If you come from Philadelphia and you find yourself a part of basketball's fraternity, you become a part of a network that goes back more than 50 years to the inception of the Big Five. It goes back to Wilt and to Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, and up to "Cat" Mobley and Rasheed Wallace. Philly hoops careers start in grade school. If you can play, you'll have the right AAU coach in the summer and a guy named Sonny Hill beating down your door. The network will make sure of that. The network will try and keep you in house as well, try to send you to one of its six local colleges, try and grow the legend of Philly hoops. For that reason, it's important to have coaches at those schools who understand what it means to be a part of Philadelphia basketball. Villanova's Jay Wright gets that, and it's paying dividends in his program.

I was one of the 20,800+ to pile into the Wachovia Center for Monday night's Big East battle pitting No. 4 Nova against No. 1 Connecticut. If the crowd at the Wach was any indication, Jay Wright has a program that will no longer fluctuate between mediocrity and competitiveness. Based on that building the other night, this program has arrived. From way atop the building where I hung my hat for the first half, to the tunnels at floor level where I snuck around during the second, there was enough electricity in that building to overload the Hoover Dam. Perhaps it was aided by a 12-point second half comeback highlighted by the scintillating (sorry Dickie V) stroke of Allen Ray's four 3-pointers, or the unlikely and confident contributions of seldom utilized big man Will Sheridan. Either way, Wright's team, with its fearless attack and tenacious pressure defense, cranked up the generators high enough to get them their first win over a No. 1 since 1995 and make them 10-1 in the deepest conference in college basketball.

Wright comes from Churchville, PA, a suburb of Philly. He was an assistant at Nova during the Rollie Massimino years, when the school and team were ostracized by the rest of the city's basketball community for trying to break away from the Big 5. Much of that animosity still exists against Nova from basketball fans in the city. There is also a feeling that the school and its students are pompous. Villanova is located in the heart of "The Main Line," a name as self-promoting as it gets. It's kids come, in many cases, from some of the richest families in PA, New York, New Jersey and Delaware, and for blue collar schools like St. Joe's, La Salle and Temple, that just doesn't fly.

When Wright came back to take the program over for Steve Lappas in 2001, he set about the process of healing its relationship with Philadelphia, and he's said and done all the right things. He lauds the Big 5, embraces its importance and took great pride in winning the City Series this season. The powers that be at Villanova have taken notice, and rewarded Wright with a 7-year contract extension, which on the Main Line, will come with financial security. And while Wright might be a hot name in the coaching market after this season, not taking the extension was never really an option.

"My family's here. I'm from here," Wright said. "It just doesn't get any better."