Karon Burton, a freshman who is enrolled at La Salle but who sat out the 2008-09 season to concentrate on academics, was arrested in an undercover drug sting on Monday in his native Chester, according to a back-page story in today’s Delaware County Daily Times. More after the jump.
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Villanova junior guard Scottie Reynolds is at least going to test the NBA waters between now and the June draft. Wisely, he has not hired an agent, which means he still has the option of returning to the Main Line, according to this statement issued this afternoon by the university. We’re not entirely convinced that Reynolds, for all his gifts, is an NBA player — he’s something of a scorer trapped in a point guard’s body at 6-2, 190 pounds. But if you’re him, it can’t hurt to at least weigh the option. Should he decide to come back to ‘Nova — and we think he eventually will — his senior season should be a good one: Sports Illustrated has ranked the ‘Cats No. 5 in its pre-preseason poll for 2009-10.
Link: ‘Nova’s Reynolds to at least test the NBA waters
Photo credit: [Villanova University]
With the season now over, posting is going to be rather light in the months ahead. We’ll try to come up with some stuff for ya’ll as we feel it’s warranted. Anyway, today is one of those occassions: Les Keiter, the broadcasting voice of the Big 5 during its 1960s heyday, died at age 89 this week. Frank Fitzpatrick has an excellent obituary/tribute in Thursday’s Inquirer that includes several cool anecdotes, particularly the one about how Keiter never left the P-spot on the night of the infamous bomb scare in 1965. R.I.P.
Link: Les Keiter is dead [The Inquirer]
While watching North Carolina completely dismantle Michigan State in tonight’s national championship game, we couldn’t help but think about Villanova’s loss to the Tar Heels in Saturday night’s semifinals. Our thoughts after the jump.
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With everyone having made their way to Detroit and now settled in for Saturday’s national semifinals, there’s a lot of stuff out there that was written about Your Villanova Wildcats today. After the jump, we do our best to give as much of it as we can to you.
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Chuck Daly should need no introduction for anyone who’s a fan of basketball. His coaching career famously included a pair of NBA titles with the Detroit Pistons’ “Bad Boys” and an Olympic gold medal with the 1992 Dream Team in Barcelona. But from 1971-77, he was the man in charge at Penn, having taken over just after Dick Harter’s Quakers went 28-0 in ‘71 before being bombed by Howard Porter and Villanova in the East Regional final. Daly won 77 percent of his games in University City, a run that included four Ivy titles and four Big 5 titles (two shared). He was damn good. One of Daly’s assistants for a short while in those days was a guy named Roland V. Massimino, who then left in March 1973 to coach out at Villanova.
Anyway, sadly, Daly is battling pancreatic cancer. It’s serious enough that Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News wrote a column about a month back in tribute to Daly. That, however, didn’t stop Daly from diagramming an old Pistons play for Massimino to give to ‘Nova coach Jay Wright when Massimino recently visited Daly in the hospital. CBSSports.com’s Ken Berger has details of Massimino’s conversation with Howard Eskin of 610-AM WIP radio about the play.
“He’s got the play for me,” said Wright of Massimino at practice on Wednesday, just before the Wildcats departed for Detroit. “Those guys do that all the time to me. This one, (he said) Chuck was writing and his hand was shaking and he said, ‘You’ve got to give it to Jay. This’ll be great for him at the end of the game.’ I always listen to them.”
Very cool. We wish Chuck Daly well.
Links: Lupica’s tribute to Daly [New York Daily News]
Berger on Daly’s play for Wright [CBSSports.com]
We interrupt all the talk of Villanova’s historic run back to the Final Four to remind everyone that, back in 1979, Your Penn Quakers made it all the way to the national semifinals, too. Yes, that was the same ‘79 tournament that featured Magic Johnson’s Michigan State against Larry Bird’s Indiana State in the final — a ’70s swan song that also served as a prelude for all that was to come in the ’80s between two of the sport’s all-time greats. Sifting just a wee bit beneath the surface, however, it’s worth a look-back to see what Tony Price (pictured, left) and the Quakers pulled off as the last Ivy team to get to the Big Weekend by beating four of that era’s most notable coaches — Jim Valvano, Dean Smith, Jim Boeheim, Lou Carnesecca — before being crushed by Michigan State on the Big Saturday. If details are your bag, including a take on why no Ivy team has even gotten past the second round since then, check out the story we wrote that was published in today’s Bucks County Courier Times, which you can read here. If you want, of course.
Link: Penn’s remarkable Final Four run, and why it won’t happen again [Bucks County Courier Times]
Photo credit: [University of Pennsylvania]
The Wildcats’ return to the game’s Promised Land has brought forth numerous stories about the 1985 NCAA champions, about whom you might have heard a thing or two. The Daily News, which is always terrific with historical lookbacks and stuff, even went so far as to put Rollie Massimino on the front page of Thursday’s paper. The DN has a 20-page spread planned for Friday, and we can’t wait for it. Anyway, after the jump, we’ve got links to all the stuff written about the ‘85 ‘Nova team in recent days. That oughta keep you busy when you’re trying to work your way through casual Friday…
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It’s not surprising, and it’s not a huge deal, but it is worth mentioning. The story from The Bulletin is here, and the Daily News’ Philly Hoops Insider has the complete list here.
Link: 3 from Big 5 named honorable mention All-America [The Bulletin]
Ditto, with the list [Philly Hoops Insider]
