The first edition of the Big 5 tournament turned out to be a winner

So, did it work?

Yes, all things considered, the new Big 5 format did work.

The action on the court produced real drama all around town: Penn upsetting Villanova at the Palestra, Temple’s triple-OT win over La Salle on North Broad Street, St. Joseph’s toppling Villanova on the Main Line.

Then came Saturday’s tripleheader at the Wells Fargo Center, and the action was the most encouraging part. It started with Drexel’s upset of the Wildcats, as much validation of the new City Series format as a ‘Nova title would have been.

“I think this is exactly what those that decided to make this event happen envisioned, and that is a great day for Philadelphia basketball,” Dragons coach Zach Spiker said. “And obviously very special for our basketball program, for our university, for the Drexel community, and so many people that have played in the past but never had this opportunity, never had this venue to shine.”

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La Salle’s overtime win over Penn featured two Big 5 rarities: a high score and a game-winning buzzer-beater. Khalil Brantley’s halfcourt bank shot electrified social media and decades-long Olney diehards alike, and both of those things were good.

The St. Joseph’s-Temple nightcap brought two heaving student sections, and the day’s third sea of streamers. The event organizers are due a lot of credit for encouraging the return of one of the Big 5′s most cherished traditions.

Props, too, to the arena staff for fast cleanups, and to the referees for not calling technical fouls. And hopefully by next year, the St. Joe’s students will have learned that you do it after the first made field goal, not when a free throw opens the scoring.

(And let me say as a soccer guy whose first sports love in Philly was the Big 5, starting over 20 years ago: When I tell people who love soccer atmospheres that there are streamers at college hoops games here, they notice.)

Saturday’s announced attendance was 15,215, a number that presumably tallied everyone who came through the turnstiles all day. There were never that many people in the building at the same time, and the student sections were emptied and refilled between each game.

The number was big enough to justify the experiment, and hopefully produce another go at it next year, with a bigger number. But it was impossible to avoid seeing how many empty seats there were over the course of the day and night — the kinds of seats the casual fan would buy to attend an occasion.

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Anyone who bought a ticket got in to all three games, which complicates judging the box office prices. I do know, though, that a Villanova-supporting friend got an upper-deck corner seat for $4 on the secondary market. That surely wouldn’t have happened if the event had greater interest citywide. (Or, likely, if her Wildcats were playing in the nightcap instead of the opener.)

There was some atmosphere at Drexel-Villanova, helped by big student sections and fans of the other schools backing Drexel — well, maybe they were really rooting against Villanova. It certainly helped that Drexel won a game that was tight down to the last possession, getting everyone out of their seats.

“Every one of those games are always intense, tough, nasty — throw out the records,” Wildcats coach Kyle Neptune said, an act his team presumably would gladly do to its 0-3 mark. “You know whoever you’re playing in one of those games, you know they’re bringing it. This year was no different.”

Spiker was more upbeat, of course, after his Dragons put a big 1 in their 1-2 Big 5 debut.

“These guys made a memory for themselves,” he said. “They were part of a moment that was bigger than themselves. People at Drexel are going to remember where they were when we beat [Villanova] in Wells Fargo. So I don’t know that the attendance number matters that much.”

» READ MORE: ‘We weren’t in awe at all’: Drexel earns wire-to-wire, ‘special’ win over Villanova in Big 5 Classic

Penn-La Salle was quieter, no surprise since it matched two of the city’s smallest fan bases. But the basketball gods delivered anyway. La Salle rallied from eight points down with 4½ minutes left to force overtime, then win in style.

“It was a terrific day for us, obviously — more pleased because we won the game, however, if we had not, I still would have felt very good about how this thing is unfolding,” Explorers coach Fran Dunphy said after the 93-92 win.

“For all of us old-timers, there’s nothing like the Palestra, and we’re going to hope to have a really good atmosphere at La Salle moving forward,” the Big 5′s coaching dean added. “This is different, though. I was lucky enough to coach here a couple of times … and it’s a special place. I love it here.”

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Quakers coach Steve Donahue reflected on his efforts to modernize the City Series, decades after he watched games from the stands as a kid.

“I’ve been a big proponent of improving what the Big 5 had become,” he said. “The world’s changed, college athletics has changed, and I thought it was important that we made this kind of move. … Our ability to focus on one day, all six teams in one building, I think allows the fans to put their eyeballs on it and appreciate it more.”

Then it was on to the nightcap. Surely the venerable Temple and St. Joe’s fan bases would show up, with a city title at stake in the latest chapter of the rivalry?

Well, the students did. But there were still swaths of empty seats up and down both sidelines, and all around the upper deck.

Will that big mass of Temple students show up at the Liacouras Center? And will the even bigger masses of alumni follow?

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We know the latter answer: win first. That didn’t happen this time, as Temple trailed the whole way in a 74-65 loss. Still, Bucks County-born, first-year Owls coach Adam Fisher liked what he saw at the event.

“When you change something, you get a lot of feedback, whether it’s positive, negative, whatever it is,” he said. “There’s so many people that had to do so many things to put this on, and I thought it was really special.”

The last word goes to St. Joe’s coach Billy Lange, a veteran of the Big 5 and the Wells Fargo Center from tenures at La Salle, Villanova, the 76ers, and Hawk Hill. His Hawks have their first City Series title in 12 seasons, and their first outright one since the Jameer Nelson-Delonte West era.

“It felt like a Sixers game during the pregame warmups,” he said. “I think everything can work if people want to do it. It takes effort, it takes creativity, it takes the right leadership. … I think you can stay traditional — because it should, because that’s what it’s built on — but there’s no reason why we can’t be progressive.”

And with a flourish a moment later, he added: “I was a little curious to see how this would turn out. But since we won it, I think it’s pretty good.”

» READ MORE: Re-live how the Big 5 Classic tripleheader's drama unfolded in our live blog