College Basketball Finally Heats Up

Dragons on the bubble, Henderson's temper bubbles over, Packer's a bubble-head and other bubblicious ramblings.

By Greg Wiley

College basketball finally started to pick up this past weekend. With the major conferences' regular seasons coming to an end and with the mid-majors conference tournaments starting or being decided, games finally started to matter.

Penn (Ivy), Winthrop (Big South), Belmont (Atlantic Sun), Davidson (Southern), Eastern Kentucky (Ohio Valley) and Creighton (Missouri Valley) all punched tickets to the Big Dance over the weekend and there are only 59 more slots to be determined.

Locally, the big news was Penn winning the Ivy League and likely drawing a No. 16 seed come the start of the NCAA Tournament. The Quakers cruised through Ivy League play this season and their reward will likely be UCLA, North Carolina, Kansas or Ohio State.

Think first-year Temple head coach Fran Dunphy misses Penn? I doubt it. He probably likes being the smartest man in the huddle. (That joke has probably been used already, but I had to use it. Sorry.)...

Villanova likely secured an at-large berth with its win over Syracuse on Saturday. I'd like to think that the Wildcats don't have to win at least one Big East Tournament game to be selected. With wins over Louisville, Texas, Notre Dame and Georgetown, I think Jay Wright's squad is firmly in...

The most disappointing news was Drexel's loss in the semifinal round of the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament. I would have liked to see Bruiser Flint's club pull the upset of top seed VCU on Sunday and have the chance to play for the conference title. Although the fourth-seeded Dragons had a strong season with a 23-8 record, they are firmly on the tournament bubble. It might have helped them that George Mason upset Hofstra in the quarterfinal round, but George Mason, a Final Four team from a year ago, could also hurt the Dragons if they win the CAA tourney. The CAA will get three teams at most and two of them will be VCU and ODU. Hofstra or George Mason could spoil Drexel's chances.

Elsewhere around the country, Merion, Pa native and Episcopal Academy product Gerald Henderson gave Philadelphia another black eye this past weekend when he left North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough bloodied. If you didn't see it, with just 14 seconds left in the Tar Heels' convincing 86-72 win over Duke, Henderson jumped in the air and clobbered Hansbrough, who was going up for a lay-up, with an elbow to the face. After a video review of the play, the officials ejected Henderson, who will now miss the opener of the ACC Tournament as a result (An automatic one-game suspension comes with any ejection in NCAA play).

In my estimation the act was intentional and I think any sane, intelligent spectator would agree. However, CBS analyst Billy Packer is neither sane nor intelligent. Packer ranted on and on that there was no way that Henderson meant to do what he did. It got so bad at one point I remember saying aloud, "Would someone please shut him up."

Looking ahead to the Atlantic-10 Tournament in Atlantic City, there's nothing to get too excited about. Temple and St. Joe's play each other in the first round. The winner gets a shot at third-seeded George Washington. Xavier is the defending champion and top seed. Look for the Musketeers to again walk away with the crown. Maybe Rhode Island makes a run at it, and I only say that because I have family that went to URI.

In the Big East Tournament, look for Georgetown to escape with the title. The Hoyas are playing really good ball right now and have the inside and outside game to come away with the trophy. A couple of weeks ago I would have picked Pittsburgh, but the Panthers have come back down to earth and I think their season isn't going to last much longer unless they get it together...

Onto some NFL happenings: "Jake "the Snake" Plummer officially became Jake "the Weasel" on Sunday when he retired rather than play for Jon Gruden in Tampa Bay. Now, I realize that Gruden probably isn't the best coach to quarterback for (just ask Chris Simms' spleen -- wherever it is), but who is Plummer to force an organization's hand. Plummer wanted to be guaranteed a starting job if he was traded from Denver. In Tampa that wasn't going to happen. Simms was re-signed last year and the team also brought in Jeff Garcia. So it's safe to say that there is going to be a quarterback controversy in Tampa.

Let's remember that Plummer, although he was exciting to watch only because he moved around a lot in the pocket, was an average QB at best. Despite nearly reaching 30,000 career passing yards, his TD to INT ratio is stellar -- are you ready for this -- 1-to-1. Also, I can't ever remember saying to myself, 'I think the Broncos are going to win the Super Bowl this year because Jake Plummer is their quarterback.' Heck, as far as I'm concerned every fan in the NFL should thank Gruden for wanting Plummer, because now he is out of the league and we don't have to watch him make mistake after mistake any more!

Finally, my fantasy baseball draft is coming up at the end of the month. I had to cut my keeper list from 10 to eight last week so I dropped Bronson Arroyo and Troy Glaus. I still have Carlos Lee, Manny Ramirez, Juan Pierre, Rafael Furcal, Brandon Webb, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Ryan Zimmerman. If you remember, I get to keep five plus a rookie, who will be Zimmerman. Our trade window is still open and I was offered an intriguing proposal last week -- Matt Holliday for Manny. As far as I know the deal is still on the table. I am tempted to do it. I'd be interested in getting some feed back. What would you do? Leave your thoughts in comments or email me.

Your ramblings are sometimes welcome. Email Greg at gwiley@phanticmag.com.