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SPECIAL NOTE
  To all scorekeepers: PLEASE try to make sure that correct info on scoring is called into the Score Service -- 215-854-4570. Generally, it's better when the winning team calls in the results. That way the papers receive info to explain HOW the game was won because representatives of the winning team will usually be in a better mood (just human nature) to provide extra details such as rebounds, assists, etc., or the identity of someone who maybe hit a winning shot. Thank you.

December-earlier
January

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MARCH 23
TEDBIT
  Back in February, we noted that Wood and Roman had become just the second and third teams to finish a Catholic League regular season with four guys boasting scoring averages of at least 13.0. How'd they fare overall? Bingo! Wood's four guys -- only Julius Phillips is a senior; the others are sophs -- averaged from 17.6 to 13.2. Roman's quartet averaged from 20.0 to 13.3. Jr. Lynn Greer and frosh Jalen Duren are non-seniors.

MARCH 22
TEDBIT
  The 2018-19 season will end tonight as Wood meets Moon for the Class 5A championship. If the contest is decided by no more than five points, it'll bring this year's total for "close games" in state playoffs to five. The CL record is six in 2015 and '18. The CL's record in CGs is 25-20 and that includes three, same-league duels. Carroll prevailed over Neumann-Goretti in a 2009 quarterfinal and N-G beat Carroll in the 2015 final. This year, McDevitt beat N-G in a quarterfinal. Five-pointers lead one-pointers/two-pointers for the top spot, 12-9.

MARCH 21
TEDBIT
  Below are updated records for CL performances in state quarterfinals and semifinals. This year's overall total was "only" 6-5, in part because three quarters forced CL squads to play each other.

MARCH 20
TEDBIT
  Yes, last night did not go well as the Catholic League went 0-for-2 in state semis (after going 2-for-2 the night before). But let's look at the big picture and celebrate a very special accomplishment. For the only time over the last 42 seasons, and possibly (definitely?) ever, six CL schools have won at least 20 games. The victory total is 134 and hopefully it'll go up thanks to Bonner-Prendie and Wood in upcoming championship games. Over this same span, five seasons have produced five 20-win teams. Those details are also listed below and the best winning percentage among the five teams was achieved in 2007 at .826.

MARCH 19
TEDBIT
  As everyone even remotely familiar with Pennsylvania high school basketball knows by now, the Catholic League enjoys great success in state playoffs . . . And I'm here now to tell you: The fun (mostly) doesn't stop if regulation ends in a deadlock. In a Class 5A semifinal last night, Wood and Abington Heights wound up tied at 46 after four quarters. The Vikings then roared to a 63-53 success, making the CL 8-2 in OT state tilts. This margin of victory ranks second. The most amazing, and emotional, victory occurred in the 2014 3A final. Neumann-Goretti beat Susquehanna Township, 64-57, as Ja'Quan Newton poured in 33 points . . . the day after his mother passed away.

MARCH 18
TEDBIT
  Four times in 10 years. Three times in one. Only in the PIAA. This year's state quarterfinals featured three games with Catholic League teams battling each other. There had only been four such battles over the previous 10 seasons (2009-18). Neumann-Goretti is now 3-2 and that first loss helped Carroll become the first CL school to win a state championship. Details for all seven games are below.

MARCH 17
TEDBIT
  Like many yesterday, you were likely surprised (stunned?) when BOTH city-based Catholic League powers fell to almost-neighbors CL schools from Montgomery County in the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs. La Salle topped Roman, 55-47, in Class 6A while McDevitt bested Neumann-Goretti, 60-57, in Cllass 3A. The respective winners' records are now 26-3 and 21-7 and perhaps you're thinking, No way those two schools have ever enjoyed such success in the same season. Well . . . Let's jump into the Waaaaaay Back Machine and take a visit to 1963. La Salle, rather new to Wyndmoor after ditching the college campus at 20th and Olney, WON the Catholic League championship for the first time since 1950. In the playoffs, the Explorers topped Bonner in the semis by 75-58 and Dougherty in the final by 55-43. They then lost the City Title to West Philadelphia, 65-56. The team's starters were Frank Gaidjunas, George Smith, Bill Magarity, Al Enoch and Joe Turk and the final record was 24-5. McDevitt was in its last season of NOT playing Philadelphia Catholic League ball. The Lancers were members of the 10-team Suburban Catholic League along with Kenrick (Norristown), Lansdale Catholic, Reading Central Catholic, St. Pius X (Pottstown), Shanahan, Bethlehem Catholic, St. Katherine's (Wayne), St. Matthew's (Conshohocken) and Devon Prep. LC and DP are now in the PCL. Kenrick, which closed in 2010, joined the PCL in 1963-64 along with McDevitt and Egan (now Conwell-Egan). Kenrick merged with Archbishop Kennedy, the ol' St. Matt's, for the '94 school year. In '63, the SCL season included two halves. McDevitt stormed to an 18-0 record, going 9-0 in both to win the championship. The starters were Frank McCall, Joe Crews, Bob Plummer and two of these three guys (Joe Pluck, Lou Hieb and Callahan). Back then there was a Catholic version of the PIAA. In the first round of the Class A portion, McDevitt beat Egan, 48-43, before 3,000 in the field house at St. Joseph's College. Its next opponent, in an Eastern semifinal also at St. Joe's, was "itself." As in Bishop McDeviit, of Harrisburg. Our McDevitt lost to their McDevitt, 47-46. Oddly, no one scored in double figures for the winner. Crews (19) and McCall (13) topped the losers. For the moment, I'm not positive about the team's overall record. One newspaper story listed it at 20-5. Another said the record was 18-3 before the Egan game, so 19-4 would be that version. Anyway, congrats to this year's teams at  La Salle and McDevitt and here's hoping much more fun is in the offing.

SJ Prep in 2005-06 Matt Griffin (top R) and Kevin Funston (bottom L).

MARCH 16 TEDBIT   Over the last 34 seasons, six coaches have won at least 20 games in their first season at Catholic League schools and four have featured Speedy Morris ties. One IS Speedy Morris (smile). John Miller was his assistant way back at Roman while Matt Griffin/Kevin Funston were players for him in the 2005-06 season at St. Joseph's Prep. Matt achieved the feat at Roman in '17. Kevin has done so this year at Bonner-Prendergast. Kevin's non-playing journey began at Pitt, where he served as a student manager before graduating in 2010. He then assisted at Lycoming for one year and Indiana (Pa.) for two before popping up at Carroll in '14. He switched over to B-P for the '15 season and spent four seasons working for Jack Concannon before assuming command for this campaign. As for the non-Speedy guys . . . Mike McKee played at Roman FOR Dennis Seddon.   20 Wins in First Season at CL School, 1986-19 Bonner-Prendie Year W-L John Miller 1986 20-10 Kevin Funston 2019 21-5 La Salle Year W-L Mike McKee 2019 25-3 Roman Year W-L Dennis Seddon 1987 24-7 Matt Griffin 2017 20-6 SJ Prep Year W-L Speedy Morris 2002 24-6

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MARCH 15
TEDBIT
  Well, we're through two rounds of the state playoffs and the Catholic League again has made MAJOR waves. The CL went 8-0 in the first round and 7-1 in the second. Alas, an outrageous winning percentage won't be achieved in the quarterfinals. In fact, we KNOW the record will be 4-3 or 3-4 because three of the four games will feature CL teams against each other. Wood will be involved in the swing game. The breakdowns for the first and second rounds are below. Through 11 years, the CL is 51-10 in the first (.836) and 40-11 in the second (.784) for an amazing overall total of 91-21 (.813).

MARCH 14
TEDBIT
  We'll call this new club "Fast to 500" and, with just three members, it's very exclusive. In Philadelphia high school basketball history, nine coaches have captured at least 500 wins. Carl Arrigale, now in his 21st season at Neumann-Goretti (nee Neumann) reached that milestone last night as the Saints (21-7 overall) edged Wyoming Seminary, 61-59. The game, a second-round contest in the PIAA Class 3A state playoffs, was held at Bethlehem Freedom and was decided when sr. G Chris Ings (23 points) stuck a last-moment runner. The three members of "Fast to 500" are William "Speedy" Morris, Carl and Dennis Seddon. They lost a total of just 350 games while racking up 1,500 wins and the details are below. Many already know this, but for those who don't: Carl played for Speedy at Penn Charter and was the Inter-Ac League's MVP in 1984. Interesting nugget: Speedy AND Dennis claimed No. 500 on Dec. 14 (two years apart). Another: The margin of victory in the three wins was only eight points. Another: No victim was a Catholic League team. Meanwhile, Speedy and Carl were in season No. 21. Dennis was in No. 22. (Note: Bishop McNamara is in Forestville, MD. That game took place in the first round of the Gonzaga Classic, in Washington, DC.)

MARCH 13
TEDBIT
  This website has not tracked Public League sports since the 2014-15 school year, but nuggets about special accomplishments are occasionally posted and today we offer a list that shows the Top 30 career scorers in Public League basketball history. The cutoff is 1,460 points and the newest member of the 1,500 Club is Robeson sr. combo guard Walter Hester. Walter is only 5-11, but is known as a relentless, crafty driver who can finish with either hand. Plus, he can pop for treys. Aside from breaking Robeson's school record for career points -- 1,539, the same total racked up at Southern by 1986 grad/NBAer Lionel Simmons -- coach Rob Powlen noted yesterday that Walter, who's being eyed by several junior colleges, also posted a new school mark with a 47-point outburst vs. Eastern University Charter. Among the guys on this list, just four aside from Walter were listed as 5-11 or shorter during their high school careers -- Imhotep's Daron "Fatts" Russell and Masterman's Mike Sturdivant at 5-11; Boys' Latin's Maurice Watson and GAMP's LaRon Byrd at 5-10. Congrats, Walter, and best of luck going forward!

MARCH 12
TEDBIT
  As you've hopefully heard by now, Temple sr. G Shizz Alston (a k a Levan and/or Shawn) yesterday earned first team honors in the American Athletic Conference. Over the last 37 seasons, the Owls have played in the Atlantic 10 ('83 through '13) and AAC ('14 forward). Shizz is the ninth "Our Guy" -- as in a product of the Public League, Catholic League or Inter-Ac League -- to make an appearance on a first team. The names/details are below. Shizz, a Haverford School grad, is the only Inter-Ac product and one of only three who did not earn first team Daily News All-City honors while in high school. Meanwhile, what are the chances that Shizz will advance to the NBA? Rather promising. Six of the previous eight guys did so.

MARCH 11
TEDBIT
  Never know where research will take you. I thought this project might show that the Levan Alston Combo was on the doorstep, or maybe had even reached, a special milestone. Kinda true, but there's also this: While scoring 21 points for Temple Saturday in coach Fran Dunphy's final regular season game at the Liacouras Center, sr. G Levan Alston (a k a Shizz, a k a Shawn from his Haverford School days) raised his high school/college career points total to 3,014. Very cool, right? And there's this: Counting high school and college, each guy has been on teams that have won the same number of games, 142! Together, father and son recently surpassed 4,000 points. Dad starred at Gratz and played point guard for the 1991 squad that finished 27-1 and was considered by most (all?) to be the No. 1 team in the country. Future NBAer Rasheed Wallace was a sophomore star on that squad. Another future NBAer, Aaron McKie, had graduated in '90 after leading that Bulldog squad to the Public League crown. Next year, Aaron will succeed Fran as Temple's boss. Levan grew up around 24th and Allegheny and his first stop was New Orleans. For my commitment story, Levan said his parents, Levan and Doris, supported his decision to head to the deep south. They wanted him to "see new things" and "experience a different atmosphere." Levan had to sit out his freshman year due to Prop 48, then never found his rhythm as a soph. He played very sparingly in the '93 season, then transferred back to Temple and, after sitting out in '94, was a mainstay for the '95 and '96 squads. The Next Levan played exclusively for Haverford School (hey, who does that anymore in this Revolving Door Era? -- smile) and was a second team All-City honoree in 2015. On the day he committed to Temple, The Next Levan told Daily News writer Aaron Carter, "They say you don't really get a lot of love when you go away, so I decided to stay here instead of (going) and coming back." Worked out tremendously. The points breakdown for both guys is below.

MARCH 10
TEDBIT
  Can't imagine this has happened very often, if ever: One league pulled off an 8-0 sweep in PIAA first-round state playoffs one year after pulling off a 7-0 sweep. We're talking the good, ol' Catholic League and the details for this year's sweep are below. The CL's first-round winning streak stands at 16 or 17. On Saturday, March 11, two years ago, SJ Prep lost a first-round game that started at 5 o'clock. Conwell-Egan's game also started at 5 and the Eagles pulled off a wiu. Ryan then won a game with a 6 o'clock start. Just not sure if C-E's win was completed after the Prep's loss.

MARCH 9
TEDBIT
  Certain circumstances haven't allowed this feat to happen too often, but . . . Last night, for the fourth time going back to 2009, the Catholic League pulled off a 4-0, same-day sweep in state playoffs. This total victory margin ranks second at 53 points.

MARCH 8
TEDBIT
  The state playoffs begin tonight/tomorrow and eight (that's a record) of the 15 teams in the expanded Catholic League will be making appearances. Last year's record was 19-5 over four of the six classifications and two squads -- Neumann-Goretti in 3A, Roman in 6A -- won championships. The CL's record is now an amazing 127-39 (.765 winning percentage) and 14 state titles have been captured. The entrants in year No. 3 of the six-classification era: N-G and McDevitt in 3A, Bonner-Prendie and Carroll in 4A, Wood and Ryan in 5A, Roman and La Salle in 6A. Good luck to all!

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2009-16 (Over 3 of 4 Classifications)
2A -- 12-7
3A -- 54-9
4A -- 26-13
  Total -- 92-29 (.760)
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2017-18 (Over 4 of 6 Classiciations)
3A -- 12-2
4A -- 2-2
5A -- 12-3
6A -- 9-3
  Total -- 35-10 (.778)

MARCH 7
TEDBIT
  The Catholic League entered this year's four City Titles with a danger-danger-danger alert! Four losses would have given the CL a losing record all-time. Relax. The CL executed the sweep and now owns a 42-35 record. As mentioned last year, when the original series ended after the 1980 game (no enrollment stuff back then, folks), the CL trailed by 24-17 and its losing streak stood at six. But thanks in large part to Neumann-Goretti's dominance from 2009-19 (10-1 record), the pendulum has swung. About those six consecutive losses from 1975 through '80: It wasn't as if the CL reps were losing to cupcakes. Those six Pub winners finished with a combined overall record of 180-5! West Philly was 112-3 from '75 through '78 (25-0, 24-2, 30-0, 33-1) and Overbrook was 68-1 in 1979-80 (34-1, 34-0). The longest streak, though, belongs to the CL -- nine in a row from '45 through '53. Below are the records and percentages for the CL schools. Those schools in italics are no longer with us. Neumann-Goretti was formerly Southeast Catholic, Bishop Neumann and St. John Neumann.

MARCH 6
TEDBIT
  Can't be positive, of course, but it's likely Hakim Hart's recent City Title performance might own this chart for a while. The fact that he scored 40 points for Roman vs. Boys' Latin in the Class 6A City Title -- most ever by a CL player in CL playoffs/CTs -- has already been highlighted. In that same game, his three-number performance was 57, counting nine rebounds and eight assists, and that's nine points better than any other CL player going back to 1968. Also this year, Wood soph Rahsool Diggins slapped together a 47 -- 32 points, eight boards, seven dimes -- in the 5A clash vs. Mastery North. That checks in at No. 3.

MARCH 5
TEDBIT
  The fact that Judge sr. Shane Dooley can throw and shoot with skill has enabled him to sniff very rare air. Going back to 1961, it appears he's only the fifth guy to earn coaches' All-Catholic honors as a quarterback and basketball player. (If you know of others -- above honorable mention, that is -- please speak up.) Last fall, Shane was a second team honoree in the Red Division after passing for 1,800 yards and 18 TDs. Hey, he also rushed for 597 yards and 12 scores. In basketball, he scored 356 points in 23 games (15.5) and was a second teamer in that sport as well. The list below shows honors for the five guys. All played football in college. Tom DiMuzio was an All-American at Delaware. John Capppelletti earned the Heisman Trophy at Penn State and played in the NFL. For his senior year at Bonner, he moved from QB to RB. Chris Fagan became Millersville's career passing yardage leader. Andre Sloan-El starred at Emporia State, in Kansas. Prior to the early 1960s, A-C teams did not designate QBs. The non-linemen were merely listed as B for back. However, the ol' Southeast Catholic (a k a South Catholic) had a wonderful QB/hoopster named Jim Grazione in the mid-1950s. He was a first team b-baller in the '54 and '55 seasons with respective league averages of 15.9 and 25.0. In the '54 football season, he earned first team honors while QBing SC to the Catholic and City championships. He also played d-back and in one, late-season game ran for two scores, passed for one and made three interceptions. He was named the MVP after steering the Pirates past Frankford, 34-0, for the City Title. In that game he passed for 120 yards and one TD. For the season he passed for 23 TDs and ran for nine. He was a multi-year QB starter at Villanova and wound up playing (at DB) for the North squad n the Senior Bowl that followed the 1958 season. I spoke with Mr. Grazione a few times in the mid-'90s when his son, Dan, played for Episcopal. Great man! . . . Meanwhile, Dooley is headed for West Chester. His brother, Paul, a product of SCH Academy, plays QB there and will be a senior next season. Let the practice duels begin! Or should we spell it dools? (smile)
  UPDATE: I neglected to mention La Salle's Gabe Marabella. His accomplishments have been added below. Thanks to '03 La Salle grad Matt McGurkin for speaking up! Note to all: Never hesitate. I always want these lists/nuggets to be right.

MARCH 4
TEDBIT
  Roman's 94-point outburst vs. Boys' Latin in Friday night's 6A tilt claimed the Catholic League record for points scored in City Titles. As noted yesterday, Hakim Hart's 40 points were the individual record. The Top 10 totals are below. The overall mark belongs to Imhotep, which avalanched 99 points on Conwell-Egan in the 2018 4A game.

MARCH 3
TEDBIT
  Have you ever seen a player launch MANY shots and achieve perfection? If you attended Friday's Class 6A City Title at Southern between Roman and Boys' Latin, you almost did. You also saw a record performance. Roman sr. Hakim Hart, whose next stop will be Saint Joseph's, now owns the mark for most points scored by a Catholic League player in a CL playoff or City Title. According to stats provided by coach Matt Griffin, Hakim sniped 17-for-21 (81 percent!) from the floor while scoring 40 points in the Cahillites' 94-72 frolic. He also went 5-for-7 at the line and 1-for-4 (can't have everything -- smile) from beyond the arc. The CL/CT record was 39, first claimed in 1992 by Roman's Kyle Locke in the '92 CL final and tied by Carroll's Juan'ya Green in an '11 quarterfinal. (Click here for a pic of those two guys.) The CT record for a CL player was 35 by St. Joe's Prep's Steve Vasturia in '12 vs. Bartram. The list below shows all efforts of at least 30 points. Congrats to Hakim, who has racked up 990 points in just two seasons at Roman after arriving by transfer from South Jersey's Kingsway Regional in Woolwich Twp., New Jersey.

MARCH 2
  Note from Ted: Not sure if you have noticed, but something very uncommon has recently happened in La Salle's season. After not scoring a point ALL SEASON, 6-4 sr. Jack Rothenberg tallied two points in the championship game vs. Roman and then two more in the Class 6A play-in vs. Gratz. How does that happen? I reached out to Chris Carabello, who handles PA duties for the Explorers and also sends along copies of the scorebook pages after every game. His response is in this Chrisbit . . .
CHRISBIT
  Jack Rothenberg broke his foot about a week or two before the first game of the season. He likely would have been a potential starter or one of the first men off the bench. He definitely was projected very high on the depth chart. (He is also very bright.) He got his cast off the first week of February and played Senior Night against Wood (on Feb 8; second-to-last game of regular season). He is playing good defense and starting to get his shot back. He gets more and more minutes each game. He scored 32 points in a JV game vs. Malvern his sophomore year, so he can shoot/score. Hopefully he will be a bigger factor in the coming games. We are 23-3 without a player who would have been a starter or early sub. Jack's mother, Stephanie, teaches math at La Salle and his sisters have been basketball players at Mount Saint Joseph (girls school in nearby Flourtown). Sarah ('17) was a starter for the Mount and is now at George Washington University; she plays on a club hoops team there. Kelly ('20) is also a starter and today at noon she'll start playing for the District 1 Class 5A championship, vs. Villa Maria, at Temple's Liacouras Center.
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  Thanks for your hustle on this, Chris, and congrats to Jack for battling back to make himself a part of the Explorers' special season.

MARCH 1
TEDBIT
  This Tedbit was not inspired by something that happened this season. Was just kind of curious and here we go: How often has the top playoff scorer for a Catholic League champion been a guy who was NOT the team's most prolific point producer during the CL regular season? Going back to the 1970 season, the answer is 14 and Roman is the leader at five. The top average was posted by Roman's Nazeer Bostick (18.0) in 2015. Dallas Comegys (17.3) for Roman in '82, Tom Catagnus (17.0) for Kenrick in '76, Tyreek Duren (also 17.0) for N-G in '09 and Kris Dufner (16.7) for Judge in '98 complete the top five.

FEB. 28
TEDBIT
  What happened to the good, ol' overcome-some-adversity days? In 2002, St. John Neumann suffered four losses in regular season Catholic League action, but was able to stay strong through the playoffs and win the championship. Since then? Not one champ has lost more than two. The loss totals: four with none, seven with one and six with two. From 1950 through 1988, as shown on the list below, 11 champs lost at least four games. Counting the '02 Neumann squad, the average rounded-off record for those 12 champs was 10-5 and they won their championship games by an average of six points, 57.4 to 51.5. These days, 10 teams make the playoffs. Will we soon (ever again?) see an oft-scarred squad get things together in perfect fashion at exactly the right time and seize a championship? Hold your breath at your own risk.

FEB. 27
TEDBIT
  Here's some advice for teams hoping to win Catholic League championship games: Make sure you launch at least 10 free throws. Ten teams have NOT reached that number in the last 51 clashes. Eight have lost and one of the two winners had to do so because its opponent was in the same club. We're talking about the 1974 final, when Roman went 4-for-7 while beating La Salle (4-for-8). La Salle tied the within-51-year record Monday night when it fell to Roman, 64-50. The Explorers went 4-for-6 and did not even shoot a free throw until just over five minutes remained in the game. Interestingly, Roman has been involved in eight of the 10 games listed below.

FEB. 26
TEDBIT
  Thanks to last night's 64-50 triumph over La Salle before a packed house at the Palestra, Roman now owns 22 Catholic League championships since coach Speedy Morris broke the school's lengthy drought in 1969. Over the years, of course, the school has been powered by MANY stars. The list below shows all performances of at least 50 total points by crown-capturing Cahillites through quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. Lonnie McFarlan heads the pack with 69 in 1980 and checks in tied for sixth, as well, with 60 in '79. The No. 5 spot belongs to Hakim Hart, who last night scored 21 points after posting 14 and 26 in the first two rounds. Another current Cahillite, Seth Lundy, racked up 51 points for last year's champs. The following kingpins had no at-least-50-pointers: 1969, 1973, 1974, 1986, 1994 and 2007.

FEB. 25
TEDBIT
  Time to take a guess . . . Predictions for tonight's Roman-La Salle Catholic League final.
  Thanks to The Puckster, the project got off to a legendary start. I called him and asked him to predict the winner and final score. (Of course, he's an assistant at Roman, so there'd be no surprise.) Then this happned: "I gone wit Whoaman by six" OK, how about the score? "Whoaman 54, La Salle 52." Puck, that's a two-point difference. "Ah, just go wit it." It never ends, folks. And that's why everyone loves him (smile).
  The final update has been made! Picks received by 6 o'clock.
  Thanks to all participants!

FEB. 24
TEDBIT
  In the meaty portion of Catholic League playoffs -- we're talking quarterfinals, semifinals and finals -- 24 guys have scored at least 28 points since the three-point rule debuted for the 1986-87 season. Just five guys have reached their point total without hitting a trey and Neaumann-Goretti's Chris Ings became the first guard to do so in Thursday night's 72-66 semifinal loss to Roman at the treasured Palestra. Oldhead high scorers loved it because they've never appreciated that youngheads can rack up extra points solely due to distance. The list below shows overall and 3's totals for the 24 28ers since '87. Meanwhile, Ings slapped together quite the overall performance. He also dealt eight assists, according to assistant Pat Sorrentino, so he had a hand in all but five of N-G's field goals. Ten of those 13 other field goals were threes. So, let's make a conservative guess that six of Ings' assists came on treys and two others came on twos. That would mean he had a hand in 53 points! And who knows. He might have made the pass that helped Hakim Byrd get to the line and go 2-for-2 (smile). . . . Meanwhile, in this year's four quarters/two semis, the teams combined to launch 164 treys. Fifty-six were hit for 34.1 percent. In 1987, through the seven meaty playoffs, just 13 treys were hit. No one hit more than one in any game.

FEB. 23
TEDBIT
  If you attended Thursday night's Catholic League semifinals and decided to head home after the La Salle-McDevitt opener . . . Bad move. You missed a classic. Roman and Neumann-Goretti combined for 138 points (Roman won, 72-66) and the game was close throughout, except for when the very beginning produced a 10-2 lead for Roman. All time, 14 CL semis have offered the spectators as many as 135 points. The first one didn't occur until 1971 and that victory margin -- three points, SJ Prep beat North Catholic by 76-73 -- is still the lowest. Thursday night's tilt owns a tie for the No. 4 spot at six points.

FEB. 22
TEDBIT
  In what we'll call the Catholic League's modern era, starting with the 1963-64 season when the league expanded from 11 to 14 teams with the addition of Egan, Kenrick and McDevitt, 11 first-year coaches have steered their school to the championship game. Mike McKee joined the club last night as La Salle topped McDevitt, 49-41, and the Explorers' opponent in the championship game will be Mike's alma mater, Roman. Interestingly, Mike helped Roman beat La Salle in the '89 and '90 championship games by dealing nine assists in each. Of the 11 guys, five have won championships. But that hasn't happened since 1982. In '72, St. Thomas More's Eddie Burke won his second consecutive championship. His '71 crown was earned at his alma mater, SJ Prep. Kenrick's Mike Lynam is the brother of former NBA coach Jimmy Lynam.

FEB. 21
TEDBIT
  Tonight's once-postponed Catholic League semifinals, to be held at the fabled Palestra, will offer one uncommon matchup . . . but not as uncommon as back in the day. For the second consecutive year and fourth time in 10, one of the games will feature suburban schools. Really close to each other suburban schools, at that. We're talking La Salle (in Wyndmoor) vs. McDevitt (in Wyncote). Both will be fighting hard for a Wyn (smile). These schools also met in an '89 semi (after McDevitt notched its first ever playoff victory) and La Salle triumphed, 56-47. The first all-suburban CL semi took place in '63 and La Salle, new to the 'burbs after leaving behind the college campus at 20th and Olney, thumped Bonner, 75-58. La Salle-McDevitt will tip off at 6:30, followed at roughly 8:15 by Roman/Neumann-Goretti.

FEB. 20
TEDBIT
  Kyle Lowry, a 2004 grad of now-closed Cardinal Dougherty, continues his climb up assorted "Our Guys" NBA ladders. Sunday night, he made appearance No. 5 in the all-star game and just three OGs have played in more -- Wilt Chamberlain, Paul Arizin and Larry Foust. The list below shows stats for the eight OGs who have played in at least four. Arizin leads in PPG (15.2) and 50 percent shooting at the line did not help Chamberlain (14.7). Lowry's floor shooting (36 percent from floor, 27 percent on threes) has been shaky and he has attempted NO free throws. The last column has rebound or assist totals, based on the player's position.

FEB. 19
TEDBIT
  If you follow the Catholic League, there is one thing you have noticed about quarterfinals through the 2000s. At least one, pretty much every year, has been quite ugly. Not this year, people! The highest victory margin was "only" 11 points -- Neumann-Goretti beat Bonner-Prendie, 73-62 -- and that number is the lowball record for this century. The number was at least 20 in 18 of the 20 seasons (ouch) and at least 30 six times (really ouch). Details for the worst yearly "blowouts" are below. Quarterfinals go back to 1968. The record for lowest margin of victory in the least competitive of the four games is seven. In 1982, Bonner beat St. James, 56-49. The other three games that season were decided by 11 total points.