Inaugural Philly Classic a Bright Sign of Things to Come
PHILADELPHIA – The inaugural Philly Hoop Group Classic can be called a success, and it can also be called the start of something potentially special. The event has some ingredients to become one of the premier preseason events each season, and the Hoop Group, known for its high school camps and tournaments, has every intention of doing just that. This is their first foray into college basketball, and it looks like they have something good.
The event will feature Philadelphia both in terms of at least one school from the city being there each year (host Penn and nearby Drexel were participants this year) and having a site there serve as the host for the bracket rounds. The brackets are pre-determined, so the preliminary games at campus sites do not matter with it. There may not be a better city for such an event, given the history of college basketball in Philadelphia with the Big Five and the Palestra as a facility.
The Hoop Group has already received commitments for the next three years, including several Big East schools. It will be an exempt event, meaning that the four-game slate will only count as two games against a team’s limit of 29 games.
With this event sure to grow, along with the NIT Season Tip-Off taking place in New York and the Legends Classic now taking place in Newark, N.J., the northeast will continue to be a good place to see top-notch college basketball. Thanksgiving weekend has gotten just a little better now.
Notes
- Howard is eagerly awaiting the return of two injured players, Randy Hampton and Kyle Riley. Hampton, a transfer from Drexel, has a broken finger that might be more serious. If it isn’t serious, he could play in about another week, according to head coach Gil Jackson. Riley is battling an ankle injury, and may be ready for next Saturday’s MEAC opener against Hampton in the Big Apple Classic in New York. Jackson added that inside play is his biggest personnel concern, as he feels fine with his perimeter play.
- Loyola (Md.) head coach Jimmy Patsos had nothing but good things to say about the event and talked about the newness of this for his team. He also emphasized that while his program his come alive since he took the reigns, they still have more growing to do.
“We are trying to attempt to become a mid-major program that’s successful,” said Patsos. “We have beaten Vermont, American University and Penn – those are the programs we are trying to be. This was our toughest test of the year because Drexel epitomizes what we are trying to be: a mid-major team that wins on the road, goes to the postseason, gets guys drafted.” - Drexel continues to win games with their defense, which is sure to be the case all season long. The Dragons don’t look as strong at the guard spot, and they turned the ball over 16 times on Saturday, with ten of those turnovers coming from the three starting guards. They aren’t lacking talent at the position, especially with freshmen Jamie Harris and Gerald Colds having impressed right away, so there is reason to believe they will get better at that position as the season goes along.
On the plus side, Boston College transfer Evan Neisler contributed nicely in the first half while Frank Elegar (21 points) was on the bench with foul trouble. He also made a couple of key plays late in the game.
“I told the team we’ve just got to continue to get better,” said head coach Bruiser Flint. “We’ve been pulling these games out, so there’s nothing wrong with learning from that.” - For Navy, the big issue on Saturday was just not making shots. Head coach Billy Lange was satisfied with his team’s effort, which included forcing 22 Penn turnovers, but they needed to make shots. They shot just 30.6 percent from the field and made just 5 of 28 three-pointers.
- Virginia has started the season well, but on Saturday night they were completely out-played. The Cavalier offense seemed to be out of sync and they took a number of shots very early in the possession, and when Seton Hall broke the game open with a few three-pointers, they seemed to come with Cavalier defenders losing their man off the ball.
While Adrian Joseph had 16 rebounds, he had five turnovers and was 2-7 from the field, and generally was not a positive factor for the Cavaliers.
“To whom much is given, much is expected,” said head coach Dave Leitao. “We’ve given him the opportunity to be one of the leaders of this team, and he and all the rest of the older guys have got to do a better job of stabilizing us.” - The best thing about the win for Seton Hall on Saturday is how they did it. They didn’t directly speed the game up, although Virginia did seem to get caught up in playing faster. Rather, the Pirates won a game that had lower scoring and where they were out-rebounded. Those are good signs for this team, one who last year had to have things go their way if they were to win.
