Saturday night down in Norfolk, Va., Drexel managed just 19 field goals against Old Dominion. Problem was, that also happened to be as many turnovers as the Dragons had. Not good. At one point, according to this Inquirer roundup, they even allowed ODU’s Brian Finney to score three straight baskets off three straight offensive rebounds. No surprise, then, that it ended with the Monarchs — the team favored to win the CAA this season — reeling off a 71-48 win. Oh, and Drexel’s shooting woes were back, as they converted just 35.8 percent of their shots.

By Wednesday night, however, the Dragons got their fire back, which is lame, we know. They scored 51 second-half points and shot 61 percent in the second half and won, 78-57, against James Madison at the DAC. That shooting touch? Yeah, well, Drexel made 8 of 11 from the arc after halftime, which of course makes it tough to lose.

Now 10-10 overall, 5-3 CAA, Drexel is tied for fifth in the CAA standings, two games behind Old Dominion, George Mason and Northeastern, all of whom are 7-1 in league play. Saturday at noon, Drexel hosts Hofstra at the DAC.

Link: Drexel routed at Old Dominion [The Inquirer]

The Hawks split a pair of games this week. They led St. Bonaventure by nine at the half out in Olean, N.Y., on Saturday night, then fell behind by 10 with six minutes to go, then re-took the lead, then lost, 68-65. It was the Bonnies’ first win against the Hawks in 16 games. Garrett Williamson and Darrin Govens both had six assists, but Saint Joe’s made just 8 of 26 shots (30.8 percent) in the second half. The Bonnies (8-8, 1-2 A-10) made just 2 of 13 from the arc, but they shot 51 percent on all field goals, scored on 17 of their first 20 second-half possessions and got 16 points and 13 rebounds from 6-9 sophomore Andrew Nicholson. Ugh.

On Monday, Saint Joe’s returned to Hawk Hill and beat Towson, 64-57, at the Hagan. The Hawks trailed by six at the half, but, according to Ray Parillo of The Inquirer, they buckled down defensively in the second half against Towson (4-13) senior guard Josh Thornton, limiting him to just seven of his 23 points. Idris Hilliard scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Todd O’Brien blocked three shots and hauled in 11 boards.

Now 6-11 overall, Saint Joe’s hosts Dayton on Saturday at the Hagan.

Link: Saint Joe’s beats Towson [The Inquirer]

We know, we know: We’ve been a bit lax in updating the site in the past week or so. Stuff happens. But with our next series of posts, we’re gonna do our best to get you caught up on the city’s six teams. ‘Cause that’s how we do. Last up: Villanova. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

For ‘Nova, the last 10 days or so have been about Scottie Reynolds, plain and simple.

The ‘Cats defeated DePaul (99-72) and Marquette (78-76) out at the Ski Lodge, and then they went to Louisville and won, 92-84, before getting by Georgetown down at the Wacho Center yesterday, 82-77. And while DePaul was as easy as it seems, the Wildcats led Marquette and Georgetown by a bunch in the first half, only to hang on at the end, while against Louisville they played a lousy first half before turning it around quickly after halftime.

And what, you ask, has Scottie done in that time? Well, he did have a costly turnover with about 30 seconds to go in the Marquette game. But against Louisville, he scored 30 of his 36 points in the second half — and he took a total of just 10 field goals for the game. Then, against Georgetown, Reynolds did it all: He had 27 points and just one turnover. He made a big rebound late between two (bigger) Hoyas players. And his mad dash to the basket after taking a pass from Corey Stokes with 3:14 to go was all balls.

Scottie’s success has led to a rush of Scottie stories, especially those comparing where he was a freshman with a quick draw to the season, within-himself veteran he (mostly) is now: There’s Dana O’Neil’s at ESPN.com, Mike Sielski’s at phillyBurbs, Bob Ford’s in The Inquirer, Sam Donnellon’s in the Daily News, and Jack McCaffrey’s in the Delaware County Times.

Now 16-1, 5-0 Big East, ‘Nova is at Rutgers on Wednesday night.

Links: Dana O’Neil on Scottie [ESPN.com]
Mike Sielski on Scottie [phillyBurbs.com]
Bob Ford on Scottie [The Inquirer]
Sam Donnellon on Scottie [Daily News]
Jack McCaffrey on Scottie [Delco Times]

We know, we know: We’ve been a bit lax in updating the site in the past week (and a half) or so. Stuff happens. But with our next series of posts, we’re gonna do our best to get you caught up on the city’s six teams. ‘Cause that’s how we do. Next up: Temple. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

The Owls have won four straight since that disaster against then-No. 1 Kansas on Jan. 2. First, there was an easy win over Saint Joe’s on North Broad Street that essentially put the KU nightmare behind them. A few days later, the Owls went to Rhode Island — which had won eight in a row — and won, 68-64, in overtime. Temple turned it over 10 times in the first half, but it got a little help from Rhody, which made just 12 of 26 from the line, according to The Inquirer. After that, the Owls topped Penn, in a game we had written about here. And Saturday, Ryan Brooks tossed in a career-high 29 points to go over 1,000 for his career in a 76-64 win over UMass at the Liacouras.

Don’t look now, but the Owls are 15-3 overall, 3-0 in the A-10. They’ve moved up to No. 16 in the Associated Press’ Top 25, No. 17 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll. And Wednesday night, they host Xavier (12-5, 4-0 A-10) in a matchup of the last two unbeaten teams in the A-10.

Links: Owls cruise past Hawks [phillyBurbs.com]
Big win at Rhody for Temple [Inquirer]
Dunphy (mentor) defeats Allen (student) at the P [phillyBurbs.com]

We know, we know: We’ve been a bit lax in updating the site in the past week or so. Stuff happens. But with our next series of posts, we’re gonna do our best to get you caught up on the city’s six teams. ‘Cause that’s how we do. Next up: Saint Joe’s. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

The big news was the Quakers got a win — their first after 10 season-opening losses — and Jerome Allen’s first as the team’s interim coach. On Jan. 6, Penn went down to Catonsville, Md., and defeated Maryland-Baltimore County, 82-71. Zack Rosen scored 28 points and made eight free throws in the final minute. But this one was all about balance: Jack Eggleston had 11 rebounds and five assists. Darren Smith knocked down five 3s and finished with 15 points. Conor Turley had 13 points. Dan Monckton had 11 in just 21 minutes. And Rob Belcore had six assists to go with his nine points and four rebounds.

The victory was sandwiched between a 77-62 loss to Lafayette (11-6 overall) and Wednesday’s 60-45 loss to Temple — a game that matched Allen against Fran Dunphy, his former Penn mentor, which is something we wrote about that night for Our Real Job. Penn did play very hard against the Owls, but Temple is ranked for a reason and simply had too much. Philly.com has video of Allen’s post-game remarks, and you can watch it below.

Penn (1-11) hosts La Salle on Wednesday night at the P.

Link: Teacher (Dunphy) defeats student-teacher (Allen) [phillyBurbs.com]
Video: [Philly.com]

We know, we know: We’ve been a bit lax in updating the site in the past week or so. Stuff happens. But with our next series of posts, we’re gonna do our best to get you caught up on the city’s six teams. ‘Cause that’s how we do. Next up: Saint Joe’s. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

The Hawks’ struggles have continued since last you heard from us on the subject. Yes, they picked up an A-10 win, but it came against Fordham, and it happened at the Hagan. In their other two games in the past week-and-a-half, Saint Joe’s got thumped at Temple, 73-46, and throttled at Rhode Island, 101-74.

In both of those defeats, Saint Joe’s couldn’t do much in the lane. Against Temple, the Hawks were outscored 46-18 in the paint. They were outrebouned 49-25. And Temple had a 21-4 advantage in second-chance points. No need to do the math to see what it added up to. If there was a positive, it’s that Saint Joe’s frequently double-teamed Juan Fernandez on the perimeter and hounded him into going 0-for-10.

Not much to say about Saint Joe’s 82-69 win over Fordham, which fell to 2-13 as a result. It was a win at home against a team that’s worse.

As for the Rhody game, it was more of the same (that rhymes!). The Rams shot 9-for-16 from the arc in the first half (56.3 percent), and the Hawks turned it over 19 times. Now 5-10, 1-2 A-10, Saint Joe’s is at St. Bonaventure (7-8, 0-2) tonight.

We know, we know: We’ve been a bit lax in updating the site in the past week or so. Stuff happens. But with our next series of posts, we’re gonna do our best to get you caught up on the city’s six teams. ‘Cause that’s how we do. Next up: La Salle. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

The Explorers have gone 2-1 in the last week and change, losing at home to Xavier (68-62) before going on the road to beat UMass (80-74) and coming back home to nip George Washington (65-64) last night at the Gola.

What’s emerged from those three games has been the play of freshman Aaric Murray, who had 18 points and nine rebounds against UMass, which he followed with a 21-point effort against GW. The Explorers were very much short-handed against the Colonials, with Ruben Guillandeaux still out with a stress fracture, Kimmani Barrett out with a sprained right foot and Terrell Williams out for one of those “violations of team rules” that always makes you wonder what exactly he did. The GW game also featured six assists and two steals in 32 minutes from freshman point guard Parrish Grant, which kind of makes you wonder why he hasn’t been playing more this season, especially given La Salle’s struggles at the point.

Now 9-7 overall, 2-1 A-10, La Salle is tied for fifth with Richmond in the Atlantic 10. And the Explorers just happen to play at the Spiders (13-5, 2-1) on Saturday afternoon.

Link: La Salle gets by GW [The Inquirer]

We know, we know: We’ve been a bit lax in updating the site in the past week or so. Stuff happens. But with our next series of posts, we’re gonna do our best to get you caught up on the city’s six teams. ‘Cause that’s how we do. First up: Drexel. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

The Dragons have gone 3-1 since you last heard from us, with wins over Georgia State at home, Virginia Commonwealth on the road and Towson on the road sandwiched around a 73-48 loss to William & Mary, which looks to be the best team in the Colonial. The Tribe (13-3, 5-1 CAA) have handled everyone in the league thus far, save for a mysterious 62-61 loss at home to UNC-Wilmington (6-10, 2-4) on Jan. 4.

Jamie Harris (15.1 ppg) continues to score for the Dragons; he had 32 points against Georgia State and 24 against William & Mary. Samme Givens is pulling down 8.0 boards per game. And Drexel is shooting better than 40 percent on the season, which is an improvement. At 9-9 overall, 4-2 CAA, the Dragons are sitting in fifth place in the CAA, just one game behind the four-team logjam of William & Mary, Old Dominion, George Mason and Northeastern. Saturday night, Drexel plays at Old Dominion.

And, well, there he is. He turned his face just as we surreptitiously tried to sneak a shot with our camera phone at halftime. Gov. Ed Rendell, a regular at Quakers home games, came by to say hello during the break. We overheard at least one fan try to approach him, to which Denzel replied that he was “here to watch (his) son play.” Malcolm Washington, a 5-9 freshman, missed both of his shot attempts from the field in the first half, which ended with Temple in front, 33-24.

So much for Temple’s seven-game winning streak and the optimism that began percolating on North Broad Street after that decisive win over Villanova on Dec. 13. The big question, of course, is “What went wrong?” Are the Jayhawks really that good? Are the Owls really that bad? The answer, naturally, is not so simple. And we explore it after the jump.
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