{"id":31,"date":"2007-11-15T14:14:19","date_gmt":"2007-11-15T19:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=31"},"modified":"2007-11-15T21:56:50","modified_gmt":"2007-11-16T02:56:50","slug":"puerto-rico-bound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=31","title":{"rendered":"Puerto Rico Bound"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the 2007-08 season dawns on the Temple Owls, there are some really interesting subplots to pay attention to as the season starts to get going:<\/p>\n

1). Though the Legend is gone (probably on the golf course or at the card table as we speak), Coach Fran Dunphy has continued the Temple tradition of a killer out-of-conference schedule–at least as much as he can.\u00a0 Because of the move of the football team to the MAC, Dunphy’s basketball team is required to play home and away games against all the MAC members over the next couple of years.\u00a0 Three more of these will be taken care of after the Owls get back from Puerto Rico, as they play Bowling Green, Akron and Ohio U.\u00a0 They also get E. Michigan later.\u00a0 But, Dunphy used his other non-conference slots much the way Chaney used to:\u00a0 at Florida, at Tennessee (an 80-63 loss Friday night) and home against Duke.\u00a0 These three games will teach the young guys how to play at the top level, regardless of the results.<\/p>\n

2). Remember the name, Lavoy Allen.\u00a0 He\u00a0could be really special.\u00a0 Allen scored 8 points (4-7 from the floor), pulled down 9 rebounds and even dished out 3 assists, all while battling a formidable frontcourt of #7-ranked Tennessee.\u00a0 Look for Allen to anchor a somewhat decent front-line for the Owls this year, with rail-thin center Sergio Olmos and not-so-rail-thin forward Anthony Ivory.\u00a0 All three of these frontcourt players were highly-touted coming into Temple.\u00a0 Olmos was coveted by a couple other schools originally, but made it clear that he wanted to play for the Owls because he idolizes Pepe Sanchez.\u00a0 Ivory was a top-100 recruit out of Washington, D.C. and originally signed with Big East member Providence, before changing his mind and coming to Temple.\u00a0 But, Allen is the real gem of the group.\u00a0 Dunphy’s first big signing, Allen was good enough to be offered a tryout for the Under-19 national team this summer.\u00a0 He has the potential to be a big-time Atlantic 10 performer for years to come.<\/p>\n

3). Despite all the potential upside in the frontcourt, there are still a lot of question marks.\u00a0 Not so for the backcourt, which for the upteenth year in a row, should be the strength of the Owls this season.\u00a0 Last year, Temple became the first team in the 30-year history of the league that two players from the same team have finished 1-2 in scoring.\u00a0 And, they are both back this year.\u00a0 6’5″ junior Dionte Christmas led the A-10 in scoring last year at more than 20 points per game, but Dunphy feels that he hasn’t even fully realized his true potential.\u00a0 If Christmas can put together a full season of consistency, he has a legitimate chance to win the A-10 player of the year in a conference loaded with talented and experienced players up and down the rosters.\u00a0 The other big-time scorer returning this year for the Owls is 6’5″ senior Mark Tyndale.\u00a0 Tyndale, a swingman who can play multiple positions, but is probably best suited for the 3, averaged 19.4 points per game last year, including 37 against Charlotte and 22 in the conference tournament.\u00a0 Tyndale’s energy and reckless fervor with which he plays is unmatched, but he also has the basketball ability and acumen to go along with it.\u00a0 The combination of Tyndale and Christmas is going to be a hard combination for anyone to stop this year and, if coupled with an improved defense and strong frontline, could, with some luck, lead this team back to the\u00a0NCAA tournament\u00a0for the first time since 2001.<\/p>\n

Game two of this season tips off in about 20 minutes with a first-round game of the\u00a0preseason tournament in Puerto Rico against the Providence Friars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the 2007-08 season dawns on the Temple Owls, there are some really interesting subplots to pay attention to as the season starts to get going: 1). Though the Legend is gone (probably on the golf course or at the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-hoops","tag-temple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}