Holy Family

College hoopster Matthew Kravchuk caught headlines when he got a split lip and bloody nose in a scuffle with his basketball coach at Holy Family University in January. Today, he surely has flaming cheeks and a bloody ego after he got busted at Wednesday night's Phillies-Mets game at Citizens Bank Park for allegedly stealing two beers from a concession stand. Kravchuk, 19, of Frankford Avenue near Grant, was charged with retail theft and underage possession of alcohol after someone saw him reach around the stand, grab two bottles of booze and stroll away without paying, police said.

The former Holy Family University basketball player at the center of a shoving incident that led to the resignation of the team's coach has been arrested on charges of stealing drinks at Citizens Bank Park. Police say Matthew Kravchuk, 19, reached around the back of a concession stand and took two  bottles of unspecified beverages during Wednesday night's Phillies-Mets game and tried to conceal them when he was confronted. Police did not say what the bottles contained but said they cost a total of $15. Kravchuk was taken to South Detectives and charged with retail theft.

Maggie Lucas (Germantown Academy) scored 23 points and Julia Trogele (Villa Maria Academy) had 20 points and nine rebounds to lead Penn State past Illinois, 79-64, on Saturday in Indianapolis, sending the Nittany Lions to the Big Ten tournament title game. Lucas, the Big Ten freshman of the year, hit five three-pointers for the Lions (24-8), giving her 110 treys and breaking the conference single-season record previously set by Ohio State's Caity Matter (106) in 2002-03. Amber Moore scored 19 points for the Illini (9-23)

Now that the uproar over his well-publicized confrontation with a player has subsided and his brief tenure as Holy Family's men's basketball coach has ended, the real John O'Connor might emerge from the shadows and fog. Throughout the week, as controversy flared after last Saturday's airing of a tape of the Jan. 25 incident, O'Connor remained an indistinct amalgam of rage, remorse, and tears. Was he the boorish martinet the video depicted? The remorseful, stubborn, and slightly tongue-tied focus of the national-TV spotlight?

As Holy Family University basketball coach John O'Connor left New York City on Thursday after his failed attempt at apologizing to player Matt Kravchuk on Good Morning America , he sank into a depression, his attorney said. "Yesterday might have been the worst day for him," O'Connor's lawyer, John Gallagher, said Friday. "He realized he would have to resign from his job, for the good of the school and for himself. " O'Connor and Kravchuk became the subjects of national media coverage this week after a practice video showing O'Connor apparently shoving Kravchuk to the floor was leaked to Fox29 and went viral.

Holy Family administration's strange silence. Bob Ford, C1.

IT HAD BECOME relatively clear in recent days that the Holy Family basketball saga was not going to end with a happily ever after. So, suspended coach John O'Connor met off-campus with his players last night and told them he was resigning. The resignation, which O'Connor said was agreed to by him and the university, stemmed from an early-morning practice incident on Jan. 25. Holy Family sophomore Matt Kravchuk was injured during a rebounding drill when the coach grabbed a ball out of his hands.

The only thing louder than the hubbub surrounding what happened at an early-morning Holy Family University basketball practice one month ago today is the silence emanating from the school's administration. Basketball coach John O'Connor has resigned his position as a result of the controversy that followed an incident during the Jan. 25 practice in which he struck sophomore forward Matt Kravchuk. O'Connor said the extent of the contact was unintentional. Kravchuk, who filed a criminal assault charge, disagrees.

Five days after video circulated showing he had shoved a player and hours after a national television appearance in which his apology was not accepted, John O'Connor resigned Thursday as Holy Family University basketball coach. The incident pushed Holy Family into the national spotlight, never more so than Thursday morning, when O'Connor and Matt Kravchuk appeared on ABC's Good Morning America . Prompted by host George Stephanopoulos, O'Connor apologized, and Kravchuk rebuffed him. "To be honest, it's kind of hard to accept your apology," Kravchuk said.

Early Thursday, John O'Connor and Matt Kravchuk will be sitting in a New York TV studio, telling their stories to the five million viewers of ABC's Good Morning America . It will be a strange and unlikely setting for a first-year basketball coach and a reserve player from the Holy Family University men's basketball team, a Division II program that just five days ago was 13 games under .500 and even lower on the national sports radar. "I'll be happy to tell my side of it," O'Connor said Wednesday afternoon from his lawyer's Center City office.