But that's not going to stop us. Using statistics, a player's value to his team, what his coach asks of him, and just the good old eyeball test, we think the best player in the city is ...
Maalik Wayns.
(We pause here for howls of protest from Temple and Penn fans, and others who follow Philadelphia basketball and have strong opinions.)
To be sure, it's an agonizingly difficult choice, so difficult that perhaps it would be better to designate the three on the finalists' list as 1, 1-A, and 1-B.
We realize it's odd to pick someone from a team that sports a losing record. Barring a miracle finish, Villanova will see its string of seven consecutive NCAA appearances broken.
And the City Six coaches without a horse in this race - Giannini, Phil Martelli of St. Joseph's, and Bruiser Flint of Drexel - favor Moore because of his accomplishments in leading what is an already good team to near-NCAA-lock status, while giving props to Rosen for his play and leadership.
Three other players rated consideration - Tyreek Duren of La Salle, Langston Galloway of St. Joseph's, and Frantz Massenat of Drexel. In the end, we decided they were one stride behind Wayns, Moore, and Rosen.
Why it's Wayns
In favoring Wayns, a junior, we're taking into account all he has been asked to do on a team with five freshmen playing in the Big East, one of the nation's toughest conferences, without having a senior on the floor to share the leadership load.
"In our program, we put a lot of pressure on our point guards and we put a lot of pressure on our captains, and he's doing both as a junior," Villanova coach Jay Wright said.
