Day after finals week. Week before Christmas. Didn't expect much of a crowd (over-under was 4200). But seriously, only 3100 fans? The crowd at the Villanova-Delaware game (not exactly a marquee match-up either) at the Wells Fargo Center was announced as 12,000. Certainly respectable. Leaves me perplexed as to the reasons behind such a wide gap in fan suppoer between the basketball programs of Temple and Villanova.
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The Liacouras Center has been friendly. Counting yesterday, 13 straight wins at home for the Owls.
Not very often the nation's leading scorer, at 28 points per game, comes into the Center. Xavier Silas scored 27 in an impressive performance. Didn't have much of a supporting cast, however.
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Yesterday's key stat: 21 assists, only 9 turnovers. Second straight game in which the Owls have had twice as many assists as turnovers. Lavoy Allen had his breakout game of this season, scoring 22 points. Michael Eric was one basket short of a double-double. Impressive when one considers that his playing time was limited by foul trouble to only 12 minutes. Several not-so-highlights. Only 2 three-pointers, none in the second half. 10 games into the season Temple's 3-point shooting has been, to put it kindly, subpar. Only 25% of their three-point shots have gone through the net. Their free throw shooting has been, well to put it bluntly, average. Yesterday, the Owls missed fifteen.
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We heard the announcement of the winning number of the 50-50 raffle. Of course, we didn't purchase tickets this time. If anyone from the Athletic Department is reading this post, I ask you to inform the student - athletes selling the raffle tickets that the announcement of the winning ticket is NOT at halftime, but at the first timeout following intermission.
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Three weeks until the next home game, so Chronicowls will be taking a holiday break. Despite the disappointing outcomes at the tournament at Disney World last month, the Owls have a chance to be 10-game winners before January. Reaching that milestone will require a win December 30 over Villanova on its home floor.
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It's certainly too early in the season to be paying much attention to the RPI rankings. But they're useful as far as getting a picture of a team's comparative performance to date. Temple is ranked 19. Ahead of Villanova. And the number one RPI ranked team is Georgetown.
A commentary by season ticket-holder Tim Cousounis on the fan experience of Temple University hoops
1 comment:
My appreciation of the Owls this season would be enhanced if Fran Dunphy would stop using "offense" as a verb. Okay, he went to LaSalle, but he coached for many years in the Ivy League before coming to Temple. English is the language of choice at all three institutions, last time I checked. Offense, as in "we offensed them pretty good today," is not a verb. Defense, tragically, has been converted to a verb by linguistically-challenged coaches and athletes, but Dunphy seems to be taking the lead in abusing offense. No, Fran, one does not "offense," one "plays offense," and if the Owls want to keep winning they need to address their offensive offense from the three-point and foul line, as Tim has outlined above.
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