory. The gym was packed and the excitement was palpable, but the Rams stumbled out of the gate and fell behind Post, 22-11. They quickly turned things around and, led by Nick Schlitzer, Derek Johnson and Peter Alexis, they roared to an easy win, 80-60. This turned out to be an incredibly pure college basketball experience - Herb almost never substitutes, his team plays an incredibly fast-paced style, and, with no TV timeouts, the game flew by.

On Tuesday night, Temple avenged a previous humiliating loss to Cincinnati by beating the Bearcats, 75-59.

Wednesday night was even more amazing. A truly magical evening for a Philly college basketball fan - all three of our Big 5 schools in action won.

Villanova scored a solid win on the road over a good Providence team. The Saint Joseph's Hawks won a thriller when Chris Wilson hit a shot in the last few seconds, giving them the win over the Rhode Island Rams.

But the most amazing game of the week took place in Richmond, Va., where the La Salle Explorers took on 20th-ranked VCU and its "havoc" press. The Explorers are extremely well coached by John Giannini, and, as a result, handled the VCU pressure quite well. It was an exciting, back-and-forth game, which found La Salle down by three with the clock running out. Giannini put the ball in the hands of his brilliant scorer, transfer Jordan Price, who hit an NBA range three to send it to overtime. Overtime proved to be an exciting nail-biter, but the first OT session didn't produce a winner. In the second overtime, Price exploded and scored 12 points, leading the Explorers to a 74-69 victory. Price ended up with 34 points and 18 rebounds for the game.

What a week of college basketball it turned out to be, with our teams winning key games, four of which were decided in the last few seconds.

At a time when the Phillies, Eagles, Sixers and Flyers are struggling and with no playoff games of any kind in sight, it's great to see the City 6 alive and well. Penn is below .500, but the Quakers have three promising freshmen, and things are looking up.

St. Joe's likely won't make the NCAA tournament, but the best player in the city, DeAndre' Bembrey and our best college mascot both reside on Hawk Hill. La Salle has won four of its last five games and is playing as if it could win the A-10 Tournament. The Temple Owls are on fire and, with wins over Kansas and Connecticut, they certainly should be on their way to the Dance.

Our perennial tournament team, the Villanova Wildcats, has as good a chance as any school not named Kentucky to win the national championship.

And, by the way, for the record, after a woeful start, the Drexel Dragons are on a roll, having won six in a row, with a legitimate star in Damion Lee leading the way.

So who needs the pros? Our college kids are carrying Philadelphia's banner high!

On Twitter: @GovEdRendell