The schedule and national television coverage for the fourth annual Legends Classic men’s college basketball tournament have been completed. Go here for the story.

The Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Conference Championship has been such a big hit at Boardwalk Hall — where it has taken place the last three years — a new logo has been created that reflects the seashore locale (pictured). The sun and wave motif is pretty awesome as logos go.

The Atlantic 10 Conference in partnership with the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority (ACCVA) unveiled the new 2011 Men’s Basketball Championship logo.

The Championship will take place Mar. 11-13 at Boardwalk Hall. For the second consecutive year, first round games will be played on the campus sites of teams seeded fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth on Tuesday, Mar. 8. The Championship then shifts to Boardwalk Hall for the quarterfinal round on Friday, Mar. 11. All four quarterfinal contests will be televised through regional syndication. Semifinal action will take place on Saturday, Mar. 12, and televised nationally on CBS College Sports. The Championship game on Sunday, Mar. 13, will be televised live at 1pm on CBS Sports for the second straight year. Go here for last year’s coverage.

Fans can reserve all-session tickets for the 2011 Championship by calling Boardwalk Hall at (609) 348-7021 or via Ticketmaster.

Dayton vs. Xavier in AC.

Atlantic City has established a pretty impressive basketball legacy this year. Three teams that are either in the NCAA or NIT Final Four played here, Michigan State, Rhode Island and Dayton.

First up is Michigan State, coached by the remarkable Tom Izzo, who has taken his team to the Final Four six out of the last 12 years. Izzo brought his Spartans to Boardwalk Hall for the early season Legends Basketball Classic last November. His team had yet to gel and lost to Florida in the semi-final round. However, that early season loss probably helped his team later in the season. Michigan State was expected to win a couple of games in the NCAA, but as a fifth seed, no one really expected to see them in the Final Four for a second straight year.

The journeys of Atlantic 10 teams Rhode Island and Dayton are even more remarkable. Both Jim Baron’s Rams and Brian Roberts’ Flyers were hoping to make the NCAA tournament by winning the Atlantic 10 Championship in AC. However, the Rams after beating St Louis, lost to eventual champion Temple in the semi-finals. The Dayton Flyers lost to Ohio rival Xavier in the quarterfinals. Both the Rams and Flyers were 20 game winners and caught the attention of the NIT (National Invitational Tournament) committee.

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Cornell celebrates win over Wisconsin.

Yes, like the rest of the hoop-heads out there, my NCAA March Madness brackets are in a shambles and I couldn’t be happier. Okay, I wanted a free 46” TV, but really, I wasn’t going to win. The non-fan who asked her kids to pick the teams based on the coolest school nicknames was going to win.

What the games showed in the first week was what b-ball pundits have been saying all along, that this year in particular, the top teams are not that far removed from the rest of the good programs that are clogging up the middle. What we love about these “middle school,” mid-major programs is that they make up for a lack of great, destined-for-the-NBA players with real teamwork. These are guys who know they are turning pro in something other than basketball and they are taking advantage of their shining moment.

I mean you have got to love how Cornell plays the game, even as they ripped out the hearts of Temple fans with another first round loss in the Big Dance. Temple coach Fran Dunphy’s only consolation — after stoic Fran admitted that the lows are so much worse than the highs in the game of basketball — was that a well regarded Wisconsin team joined him in the agony of defeat to the Ivy League’s Big Red. How the hell did this team lose to Penn this year? I watched that game and I still don’t know how the Cornell team I saw that night has turned into the darling of the tourney along with Northern Iowa and St. Mary’s. My new favorite player is Saint Mary’s lovable lug Omar Samhan, whose array of inside moves and big grin turned the Villanova Wildcats into helpless kittens.

And, isn’t it just like Xavier to lose in the Atlantic 10 tournament then turn around and be the last A10 team standing by beating Minnesota, followed by a fabulous revenge win over Pitt, the team that eliminated them last year in a third round match-up.

Over in the NIT, both Rhode Island, with a win over Utah (85-83) and Dayton, with an impressive win over Cincinnati (81-66), are keeping the A10 alive into the third round. Rhode Island plays Virginia Tech Wednesday in the quarterfinals, while the Flyers will face Illinois.

Temple's Fran Dunphy.

What a great weekend of basketball it was as Temple University earned its third straight Atlantic 10 crown in an exciting and nationally televised title game Sunday against the Richmond Spiders.

As a final wrap-up, here are a few bits and pieces from the weekend.

The All-Championship Team was Lavoy Allen, Temple; Kevin Anderson, Richmond; Jordan Crawford, Xavier; Juan Fernandez, Temple and David Gonzalvez, Richmond.

The MOP (Most Outstanding Performer) was Fernandez, who had 18 points in the title game.

It was neat seeing the legendary Bill Raftery and Verne Lundquist in Boardwalk Hall, as they did the game for CBS. What a wonderful plug for Atlantic City. As State Senator Jim Whelan said to me, “The place [Boardwalk Hall] looks great on TV doesn’t it?”

Sunday evening, the three teams from the A10 learned who they would be playing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Temple, in the east bracket, earned a fifth seed, although the talk later was that the team perhaps deserved a fourth seed. In an ironic twist, coach Fran Dunphy’s team will play Cornell. Dunphy, of course spent 17 years coaching in the Ivy League at Penn. After getting knocked out in the first round the last two years, Dunphy will be looking for his first NCAA Tournament win as Temple’s coach against a familiar foe.

Xavier, sent to the west region and seeded six, will play Minnesota. Richmond, sent to the south region and seeded seventh, will play Saint Mary’s. If Richmond wins, their second round opponent will most likely be second seed Villanova, who plays Robert Morris in the first round. Nova better be ready for a battle if they have to face the Spiders.

In the final game of the night in the A-10 tournament, a game Umass squad, overmatched for three quarters, made a late comeback in the final ten minutes against Richmond. After trailing by 17 in the first half, 38-21, the Minutemen managed to shrink the lead to four, mostly on Ricky Harris and Anthony Gurley treys; Gurley finished with a career high 24 points and Harris has 19 in the 77-72 loss.

Richmond will play Xavier in the second semi-final Saturday, following the Temple-Rhode Island match-up at 1pm.

St. Louis's Willie Reed sends a shot to Camden County.

With eight freshmen and four sophomores, the St. Louis Billikens are not tournament tested and it showed against the veteran squad from Rhode Island. The teams were locked into a defensive battle featuring a lot of sloppy play and turnovers, especially by the Billikens as they were flustered by the Rams’ full court press. St. Louis couldn’t make their shots and weren’t getting many second changes.

Meanwhile, after a cold start for Rhody, their shots started to fall and when they didn’t, they were pounding the glass for second and third opportunities.  Freshman Akeem Richmond provided the offensive spark for the Rams with four treys, leading all scorers with 12 points, helping Rhode Island take a 28-19 lead at the half.

In the second half it was more of the same as the Rams used their press to keep St. Louis from ever feeling comfortable in their offensive sets.  Rhode Island dominated the second stanza in the team’s 63-47 victory. Joining Richmond (13 points) in double figures were Lamonte Ulmer (16 points) and Orion Outerbridge (10 points). Kwamain Mitchell led St. Louis with 18 points.

With the win, Rhode Island makes it into the next round and will face top seed Temple tomorrow at 1pm.

The Bonnies Jonathan Hall blocks a shot.

It has begun. After a sloppy start, as both Temple and St. Bonaventure shook off the jitters, Temple’s sophomore guard Juan Fernandez took control of the first half, hitting two quick threes and dishing the ball beautifully to Lavoy Allen who converted the passes into easy scores inside. Temple jumped out to a 20-8 lead. Fernandez ended the half with 12 points and five assists.

The Bonnies, took the hit and bounced back, behind the fine play of their top player, forward Andrew Nicholson. After missing his shots early, he settled down to score eight points in the first half, while Bonnies guard Chris Matthews chipped in with two treys. The Bonnies managed to get back into the game at 28-21, but Temple, behind the inside play of Allen (eight points and 10 rebounds) and Micheal Eric (10 points, 4 rebounds), were up 39-27 at the half.

The Owls jumped out on a 9-2 in the opening minutes of the second half to push their lead to 19, 48-29, and never looked back., winning 69-51. Fernandez finished with 17 points and seven assists. Allen grabbed 15 rebounds to go with 14 points and Eric finished with 13 points.

As if we didn’t have enough great basketball happening with the Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Tournament this weekend, the field was announced today for the 2010 Legends Classic taking place at Boardwalk Hall Nov. 26-27. Syracuse University, currently ranked No. 3 in the country and expected to make a splash in the NCAA tournament this year out of the Big East, is in the Legends’ field, joined by Michigan out of the Big 10, UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso) out of Conference USA and Georgia Tech out of the ACC. Last November Florida won the tournament beating Michigan State and Rutgers. Tickets go on sale Thursday, March 11, at noon.

Allen Iverson has come a long way since he ranted about “practice” and later drove himself out of town three years ago with his off-the-field antics. His tear-filled return yesterday via a press conference really did seem sincere, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be the same old A.I. once Lou Williams is back in the starting line-up or if his minutes are reduced.

Even saying that, I’m going to embrace the return of A.I. The Sixers have been painful to watch and if I’m looking at their guard line-up through the red-rimmed eyes of Iverson, I’m thinking, “Is there anyone there who deserves to start in front of me?” The Answer is “No.”

I suspect that with this offensive line-up, with Andre Iguodala, Thad Young, Jason Kapono, Elton Brand, etc., Iverson will be smart enough to drive and kick as often as he drives and shoots. No matter what happens, it will be more fun to watch the Sixers than it has been in the middle of their current, all-too-familiar losing streak.

I though it was interesting that Eric Snow was in town and attended the press conference. He was always a good influence on A.I. and was there to support him, as well as for his duties as an analyst on NBA TV.