3 local teams quest to be NCAA champs

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Temple, Villanova and St. Joe's all open their NCAA tournament play.

The Villanova game is at 12:40 p.m. Friday in Brooklyn. They face the 15 seed UNC-Asheville.

The wildcats are just keeping their minds on today's game plan. They are not using their early tournament exits the last two years for motivation.

Villanova guard Ryan Arcidiacono says, "You have to completely let it go. If you focus on last year, completely different team, would take our focus away from Unc-Asheville."

Jay Wright, Villanova head coach added, "We want to win national championship, so how does that start, UNC-Ashville.

Temple is in Brooklyn too, readying for their match-up against Iowa at 3:10 p.m.

Senior captain Jaylen Bond is the only owl who has played in the NCAA tournament before, and his teammates are drawing on his experience.

Temple guard, Josh Brown says, "I asked him what the excitement and energy was like? He said it is surreal, nothing like the regular season game or like the NIT game we were in last year."

Fran Dunphy, Temple Head Coach says, "Just go play the game. We will be okay if we do that. We have some poise and toughness about us. We will be okay."

Meanwhile the team from St Joe's has left the east coast. They're out west in Spokane, Washington awaiting their game tonight against Cincinnati.

Tipoff is just before 10 p.m. It's an experience these seniors never want to forget.

"We want to go out fighting. We've been playing hard, giving everything we've got. This is what we're here for," said St Joe's guard, Aaron Brown.