{"id":1268,"date":"2010-12-09T14:27:23","date_gmt":"2010-12-09T18:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=1268"},"modified":"2010-12-09T14:27:23","modified_gmt":"2010-12-09T18:27:23","slug":"temple-georgetown-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=1268","title":{"rendered":"Temple-Georgetown Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lavoy needs to deliver<\/p><\/div>\n

The 9th-ranked Georgetown Hoyas will travel to North Philly tonight to play Temple in what could end up being the single most important regular-season game for the Owls this year.\u00a0 Temple has made the tournament three straight years now, but after three straight 1st Round exits, they came into this season nationally-ranked and looking to get over the hump and make some noise in March.<\/p>\n

Following two ugly losses to underwhelming Cal and Texas A&M at the Old Spice Classic last month, the Owls tumbled out of the rankings.\u00a0 They beat Maryland on the road in their last game, which should end up being at least a solid win, if not a very good one.\u00a0 Now, they need to carry that momentum into tonight’s game and knock off the Hoyas.<\/p>\n

This game is crucial, not just because it’s against a Top Ten team, but because the only other projected tournament team that will come to the Liacouras Center this year is Richmond.\u00a0 Temple plays Nova and Duke on the road, and their only games against Xavier and Dayton will be played in Ohio.\u00a0 That means that tonight’s game is their best chance to land the kind of marquee win that impresses the selection committee in March.<\/p>\n

Here are the keys to an Owls win:<\/p>\n

1. Make the size advantage count:\u00a0 <\/strong>This not Patrick Ewing’s or Alonzo Mourning’s or even Roy Hibbert’s Georgetown Hoyas.\u00a0\u00a0Their starting line-up is the classic “small” team of three guards, a small forward, and a power forward.\u00a0 With the stress on passing and off-the-ball movement that John Thompson III’s offense features, that makes them tough to guard.\u00a0 But Temple will have a size advantage at every position.\u00a0 With a legit\u00a0PF (and rebounding\u00a0machine) in Lavoy Allen and a legit center in Michael Eric, the Owls have to\u00a0dominate the boards and refuse to settle for outside shots on the offensive end.\u00a0 If they’re successful in doing that, look for Thompson to\u00a0use his big men off the bench more (Sims and Lubick), but that will create other opportunities for the Owls.\u00a0 The key is to get them out of their comfort zone.<\/p>\n

2. Make your long-distance shots<\/strong>:\u00a0 I know,\u00a0I just said the Owls can’t settle for\u00a0jump shots, but you can’t win if you don’t hit a few, and it’s been an agonizing struggle for this team to do even that this year.\u00a0 They come into the game shooting 23% as a team from beyond the arc.\u00a0 The first order of business: Ramone Moore\u00a0just needs to stop shooting them.\u00a0 He’s easily the best slasher on the team, but he made just\u00a05 of 40 3’s last year, and he’s 3 for 19 so far this year.\u00a0 It’s not\u00a0working, Ramone.\u00a0 Just keep putting the ball on the floor.\u00a0 Juan Fernandez needs to find his stroke, though.\u00a0 After shooting 45% last year, and\u00a0making 73, he’s made just 24%\u00a0this year.\u00a0 Scootie Randall and Norristown-native Khalif Wyatt, who’s been a very pleasant surprise, can also help out from long-range.<\/p>\n

3. Control the\u00a0tempo<\/strong>:\u00a0 In case it hasn’t been made clear already, this game is a clash of styles and\u00a0a match-up of teams with very different strengths.\u00a0 The Hoyas have been incredibly efficient at the offensive end and their three guards, Austin Freeman, Chris Wright, and Jason Clark, are all very dangerous.\u00a0 They will look to push the pace and\u00a0take a lot of shots because, well, they’re very good at making those shots.\u00a0 Juan Fernandez needs to be in control of the game, keep things moving slowly, and make this a half-court slugfest.\u00a0 No matter\u00a0what, the Owl perimeter players need to bring their A-games defensively.\u00a0 Freeman is one of the best scorers in the country.\u00a0 Moore (and maybe Rahlir Jefferson?) will have to be physical and\u00a0aggressive in stopping the strong and skilled Hoya guard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 9th-ranked Georgetown Hoyas will travel to North Philly tonight to play Temple in what could end up being the single most important regular-season game for the Owls this year.\u00a0 Temple has made the tournament three straight years now, but … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[119,46,831,832,830,52],"class_list":["post-1268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-hoops","tag-austin-freeman","tag-georgetown","tag-juan-fernandez","tag-lavoy-allen","tag-ramone-moore","tag-temple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1270,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268\/revisions\/1270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}