Big 5 Basketball: AJ Brodeur, Penn lead 2018-19 City Series Awards

By Pan Karalis | Feb 13, 2019

PHILADELPHIA, PA - DECEMBER 11: AJ Brodeur #25, Max Rothschild #0, and Eddie Scott #13 of the Pennsylvania Quakers celebrate their win against the Villanova Wildcats at The Palestra on December 11, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Quakers defeated the Wildcats 78-75. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

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PHILADELPHIA, PA – DECEMBER 11: AJ Brodeur #25 of the Pennsylvania Quakers celebrates after the game against the Villanova Wildcats at The Palestra on December 11, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Quakers defeated the Wildcats 78-75. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

The Big 5 basketball season has come to an end, and we’ve wasted no time in recognizing the best performers from this year’s City Series

In April, the Big 5 basketball community will get together for their annual banquet, where honors like player of the year, coach of the year, and the all-Big 5 team will be recognized. Penn will be celebrated for their Big 5 championship, and undoubtedly some grand gesture will be made to honor Fran Dunphy, as he leaves the association as its winningest all-time coach. Jay Wright will probably look fantastic, but for the first time since 2013, he and Villanova won’t be accepting a Big 5 title.

But those awards will be given out based on bodies of work over the course of the entire season. What we’re interested in digging into are the top performers of the 10-game City Series, the games played between La Salle, Saint Joe’s, Temple, Penn, and Villanova, and what players and coaches are deserving of honors based on what they did in the four games on their schedule that matter more than the rest, their games against their Big 5 neighbors. And with the conclusion of this year’s series coming last Tuesday at Tom Gola Arena, we’re not waiting until the end of the year to roll out our awards.

Of course the most important piece of figurative hardware to be given out in April will be that awarded to the Penn Quakers, the outright winners of the men’s side of the Big 5 (Villanova did manage to sweep the women’s series), and that, of course, wont change here. While Penn is struggling in Ivy League play, and might not even make the Ivy playoff, earning a sweep of their Philadelphia rivals might be an even bigger accomplishment for their program than last year’s Ivy title.

So before we get into our City Series awards, let’s first recognize Penn’s amazing effort in going 4-0, toppling Villanova and ending their historic Big 5 winning streak, and bringing the title back to University City for the first time since 2002. Congrats, Penn.

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