Penn vs. Villanova in Atlantic City? Want to bet on it?

It is perhaps the most anticipated home game of this coming season for the Penn men's basketball team. But the Quakers' annual clash with Villanova, which is expected to be among the top teams in the nation come November, might be about to move from near the Schuylkill Expressway to near the Atlantic City Expressway.

Negotiations are underway to have the game played at Boardwalk Hall, part of the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, N.J. For years the site of the Miss America pageant and many famous boxing matches, Boardwalk Hall may soon play host to one of the biggest games of the Big 5's 50th anniversary season. The arena can seat just over 10,000 fans depending on its configuration, meaning that the capacity for the game will likely be greater than the Palestra's capacity of 8,722 seats.

If the game is moved, it would be classified as a neutral-court game, and Penn would become the home team for the 2006 matchup.

But fans should not start putting aside money for the casinos quite yet.

A source in Villanova's athletic department told The Summer Pennsylvanian that "we've had some conversations, but it's a very early stage, and they are just what I would call preliminary discussions."

"This time of year there's a lot of discussions, so that's basically what it's in, the discussion phase," the source said. "It's a long way from being set in concrete."

Penn coach Fran Dunphy echoed those statements, noting that discussions about moving the game to Atlantic City have only been going on for "a week." Dunphy also said that neither school came up with the idea of moving the game, but that "some promoter" did so.

The Philadelphia Daily News reported that the promoter to which Dunphy referred is based out of Atlantic City.

The source at Villanova noted that the promoter's primary interest is getting Villanova to play in Atlantic City, and not necessarily against a specific opponent.

"It's conceivable that it could be a Villanova game and not be the Penn game," the source said.

A major factor in deciding whether or not to move the Penn-Villanova game specifically is that the Philadelphia Big 5 will celebrate its 50th anniversary this season, and sentiments are expected to be particularly high with regards to keeping as many City Series games in the Palestra as possible. Villanova has already agreed to move its home game against Saint Joseph's from the Main Line to 33rd Street, in part because the so-called "Holy War" game will be televised on ESPN for the fourth consecutive year this February.

The Villanova source admitted that the Big 5's celebrations are "one of the issues they'll look at too."

Philadelphia Big 5 Executive Director Paul Rubincam said that he is trying to stay officially neutral in the negotiations.

"I'd like to think we have some influence," he said, "but if it does go [to Atlantic City] it's for a legitimate reason, not just to spend a weekend."

As for what the two teams' fans do with the rest of their time, that is another story entirely.

One-night stand While Villanova might be Penn's most anticipated home game of this coming season, the most anticipated road game is without question the Quakers' trip down Tobacco Road to face Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. But fans should not expect the Blue Devils to make the trip north to Philadelphia any time soon ? at least not to play Penn.

Dunphy said that "there was no discussion about" Penn playing any games against Duke beyond this year's matchup, and specifically noted that "it was ESPN that called us" to get this year's game set up. A spokesperson for Duke University said that the date of the game has not yet been finalized.

ESPN has played a role in Princeton's games in Durham each of the last two seasons. The first game was televised on ESPN2 and the second was on ESPN.

Penn's most recent appearance on any ESPN channel was a 80-78 loss to Seton Hall on Dec. 13, 2000 at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J. That game was televised on ESPN2. Penn's last appearance on ESPN specifically was a 67-50 loss at Kentucky in the Preseason NIT on Nov. 17, 1999.

Feeling Bullish Ugonna Onyekwe, who graduated from Penn in 2003 has made the Chicago Bulls' roster for the Las Vegas Summer League. Onyekwe played the 2003-04 season Spanish team Le¢n Caja Espa¤a, and averaged 17.5 points and seven rebounds per game. He moved to another Spanish team, C.B. Ciudad de Huelva, for the 2004-05 campaign. In the regular season, Onyekwe averaged 13.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, and in the playoffs he averaged 12.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.

While at Penn, Onyekwe averaged 14.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.2 blocks and 1.1 steals per game. Known to many Quakers fans simply as "U," he recorded the second-highest points total in school history, and was named the Ivy League Player of the Year twice.

Two of the Bulls' games in Las Vegas will be broadcast tape-delayed on NBA TV. The July 12 game against Denver will air July 17, and the July 13 game against New York will air July 18. Human resources Rubincam said that the process of finding a successor to John McAdams as the public address announcer at the Palestra is still in its early stages.

He added that "maybe we won't just have one [announcer], maybe we'll have several," and that the announcer for Big 5 games could be different from the announcer for other games played in the Palestra.

"If it's the Big East or the Atlantic 10 or the Ivy League purely [controlling a game], that's up to their [athletic directors] to make that decision."

When asked how the search process for a new assistant coach to replace Gil Jackson is going, Dunphy replied, "We're moving along, and I would hope that by the middle to the end of this month that somebody would be in place.

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