Chronicowls, MMX, Post4

An exciting college basketball game at the Liacouras Center last night. Plenty of good shooting , especially by Temple in the second half, making more than two-thirds of their shots, and many tense moments. Juan Fernandez had a season (and career) high seven assists, Luis Guzman had a single turnover in 39 minutes of action while contributing 10 points, and four Owls (led by Ryan Brooks' 22 points) score in double figures. Temple's defense, which has been holding opponents to 55.5 points per game to rank third nationally, was good, but not exceptional, last night. But like every other game this season, the Owls held their opponent last night to a score below its season average.
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The oddsmakers , once again, were right on. Temple was favored by 5 points. Temple's winning margin was 5 points.
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The over-under for attendance last night was 7300 (no, you won't find the attendance over-under in the morning paper, it's available only in Chronicowls) . It was hard to tell from a glance around the arena whether the crowd last night was larger or smaller than 7300. Those who bet the under were winners - the crowd was announced as 6813 . Rather meager, considering that Temple is nationally ranked and Xavier was undefeated in conference play coming into the game. At least the student section was full of loud supporters. And the pep band was in full strength.
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In the most recent Chronicowls, I mentioned that there wasn't much energy flowing from the crowd or the court at last Saturday's game, and I added that even the Diamond Gems were absent from the event. Turned out their absence was for good cause. Over the weekend, the Temple University Diamond Gems Dance Team competed in its first ever national championship at the Universal Dance Association College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship, held at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. Over 85 dance teams from across the nation competed in this event (its basketball equivalent would be the NCAA tournament). The Diamond Gems competed in the Division 1 Hip Hop Category and finished in FOURTH place.
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If you weren't at the Liacouras Center last night, your options to follow the game were limited. There was NO radio coverage, nor streaming video. But if you accessed
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A loyal Owl fan commented the other day that he would have found laughable the preseason prediction that Temple would win 16 of its first 19 games. I agreed. But put together good coaching, solid defense, crisp ball movement that leads to more assists than turnovers, and balanced scoring, and all of a sudden you have the makings of a 16-3 team.http://www.owlsports.com you could listen to a streaming audio version of the game featuring Harry Donahue doing play-by-play with John Baum providing game analysis. By the way, a group of us attending a Temple soccer game at Ambler Field this past fall were joined on the sideline by John Baum. John is an administrator in the Temple athletic department, a classy guy, and a fine representative of the athletic department and university.