March 12, 2023
Philadelphia is a city that's steeped in a rich college basketball tradition, but that has been eroding for some time, culminating in an embarrassing turn of events in 2023. Per the Philadelphia Inquirer's Jeff Neiburg, this will be the first year since 1977 that no City 6 school (Penn, Villanova, Drexel, La Salle, Temple and Saint Joseph's) will make the Men's NCAA Tournament:
Penn is going down, so it’s official: no City 6 team in the men’s NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1977. First time ever in the expanded field of 64-plus.
— Jeff Neiburg (@Jeff_Neiburg) March 11, 2023
How did we get here? On a micro level, here's how each team performed in 2022-23 and where they were knocked out of their conference's respective tournament:
| Team | Record | Conference Tourney Result |
| Penn | 17-13 | Lost in Semifinals |
| Drexel | 17-15 | Lost in Quarterfinals |
| Temple | 16-16 | Lost in Quarterfinals |
| Saint Joseph's | 16-17 | Lost in Quarterfinals |
| La Salle | 15-19 | Lost in Quarterfinals |
| Villanova | 17-16 | Lost in Quarterfinals |
Not good. Not good at all. None of those teams sniffed at-large bids.
On a macro level, Philly's fertile ground for hoops talent has seen its best homegrown players play college ball outside the city, something that seems to increase by the year. The attention these schools once commanded throughout the Delaware Valley is slipping away as well.
The connective tissue these colleges previously shared is on life support, too.
Starting next season, the classic Big 5 (minus Drexel) and the City 6 will be no longer, rebranded as the "Philly Six," initially reported by The Athletic's Dana O'Neil.
A quick guide to the overhaul from O'Neil:
Under the new format, the six schools — the traditional Big 5 teams of La Salle, Penn, Temple, Saint Joseph’s and Villanova, plus Drexel — will be split into two three-team pods.
The pod teams will play each other in November, with the winners matching up based on their record in a tripleheader (a designated fifth place, third place and championship game, if you will) at the Wells Fargo Center on the first Saturday in December. [The Athletic/$]
With waning fan interest from students and the city overall that saw embarrassing attendance numbers this past season, the hope is to revitalize what once was a crop of premiere events in the Philadelphia sports scene. I can't speak to all of these schools and their respective campus environments, but as a Penn grad, I can tell you that the student body, sadly as a Philly native, did not care one iota about hoops nor, really, the school's sports teams in general.
For a somewhat local note (as local as a school three hours away can be), Penn State has made the tourney for the first time since 2011. They had a spirited run to the Big 10 Tournament Championship Game, narrowly losing 67-65 to a Purdue team that entered the day as the No. 5 team in the country.
The Nittany Lions will be the No. 10 seed in the Midwest Region and face No. 7 seed Texas A&M. Former Villanova coach Jay Wright thinks that could be the best game of the entire first round:
"That game, against Penn State, those two teams, that could be the BEST First Round game of the Tournament."
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 12, 2023
—@CoachJayWright pic.twitter.com/1GhW31m9Up
Who should Philly fans root for this March? Historically, given that I did not go to a college with big-time sports programs, I tended to go with schools that had connection to Philly sports figures. For example, I loved Oregon football and would rock their gear during the Chip Kelly days. If you want to put your support behind the guy who should win the NBA MVP this year, you could always go for Joel Embiid's old Kansas Jayhawks, who are the No. 1 seed in the West Region.
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