Can’t get any more objective reporting than this. I might as well be Switzerland:

Tickets to Temple/Villanova at the Liacouras Center.

I need Big 5 basketball to matter again. So much has been taken away from it, and the major thing is the competitiveness. But lack of tradition matters too. The streamers are gone. They don’t play at the Palestra for every game any more. One of the student sections get’s in trouble every year for a rollout so they just become corny and watered-down. I wish they would do a round robin tournament before the season or a relegation system with the City 6. Add Drexel to the mix. If LaSalle comes in last against the Big 5 they’re relegated to the City 6 until next year’s tournament. Everyone gets to make their jokes until next year. It’d be great camaraderie among alum. Especially if it happened to Nova. Imagine Nova makes a Final Four run, but you can still make fun of them for losing the Big 5. Everyone wins.

I do think tomorrow’s game is going to be close if you’re looking for something to do. Everyone’s going to point to the Wagner loss and say Temple has no shot, but I think this is the best Temple team in probably four years. Khalif Battle is a BUCKET. Damian Dunn is like a young James Harden the way he gets to the line. Their bigs can stretch the floor. I’m just worried Eric Dixon might have 20 and 20. I’m not worried about Caleb Daniels going left. Get tickets.

Damian Dunn came on Crossing Broadcast to talk about the game versus Villanova tomorrow, the pressure of getting Temple basketball back to where it was, and his thoughts on the Big 5. Starts at 52:20 –