Cool story in today’s Daily News about how Jameer Nelson donated “a substantial” amount of money to Saint Joe’s to name the new locker room at the new Michael J. Hagan ‘85 Arena, which is replacing the Fieldhouse next year. Nelson, the kid from Chester, is also back in town with the Orlando Magic, who play the 76ers tonight at the Wack-o Center.
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It’s true. In between round-the-clock bulletins on the “hip” state of its football coach, whose name escapes me at the moment, Paterno State sent a group of guys to University City to play basketball against Penn. The group won, 85-73, in a game not quite as close as the score indicates. The Nits have some pretty good guards in Stanley Pringle and Talor Battle, who combined for 49 points and limited Tyler Bernardini to eight.
The Quakers next play Saturday at Albany. Penn State is getting ready for the Rose Bowl will be a part of the Philly Hoop Group Classic Friday and Saturday at the P. The Nits could play ‘Nova on Saturday. Hope Andy Talley’s ready.
Link: There’s more to life than football in State College [pennlive.com/Patriot-News of Harrisburg]
Not the Saint Joe’s Hawks, mind you, but those pesky Monmouth Hawks. Final was 71-48. Not much to say about this one, except to note that no other Wildcats got hurt, and Casiem Drummond didn’t play because of something described as “a minor disciplinary issue.”
‘Nova has won 19 straight at the Pavilion. And Friday, the ‘Cats play Towson at the Palestra in the next phase of the Philly Hoop Group Classic. Sounds riveting. Only 13 days til the ‘Cats play Texas at MSG, 15 days til the Holy War. But who’s counting?
Links: ‘Nova wins, no one else gets hurt. Yawn [Daily News]
Ahmad Nivins had 18 points and eight rebounds, breaking his season-opening string of double-doubles at three. Big deal. The Hawks also forced 23 turnovers, and IU had no players in double figures. Clearly, Indiana has got problems, but this was a good, solid win for Saint Joe’s. The Hawks (2-2) get Alabama (2-2) today at 2 (9 a.m. Hawaii time) in the fifth-place game, and a win assures them a winning record for their trip to paradise. The game is on ESPN2.
Links: IU would like to thank Kelvin Sampson for all he’s done for the university [Indianapolis Star]
Darren Govens just hit another 3-pointer against Indiana [Daily News]
Gonna be a long year for Indiana [Indianapolis Star]
>>> Word out of Hawaii is the Hawks routed the sad-sack Hoosiers, 80-54, with Darrin Govens making seven 3-pointers — a career-high — and scoring 23 points. More analysis coming tomorrow, when SJU plays the Chaminade-Alabama winner for fifth place.
>>> Villanova hosts Monmouth tonight at 7:30 at the Pavilion. Probably not a game the ‘Cats should worry about, given this.
>>> And Penn plays Penn State down at the P-spot. Tip is also at 7:30. Remarkably, the Quakers lead the all-time series against the Nits, 31-12, and actually have a winning record (46-45) against the Big 10, even though they have a losing record against every other Big 10 team they’ve faced. But really, who knew Penn State even had a basketball team?
Penn State, like Villanova, is participating in the Philly Hoop Group Classic, which will conclude with several more games Friday and Saturday at the House of Awesome. Penn, however, is not part of the tournament. Odd.
See you tomorrow. Thanks for reading BIG FIVE POST. Pass it on.
Links: Govens shoots down Indiana [CBS Sportsline]
Monmouth gets religion [BIG FIVE POST]
Philly Hoop Group Classic has some teams, not others [University of Pennsylvania]
Get this: There are 16 teams in the Big East. Seven of them are ranked in the latest Associated Press Top 25. Connecticut, Louisville and Pitt are Nos. 2-3-4. Notre Dame is No. 8, with Marquette (15), Your Villanova Wildcats (20) and Georgetown (21) also in the mix. And Syracuse, West Virginia and Seton Hall all received votes. That’s 10 of the league’s 16 teams either in there or under consideration. And that’s crazy. Just crazy.
Starting in 2010, CBS will air the A-10 tournament final, and the game will be played on Selection Sunday, no doubt as part of a package that leads into the unveiling of the NCAA tournament brackets. It’s being called “a multi-year agreement,” but it’s exact length was not specified.
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The Explorers had a big lead.
In the second half.
And then didn’t.
They then had a chance to win it from the free-throw line at the end of regulation.
But they didn’t.
They went to overtime.
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That Texas is a good great team was without question. That Phil Martelli knew the Longhorns were a good great team was similarly a given. But given the disadvantages — Texas has four players 6-10 or taller, and the upper-body strength of many of the ‘Horns was much commented upon by ESPN2’s analysts yesterday — Saint Joe’s was competitive. Obviously, there were things they wanted to do better (see also: turnovers), but all in all, the Hawks played about as well as could be expected, especially defensively — Texas turned the ball over 16 times and slumped a bit after a big early push.
The EA Sports Maui Invitational is unforgiving — arguably the best in-season tournament in the country. It’s also got some goofy start times, given the time difference. As this is being typed, the Hawks are just getting started in the loser’s bracket today against Indiana — an 8:30 a.m. tip out there on the islands. The Hoosiers are coached by former Marquette coach Tom Crean, who took over in the wake of Kelvin Sampson’s mess (ESPN just reported the NCAA has spared Indiana while coming down hard on Sampson in the wake of all that).
The Hoosiers are 2-1, but they were blitzed yesterday by Notre Dame, which is ranked eighth in both major polls, 88-50.
The SJU-IU game is on ESPNU. Which is a lot of acronyms.
Links: Phil Martelli has a blog [Philly Hoop Insider]
Sampson was a bad guy at IU [ESPN.com]
We’re live-blogging the Hawks’ game today against the ‘Horns, who are ranked No. 7/8 in the nation. The game is at the EA Sports Maui Invitational, and no, we didn’t go to Hawaii. We didn’t feel like it. The game tips off at 3 and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2. Keep it here for real-time updates and analysis. Like you, we can’t wait to see Phil Martelli in a Hawaiian shirt, either.
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