The Big 5 has a new team and a new format, but it looks the same as it ever was

Rumor had it that La Salle and Drexel agreed to move the first-ever Big 5 tournament game back a day to try to access a higher level of referee. The reasoning being, almost every NCAA Division I school in the country was opening the season on Monday. So switching to Tuesday could achieve that officiating goal.

True or not, there in the flesh Tuesday inside Tom Gola Arena was Ted Valentine — TV Teddy himself, who had worked 10 Final Fours and four NCAA title games — happy to have the assignment. “This is city ball,” Valentine said during one break in the action, his own whistle used selectively. “They play, and they want to play.”

» READ MORE: In a season-opening dogfight, Drexel falls short in its Big 5 men’s hoops debut against La Salle

All that. Drexel’s first Big 5 game, and the Dragons fit right in. Nothing pretty, in Big 5 fashion. Nothing easy, in Big 5 fashion. By the end, the lead had changed 28 times. Crazy, even by Big 5 standards.

“That was a real basketball game,” noted one press row vet afterward. “Then Coatesville showed up.”

La Salle point guard Jhamir Brickus, the pride of Coatesville, took over late, getting La Salle the lead for good with 120 seconds left and adding free throws to put things away.

Drexel had come in as a 2½-point favorite and had won in overtime at Gola last season. But this was no shocker. Explorers coach Fran Dunphy is Mr. Big 5, with more City Series wins (OK, and losses) than any coach in history at his three local stops. More to the point, Brickus and backcourt mate Khalil Brantley are used to taking over late. Anwar Gill added a crucial steal and 15 points of his own. The Explorers earned this one, 67-61.

A coin flip throughout, with Amari Williams and Justin Moore leading Drexel. When a couple of late looks in the lane, good looks, didn’t fall for Drexel, the coin flipped for La Salle.

For the record, attendance was 1,641. So no, a new format won’t suddenly bring the Big 5 back to its glory days. But La Salle will have a date at Temple on Nov. 29 (7 p.m., ESPN+), and if the Explorers win at the Liacouras Center, they know they’ll be in the Big 5 title game on Dec. 2 at the Wells Fargo Center.

“It was a great game, whether it was the first Big 5 game or it was just Drexel-La Salle,” said Dragons coach Zach Spiker. “I think we had a lead, was it five?”

It was three, probably felt like five. The only time in the first 15 minutes of the second half that either team had more than a two-point lead.

“Then they came down and hit a transition three,” Spiker said.

That was Brickus.

“A physically, physically contested game,” Spiker continued. “Our guys fought hard. I’ll double down with our group. I know we’re a good team.”

“There’s guys from the city from La Salle,” said Drexel’s Moore, a Philly guard, and son of a Philly guard, ticking off the local ties, including former Archbishop Wood teammate Daeshon Shepherd starting for the other guys. “It just adds a little fuel to the fire.”

Of Brickus, generously listed at 5-foot-11, Moore simply said, “He’s a tough cover.”

“That’s the way it is,” Dunphy said of Brickus, sitting next to him at the postgame press conference. “He’s such a good player. He knows the game, inside and out. We’ll talk about his five turnovers on Wednesday or Thursday. He’s just a good player. He makes shots. And he knows exactly what we want to do.”

Sure, Brickus and Brantley go off script sometimes, the coach said. “They’ve earned that right. They give everything they have. It’s a good feeling, knowing these guys are experienced, have been through a lot together.”

In addition to a couple of crucial Brickus three-pointers, Dunphy pointed to a couple of tough contested baskets — “two really hard baskets. One was a reverse along the baseline … and somehow he figured out how to make that bank shot,” he explained.

The bank from the left block, Moore draped all over him. A tough cover.

“Drexel … always been a good, intense game,” Brickus said. “They always give us a run for our money, and we always give them a run for their money.”

Big 5 game? Different feel?

“It really felt the same,” Brickus said. “I just know we needed the win. … During the game, there was a lot of back-and-forth talking.”

Yeah, we saw it. In this new-look Big 5 tournament format … every game matters more.

“It’s really dope,” Brickus said. “I think it will bring more people in.”

As a player, does it matter either way?

”Nah, it [doesn’t] matter,” Brickus said. “Wherever we play, I’m ready, happy to play the game.”

Players play. Even the ref who had done a million big-time Big Ten and Big East and ACC games saw that after flying in for this one. “They play, and they want to play,” Valentine noted.

Whatever the format, or the teams, in many ways, the Big 5 is the same as it ever was.

» READ MORE: From City of Basketball Love: La Salle’s dynamic duo of Khalil Brantley and Jhamir Brickus are ‘fire and ice’