But rising senior Elena DelleDonne, considered the No. 1 basketball prospect in the nation, could still end up playing in the Big 5 next year.

I read with delight this morning that DelleDonne has Villanova in her personal Final Four, along with UConn, Tennessee, and Middle Tennessee State. The 6-foot-4 scorer, who plays for Ursuline Academy, the sister school to the all-boys middle school I attended in Delaware, also made it clear she's soured on power-conference recruiting.

That's good news for those, like me, who desperately want the girl who Sportscenter called "the next LeBron James" of the women's game to stay local for her college career.

As if you needed one more reason to head out to Villanova for a night of women's hoops.

Given her self-imposed hiatus from the game, we won't know if the Wildcats are still in the hunt for at least 60 days. But I'll be tuned in from that point forward, and hopefully for the Wildcats and the women's Big 5, the more feminine version of King James decides to bring her show to Philadelphia.

The movie, narrated by legendary Phillies announcer Harry Kalas, is a documentary about college basketball’s most historic gym, interviewing writers, former players and Big 5 coaches about what it was like to play there.

Producer and director Mikaelyn Austin played on the Penn women’s team in the early 2000s, going to the NCAA Tournament in 2004, where the 15-seed Quakers fell to Diana Taurasi’s defending champion UConn Huskies.

Anything that spreads the love of the Palestra is great to see, though I’m not sure how many people get Classic, or ESPN U, which is also showing the movie starting the 11th at 10 p.m.

From what I’ve heard the mediocre lighting in the Palestra scares away bigger TV stations from showing live Penn home games, but with Virginia and UNC coming to West Philly, that could sweeten up the deal.

I was comforted last year, though, when while walking to class I saw Texas players arriving at the Palestra for a practice a day before playing Villanova, and all they all had cameras out shooting the front of the stadium. Even when empty, the Palestra has more atmosphere than any other Philadelphia gym Kevin Durant will be playing in as a pro.

First, you must know that Martelli is known around Philadelphia as an expert prognosticator. He is often on radio shows, and when asked to pick the Eagles score he gets the games correct at an alarming rate. At one point a few years ago (I believe when the birds went 11-5) he went through almost the entire season not missing an Eagles result.

So it should come as no surprise he knew the result of the A-10 Tournament before it was over. After his Hawks lost to George Washington, he said this:

“We’re going to be a multiple bid league, the office deserves a lot of credit for that."

This wouldn't be that out of line before the Tournament, but he made this prediction after (2) Massachusetts lost, but before (1) Xavier fell in the next round. UMass, with an RPI then in the 50s, was the only team other than Xavier which had any shot of an at-large bid. GW's RPI of 80 at the time was the next highest of a team still alive, so by saying this Martelli essentially guaranteed that Xavier was going to lose to either Rhode Island (which it did) or the winner of (3) GW vs. (7) Saint Louis, and then get an at-large bid to go along with the conference winner.

URI beat Xavier, and GW beat them to get into the Tourney as an 11-seed, and Xavier grabbed a 9-seed despite the loss. Well done, Phil, well done.

The most striking thing was how little love the Quakers were getting in their home gym. As a fairly good number of the coaches and pundits predicted a Villanova trip to the Final Four, Penn was seen as roadkill on Texas A&M's path to Atlanta.

To his credit, Glen Miller did a fine job remaining composed as Howard Eskin of WIP said he didn't give Penn much of a chance from across the podium.

But it got me thinking. Which is more likely: A Villanova run to the Final Four or a Penn win over A&M? Pinnaclesports.com now lists Penn as 10-1 to beat A&M. Villanova, a pick-em to get out of the first round against Kentucky, is 36-1 to reach the Final Four and would likely have to beat Kansas and Southern Illinois or Virginia Tech and Pitt, UCLA or Duke to get there.

I'm with Vegas (or should I say, offshore) on this one. We've all seen an upset or even two. But to say that Villanova, which has been known to disappear on offense for long spans, is more likely to reach the Final Four than Penn is to the Round of 32 sound ridiculous. Especially with Kansas looming in the second round.

The best quote of the morning comes from Phil Martelli, who tried to protect Jay Wright from an uncomfortable shot from Eskin.

Eskin, waking up the rumors that Wright is a candidate for the Sixers job, asked who Larry Brown would be rooting for in a Kansas/Nova game. For background, Brown, now a Sixers adviser, led KU to the title in 1988, but has been seen courtside at multiple Villanova games.

As for why Brown has been hanging out at the Pavilion rather than with the Sixers, now winners of seven straight, here's Martelli.

Seven in a row? What kind of a league is this? They couldn't win seven in a row in the Big East.

It's down to three. The A-10 half of the Philadelphia teams — La Salle, Temple and now St. Joe's are unofficially out of the NCAA Tournament. Penn and most likely Villanova are in, while Drexel gets to sweat it out on Selection Sunday.

The Hawks just couldn't hit anything down the stretch. No fault can go to Nivins, who got to the line with amazing regularity, but the three pointers that had to go in were all bricks.

(3) George Washington 57, (6) St. Joe's 48 0:11.6

Govens, like most players attempting three free throws late in the game, misses the first, but makes the next two after getting fouled on a three. GW is winning the FT battle, also like most teams leading late in games do.

Some fans chant "the Hawk will never die."

(3) George Washington 56, (6) St. Joe's 46 0:44 2nd Half

St. Joe's will have to hope it can win it by fouling, and GW is now in the double bonus.
Nivins misses a free throw and GW is in control.

(3) George Washington 52, (6) St. Joe's 43 1:05 2nd Half

Williamson gets a steal, but loses it himself, and the Colonials score the transition layup.

(3) George Washington 50, (6) St. Joe's 43 1:58 2nd Half

Nivins makes two, but the Hawks need a stop real bad.
They get one, but turn it over themselves.

Martelli's starting the offense-defense subs with Calathes and Williamson, respectively.

A Govens three rims out. Ferguson finally scores, off of his own offensive board.

(3) George Washington 48, (6) St. Joe's 39 3:46 2nd Half

Rice gets back into the scoring with a mid-range jumper, followed by a tough layup.
Two free throw misses in four hurt for St. Joe's.

It's all man-to-man now, as finally the Hawks get a stop.

On the 3-on-2 break Rivera hits Nivins with a sweet behind-the-back pass, and the big man gets fouled, as his shot rolls out.

(3) George Washington 43, (6) St. Joe's 37 7:26 2nd Half

Travis King's layup makes the lead double-digits, as Carter's pass just slips out of his hands. Calathes' pass goes awry, and now Diggs banks one in in the lane. Gw's trapping is creating some bad giveaways.

How do you stop a good halfcourt defense? Williamson takes a pass in transition for an and-1 layup, and then Rivera pushes the ball to draw another foul.
Rivera misses the second, but an offensive rebound and a Nivins deuce and all of a sudden it's back to six.

Ferguson still hasn't scored for the Hawks.

(3) George Washington 37, (6) St. Joe's 31 11:46 2nd Half

DeMayo calls a reach-in on Nivins that looked clean. DeMayo was the furthest away official, but his superior abilities must make up for it.
A fan taunts "Joey blank-in DeMayo", but his assistant makes the reach-in call that upsets the fans.

(3) George Washington 34, (6) St. Joe's 31 15:48 2nd Half

Calathes gets the half started off right with a three and a floater.
A block on one end and a drawn foul on the other and Ferguson and Nivins are starting to play a lot bigger.

Govens hits a three in front of the St. Joe's bench, and coach Phil Martelli calmly pumps his fist.
As you can no doubt tell from the scorelines, the Hawks are on a 10-1 run.

(3) George Washington 33, (6) St. Joe's 21 HALFTIME

A dissappointing last few minutes for St. Joe's. The Colonials' opportunistic perimeter defense created 10 turnovers, and the inside shut down a usually-dominant Hawks frontcourt. Rice and Diggs lead the Colonials with 10 and 11 points, respectively, each on 4-for-7 shooting. The Hawks have three assists.

(3) George Washington 31, (6) St. Joe's 21 1:41 1st Half

The crowd is getting a lot quieter, though a drunk fan still tries to clap along with the cheerleaders (though he's a half-second late).

Going for a board Elliott lands awkwardly on his ankle. Some good news for them though, as Koundija is back in for the newly-injured player.

(3) George Washington 30, (6) St. Joe's 20 2:39 1st Half

Rice is tearin' it up, hitting another triple and dropping Diggs a dime in transition.

(3) George Washington 25, (6) St. Joe's 18 3:35 1st Half

Diggs throws one down to keep the lead. Ferguson with a great box-out. I sure miss that at the Palestra.
Ref Joe DeMayo enthusiastically points to Nivins way out of the paint as he committs a foul on an and-1.

Koundija is hurt for GW, looks like it could be a shoulder.

Diggs blocks Jawan Carter's layup. The inside is owned by GW.
A Rice three, and the lead's back to seven.

(3) George Washington 17, (6) St. Joe's 15 7:20 1st Half

After two FTS, the Hawks come out in a 3-2 zone and get a stop, but then go right back to man, and Govens gets a steal and goes coast-to-coast.
As the crowd livens up, Rice tries to quiet it with a baseline dunk, but the 6-10 Calathes throws him off and he misses.

(3) George Washington 17, (6) St. Joe's 11 9:29 1st Half

The Hawks are now getting it going. They finally force a turnover, and Govens hits a transition three.
Quickly the other way Diggs has an open layup, but Nivins comes out of nowhere for a nasty block.

A Nivins dunk on the other end and we have a ballgame.

(3) George Washington 17, (6) St. Joe's 6 11:19 1st Half

The Hawks are having real trouble scoring inside against GW, which normally starts three guys 6-foor-8 or taller.
Rice and company are running all over the Hawks in transition as well.
Govens throws a terrible pass, and the Hawks give it up again.

There are a lot of fans here, mostly for the Hawks. No one showed up for the first three games, so it's nice to see a real crowd.

(3) George Washington 13, (6) St. Joe's 4 13:20 1st Half

D.J. Rivera hits a rainbow, but Elliott comes right back with a three

(3) George Washington 8, (6) St. Joe's 2 16:08 1st Half

Philly native Maurice Rice starts off the scoring for the Colonials. Along with Noel Wilmore, he's one of two local players on GW.
The Hawks start with all bricks, and a few transition baskets and it's 6-0 GW.

Starters:

St. Joe's:
G Garrett Williamson
G Darrin Govens
F Pat Calathes
F Rob Ferguson
C Ahmad Nivins

George Washington:
G Maurice Rice
G Carl Elliott
G Damian Hollis
F Dokun Akingbade
F Regis Koundija

The Billikens come off of a one-point win over Duquesne, and are looking sharp in the early going. UMass comes in as the 2-seed, and at 56th in the RPI probably needs to win the whole thing to make it to the NCAA Tournament.
A-10 Player of the Year Stephane Lasme hasn't done much so far, and his blocks count is at zero. Lasme averages over five per game, good enough for second in the nation. He swatted 10 against La Salle last week for his fourth triple-double of the season. He has the highest shoulders-size-to-leg size I've ever seen.

I have to congratulate myself, I just made a sick catch off of a ball that SLU's Luke Meyer tried to save. He flipped it (with some good english) in the air, and I snagged it after about 3.5 seconds hangtime before it landed on the table next to me.

A guy from the crowd just hands bracketologist Joe Lunardi a pack of cookies, and says he must try them even though they're sugarfree. Lunardi offers to pass them around on a sampler platter. I'm not sure whether he actually knows Joe.

Lasme rejects 6-foot-10 Ian Vouyoukas. It should have been a jump ball, but the center gets it back and scores.
The Gabon man is also the A-10's leading rebounder at 9.4 per game

Halftime show:

I don't know how to describe this, but a guy is doing this puppet (almost a ventriliquist) show, dancing with four puppets connected to him (two in front, two in back) that mimic anything he does by poles and wires.
The hilarious part is that the guy, a pretty well-built African American, is dressed as a Native American, with a headdress, underwear-size shorts and boots. He's naked besides that. His puppets are a cop, a guy in all leather, a construction worker and a cowboy. They dance to classic American songs, it's absolutely ridicullous.

Slowly, the Billikens have creeped back into it, and now have taken the lead. Thanks to a methodical offense, they have practically doubled their score from the first half in less than 10 minutes.
Vuoyoukas and 7-footer Bryce Husak are doing some good work down low.

Yet another 7-footer, 7-1 Luke Bonner, gets an offensive rebound and goes to the line.
The other freak of nature, Husak, gets an and-1 for Saint Louis to take the 55-52 lead. Starting forward Rashaun Freeman has fouled out for UMass.

James Life hits yet another trey to tie it at 57.
Up by two now, UMass begins to press. Gary Forbes tries to pump up the crowd as it starts to get loud.

Justin Johnson's jumper ties the gamee at 63 with two minutes to go.
Bonner hits two from the line to take back the lead, but the Billikens tie it right back up with an inside layup.

UMass runs down the clock, but Life gets a violation with 4.7 seconds to go, and Saint Louis takes over with a chance to win.

Lisch's three is off the side of the rim and we go to OT

OVERTIME:

Five seconds in Lasme gets his fourth foul, and SLU goes up two on the FTs.
Lisch drains a jumper and Bonner airballs a three the other way.

A UMass turnover, and airball and a SLU turnaround, and the 2-seed is down 6 and in deep trouble.

A miss off of a five-footer, and the deficit is seven. But Forbes comes right back by nailing a three off of a screen at the top of the key. It was the Minutemen's first points of OT.

Liddell, a 75-percent shooter hits one, and UMass misses a few tough layups and gets it back.

Life then hits a huge three from the corner, and UMass is down two. Saint Louis calls timeout.

Lisch throws a pass to Liddell that goes backcourt (barely), but with eight seconds left Lowe gets stripped, and UMass has to foul.

After Liddell hits one, Forbes has a chance for the win… but his pump fake and three hits the near rim as buzzer sounds.

What a crazy game. It is the fifth out of seven this week where the trailing team had an opportunity to win or tie on the final possession. This was the first upset though.

____________

(4) Rhode Island 73 (5) Fordham 69

In the battle of the Rams, Rhode Island defended its territory with a 73-69 win.

This was not a good result for Penn, as a Fordham win would have boosted the Quakers' RPI.
And while the game looked like it would be a blowout, Fordham made it into yet another A-10 Tourney nailbiter.

The Blue Rams held a 36-20 lead but a few threes later the Burgundy variety cut that lead to six on a 12-2 run.

Shortly after, Fordham looked like it was about to fall way behind again, but with a 14-0 run led by Sebastian Greene driving the lane and capitalized by a Bryant Dunston dunk and a two big threes, it actually took the lead, 49-46. URI was playing a 2-3 zone, but Fordham shot them out of it.

The Fordham defense started to close up inside, but Bryant Dunston fouling out with 4:54 left maimed their inside prescence. Soon after Marcus Stout also picked up his fifth, and with that the Burgandy Rams' two leading scorers were done for the night.

With under a minute to go, a backdoor dunk from Lamonte Ulmer for Rhode Island tied it up at 69.

And with 11.1 seconds to go, Jimmy Baron got into the lane got a hard layup to go taking the two-point lead.

In the final seconds, some great defense gave Brenton Butler — who hit all of his six attempts from downtown, nowhere to go. Before he could even force up a shot, he picked up his pivot foot, traveled with 0.9 seconds to go to end it.

Unlike the first game of the day, both teams have about equal support in the crowd, though the 9,000-capacity Boardwalk Hall is still only about a third full.

Interesting notes: Rhode Island coach Jim Baron’s son Jimmy is the third-leading three-point shooter in the country.
Also two players — forward Joe Mbang and point guard Parfait Bitee — are both from Yaounde, Cameroon. Former Quakers forward Friedrich Ebede and these guys woulda made a great 3-on-3 squad.

____________

(1) Xavier 72, (8) Dayton 51

The game started at a torrid scoring pace, but then Dayton just couldn’t score. Xavier opened up a nice on a 20-5 run late in the 1st half.

As a goaltending call cuts it to 52-42, the Dayton fans start to get into it. A few Little drives — one sailing dunk — are keeping the Flyers in striking distance.

It was a balanced effort from Xavier, but Justin Doellman was really the leader in the second half. After the break he scored 11 points (19 total) on 3-for-5 shooting, with three assists — all of which went for three-pointers.

UMass may have the best player, but Xavier clearly looks to be the best team. Doellman, Justin Cage, Stanley (no relation to Pat) Burrell and Drew Lavender all have the potential to take over a game. Cage went 6-for-6 from the field, while Lavender — the diminutive, former highly touted prospect and Oklahoma transfer — had nine assists to only one giveaway.

Most of the crowd — quantity and sound-wise — was XU fans, who are all obsessed w/ the 'X' in their name. One student shaved an 'X' in his hair, everyone did the intentional foul sign with their arms, and they all cheered “lets go X."

La Salle's 3-13 record put it in last place in the conference, one in which the bottom two don't make the conference tournament. Later on, (6) Saint Joseph's takes on (11) Temple for the third time this season. The first two meetings were each close at the beginning, but the Hawks pulled away both times in the second half.

(6) St. Joe's 66 (11) Temple 62 FINAL

Christmas gets an open look at a three, but he's just off, and St. Joe's gets the board.

Calathes hits two more free throws.

Tyndale gets a quick two with 6.5 to go, but it's about over down by three at the line the other way.

Although… Carter misses his first, but makes the second.

Salibery dunks it with 3.5 to go off off some great cross-court passes, and the lead is two as Govens goes to the line.

He's all ice water — the two are all nylon, and the Hawks are through to round two.

(6) St. Joe's 61 (11) Temple 58 0:22.5 2nd Half

After breaking the press, St. Joe's gets it to Calathes, who gets fouled. He hits the first, another timeout is called, and he makes the second.

(6) St. Joe's 59 (11) Temple 58 0:34 2nd Half

Carter's all net on the two free-bees, and finally, the Hawks take a one-point lead.

After working the ball around for a while, Tyndale airballs a jumper, and St. Joe's gets the board and calls timeout.

(6) St. Joe's 57 (11) Temple 58 1:05 2nd Half

Nivins grabs his own miss and puts it back to cut it to one.
Then after a Tyndale miss, Williamson gets an offensive rebound and hits one to tie it up. The A-10 gods really don't want the Hawks to ever take the lead. They still haven't had one, outside the very beginning, yet.

(6) St. Joe's 54 (11) Temple 56 2:53 2nd Half

Govens hits Nivins in the transition for a nice alley-oop layup and it's a one-possession game.

After a call their way, a Hawks fan forgives the official, "you're ok now." Christmas — who torched Penn in the loss at the Palestra earlier this year — has been quiet so far, and misses a three off the back iron. Tyndale hits a layup, though to keep the lead at five.
Carter nails a three to cut it to two.

(6) St. Joe's 49 (11) Temple 54 7:51 2nd Half

D.J Rivera hits Ferguson on a sweet behind-the-back pass.
Calathes seemingly makes it 54-51, but the official determines that Nivins — streaking toward the basket for a putback — grazed the net, so it's a goal-tending call and going the other way.

(6) St. Joe's 47 (11) Temple 50 9:26 2nd Half

Nivins gets doubled-down on, but gets fouled and makes two.
Salisbery hits a wide-open three from the corner, and Temple's lead is up to nine. The Hawks have got to contest these threes. Temple is a tough team to defend when it can hit the open shots.

Tyndale and Nivins collide for a rebound, and the foul is on Tyndale. They've both been beasts this game.

Temple has missed a few threes, and the Hawks are creeping back. Carter exhibits some blow-by speed, and the crowd erupts as Dunphy calls a timeout.

(6) St. Joe's 39 (11) Temple 47 12:14 2nd Half

Salisbery drains a three, but St. Joe's finally goes inside to Nivins for a turnaround over Dacons.
Tyndale responds, like he's been doing all game with a tough and-1 with the left hand.

(6) St. Joe's 35 (11) Temple 40 2nd Half

A big block from Olmos — who started but played only five minutes in the first half — sparks an "Ole, ole ole ole!" chant from the Owls fans. The Hawks' student section has the last laugh though, as their side ties it up.

Tyndale nails a quick three though, and Brooks follows it up with another. The next possession Jawan Carter (who has been quiet) returns the favor with another from deep.
Olmos scores to make it five, but picks up his fourth foul on a reach-in. Not a smart play, let's see if the Hawks can capitalize by going inside.

Temple has led almost the entire game even though it's been close throughout. There's only been one lead change.

(6) St. Joe's 28 (11) Temple 32 HALFTIME

Tyndale nails a nasty jumper in Calathes' eye. Needless to say the "Pat Calathes" chants of about five minutes ago have long died out.

The big man has a nice dish though to Govens for a three, and it's tied.
But just then, Salisbury finds Dacons wide open under the hoop to take the lead back.

After a free throw, Salisbery decides a one-point lead isn't enough going into the break. With a few ticks left in the first-half, he launches one from 30+ thats strikes all nylon. The senior holds his follow-through for the full effect, and the Temple fans approve.

STATS

Brooks leads the way for the Owls with 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting. It's been a fairly even game so far, each team shooting in the mid-forties. The Hawks have only four turnovers, but are actually getting out-rebounded 18-15. Dacons leads the way with seven boards.

(6) St. Joe's 24 (11) Temple 25 2:51 1st Half

Tyndale keeps up the cushon with a nasty and-1 three from the corner, and completes the four-point play.
The Hawks are now bringing up the pressure on defense with some trapping — and a nice steral by Govens on Christmas.
A Govens three from the corner cuts the lead to one.

(6) St. Joe's 19 (11) Temple 21 5:53 1st Half

Christmas drops an inbounds pass. He hasn't been a big factor offensively so far.
On the other end, Nivins gets a pass over the fronting defender for an open dunk. Then Calathes — the 6-foot-10 guard — hits a long three to cut it to two.

(6) St. Joe's 14 (11) Temple 21 7:09 1st Half

The crowd opposite the benches looks to be about 2/3 full, while the other half is much more sparse. In all the attendence looks to be about triple that of the last game.

Dacons gets a layup off of an offensive rebound and Brooks hits another long jumper to boost the Temple lead to seven.
Tyndale then goes hard into the lane and gets rejected by Nivins.

(6) St. Joe's 10 (11) Temple 14 10:51 1st Half

Both teams are in the man defense, and as a result there have been a good amount of close-in shots given up. But Temple starts to heat up from three, as Ryan Brooks nails a three to take the lead.

The Owls are fronting the nig men in the post and bothering them enough so that they haven only mildly taken advantage of their size. Temple's pressure on the perimeter has forced a lot of early turnovers. If Temple can keep this a guards' game it will most definitely be to its advantage.

(6) St. Joe's 7 (11) Temple 7 14:49 1st Half

Dunphy sends out the 7-foot Olmos in the starting lineup, that extra possession at the tip helps.

Calathes opens up the scoring for the Hawks after a few bricks from each side. Nivins follows it up by taking a tough charge from Tyndale.
Nivins then uses his size advantage to rock the rim with a dunk.

Starters:
Temple
G Mark Tyndale
G Dionte Christmas
G Dustin Salisbury
F Dion Dacons
C Sergio Olmos

St. Joe’s
G Garrett Williamson
G Darrin Govens
F Pat Calathes
C Ahmad Nivins
F Rob Ferguson

_______________

(7) Saint Louis vs. (10) Duquesne

The Dukes had a lead, but a 19-4 run by the Billikens took it right back. From there it's been back-and-forth, and with 2:31 Duquesne ties it up at 76.

Saint Louis goes up by two, 78-76, and the Dukes have 0:37.7 left to make something happen. Point guard Reggie Jackson drives and kicks to freshman swingman Robert Mitchell, who turns it over.

But they'll get one more shot, as Ian Vouyoukas misses the front end of the 1-and-1.

Mitchell tries an off-balance floater and misses, but another freshman, Scott Grote gets the offensive rebound, and gets fouled. He drains the first free-throw, but bricks the second off of the back iron. Ouch. There are still 6.5 seconds to go, so they should still have a shot at the win or tie. 78-77 SLU, :06.5

Vouyoukas misses another front end of a 1-and-1, and the Dukes get the rebound. Sophomore guard Aaron Jackson takes the pass on the perimeter, but gets stripped on the way up by Kevin Lisch, and that's your ballgame. 78-77 SLU