NIT does not come calling for M. Hoops

Just hours after near-perfect Saint Joseph's secured an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, three more Philadelphia teams had their postseason prayers answered with late night phone calls -- but the Penn Quakers were not one of them.

Drexel (18-10), Temple (15-13) and Villanova (16-16) received bids to the postseason National Invitational Tournament when the pairings were announced last night. The Quakers, runners-up in the Ivy League, never received the call.

"We would have loved an opportunity to play," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "We had our chances."

The Quakers finished the season with a 17-10 overall record. They won 10 of 14 games in defense of their Ivy League championship, good for a second-place tie with Brown.

The Dragons, who were upset in the quarterfinals of the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament, will travel to Villanova for a first-round game tomorrow night. All time, Drexel is winless in 17 tries against the Wildcats.

Also tomorrow night, Temple will head to Piscataway, N.J., for a rematch with Rutgers. The Owls fell to the Scarlet Knights back on Dec. 3, 77-66.

The Owls extended their postseason streak to 21 seasons, all under Hall of Fame coach John Chaney. The program has twice won the annual tournament, in 1938 and 1969.

Recently, the Owls have fared well in the NIT. They are 7-2 in the tournament over the past two seasons, taking third place in 2002.

If the Owls fall, it will be the first time during Chaney's tenure his team failed to win a postseason game -- either in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, the NIT or the NCAAs. Temple fell to Richmond, 64-49, in the quarterfinals of its conference tournament on Thursday.

Villanova lost to Siena, 74-59, in the first round of last year's NIT. The Wildcats only dressed seven players due to suspensions stemming from misuse of phone codes.

Drexel lost to Temple in last year's opening round, 68-59, at the Liacouras Center.

While the lack of postseason play was disappointing to many Penn fans, the Quakers' tournament resume was questionable.

The Quakers beat Drexel in the Nov. 24 opener, 79-73. They also topped Manhattan on Dec. 29 to win the Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden. They faced three nationally ranked teams in a demanding nonconference schedule, performing admirably in close losses to St. Joe's and Wisconsin.

In all, the Quakers played nine games against teams headed to the postseason -- including six against NCAA Tournament teams.

But last Tuesday's season-ending setback to Princeton at the Palestra may have sealed Penn's postseason fate. Three nights after the Tigers clinched the Ancient Eight title at Dartmouth, they defeated the Quakers at the Palestra in overtime, 76-70.

Losses to Rider, Yale and Brown -- all sub-170 teams in the RPI -- did not help Penn's cause.

"If we had beaten Princeton in the last game we would have been in the field," Dunphy said.

Penn finished with an RPI of 124. By comparison, Villanova was 67, Temple was 100 and Drexel was 101.

Seven teams with RPIs higher than Penn's also missed the cut, among them Saint Peter's, Old Dominion and Miami of Ohio.

It was a disappointing end for Penn's three seniors -- Adam Chubb, Charlie Copp and Jeff Schiffner -- a group that enjoyed consecutive Ivy League championships in 2002 and 2003.

"They were disappointed," Dunphy said. "They understand that life presents you these opportunities, and unless you take advantage of them to the fullest extent, you have to face the consequences."

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