Here are our top 10 Philly NCAA men’s tournament moments of the 21st century

Doing a list of 10 of the most compelling City Six men’s NCAA Tournament games over the last 25 years is going to lean heavy on Villanova. The Wildcats have 34 Tournament wins this century alone. The other five area D-I schools have 12 combined.

So with that in mind, we spread the ink around a little bit. Enjoy the Madness.

Penn, 2006 first round

As the No. 15 seed, Penn held its lowest seed in the nine trips to the NCAA Tournament under Fran Dunphy, and threw a Texas-sized scare into the No. 2 seeded Longhorns before losing, 60-52.

Dunphy knew that the Quakers’ only chance was to take the air out of the ball. Penn led 23-22 at the half and was down by one with 6 minutes left. But Texas, with future NBA players LaMarcus Aldridge (19 points), P.J. Tucker (17) and Daniel Gibson (9), was just too much. It also didn’t help that it was virtually a home game for the Longhorns in Dallas.

Ivy League Player of the Year Ibby Jaaber led the Quakers with 15 points on 5-for-19 shooting, and Mark Zoller chipped in 13. Texas was favored by 15 points but had no prayer of covering. So there’s that.

“You’re disappointed, but there’s also the reality of who you’re playing against,” said Dunphy, who went 1-9 in the NCAAs as Penn’s coach. “I think our program is very reputable, especially to our peers. You just want to break through and get one of these. You want to play at this level. You want to have a shot. We did.”

St. Joseph’s, 2014 First Round

St. Joe’s was thisclose to pulling off a mild upset of seventh-seeded Connecticut in a first-round game, but the Huskies slipped away in overtime. The decision would reverberate forever.

The Hawks led by three when UConn star Shabazz Napier missed a shot with about 40 seconds left. Halil Kanacevic, one of St. Joe’s most reliable players, was unable to corral the rebound. If he had, who knows what would have happened? Instead, UConn’s Amida Bridah grabbed the ball, stuck it back in, and got fouled. It was a killer play that helped set up the overtime.

Connecticut went on to stun No. 2-seeded Villanova, Iowa State (3), Michigan State (4), and Florida (1) before beating Kentucky (8) to win the national championship. They had 95-1 odds at the start of the tournament but went on a run that was one loose ball away from never happening.

Villanova, 2005 Sweet 16

Villanova had given No. 1 seeded North Carolina all it could handle, but a controversial traveling call on Allan Ray with nine seconds left was pivotal. UNC prevailed 67-66 in a game that ended at 12:27 a.m.

Wildcats star forward Curtis Sumpter (15.3 points per game) did not play after tearing his ACL the previous week, and yet they still almost pulled the upset. It was the first NCAA Tournament appearance for Villanova under coach Jay Wright, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

“We were just playing for each other,” said freshman Kyle Lowry, who scored a then-career-high 18 points. “We just play for us, for Villanova, for these 13 uniforms and five coaches.”

Villanova, 2016 Final Four

Oklahoma star (and new Sixers guard) Buddy Hield entered the Tournament as the consensus national player of the year. He beefed up his resumé with games of 27, 36, 17 and 37 to carry the Sooners to the national semifinals. But then he ran into Villanova.

Hield missed seven of his eight shots from three-point range and scored just nine points in his final collegiate game. The Wildcats were men against boys in the 95-51 romp, which included a 25-0 run. Villanova shot 71 percent from the field, 61 percent from deep.

“That’s one of the best teams I’ve ever played in college,” Hield said afterward.

Villanova, 2009 Elite 8

Jay Wright had done nice things with Villanova in his first seven years, but fans were getting ornery that the Wildcats kept failing to reach the final weekend. That changed in 2009 when Scottie Reynolds, an Iverson-ish point guard, hit a buzzer-beater to lift Villanova past Pittsburgh and into the Final Four for the first time since 1985.

The Wildcats inbounded the ball with 5.5 seconds left and the game tied. Dante Cunningham took Reggie Redding’s pass and flipped it to Reynolds.

“In that situation, you have four dribbles and a shot. That’s five seconds,” Reynolds explained. “It worked tonight. Only has to work once.”

Temple, 2001 Sweet 16

It’s fitting in what turned out to be Temple’s final NCAA Tournament appearance under John Chaney that the Owls pulled three upsets and fell one game short of the Final Four.

Temple, a No. 11 seed, beat No. 6 Texas by 14, trashed No. 3 Florida by 21, and No. 7 Penn State by 12. Lynn Greer (21) and Kevin Lyde (13 points, 13 boards) led the way in the win over Penn State. Mind you, in mid-February, Temple was 14-12 and headed straight for the National Invitational Tournament. Then they won 10 in a row.

“We just wanted to get in the tournament, then see if we could catch lightning in a bottle,” Chaney said after beating Penn State setting up an Elite Eight date against top seed Michigan State. “That’s the way we feel every year. But it’s most surprising to get here, with only seven usable players. That’s all we have, really. It’s the most unusual thing that’s ever happened to me in my life.”

La Salle, 2013 Third Round

La Salle was so squarely on the bubble in 2013, it was sent to participate in the play-in game.

But they got past Boise State in Dayton, went to Kansas City, and upset No. 12 Kansas State, then slipped by Mississippi on a last-second bank shot by Bartram High grad Tyrone Garland. Afterward, he shared the catchy name of his shot with a national TV audience.

“That’s the Southwest Philly Floater, man,” Garland told sideline reporter Craig Sager. “Shout-out to my cousin Bern. Shout-out to my mom. ... All you all, man! Southwest!”

La Salle was 21-8 after losing to Butler in the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals. The unlikely run to the Sweet 16 ended with a loss to Wichita State, but the legacy of that moment – and that name – lives on.

St. Joseph’s, 2004 Sweet 16

St. Joseph’s started the 2003-04 season by beating Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden. They were 10-0, then 20-0, and eventually 27-0 climbing to a No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first and only time in school history.

The Blue Bloods weren’t happy that an Atlantic 10 team with an admittedly questionable strength of schedule could be the best team in the country. When the Hawks were blasted by Xavier in the conference quarterfinals, basketball snobs snickered and waited for St. Joe’s to make an early exit from the NCAA Tournament.

Instead, Phil Martelli’s gritty band of seven reached the Elite 8 by beating Liberty, Texas Tech (coached by Bobby Knight), and Wake Forest, the alma mater of CBS’ lead analyst Billy Packer — who at the time was St. Joe’s loudest critic.

Jameer Nelson and Delonte West each scored 24 points and Pat Carroll hit 5 of 7 three-pointers as the Hawks held off the Demon Deacons, 84-80. Tyrone Barley had 13 points, but his biggest contribution was containing star freshman guard Chris Paul, who had 12 points (on just two field goals).

“I give a lot of credit to Barley,” Paul said afterward. “He didn’t let me push the ball up the floor like I usually do. He was into me, turning me.”

Packer didn’t think St. Joe’s, which entered the tournament 27-1, deserved its No. 1 seed. He said Big 12 champ Oklahoma State, the region’s No. 2 seed, should have been the No. 1. The Cowboys did beat St. Joe’s in the regional final with a clutch three-pointer in the final seconds by John Lucas. St. Joe’s may not have reached the Final Four, but they did prove they belonged. Even if it was for just one magical season.

“I think he’s a complete [expletive],” Martelli said of Packer before the NCAA Tournament. “For him to go on national television and talk about a team that he’s never seen, he can kiss my [expletive].”

» READ MORE: Take a trip down memory lane with the St. Joseph’s team that rallied an entire city

Villanova, 2018 NCAA Championship

Villanova’s 2017-18 squad is the best City 6 team of this century. They went 30-4 during the regular season and then rolled through their six NCAA Tournament games with an average margin of victory of 17.6 points. The Wildcats’ last four wins were over No. 5 West Virginia, No. 3 Texas Tech, top-seeded Kansas, and No. 3 Michigan. The championship win over the Wolverines, 79-62, was led by redshirt sophomore Donte DiVincenzo, who had 31 points off the bench.

Six of Villanova’s top seven players went on to the NBA (Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, DiVincenzo, Collin Gillespie, Eric Pascall, and Omari Spellman. Phil Booth reached the G League.).

“I really can’t put my mind around it,” former ‘Nova coach Jay Wright said after winning the championship for the second time in three years. “I never dreamt of this. We just took it one day at a time, [and] tried to get better every day. And I thought we played our best game today.”

Villanova, 2016 NCAA Championship

Ryan Arcidiacono flipped a simple pass to Kris Jenkins who rose and hit the greatest shot in the history of the Final Four. Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer gave Villanova its first championship in 31 years.

The last four teams’ second-seeded Villanova beat in the tournament were No. 3 Miami, No. 1 Kansas, No. 2 Oklahoma, and overall top seed, North Carolina.

Jay Wright gets credit for drawing up the play, but afterward, he said casually, “I put it in Arch’s hands and let him make a decision.”

Center Daniel Ochefu shed more light on what was happening during the final timeout..

“I looked at Arch in the huddle and said, ‘Shoot it,’ " Ochefu said. “After the game, he came up to me and said, ‘I had faith in my teammate’ and the rest is history. … Arch could have easily taken the shot, and everybody in the whole gym would have been happy with it. … [But] he gave it up to his teammate.”

» READ MORE: From 2019: So which Villanova NCAA title team was better, 2016 or 2018? | Mike Jensen