For the first time in 25 tries, Villanova lost a Big 5 game. And it came at the hands of Penn at the famed Palestra.

It hasn’t been a good year in Nova terms after winning a national championship last season. The Wildcats got blown out by Michigan and then lost to Furman, both at home, before last night’s 78-75 inter-city loss to the Quakers.

Collin Gillespie had a big night for the Wildcats, scoring a game-high 21 points. 10 of them came from the free-throw line. Phil Booth was right behind him with 18. Penn’s Antonio Woods and A.J. Brodeur led the Quakers with 16 points on the night.

Nova nearly had a chance to send the game into overtime late on Penn’s final inbound, which went directly out of bounds. A late 3 was no good. Penn led by as much as 12.

Penn improves to 9-2 and owns the best record in the area. Temple has also looked good this season at 7-2, while Nova is now 8-3. It’s way too early to tell if there’s a changing of the guard in the Philly college hoops scene, and there probably really isn’t one, but it kind of is refreshing to see someone from the city beat Nova.

So with the win, Penn now has the longest active Big 5 winning streak at three games. Some work to do to get up to 25.

The Roundup:


The Phillies signed outfielder Andrew McCutchen to a three-year, $50 million deal. That also doesn’t mean they’re out of the Harper contest. But McCutchen does help the leadership in the clubhouse.

It probably won’t stop. The team were in trade talks for J.T. Realmuto, but it appears they won’t have enough to get him, which is interesting.

In Harper/Machado news, the Phils met with Scott Boras, the agent for Harper and Zach Britton. The Yankees don’t appear interested in Harper, and it looks like the White Sox aren’t the favorites to get either big guy.

Chase Utley might be working for the Dodgers and we could have some problems.

With the hot stove heating up, take a listen to the newest episode of Crossed Up.


There’s now 12 Eagles players on IR. Corey Clement and Josh Sweat were placed on IR, and the team signed RB Boston Scott and DE Daeshon Hall. They also signed CB Josh Hawkins to the practice squad.

Mike Groh spoke yesterday about the difficulty of getting everyone involved.

Speaking of offensive coordinators, the Vikings fired former Eagles coach John DeFilippo as their OC.


Jimmy Butler’s MRI results from his groin injury he suffered in Monday’s win over the Pistons turned out “favorable.” He’s doubtful for tonight’s game against the Nets. Tip is at 7 PM on NBC Sports Philadelphia +.

The Lakers are looking to trade for Trevor Ariza with the Suns. But a third team might have to be involved. Enter the 76ers?

Against this backdrop, an ESPN report surfaced Sunday afternoon: The Lakers were pursuing Suns forward Trevor Ariza, who played for L.A. from 2007-09, through a three-team deal. The report said the teams have been in talks to find a trade partner that would take Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

While sources confirmed that there have been discussions about trading Caldwell-Pope, the legwork is being done on Caldwell-Pope’s side to find him a better situation. Caldwell-Pope’s minutes have decreased sharply since last season, as has his role in the offense. The Philadelphia 76ers could be a landing spot.

Like his teammates, Caldwell-Pope had to learn how to play with James, with whom he shares an agent.

“That was probably the biggest adjustment for a lot of people,” Caldwell-Pope said. “… You have a ball-dominant guy like LeBron that makes plays for everybody. You gotta just be ready at any point because you might not get a shot the first 15 minutes and you might get three or four after that.”

In off-court stuff, Ben Simmons might have written a love letter to Kendall Jenner, a 15-year-old guitarist crushed it playing “Here Come The Sixers”, and Colin Cowherd had another hot, yet bad, take.


The Flyers return to action tonight as they take on the Calgary Flames out west. Puck drop is at 8:30 PM on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Chuck Fletcher will reportedly bring in former Wild assistant GM Brent Flahr as his new right-hand man. He’ll take over the role vacated by Chris Pryor.

With that, and everything that happened with the Hextall firing, there’s a new episode of Snow the Goalie available.


In other sports news, the city of Oakland sued the Raiders for moving to Las Vegas.

The Orioles will name Cubs bench coach Brandon Hyde as their next manager.

This was a goal, but it wasn’t a goal:


In the news, a major drug investigation happened in Warminster.

A gunman killed two in a Christmas village in France. He’s still on the loose.