I am so proud of our St. Joe's Hawks - #2 in the country....23 and 0 - and no big overblown recruiting budget....just a tiny private college winning game after game after game with the best backcourt in the country - Jameer Nelson and Delonte West.

After so much disappointment with our Pro teams....it's nice to have something to get excited about here in Philly.
And I'll be in the Palestra (a hallowed hall of college basketball-dom) on Saturday afternoon to watch them play Temple.
Go Hawks!!!!!!!

St. Joe's plays at the Palestra? I was there when Penn beat Princeton last week. Grr. :mad:

If I remember right, the Stanford Indians are still rated ahead of St Joes!

Lawrence, Princeton going to do much in tournament this year?

marc

Yes - Stanford is also undefeated...and #1. But marc, let's talk recruting budgets and school size, etc. St. Joe's is a teeny, tiny school that will never be on any athelete's "MUST ATTEND" school. They are most definitely David to everyone else's Goliath.
And yes, Lawrence, most Big 5 games are played at the Palestra. This should be a doozy. And don't write off Temple's chances of beating St. Joe's. Temple is always dangerous in late February....and with any Big 5 game, you never know what will happen.

Last year the cc moderator zapped my NCAA pool. Can we start a thread here after the selections for the tournament get made? I love college basketball!! March maddness is my time of year.

Marc, Princeton won't go to the tournament this year becaue the Ivy League champion automatically qualifies (no playoffs). Doesn't really matter - whichever Ivy team goes always loses in the first round anyway. Well, not exactly true...in 1996 Princeton upset UCLA but then got squashed by Ole Miss.

Don't get me started on Stanford...

Judith - I'm with you all the way!!!! We can play for RSSC prize tokens! (I've been carrying around my lonely one since Mariner 2003!

I cashed mine in for a bookmark that I've already lost! :( Are the tokens transferrable across ships? If so, I should have banked it for the mug.

Lawrence, of course. I now have a satchel with 49 tokens at home. I'm saving up for the free cruise. Although the Ferrari at 35,000 tokens seems a better deal.

They are supposed to come out with better merchandise to select from. We have three of the Radisson duffel bags (which are wonderful). Don't want napkin rings.

MArch MAdness Pool - Great Idea!
I'll be cruising for part of it, I think (I am away Mar. 8 - 21 - I assume I'll miss a Round or two?)

As for the Palestra - best place to watch basketball in the Country.

Penn has had some good performances in the NCAA's.
Not this year though.

GO OWLS!!!!!

Yeah Gil - talk about feeling like traitors - Mark and I are both Temple grads....we got our tickets from Temple (St. Joe's has been sold out all year) we'll be sitting in their section, no doubt. and we'll be rooting for St. Joe's.!

Okay - I'm slow here. Tokens???

Sue, Radisson uses tokens as "rewards" for all sorts of mental and physical "games" onboard. At the end of each cruise, they have a "token exchange."

Tokens can be exchanged for:

book marks
coffee mugs
passport holders
tote bags
jewelry boxes
napkin rings
clock
duffle bag

There might be one or more that I have forgotten. Bookmark is 1 and clock is 20, everything else falls in between.

One of Ngaire's clients has accumulated over 500 of these tokens. On our last cruise, we competed continuously whether it was trivia, pictionary, bocce in the atrium or baggo by the pool. You also earn tokens for the daily quiz.

I find the constant competition enjoyable on the cruise. I will never earn enough for the free cruise (I forget exactly how many tokens) or the Ferrari, but I still do like to keep my mind sharp.

yeah - but it's a lot more fun when you win!!!!! (As a holder of one little poopy token can attest.)

I guess it's obvious what I haven't been doing on these cruises.....

How do you have time for all that?? In between excusions I have to rest up for cocktail parties, meals, and evening activities! ;)

Marc and Arlene manage to do twice as much as everyone else on their cruises! I swear they run on adrenelin! (sp?)

Our first cruise was 19 days with a lot of sea days. Earned around 20 tokens, primarily for trivia. Second cruise, won a few tokens for trivia. Third cruise, played trivia once but started doing daily quiz with a lot of help from fellow VOFers and one a few tokens. Last cruise....lots of sea days. Even when in port, I usually was back in time for afternoon baggo or bocce. Won around 35 tokens.

Of course, we are in bed by 1100 every night so we missed out on the karaoke and other parties (unless there was a trivia type game after the show). BTW, they also were giving out tokens for those that sang at karaoke!

Also, neither of us spend a lot of time out by the pool. That is what is so nice about cruising....activities for everyone!

I never got any tokens for singing at karaoke! :(

Jamie had a lot more token events than did Barry. In fact, the ship ran out of tokens so they started giving out IOUs and had a token redemption a day early.

we had VERY few token events on Navigator. (Not that I would have won any more!!)