Philadelphia won't have a men's basketball team in the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season
The Philadelphia men's college hoops scene is in a sad state.
For the third straight season, Philadelphia won't have a men's college basketball team representing the city during March Madness. From 1978 to 2022, there was always at least one Big 5 school Philly fans could root for during the Big Dance, but that's recently changed. The drought started in 2023, and no men's basketball team has rectified it since.
Villanova, once a local powerhouse and March Madness regular under former Hall of Fame head coach Jay Wright, missed out on the tourney once again, despite having the nation's leading scorer in Eric Dixon.
As a result, Kyle Neptune, Wright's successor, was fired after three seasons of failing to make the tourney. Neptune went 54-47 in his three seasons on the Main Line.
Along with Nova, the rest of the Philadelphia Big 5 — Temple, St. Joseph's, Penn, La Salle and Drexel — haven't had any success making the tournament.
St. Joseph's made a decent run in the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament but lost to George Mason University in the semifinals.
The Hawks have yet to make the NCAA Tournament since Billy Lange took over the program from Phil Martelli in 2019. St. Joe's played in the National Invitation Tournament in the 2023-24 season. The Hawks haven't gone dancing since 2016.
Last year, Temple reached the American Athletic Conference championship game in Adam Fisher's first season at the program, but this time, they were knocked out early in an ugly loss to Tulsa University without their best player and leading scorer in Jamal Mashburn Jr.
Next season, Fisher and the Owls will be hoping to head back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, when they made the First Four.
At La Salle, head coach Fran Dunphy, the winningest head coach in Big 5 history, finished his final season coaching and retired as the Explorers fell short of making the NCAA Tournament. The Explorers haven't made an appearance in the Big Dance since 2013. La Salle hired Radford University head coach Darris Nichols to replace Dunphy with hopes of getting the program back to the NCAA Tournament.
Like Villanova, Penn also made changes to its coaching staff. Steve Donahue, the head coach of Penn for nine seasons, was fired last week. Donahue went 131-130 in his time at Penn and made one NCAA Tournament appearance in the 2017-18 season.
The Quakers went 8-19 overall and 4-10 against Ivy League opponents in the 2024-25 season. They finished near the bottom of the Ivy League in back-to-back seasons over the last two years.
Drexel University finished the season with an 18-15 overall record, but head coach Zack Spiker's squad fell short of making the NCAA Tournament. The Dragons' season ended with a loss to Towson University in the quarterfinals of the Colonial Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Philadelphia women's teams also didn't make the their tournament, but they're not in a drought — Drexel University made the Big Dance last year.
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