Yo, Philly on the Hardwood

Drexel (1-1, 0-0): The Dragons got off to as good of a start, realistically, as we could hope for. They pulled out a close victory against Penn, but it wasn't for lack of trying to cough it up at the end. Fortunately for Drexel, Penn's Zack Rosen missed a key free throw in the closing moments of the game that could have possibly sent the game to overtime. In their next game, however, Drexel couldn't get anything going offensively, and ended up on the wrong end of a blowout against Georgetown. Upcoming games: Home vs. Cal State Northridge, Mon., 12/1/08, 7:00 p.m. (tickets).

La Salle (2-3, 0-0): Reassuringly, La Salle has been competitive in every game they've played so far. They went right down to the wire before losing to a very respectable Florida State squad. Then, in the Paradise Jam tournament, the Explorers fell to #2 Connecticut but didn't get blown off the court, as we feared might happen. La Salle then pushed Southern Miss to overtime before falling just short. But they got out of the Virgin Islands with a win, topping Valparaiso in overtime. Upcoming games: Home vs. Bucknell, Tues., 12/2/08, 7:00 p.m. (e-mail for ticket info).

Penn (1-2, 0-0): As mentioned above, Penn suffered a close loss to Drexel this past week. But they bounced back nicely and put a hurt on Monmouth over the weekend. Upcoming games: Home vs. Penn State, tonight, 11/25/08, 7:30 p.m. (tickets); Away vs. Albany, Saturday, 11/29/08, 7:00 p.m.; Home vs. Villanova, Tues., 12/2/08, 8:00 p.m. (tickets).

St. Joe's (1-2, 0-0): The Hawks didn't get off to a great start in the Maui Invitational, but considering they had to play top-ten ranked Texas in their tournament opener, their loss isn't really a surprise. They'll play Indiana this afternoon, starting at 1:30 p.m., and then either Alabama or Chaminade to close out their tournament tomorrow. (We're going to go way out on a limb here and assume that Alabama will dispose of Chaminade with little trouble, so the Hawks would play Alabama if they beat Indiana, and Chaminade if they lose.) Upcoming games (excluding Maui Invitational): Away vs. Lehigh, Tues., 12/2/08, 7:00 p.m.

Temple (3-1, 0-0): Temple had a runaway victory against Lafayette this past week. The Owls were led, unsurprisingly, by Dionte Christmas, who posted a double-double with 29 points and a career-high 12 boards. The Owls also got nice contributions from Semaj Inge and Ryan Brooks. The team will need even more balance in the next few weeks, as the Owls face a pretty rough out-of-conference starting next weekend, but we'll discuss that more next week. Upcoming games: None this week.

Villanova (3-0, 0-0): The Wildcats opened up the Hoop Group Classic with a yawner of a win over Niagra last week. The next couple games should be more of the Hoop Group borefest for Villanova, but some tougher competition will come up over the weekend, when Villanova will play either Rhode Island or Penn State to close out the Classic. Hoop Group Classic at the Palestra (tickets): Vs. Monmouth, tonight, 11/25/08, 7:30 p.m.; Vs. Towson, Fri., 11/28/08, 8:30 p.m.; Vs. Penn State/Rhode Island, Sat., 11/29/08, time TBD. Other upcoming games: Away vs. Penn, Tues., 12/2/08, 8:00 p.m.

Image Credit: Flickr user Lauren Murphy.