Hope for St. Joes to thrive in March Madness

by Brian O'Connell guest writer

It is late February and the madness of March is fast approaching. This is by far and away the best time of the year in any sport if you are a die-hard college basketball fan. Web sites have started with their predictions for the tournament and who will win is anybody's guess.

The recent top 25 polls have Stanford and North Carolina as the number one and number two teams in the country. Duke has dropped, which I am sure some are happy to see. In the Associated Press poll, two teams have climbed to the top 25. Providence at number 25 and local powerhouse St. Joseph's at number 23. But the conference tournaments and the NCAA tournament are going to be a whole lot of fun once again.

Locally, the LaSalle Explorers are an absolute mess. They are more than likely going to suffer yet another losing season under head coach Speedy Morris. If anyone is keeping track, they have not had a winning season since 1992-1993. This is a long time and it is really a good idea for Speedy to start winning or he may not find himself as the head coach much longer. They have only two legitimate players in Victor Thomas and Rasual Butler. Both are scoring machines but it is nearly impossible to win when you only have only two guys who can really score the ball for you.

Down at University City, the Pennsylvania Quakers are going through a tough time. It is usually the belief in the Ivy League that the championship will always come down to Penn or Princeton, which could be the case this year. Princeton has already killed the Quakers at the Palestra and the re-match is set for the end of the season. Prince- ton bolds the lead right now in the conference, but it will be the usual race to the end to see who makes the tournament.

Out on the Main Line are the underachieving Villanova Wildcats. They were expected to have a great season with the returning players and the addition of the talented Michael Bradley. After winning three in a row against Big-5 foe Penn, Uconn and Georgetown, 'Nova was hammered by Miami at home. They appear to be headed possibly to the NIT, but it all depends on how they do in this tough four game stretch ahead of them which features two home games and two away games.

Down on Broad St., the Temple Owls have gone through a Jot this season with the losses of Carlton Aaron and Ron Blackshear. Just recently, Coach John Chaney lost Ron Rollerson who suffered a leg injury against St. Joseph's. So Chaney is limited in terms of the FEB. 23 ' 7:05PM number of players he can use.

But if their guards Lynn Greer and Quincy Wadley are hot, anything can happen. It has been said that the Owls might just miss the tournament for the first time in a long time. But in reality, not every team goes every year.

Out on City Line Ave. is the best team in the city by far, the nationally ranked St. Joseph's Hawks. The Hawks are ranked 23rd in the polls this week and are in first place in the Atlantic 10 with a 21-4 record. Experts had the Hawks in the NCAA tournament a while ago, but Coach Phil Martelli, who picked up his 100th career victory at St. Joseph's does not want to hear about polls or what he thinks will happen two weeks from now. His only concerns are to improve each day and win the next game.

The Hawks have four regular season games left that they should win which would give them the Atlantic 10 regular season title. The success of this team is due to the unbelievable play of freshman guard Jameer Nelson. ESPN has commented that he could be the best freshman in the country this year. Anyone who has not seen this student play will have to wait for the Atlantic 10 tournament to see him in person because the last home game is completely sold out. His explosive play bas helped the Hawks on their tremendous run this season and is on track for Big 5 and Atlantic 10 freshman of the year. The best is yet to come and the NCAA tournament will be quite a treat as it bas always been in the past. Who will win it is anybody's guess. The tournament is anybody's for the taking. Will it be Duke? Will it be Stanford? Will UNC be upset? How far will local St. Joseph's go? The road to the Final Four is on. Enjoy it. It will be quite a ride.