It’s over. There is hope for the other four teams in the Big Five once again.
Villanova had owned the Philadelphia Big Five for six years, winning 25 straight games against the other schools from the City of Brotherly Love. The Wildcats were pretty good against other teams, too, but the run they went on for that stretch had a particular strain of success in their home area.
And on Tuesday night, Penn put a stop to that, hanging on at the end for a 78-75 win at the Palestra. It was a game whose outcome was in doubt from the beginning.
Penn raced out to a 14-2 lead and was still up by four at halftime. Villanova would quickly get within two, and later within three after Penn had built the lead as high as 10 in the second half, but they would get no closer. Then, down three late, Penn threw the ball away in trying to inbound it, which gave Villanova a chance to inbound at their end needing a game-tying three-pointer. Penn defended it well, and the Palestra, one of the real meccas of college basketball, was mobbed with Quaker fans.
Villanova was on an incredible run over the past few seasons, but this season figured to be a little different. Thus far, it has been, as they lost two in a row for the first time since the end of the 2012-13 season and now have seen their record winning streak in the Big Five come to a close. Things don’t get easier for them from here, including in the near future as they take on Kansas on Saturday.
Penn, meanwhile, is having a nice non-league run thus far and should be right there in the Ivy League with Harvard and Yale. The Quakers lost Ryan Betley in their season opener but haven’t missed a beat since then, losing only to Kansas State and Oregon State while notching wins over the likes of George Mason, Northern Iowa, Miami and now Villanova. They might be a long shot for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament (only the win over Villanova seems sure to have good value later in the season, as Miami has really slipped of late), but this will help them to contend in the Ivy League once again.
This also does not go down as a bad loss for Villanova for those reasons. While it does highlight that the Wildcats are not the same team this season – because the Villanova of recent vintage wins games like this most of the time – Penn is not a bad team. But this isn’t the Villanova team of recent years, and they are no longer invincible with their city rivals.
The Big Five is a unique part of college basketball in the best big city for the sport. Where else do you see a powerhouse like Villanova play a game in a mid-major gym like that of Penn? The Palestra has long been at the center of the Big Five, with many games between member schools not named Penn played there over the years. There is a lot of great history at the schools in the city, and they mostly remain good today (La Salle has fallen on hard times of late, but is still just a few years removed from a Sweet 16 run and has hope with new head coach Ashley Howard).
The Palestra used to be home to the Big Five Classic, a Saturday tripleheader with the five schools plus Drexel, who is right across the street from Penn; if you’re on Penn’s campus and blink, suddenly on your at Drexel. Those days appear to be well in the rearview mirror, but the great tradition continues in the city. Tuesday night was one more historic night, but there will surely be more still in the future with these programs.
Side Dishes
Furman remained undefeated with a 77-69 win over Charleston Southern, getting a nice double-double from Matt Rafferty (14 points, 14 rebounds, six assists).
The double-double of the night goes to Minnesota big man Jordan Murphy, who holds the school record in that category. He added a 20-point, 18-rebound effort to that on Tuesday night as the Golden Gophers beat North Florida 80-71.
UCF got 35 points from B.J. Taylor, helped by six three-pointers, to knock off a good Georgia Southern team 95-88 in Orlando.
The wildest game of the night was in New Mexico, where early on the Lobos looked like they would handle Colorado. They led the Buffaloes by as many as 17 in the opening half and even answered a late 14-0 Colorado run with an 11-0 run of their own near the end of the half. They got the lead back to 14 points just over four minutes into the second half, but Colorado came back with ten unanswered points and was right there the rest of the way, finally grabbing the lead with 4:36 left. They would never trail after that and held on 78-75, dropping the Lobos to 4-4 as they continue to trend less and less relevant.
Quietly, NJIT is now 10-2 after coming from behind to win at Fordham 53-50 on Tuesday night. Often seen as a program with potential, the Highlanders appear to be harnessing some of that now.
One freshman who has started out well, albeit quietly in terms of national exposure, is Providence guard A.J. Reeves. Their second-leading scorer and leading three-point shooter, he’s had an immediate impact and hit a big shot to send the game at Boston College into overtime, a game they eventually won. Now, the Friars will be without him for 4-6 weeks due to a foot injury. That timetable means he may miss about half of their Big East schedule.
A bigger loss is that which South Dakota announced on Tuesday, which is that Tyler Hagedorn will miss the season as he has been unable to fully rehab his high-grade medial plantar fascia tear that he sustained before the season. The senior was a second-team All-Summit League selection last year and will redshirt with plans to return next season.
Tonight’s Menu
It’s another light slate, though a few of the matchups are really good ones.
- The first such matchup is Lipscomb traveling to Louisville (7 p.m.)
- Old Atlantic 10 rivals meet as UMass goes to Temple (7 p.m.)
- A good local rivalry game on tap is Stony Brook hosting LIU Brooklyn (7 p.m.)
- A solid mid-major matchup on the slate is Murray State traveling to Southern Illinois (8 p.m.)
- Houston puts their undefeated mark on the line as LSU visits (9 p.m.)
- San Diego is off to an 8-2 start, and they head north to visit Oregon (10 p.m.)
