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St. Peter’s: A Cinderella Story That Began in Jersey City

Good morning. We’ll look at St. Peter’s University and its improbable place in the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament as the team prepares to face Purdue, the No. 3 seed, tonight. We’ll also look at how you will soon be able to call for an Uber and ride off in a yellow taxi.

Credit…Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

St. Peter’s, a tiny coed Jesuit school in Jersey City, has become synonymous with words like “improbable” and “implausible” since it ousted Kentucky, a No. 2 seed, and Murray State, a No. 7 seed that had not lost a game since Dec. 22. There have also been mentions of fairy tales and biblical narratives.

“It’s not just a Cinderella story,” declared Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey. “It’s David vs. Goliath.”

Of course he would say that. He is a St. Peter’s alumnus.

So is Tom Weatherall, who called the team’s rise “the story of the underdog.”

A 1991 graduate who once worked in the school’s admissions and development offices, Weatherall now runs Make-a-Wish New Jersey, a branch of the national nonprofit that fulfills the wishes of about 450 children facing serious illnesses annually. My colleague Tracey Tully writes that Weatherall has kept its castle-style headquarters lit in “peacock blue” every night this week.

In tonight’s Eastern regional semifinal, the St. Peter’s team will face players from a Big Ten school more than 10 times its size. St. Peter’s has 2,134 undergraduates. Many, like Menendez, who attended a generation ago, are first-generation strivers from families with a median income of $55,300. Just under half are Latino; 18 percent are Black; and 8 percent are Asian.

Student tickets to the game against Purdue sold out in under three minutes. On Thursday, tickets were selling for as much as $5,000 apiece on StubHub.

What to watch for tonight

If you missed the games against Kentucky and Murray State, the point guard Doug Edert is the one with the mustache that inspired its own Twitter account. He also has a name, image and likeness deal with Buffalo Wild Wings and a line of T-shirts, hoodies and crewnecks with Barstool Sports. He scored 33 points in the two tournament games so far.

But our writer Adam Zagoria, who has covered the St. Peter’s team, says that St. Peter’s is a 12½-point underdog — there’s that word again. “Texas probably would have been a better matchup for Coach Shaheen Holloway’s group,” he writes. “Purdue, led by its 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey, probably has too much size up front for the Jersey City school.”

Dive Deeper Into the N.C.A.A. Tournaments

  • On the Scene: After 40 years of competition, the women’s tournament is starting to more closely resemble the men’s, at least on the surface. Here’s what’s different this year.
  • A Team From Everywhere: Arizona has an international roster dedicated to unselfish basketball. Their coach wouldn’t have it any other way.
  • St. Peter’s Celebrates: The small Jesuit university in Jersey City is in high spirits after upsetting Kentucky and advancing to the round of 16.

There has been talk that Holloway might leave when the season ends, perhaps for the head coach’s job at Seton Hall University, his alma mater. There has also been talk that some St. Peter’s players might follow.

But St. Peter’s leading scorer, Daryl Banks III, told Adam that “we’re not really thinking about that at all.”

“We’re just focused on the task ahead,” Banks said.

And, as Steve Prohm, Iowa State’s coach from 2015 to 2021, noted on the podcast “Field of 68,” St. Peter’s is “off the chart defensively.”

“If you defend and compete like they’re going to,” he added, “they’re going to have an opportunity to win. Those kids believe they’re going to win. They got a swagger.”


Weather

Prepare for wind gusts on a mostly sunny day in the low 60s. At night, temps will drop to the mid-40s.

alternate-side parking

In effect until April 14 (Holy Thursday).


The latest New York news

The pandemic

  • Professional athletes and performers working or based in New York City will no longer be required to show proof of vaccination against the coronavirus.

  • New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco lost a total of over 700,000 people, according to the Census Bureau.

Other big stories

  • An appointee to the city’s Panel for Educational Policy was forced to resign over a book she wrote that called homosexuality a sin. She said she is not homophobic and was considering legal action against the city.

  • A “Gangsta Night” themed gathering at a basketball game, where some students pretended to be members of the Crips and the Bloods gangs, revealed racial fault lines in a rural town upstate.

New York at the Oscars

  • As a fifth-grader in Brooklyn in 1965, Jay Rosenblatt was part of a mob of students in Brooklyn that punched and kicked a classmate. Rosenblatt, who grew up to be a documentary filmmaker, revisited the incident in his Oscar-nominated short film, “When We Were Bullies.”

  • Read our coverage of this year’s Academy Awards.


Hailing a taxi the way you hail an Uber

Credit…Damon Winter/The New York Times

The ride-sharing service Uber set out to disrupt the taxi industry with its app and the promise of cleaner cars, greater convenience and complete cashlessness. Then the pandemic disrupted everything, and now Uber is joining forces with taxis in New York City.

Uber app users will soon be able to choose a yellow cab. The company said the price, calculated on the app before the rider confirms the trip, will be the same as a standard individual ride, known as Uber X.

But riders might pay more if they hail a taxi in the street — though that may not always be the case. Trip costs and driver payments are controlled by algorithms that vary depending on the app, the length of a trip in minutes and miles, the time of day and other factors.

Uber said it would provide more details in the coming months. Its partnership with the taxi industry in New York, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, will generate more revenue for the company because it collects a fee on every ride ordered through the app.

New Yorkers can still wave down yellow taxis in the street, the same as always, or order them through two taxi apps, Curb and Arro, as they can now. Every taxi in the city is equipped with meters and technology from Curb or Creative Mobile Technologies, which operates the Arro app. Both apps provide upfront pricing, the same as Uber.

“On the one hand, Uber and yellow cab seem completely like water and oil,” said Bruce Schaller, a former city transportation official. “On the other hand, when you go hail a cab or go to your smartphone to get an Uber, it will be the same experience as it was before. So it’s kind of like a big change and the same thing all at once.”

When a rider using the Uber app requests a taxi, the trip will be referred to Curb or Creative Mobile Technologies, which will apply Uber’s pricing, including surge pricing, which can significantly increase the cost at peak times. Taxi drivers will continue to be paid through Curb or Creative Mobile Technologies, and Uber and the taxi company will collect fees from the ride.

Bhairavi Desai, the head of the Taxi Workers Alliance, a group that represents cabdrivers, said she was expecting drivers accepting trips from the Uber app would earn less than if they picked up passengers off the street and took them to the same place.

She urged drivers to seek better fares from Uber, noting that the agreement was struck “at a moment when the companies need this deal more than the drivers do” because Uber is “hemorrhaging drivers.”

“We’re going to seize it as an opportunity to negotiate proper terms,” she said.


What we’re reading

  • Cutbacks in the city’s emergency food distribution program are leaving food pantries in short supply, The City reports.

  • NY1 reported on the mayor’s new initiative to expand access to doulas and launch a study around midwife-assisted births.


METROPOLITAN diary

Back at the Show

To mark the two years of the pandemic, this week’s Metropolitan Diary entries features reader tales of life in New York City during the pandemic.

Dear Diary:

Olivia and I met at college in New York. After leaving in 2019, we both moved back two years later and promptly got tickets to see Straight to Hell, a Clash cover band that is one of our favorites, play their annual Joe Strummer birthday tribute show at the Knitting Factory.

As usual, the show was toward the end of the summer, when the weather in New York starts to shift from sweltering to mild.

The band and the vibes were the same as always: loud, spirited and fun. But there were some differences, like vaccination checks. There was also less moshing than usual.

The people in the crowd were also the same. Because Olivia and I had been coming for years, I recognized some of the faces: regulars and ardent Clash fans. I had never spoken with any of them. I wondered if they recognized me too.

The band’s set was diverse, deep-cut favorites peppered in with energetic singalongs and crowd pleasers.

“It’s great to have live music again,” the lead singer said at one point.

There were cheers, and then they broke into the next song.

— Jennifer Suzukawa-Tseng

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.


Glad we could get together here. See you Monday. — J.B.

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.

Melissa Guerrero, Jeff Boda and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].

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