So, as the resident die-hard Temple fan among my friends, I always have to answer questions for Temple and the A-10, in general. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was talking to two of my friends (fans of St. John’s and Rutgers) about the state of college hoops. One of them looked at me and said, “So, is Temple a Sweet Sixteen team?” My immediate reaction was “no way.” I guess the ten years since the second-round Seton Hall debacle has jaded me a bit. I no longer think that a semi-decent Temple team is a national contender. And, my knee-jerk reaction was that this is a semi-decent Temple team. So, my first reaction was “Sweet Sixteen? No, I don’t think so.”
But, then I thought about it. They are ranked in the top 20, and have been since mid-December. They are in first place in a conference that has as many as seven teams with NCAA tournament aspirations. They have swept the Big 5, which includes a Villanova team that has an outside shot at a 1-seed. Their worst loss is to a St. John’s team with 6 Big East wins. They are well on their way to a 4- or 5-seed. In fact, if they win out and then win the A-10 tourney next week, they would probably be in the discussion for…gasp…a 2-seed! So, how is this team not a legitimate Sweet Sixteen candidate? The answer is: they most definitely are. But, it’s not because they jump off the page, talent-wise. It’s a combination of great team defense, a great coach, a multi-faceted offense that makes up for its lack of a pure scorer with decent, streaky scorers at the perfect positions, and, most importantly, a very weak college hoops landscape.
After I answered, “No way,” the question that followed was, “Okay, well name me 16 clearly better teams.” (Obviously, because we were drinking and like to throw out random college hoops questions.) And, I absolutely could not. Think about the major conferences.
The ACC, Pac-10, and SEC, combined, have only two–maybe three–teams clearly better than Temple. I’ll give you Duke and Kentucky. I will probably give you Vanderbilt (though it’s arguable). After that, can you really say that the Floridas, Tennessees, Marylands, or Cals are clearly better than the Owls. I don’t think so.
Yes, the Big East is dominant this year, but after Syracuse and Villanova, are these teams really that much better than Temple? West Virginia? Probably. Pitt? Maybe, but it’s definitely an argument. G’town? Marquette? Louisville? It’s really hard to say that they are definitely better than the best team in the A-10. UConn? Notre Dame? Cincinnati? No way.
The Big XII is having a terrific year. But, who in that conference is clearly better than Temple? Kansas and Kansas St.? Definitely, but that’s probably it. Texas A&M, Oklahoma St., Texas, and Baylor have all been really good at times this year, but I wouldn’t say that they’re clearly better than the Owls.
The Big Ten was supposed have a great year. I would give you Ohio St., Michigan St. and even a Hummel-less Purdue, but I would probably take the Owls over Wisconsin and definitely over Illinois.
What about the so-called mid-majors? Gonzaga and Butler are outstanding, but would they win the A-10? Probably, but not definitely. The Mountain West four good teams, but only BYU and New Mexico are even in the conversation, and it’s an interesting argument.
So, in recap, though the Owls do not really appear to be an “elite” team this year, we may have to consider the field against which they will be pit in two weeks. If Syracuse, Kansas, and Kentucky are clear #1-seeds. Barring any disasters down the stretch, Duke, Ohio St., Villanova, and Kansas St. will all be ahead of Temple on the ole S-curve. But, after that, it’s hard to imagine that, with all the conference cannibalism that is bound to happen in the next two weeks, do you really think that there are 9 more teams out of a jumble of Tennessee, Michigan St., New Mexico, Gonzaga, etc., will be seeded above the Owls? Maybe, but maybe not. Which means, that if our boys take care of business in AC next week, we could be watching the Owls wear white for not only the first round, but possibly for the entire first weekend.
They have definitely picked a pretty good year to have a pretty good year.
I think the big reason for optimism might be Ramone Moore. I said a few weeks ago that Temple’s problem was they only really had 3 good players, and everybody else was either not that good or too inexperienced. But Moore has become the 4th guy. I don’t know what happened against La Salle when he only had 2 points in 14 minutes, but in the 7 game stretch before that he was averaging 16 pts/game.
Big one for them tonight on the road against a red-hot St. Louis team.