Chronicowls '12 Temple-Duquesne

A standout shooting performance overcame a slow start to lead the Cherry and White hoopsters to their 10th consecutive victory, and 21st of the season. The Owls took two-and-a-half minutes to score their first basket, and  five minutes into the game the score was tied at 4-4. In the next ten minutes, the Owls scored 30 points, to take a decisive 34-22 lead. Juan Fernandez contributed 14 points during that span, 20 points overall, and logged 6 assists with but one turnover for the game. Temple shot 57% from the field, 52% from beyond the three-point arc, and 80% from the free throw stripe.
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Temple fans must prefer games on Saturday afternoon  over Saturday night. Yesterday's crowd of nearly 10,000 was greater than the crowd last Saturday night for the Xavier game. Hooter's Birthday Party couldn't have been the draw. There's a tradition that should be retired. Along with the "special" Simon Says game during half-time that involves some twenty mascots (they're not just team mascots any longer, now there are appearances by product mascots, like the J&J soft pretzel)
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Khalif Wyatt has perfected a move to the basket that looks awkward to me yet is very effective (Wyatt led all Temple scorers in this game, and is second for the season). Just this past week did a knowledgeable basketball fan inform me that Wyatt's move has a name (the Eurostep), it was introduced to the NBA by Manu Ginobli, and it has been adopted by several NBA stars, among them Dwayne Wade. Let the New York Times describe it:

 "Players in the NBA. now often showcase the Eurostep, a move in which a player drives past a defender by stepping one way and then quickly taking a big lateral step in the other direction. The move is a crafty way to distribute the two steps allocated to a player after he stops dribbling, and it goes right to the edge of being a traveling violation."      

All along I'm thinking that Wyatt's move is awkward, and actually he's being crafty. Keep it up, Khalif.
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There have many keys to Temple's success this season. Unquestionably, one of them has been the Owls' assist-to-turnover ratio. Their ratio of 1.27 places them 22nd in the nation (among 343 schools). Yesterday's game was their sixth of the season in which the Owls had at least 20 assists. Ramone Moore scored just three points, but he had a career-high 8 assists. Fernandez is now 7th in assists on the all-time Temple list.
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Temple is now ranked (for the first time this season) in the Top 25 poll, and stands at #16 in the all-important RPI rankings. And the Owls are 10-3 against top 100 teams.Two huge games on the road this week, against intracity rivals and top 100 teams LaSalle and St. Joe's. I expect both to be sellouts. FINAL home game, leap night, against UMass.
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Maxi's, right in the hear of Temple's campus, was the pre-game meeting spot. One of the few places left where one can find a juke box. And it has among its selections George Thorogood's 1977 recording of the classic "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer".
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Temple scarves are everywhere, including the shoulders of Shellie Straub, former nationally ranked squash player, who was a Temple fan Saturday (and we hope from hereon) and joined the gathering at Maxi's.