Good Morning, West Philadelphia! Temple vs. St. Joe's at the Palestra Saturday

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Hey all you readers who frequently comment that every Big 5 matchup should be played at the Palestra: the Temple Owls and St. Joseph's Hawks will meet for the first time this season Saturday morning at 11a.m. And guess what? They're doing it from inside the Cathedral of College Basketball.

Given the limited space of the Hagan Arena, St. Joseph's plays a fair number of its "home games" away from campus and over at Penn. In a particularly awkward circumstance, SJU actually "hosted" the U of P on their own home floor last Saturday evening. Penn wore its road blues, Joe's donned some...interesting...(and presumably alternate) gray threads (they didn't ditch the whites did they?) while the words "St. Joseph's University" were prominently plastered at both ends of the floor between the time line and top of the arc.

Such will be the case this Saturday morning, minus the Quakers and, hopefully, those absurd gray jerseys, when the Hawks and Owls tip off far earlier than either team is accustomed. "Early bird catches the worm" references abound.

Alright, "far earlier" is actually kind of a stretch; plenty of basketball games start at noon, so it's not completely out of the ordinary. Tomorrow's A10 tilt will actually be kicking-off a six-game, twelve-hour college basketball marathon on ESPNU. I suppose its just the price we pay for getting to watch the action on TV.

As for the contest itself, once we all wake up to watch it, it sets up as a complete and total shellacking on paper. Temple is a talented team boasting a 14-5 record and multiple trips in and out of the top 25 this season. St. Joe's, on the other hand, has been the loser of its last seven in a row, including a drop last night to fellow Big 5 rival LaSalle, and weighs in as the Owls' almost exact opposite at 5-15. On paper—shellacking.

Nevertheless, there is a reason we go ahead and play these games rather than chalking dashes in the W and L columns based solely on stats and trends. Don't forget, Temple fans, St. Joe's is the team who pushed your boys to overtime in this same circumstance last year. Now, obviously it's not exactly the same team due to graduation and maturity and the alike, but the Hawks have some young kids they expect big contrbutions from moving forward (Jones, Aiken, Galloway).

Here's the point: it's a Big 5 game, things happen. That's not the most nuanced analysis of a basketball game you've ever read, but it's been known to ring true. Temple would be beyond mistaken to take this game lightly. Phil Martelli is a committed coach. He might not have Jameer or Delonte around anymore, but that hasn't made him begin to accept losing. I'd honestly be shocked if the Hawks didn't come out with some jump early. The real question is just whether or not they will be able to sustain it for 40 minutes. I wouldn't be surprised to see a flow reminiscent of this season's Holy War, with Joe's hanging around for the first 15 only to see their deficit grow larger as the game progresses.

As for us—the students, alums and other assorted ticket holders—get your streamers and inflammatory roll outs ready, 'cause we're getting up early.

Finally, for those of you unaffiliated with either institution, who are you pulling for tomorrow? See you in the A.M.

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