Glenn Papazian (left) of Philly College Sports and Aaron Bracy of Big5Hoops present the Jack Scheuer VGH Award to Saint Joseph's Xzayvier Brown on December 7, 2024. (Photo: Chad Cooper)
By AARON BRACY
December 8, 2024
PHILADELPHIA –Just a few minutes after 2 o’clock, the referee threw the ball into the air, starting a frenzy of Philadelphia basketball that ended some 7 1/2 hours later but much too soon.
Let’s get something out of the way right off the bat: None of the three Big 5 Classic games on Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center were, well, classics. Actually, all three were pretty much duds in terms of the thrills and chills, upsets and near-upsets that Big 5 contests seem to produce with regularity.
These three went like this:
Fifth-place game: Drexel 60, Penn 47
Third-place game: Villanova 94, Temple 65
Championship game: Saint Joseph’s 82, La Salle 64
OK, OK. Put those scores out of your minds for a moment. While the games didn’t produce in terms of nail-biters, they produced in terms of experiences and memories. That’s what the Big 5 does. It is tradition. It is history. It means something to so many.
Nowhere else in the country can you experience what you witnessed here, the dueling bands and student sections, the rollouts, the streamers, seeing old friends and former classmates, root-root-rooting on your alma mater. No other city in America does this, pairing intracity rivals. Most don’t have six Division I schools within such a close proximity. Others, like New York, do but haven’t figured out how to do something as great as the Big 5.
The school presidents and athletic directors and Comcast and Dan Hilferty and whoever else should take another bow because the Big 5 Classic is just wonderful. It will be here at Wells Fargo Center for two more years, at least. And while many believe it should be at the Palestra, including, I’m sure, my pal and mentor Jack Scheuer, I think it is just right exactly where it is.
While Scheuer might not have loved the venue, he would certainly love watching Xzayvier Brown. Scheuer hosted a longtime media pickup game at the Palestra. If you wanted in, Scheuer’s message was this: I don’t care if you can play, just that you play the right way. And that is Brown’s game in a nutshell, and he did it again against the Explorers, with 21 points, six assists and so many intangibles that don’t show up in the box score but are so important to winning. For his performance, Brown was selected by the media as the second Jack Scheuer VGH (“Very Good Hoops”) Award winner.
Brown followed teammate Rasheer Fleming, who earned the honor last season while leading the Hawks past Temple in the 2023 Big 5 Classic Championship game. St. Joe’s made it two in a row in the Big 5 for the first time since the school’s greatest team did it by winning for the second consecutive year in 2003-04 when they were 4-0 against La Salle, Penn, Temple, and Villanova. This time, it was Erik Reynolds II leading the team in scoring with 24 points.
The most impressive performance of the day, no doubt, was by Villanova. The Wildcats put together their second straight eye-opening outing, following Tuesday’s 68-60 upset of No. 14 and previously undefeated Cincinnati at the Pavilion. It seems like Villanova is finding its footing. Sure, the Wildcats are scoring and shooting well, no better than against the Owls on Saturday, but it is their defense that is the difference-maker. Villanova forced Temple into missing 14 of 18 three-pointers while scorching the nets themselves, to the tune of 59 percent from the field overall and 63 percent from three-point range.
Eric Dixon continued his dominance of college basketball in his sixth year at Villanova and fifth season playing basketball, getting 24 points when he could’ve gone for double if needed. Wooga Poplar was solid, with 18 points, seven rebounds, and a key dunk to end a strong first half. The Owls were without injured Quante Berry but likely would’ve needed Mark Macon, Howard Evans, Mike Vreeswyk, Ramon Rivas, and Tim Perry to compete with the Wildcats on this night.
Before the Wildcats’ dominating demonstration, it was Drexel playing another really good game after being discarded as the 11th pick of 14 teams in the Coastal Athletic Association in the preseason. Everyone looked at what the Dragons lost–and they lost some really good players–but not many realized what the Dragons had. On Saturday, it was Cole Hargrove once again muscling his way to a double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Penn couldn’t match up with Hargrove and couldn’t find any offensive flow. The Quakers scored just 17 points in a woeful second half when they missed all nine of their three-point tries.
There were a lot of missed shots on this day. Penn missed many, so did Temple, and so did the short-handed Explorers, who were without Jahlil White (undisclosed reasons) for the entire contest and Demetrius Lilley (wrist) for 24 minutes of it.
And there were many made shots on this day, demonstrated most effectively by Villanova.
But that was all on-the-court stuff. More importantly, the entire day was a hit again off the court. Sure, detractors will point out an attendance of 14,108. I can’t argue with that, noting that the teams all need to get better as a whole and individually to garner even more support from Philly’s tough but smart fan base.
Those who were here on Saturday likely will tell them how much fun the entire day was–and that was with three duds of games. The event will continue to get better. By law of averages, the games will, too.
What will remain unchanged, I think, are the experiences and memories of anyone present. As long as there is a Big 5, they will always produce.
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Aaron Bracy has been covering Philadelphia sports since 1996. His byline regularly appears on Associated Press stories. Follow Bracy on X: @Aaron_Bracy and like his Facebook and Instagram pages. His book on the 2003-04 Saint Joseph’s men’s basketball team is expected to be published on March 1, 2025. Read a summary and preorder it by clicking HERE. Contact him at aaron@big5hoops.com.