No-Selection Sunday: No Philly teams in NCAA men’s field

Before misses in both ‘76 and ‘77, the previous Philly no-show was in 1957. So this is just the third in 66 seasons.

Local college hoops may have reached its high point in early November when Temple beat Villanova.Read moreCHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

Updated Mar. 12, 2023, 7:54 p.m. ET

Published Mar. 12, 2023, 6:35 p.m. ET

Selection Sunday, official start to March Madness. Let’s take a Sunday drive around the perennial hoops hotbed of Philadelphia.

First stop, Tom Gola Arena, 20th and Olney. Gola himself once led La Salle to an NCAA title. Let’s see … Wait, front doors locked. No signs of life. A sign on the door offers a phone number to call if you need to get in.

Down on Broad Street, some young men were pulling on doors trying to get into the Liacouras Center, one carrying a basketball. A man opened a front-lobby door and let them in.

What’s going on here at Temple? Maybe some Madness?

“Coke has a corporate event,” the man said, closing the door.

Let’s try Drexel. Inside the lobby of the DAC, it looked like they were getting ready for spring cleaning, a bunch of pallets stacked with floor-leveling compounds.

Nearby at the hallowed Palestra? You could see a rim in the sunlight of the court, but no basketballs being shot its way. The home to more NCAA tournament games than any other venue nationally is hoping for maybe some WNIT games.

Hagan Arena? Lights out on 54th Street.

All quiet by mid-afternoon even at the last stop, the Finneran Pavilion. At least Villanova’s home court would be coming alive, just not at the usual 6 p.m. for the NCAA men’s selection show. Everyone could take a little more time – the women’s selection was at 8 p.m.

When the 2023 men’s Division I field was unveiled, it became official: For the first time since 1977, no Philadelphia team was in it.

No-Selection Sunday.

How crazy is this, the first Philadelphia shutout since the field expanded from 32 to 64 teams? It’s been so long, the Penn Quakers have played in the Final Four since that ‘77 miss (in 1979.). In 1977, first-year Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune wasn’t even born, not for another seven years. Before misses in both ‘76 and ‘77, the previous Philly no-show was in 1957. So this is just the third in 66 seasons.

These days, the shock of no Philly really means the shock of no Villanova, since one school has been propping up local pride in recent years. Temple in 2019 was the last time another Big 5 school has gotten an at-large spot, and only Drexel in 2021 has been in the tournament since then among the non-’Nova City 6 schools. (Yes, we count Villanova as Philly, good times or bad. Check out the attendance figures when they play on South Broad Street.)

The late-season return of Villanova’s Justin Moore from Achilles surgery suggested the Wildcats could have been an NCAA team with Moore at the point for a full season. But Villanova knew since last March it wasn’t going to have Moore for a full season. So not finding a stop-gap from the transfer portal was a casualty of the quick transition from Jay Wright to Neptune.

A thought experiment: If Cam Wynter and Andrew Funk had transferred to Villanova instead of Penn State, would ‘Nova and PSU have flipped results? (I say, yes.)

Philly is actually in the tournament

Let’s be clear, they have not canceled March around here. Villanova fans can shift gears and root on the most accomplished local women’s hoop team in a generation, led by soon-to-be consensus first-team all-American Maddy Siegrist. Hoop junkies can find the live stream of Swarthmore’s men at the Division III Final Four. Or Jefferson’s women, now into the Division II Sweet 16. (Talk about generational talents: Haley Meinel had 10 steals in Jefferson’s second-round win.)

Penn State fans get to say, yo, we filled up the Palestra in January, and we’ve got more big-time Philly players than some Philly teams. All true, with Roman Catholic grad Seth Lundy and Archbishop Wood grad Funk, plus Drexel graduate transfer Wynter, joining the best men’s player in the state this season, Jalen Pinkett. (The only bad news for Nittany Lions fans: second-year coach Micah Shrewsberry suddenly is a hot commodity.)

Who else is out there? Start with Miami, led by Monsignor Bonner grad Isaiah Wong and Math, Civics and Sciences grad Wooga Poplar. You want to root for an underdog player on an underdog team, go with Pat Robinson, College of Charleston. Underestimated as a recruit despite being All-State at Conwell-Egan High, Robinson started at Holy Family, moved to West Liberty, and became a key contributor this season for the Colonial Athletic Association champions.

If you’re a Maryland fan, you know how important Philly is to the current Terps enterprise, the Philadelphia Public League and Philadelphia Catholic League both represented in the starting lineup with Donta Scott (Imhotep) and Hakim Hart (Roman Catholic.) Friends League fans will notice Duke’s Dereck Lively doing similar 7-footer things as he did at Westtown.

For feel-good March Madness stories, it’s hard to do better than Jelani Williams at Howard. A big-time recruit at Penn, Williams kept tearing his ACL, and finally got on the court in his fourth season in 2021-22. But the Ivy League insists its graduates move on, so Williams, a team leader his whole time at the Palestra, took his Penn degree and transferred to Howard, where he scored 20 points in the MEAC title game.

This tournament could include a City 6 transfer unit, with Wynter and Williams, plus Ed Croswell (La Salle), Jared Bynum (St. Joseph’s), and Clifton Moore (La Salle) at Providence. Add Jahvon Quinerly (Villanova) at No. 1 seed Alabama, starting again. Include Jack Clark (La Salle), back starting for North Carolina State in the ACC tournament.

You root for coaches from Philly? You know that Dawn Staley leads her profession now at top-ranked South Carolina, with pride of Norristown Geno Auriemma still going strong at UConn. On the men’s side, a couple of Penn grads, Iowa’s Fran McCaffrey and Colgate’s Matt Langel, two of the sharper offensive minds in the game, have their programs back dancing.

If that all isn’t enough for you – if the threat of real Madness for your beloved squad evaporated in recent days with a conference tournament demise, the hope of an automatic bid the last refuge of a season that falls short ... at least the facts became clear before the official bracket unveiling.

At least there was time for a nice Sunday drive.