DrachenFire
2nd String
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I Root For: Drexel
Location: Undecided
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City 6 Tournament
Not to take away from tonight's game against Lafayette, but a bit surprised this hasn't been mentioned. During the Paradise Jam, Spiker dropped this to Andy Katz who was covering the event:
Quote:1. Drexel coach Zach Spiker said this is not his idea on how to change the Big Five in Philadelphia, but if it comes to fruition he will support it 100 percent. I love it. The Big Five has a long history and tradition in one of the greatest basketball-loving cities in the country. Going to the Palestra to watch a game between one of the five schools should be a must on the docket of things to do in the sport. But the rivalries have been a strain on Villanova’s schedule and are a constant issue.
So, the idea that Spiker said is floating around would be to have all six schools (yes, including Drexel) in a season-opening weekend event to create crazed interest in the sport. The matchups among Villanova, Temple, Saint Joseph’s, La Salle, Penn and Drexel would be done via the previous season’s final RPI. If you were to pull this off in one weekend at the Palestra then it would take the burden off of Nova to wedge in the four rivalry games throughout the course of the season. It would also create a much-needed buzz.
Now, yes, Saint Joseph’s and La Salle are in the same league in the A-10. So? If they ended up playing in a non-conference game in addition to the in-conference matchup, that’s fine. As the sport looks for different ways to make a splash this is one option that could help.
http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/...ersity-and
Donahue at Penn doesn't think it will happen: http://www.thedp.com/article/2017/11/pen...lle-temple
I don't think I disagree with him, as I don't really see how this helps Nova's scheduling issues (or, really, anybody's). I'd love to see something where we're included, just so some of our players could be recognized for excellent play within the city they play in like the other schools' players are afforded.
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11-29-2017 09:02 AM |
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J.B.
Moderator
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I Root For: Drexel
Location: Lafayette Hill, PA
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RE: City 6 Tournament
The Big 5 is basically non-existent these days. It's no longer a true organization. It's basically nothing more than a forced group of scheduled games for the 5 teams. Most of the Big 5 games draw poorly unless Villanova, and sometimes Temple is involved.
I do find it funny that people think that the Big 5 is a strain on Villanova's scheduling, when they play games against teams like Lafayette and Nichols State.
I like Spiker's idea for a Big 6 tournament. They did that at the Palestra for a couple years in a row about 12-15 year ago, but stopped it. But as much as people love the Palestra, I actually think that this kind of event would work better as a one admission triple header at the Wells Fargo Center. A Wells Fargo Center event would be much more profitable, because of all of the luxury boxes that can be sold for this.
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11-29-2017 09:37 AM |
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DrachenFire
2nd String
Posts: 459
Joined: Mar 2016
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I Root For: Drexel
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RE: City 6 Tournament
This would go beyond the old Palestra triple-headers, it would be an exempt tournament like the Paradise Jam where you play multiple games but they're only counted as one towards your season limit. Every team is limited to playing 29 games, or if participating in an exampt tournament, 27 plus the number of games in the tournament. So this year, Nova is playing a full 31 games, 18 are Big East leaving 13 OOC. Big 5 games take away 4 of those, leaving 9, but they also are in an exempt tournament (this year the Battle 4 Atlantis, this is why they played Nichols State) which is another 4 games leaving 5 OOC slots to fill (this year Columbia, Lafayette, Gonzaga, Hofstra and UConn).
The problem is you can only use one exempt tournament per year. You can play in two, but only one will be able to be considered exempt. The other problems are, you're only allowed to participate in the same exempt tourney once every four years and there can't be any conference overlapping among participating schools. My feeling is this was thought up by Nova as a way to drop the full round robin under the guise of having an exciting opening weekend "tournament," floating it over to the red-headed step child and their non-native head coach as a means for inclusion and hoping that it generates enough buzz that it comes to pass. Nova sees its city commitment go from 4 games to 3, allowing them to schedule another marquee game without facing backlash for killing the Big 5 again.
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11-29-2017 01:05 PM |
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dan10
Heisman
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I Root For: Drexel
Location: Indianapolis
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RE: City 6 Tournament
From a Drexel perspective this would be a fine idea. I am also fine with annual home and homes against Penn and St Joes. The downside to this tournament would be we would likely use the exempt tournament for this which stinks because it takes away other tournaments we have participated in (Great Alaska Shootout, Paradise Jam etc) that have given us decent competition as opposed to regional competition. So I am on the side of indifference here. I like the idea of having a tournament for the Philly schools but also on board with us finding games and tournaments that can see different opponents.
For fan engagement at Drexel this is a no brainer. The more local teams the better. The schedule this year should already be close to an ideal schedule for those that just want local teams on the schedule. Me personally beyond rivalry games, local games dont matter nearly as much unless you have a good squad and the other local teams happen to be quality teams as well (like Bucknell etc)
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11-29-2017 01:17 PM |
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