Masters of the Main Line

Villanova 56, St. Joe's 39.

For those readers not familiar with the geography of Philadelphia PA, Villanova University sits at one end of Lancaster Avenue, and St. Joseph's Wayward Rest Stop for Red-Headed StepChildren sits at the other. So once again the smart, well educated, coherent disciples of St. Augustine prevail in this mini-border war.

I keed, I keed. Actually I don't consider this rivalry as intense as some other ones for the Wildcats (Georgetown, Syracuse, and Connecticut immediately jump to mind; throw in Pittsburgh when I was matriculating as well). St. Joe's has a good team once in a blue moon; Nova has one once a decade. We typically beat up on them Hawks. Other than their mascot's annoying habit of constantly flapping his wings, they don't bother me. Martelli is actually funny.

But, winning the City Series is nothing to sneeze at, and with this victory Villanova has won it for the second straight year.

16-7 is pretty good on a team loaded with Freshmen and Sophmores. I figure they have a good shot at winning at least 3 of their remaining games (Cincinnati, Seton Hall, Rutgers), and an outside shot at 3 more (G'Town, Syracuse, UConn). Beating Marquette in Wisconsin? Probably not. 20 wins and an 8-8 record in the Big East should be good enough to get them into the NCAA tourney for a third straight year.

6 days until pitchers/catchers report. I'm going to start a new feature here once the team reports: A daily trivia question. Answers will be posted the following day. Credit will be given to the person submitting the first correct answer along with the actual answer. These questions will focus on Cardinal Trivia. I have enough items to carry me from the start of spring training through 30 September, so I hope you enjoy the feature.