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PHILADELPHIA -- Yo, March Madness! Philly's coming, and it
needed a week stuffed with surprises to bring three teams into the
NCAA tournament bracket for the first time since 1999. Villanova was an upset pick on Sunday for the 65-team field and
joined Saint Joseph's as two of the 34 at-large teams in the
tournament. Temple was guaranteed its first spot in the tournament
since 2001, earning an automatic berth as the Atlantic 10
tournament champion. "I was worried for either Saint Joseph's or Villanova," said
Temple coach Fran Dunphy. "It makes Philadelphia better. It makes
the Big 5 better." The 12th-seeded Wildcats (20-12) will play No. 5 Clemson (24-9)
on Friday in Tampa, Fla. in the Midwest Regional. The Owls (21-12)
also earned a No. 12 seed and play No. 5 Michigan State (25-8) on
Thursday in Denver in the South. The Hawks (21-12) are a No. 11
seed and play No. 6 Oklahoma (22-11) on Friday in Birmingham, Ala.
in the East. "There's pure elation at three of our campuses in Philadelphia
today," Hawks coach Phil Martelli said. "The elation today
compares nothing to winning a first-round game." No team was more surprised than the Wildcats, who were in real
danger of being left out of the tournament for the first time since
2004. They finished at .500 in the Big East and lost in the second
round of the conference tournament. Coach Jay Wright and the
Wildcats watched the selection show privately and without fans and
media present as in the past three seasons. When Villanova's name was announced, Wright said the players
roared in jubilation. "They're a young team and I think they would have been
crushed," he said. The Wildcats, the 1985 national champions, made their fourth
straight NCAA tournament. "The guys were all nervous. I couldn't sleep last night,"
Wildcats forward Dwayne Anderson said. "We just erupted. I still
can't feel my stomach right now." The Owls, who take a seven-game winning streak into the
tournament, already knew their fate as they gathered with nearly
200 fans at a bar near campus. All the surprising Owls needed to
know was who they were going to play. Players sat with their hands
clasped, some with wide grins each time a possible bracket
destination played on the big screen. The Owls and their fans went wild when their name flashed on TV
for the first time in seven years. Players hugged and Dunphy
received slaps on the back in congratulations. Some broke into
chants of "Let's go Temple!" while the band played the fight
song. "If you had said to me yesterday before the Saint Joe game,
'You're going to be a 12 seed, you're going to have to play
Michigan State in Denver, would you take it?' I'd be signing those
papers right away," Dunphy said. Dunphy led Penn to nine trips to the NCAAs before he left for
Temple in 2006. The Quakers went 1-9 under Dunphy in the
tournament, with their lone win coming against Nebraska in 1994. "It's a new challenge for me and it's a wonderful opportunity
for Temple to be in it," Dunphy said. "But the feelings that you
get and how good you feel for the players that you have, that never
changes." The Owls earned the automatic berth with a 69-64 victory over
St. Joseph's in the Atlantic 10 Tournament title game on Saturday
night. In 2001, they lost in the regional final, ending a string of
12 straight tournaments under Hall of Fame coach John Chaney,
though he never took them to the Final Four. Temple fans chanted "The Hawk is Dead!" when Saint Joseph's
was announced in the field, a playful jab at SJU's motto that "The
Hawk will never die!" Martelli feared that Saint Joseph's chances at returning to the
tournament for the first time since reaching the regional final in
2004 really were over after losing to Temple. Martelli told the
Hawks last week that they had to win four straight in Atlantic
City, N.J., to even think about a postseason bid. Instead, three
wins and a loss in the final were enough. "That was nerve-racking," Martelli said. "That's the first
time that we ever had to go through being a bubble team. Every
other time we've gotten an at-large, we knew and would have a
celebration here."
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