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Message: [QUOTE="FfldCntyFan, post: 4279367, member: 71"] Way back when discussions first began on assembling Northeast schools for a top flight men's basketball conference (what became the BE) LaSalle could have made the claim that they were ahead if all Philly programs. They had a national title under their belt (were only a few years further removed from it at the time than we currently our from our first) and had an eventual national player of the year (Michael Brooks) on their roster. Gavitt's preference for Nova as the Philly school (and his willingness to wait a year for them to join, something he likely would only have done for a couple schools) made BE membership a non-starter for LaSalle. Temple & St Joe's kept them out of the Atlantic (then 8, successor to the Eastern Eight) 10 left LaSalle scrambling. They were (as a catholic school) able to find a partner in the MAAC but that clearly put them at a lesser level than Temple & St Joe's and started their drop in significance among the Big Five. [/QUOTE]