Temple vs. Villanova Will Prove Philadelphia Is Best College Basketball Town In Nation

In what is the ultimate dichotomy, the worst pro basketball city in the country will prove to be the best college one with a pair of sellouts seven miles apart on Wednesday night.

While the woeful Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA will still be on the mid-season break, there will be plenty of action worth noting within the city limits. It leads off with perhaps one of the most attractive matchups in city college basketball history when the Associated Press No. 1 team in the country, Villanova, travels to a sold-out Temple to play the Owls, the first-place team in the AAC, in a game that will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2 (7 p.m.). On the other side of town, an hour earlier on CBS Sports Network, No. 15 Dayton travels to St. Joseph’s in a game that will probably determine the top seed in the Atlantic 10 tournament.

In a town notorious for great high school and college basketball, the night proves that the city’s basketball interest can sustain a prolonged absence of pro hoops success. Villanova-Temple is probably the biggest game in the city since 1988 when Temple, then No. 1 in the AP poll, topped then No. 9 Villanova, 98-86 when all five Owls reached double figures and the point guard, Howie Evans, had 20 assists.  Another classic game occurred in 1967 when No. 2 LaSalle held off No. 7 Villanova, 73-67. The sixth man for LaSalle in that game was Fran Dunphy, the current Temple head coach.

The ramifications if the two home teams win on Wednesday are off the charts. The Owls and the Hawks can probably both survive a subpar post-season tournament performance and at least earn at-large bids in the NCAA tournament with wins, so it’s as big a night for hoops as there has been for any city in America this year.

If that weren’t enough, on the same night there is a high school doubleheader at the Palestra featuring four Philadelphia Catholic League playoff teams. That 9,000-seat arena is sold out, too.