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St. Josephs lives up to its billing as it rises in AP poll

Tiny St. Joseph's had attained college basketball celebrity, if not yet royalty, ascending in black tie to a No. 3 ranking in the Associated Press poll, winning its first 18 games in a red-carpet season that brought the flashbulbs of possibility and national attention.

And there was Villanova, its chief Philadelphia rival, awaiting Monday night for a mischievous pie-in-the-face interruption of this basketball coronation.

The Wildcats did expose a weak St. Joseph's frontcourt, which delivered only three baskets, and held the all-American point guard Jameer Nelson without an assist until the second half. Still, the resilient Hawks prevailed on the perimeter with a 74-67 victory as Nelson scored 23 points and guard Delonte West contributed 21 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. Now only Dayton at home and Rhode Island on the road seem to pose threats to a perfect regular season for the Hawks (19-0).

Philadelphia is in some ways the world's biggest small town, and, in such an insular place, St. Joseph's-Villanova offers the classic parochial antagonism. The universities are only seven miles apart, but the gulf between these ambitious Catholic institutions might be best described in terms of class instead of distance.

In the stilted terms in which such rivalries are often distilled, fans of St. Joseph's find Villanova supporters haughty and condescending, while Wildcats supporters find the St. Joseph's faithful jealous and insecure.

Villanova (12-8) is situated on the affluent Main Line, St. Joseph's on Philadelphia's grittier western border. Villanova belongs to the upscale Big East, St. Joseph's the second-tier Atlantic 10. Villanova is a Division I-AA football power and a longtime track power, and it won the 1985 NCAA basketball championship, while St. Joseph's lone appearance in the Final Four, in 1961, was later annulled by a point-shaving scandal.

Villanova is affiliated with the Augustinian Order, St. Joseph's the Jesuits. Both aspire to be the pre-eminent Catholic university in the Northeast. Both have grand basketball traditions.

Many fans and officials have ties to both universities, which perhaps are more alike than either cares to admit. Each considers itself sufficiently elite to charge about $35,000 annually for tuition and room and board.

But in sporting terms, the two agree on little beyond shared disdain. They cannot even agree if they have played each other 61 or 62 times in a heated rivalry that is known widely, if bombastically, as the Holy War.

"What used to be a local, intrafamily thing has now been perceived as some kind of class warfare," said Joe Lunardi, assistant vice president for communications at St. Joseph's and a radio broadcaster for basketball games.

"I don't know how accurate that is," he said, "but I don't remember a more anticipated game and I've done more than 600 St. Joseph's games, including the NCAA. Sweet 16. There are still people at St. Joe's, if given the choice, would rather go 1-26, as long as this is the one."

Even the site of Monday's game -- an arena with ski-lodge ambience at Villanova called the Pavilion -- caused St. Joseph's considerable chafing.

Originally scheduled for Dec. 6 at the storied Palestra, a neutral site, the date was moved at the request of ESPN. As the designated home team, Villanova wanted the rescheduled match to be played on campus. That left St. Joseph's fans with access to only 250 tickets in a 6,500-seat arena, so the university set up big-screen television viewing in its own basketball arena, Alumni Fieldhouse.
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