West Virginia

Football will be at the top of the agenda at Wednesday's regularly scheduled meeting of Big East Conference presidents in New York, a source said Thursday. It is unclear whether the presidents will vote at that time on Temple's membership in the conference. Big East presidents always meet at the men's basketball tournament, which will take place at Madison Square Garden. The conference needs an eighth football member for next season because West Virginia left for the Big 12. Assuming Temple receives and accepts an invitation, the school would have to quickly negotiate exit fees.

A Philadelphia man testified Wednesday that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest who allegedly sexually abused him for years starting the late 1970s had said a colleague - now a bishop in West Virginia - also had sex with teenage boys. The 48-year-old witness, identified only as "John" in the 2005 report of the Philadelphia County grand jury, described a meeting one summer while in high school when he spent summers at the Rev. Stanley Gana's 110-acre farm in northeastern Pennsylvania.

They played a big basketball game yesterday at McGonigle Hall. And to tell you something about the kind of game it was, the people who summed up the day best were the people in the Temple band. They did that just by launching into that time-honored, social-commentary number, "Rock Around the Clock," midway through the second half. And the only big upset was that they didn't go right into "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" when that one was over. You see, the clock - or rather the lack of one - turned out to be a big issue during Temple's rocky, 57-51 victory yesterday over West Virginia.

Kemba Walker scored 21 points and Jerome Dyson added 17 as Connecticut (17-11, 7-8 Big East) took a 73-62 win over No. 8 West Virginia (21-6, 10-5) last night in Hartford, Conn., the Huskies' third win this season over a top 10 team. Stanley Robinson had 15 points and 13 rebounds for UConn, which has won three straight to keep its NCAA tournament hopes alive. The Huskies are 3-1 since coach Jim Calhoun returned from a medical leave of absence. Connecticut was 3-4 during the 23 days he was gone.

Korinne Campbell (10 points) hit two free throws late as host West Virginia defeated Villanova, 45-41 in Big East women's basketball action last night. Laura Sweeney scored a career-high 19 for 'Nova. (10-5, 0-3 Big East). WVU improved to 16-1, 4-0. In another area women's game: At Saint Joseph's, Dominique Bryant scored 11 points as the Hawks (8-8, 1-1 Big 5) thumped Penn (1-13, 0-3), 57-40.

For West Virginia, there was no keeping up with the Joneses in this year's Insight.com Bowl. Quarterback Corby Jones scored three touchdowns and sophomore Julian Jones had a big night defensively as Missouri defeated the Mountaineers, 34-31, Saturday at Tucson, Ariz. Julian Jones, a sophomore cornerback who usually doesn't start, earned the outstanding player award with a performance that included a blocked punt, intercepted pass, 39-yard kick return and 10 unassisted tackles.

NATE SMITH and his new football teammates have stories to tell. While strapping on pads in the locker room . . . Wolfing down lunch in the cafeteria . . . Riding around town on a Saturday night . . .  Though the story Smith tells, dating back to a down moment in the 2010 season, remains difficult to relive, he feels the one related by his new grid buddies is much more painful. First, some particulars. Smith, who yesterday made an oral commitment to play defensive back at West Virginia, is a 6-foot, 190-pound senior at Archbishop Wood, and a star across many skies (wideout, safety, cornerback, return man)

PITTSBURGH - West Virginia took a 75-mile bus ride to town. Gonzaga flew more than 2,200 miles. Many said it wasn't fair that the No. 7 seed had to travel so far to play No. 10, barely an hour from its campus, at the Consol Energy Center. They were all right. It wasn't fair. Gonzaga jumped West Virginia midway through the first half last night and never let up, blowing the Mountaineers out of the Big East to the Big 12 with a sendoff that only a Pittsburgh fan could love.

Are the non-football schools in the unsettled Big East Conference thinking of leaving and creating their own basketball-first league? The answer, according to Joe Bailey on his third day as interim commissioner, is no. In a teleconference with reporters on Wednesday, Bailey - who agreed to become the temporary head of the Big East after John Marinatto resigned Monday - declared he had heard no talk of a mass defection. The managing director of an executive sports recruiting firm and former CEO of the Miami Dolphins, among other positions, he actually poked fun at the claim.

After a week of interstate legal maneuvering, a West Virginia judge has ordered a Catholic church official in Wheeling to testify in the Philadelphia trial involving alleged sex abuse by some priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The ruling late Thursday by Ohio County Circuit Judge Ronald E. Wilson ended an impasse over a demand from Philadelphia prosecutors for live testimony from Msgr. Kevin Michael Quirk. Philadelphia prosecutors want Quirk to testify about his questioning of the Rev. James J. Brennan at a 2008 canonical trial where Quirk was one of three church judges.

A Philadelphia man testified Wednesday that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest who allegedly sexually abused him for years starting the late 1970s had said a colleague - now a bishop in West Virginia - also had sex with teenage boys. The 48-year-old witness, identified only as "John" in the 2005 report of the Philadelphia County grand jury, described a meeting one summer while in high school when he spent summers at the Rev. Stanley Gana's 110-acre farm in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Prosecutors in the landmark trial involving the Catholic church's handling of allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests have been stymied in an attempt to compel the testimony of a church judge who participated in a previous canonical trial of the Rev. James J. Brennan. "We are having a problem with a material witness petition in West Virginia," Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington told Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina on Tuesday. According to Blessington, an unnamed West Virginia judge has balked at honoring the district attorney's "material witness petition" for Msgr.

LAKEWOOD BLUECLAWS Level: Class A League: South Atlantic League Location: Lakewood, N.J. Website: lakewoodblueclaws.com Ballpark: FirstEnergy Park Directions from Philadelphia: Take Ben Franklin Bridge, merge onto Route 30 E. Merge onto Route 38 E and follow to Route 73 S. Follow 73 S to N.J. Turnpike. Take turnpike N to I-195 E. Merge onto US-9 S (Exit 28A) toward Lakewood. Turn left onto Hurley Avenue. Turn right onto CR-528/S Clifton Avenue.

Quarterback Danny O'Brien caused a stir at Penn State's opening of spring practice Monday when he was spotted on the field wearing a Nittany Lions jacket. But O'Brien, a transfer from Maryland, won't be wearing a Penn State uniform. Via Twitter, O'Brien said, "I will always be a proud Terp alum, but am hungry to get after it and start my next chapter in Madison! Lots of hard work ahead. #JumpAround" The news was first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. O'Brien had visited Penn State earlier this month, then was in Wisconsin over the weekend before stopping again in State College.

PITTSBURGH - West Virginia took a 75-mile bus ride to town. Gonzaga flew more than 2,200 miles. Many said it wasn't fair that the No. 7 seed had to travel so far to play No. 10, barely an hour from its campus, at the Consol Energy Center. They were all right. It wasn't fair. Gonzaga jumped West Virginia midway through the first half last night and never let up, blowing the Mountaineers out of the Big East to the Big 12 with a sendoff that only a Pittsburgh fan could love.

Connecticut kept a great story going Wednesday, and West Virginia closed a chapter of its basketball history at the Big East tournament. Shabazz Napier scored 26 points and Jeremy Lamb added 22 to lead the Huskies to their 13th straight postseason win, 71-67, in overtime over the Mountaineers at Madison Square Garden in New York. The victory kept alive the hopes of a second straight Big East title for the Huskies (20-12), who won a record five games in as many days last year and then went on to win six more in earning the school's third national championship.