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Scouting Xavier at Temple!!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/19/2010
The Muskies have had less success against Temple than any other team since joining the Atlantic 10 in 1995. Xavier is 8-11 against TU including 2-4 at the Liacouras Center in Philly and 0-1 at the old on-campus facility McGonigle Hall (That game occurred in Jan 1996 and was postponed a day after a record 34 inch snow fall in Philadelphia). Most of the bad results took place against John Chaney's stubborn awkward to play against match-up zone (6-9). Still X is just 2-2 against current coach Fran Dunphy over his 3 seasons.
Dunphy is a Philly guy (17 seasons at Penn). His half court man-to-man is as nasty to contend with as the Old Man's hybrid defense. Most recently, the Muskies lost 55-53 to the Owls in the Semis of last season's A-10 Tournament at Atlantic City. TU went on to win the league automatic NCAA berth for a second straight year.
XU struggled to score against T in AC obviously. X made only 5 of 9 free throws while T went 15 for 22. The smaller Muskie guards were enveloped and failed to initiate the offense. 7 footer Sergio Olmos altered a bunch of shots inside. Dionte Christmas scored 20 for the Owls including their last 7 points.
On the plus side for XU, Olmos and Christmas are gone, but Temple has improved (15-3,3-0 A-10,7-1 home-lone loss to Kansas, 12 RPI, 16 AP Poll, 17 USA Today). The Owls own impressive wins over Villanova,Seton Hall, Siena and Virginia Tech.
Defense is still their mantra (56 points allowed-Top 10 D-1). The enemy shoots just 26% from 3 against them. It's tough to get runs going against TU because they get back against your fastbreak, they seldom turn it over offensively, they control the tempo-they contest every shot and they keep fouls low.
Temple's sticky defensively like Dayton but they foul much less. XU must find a way to get the score into the 60's (then the game is a toss-up). If X scores in the 70's, they should win. A game in the 50's means Temple is happy.
Offensively TU has a Big 3 -- Ryan Brooks (6-4 Sr shooting guard - 29 points vs UMass - A-10 Player of the Week), Lavoy Allen (6-9 225 Jr Power Forward - 11 pts - 10 rebs - 2 blks) and Juan Fernandez (6-4 Soph PG-Argentina - 14 pts - 3 reb -4 assts). He's going to be better than Pepe Sanchez because he's a more consistent shooter (45% from 3) and he gets to the FT line more frequently. The Big 3 all play heavy minutes (33 plus) but Temple plays halfcourt so it doesn't matter that much.
The other 5 are role players. Craig Williams at 6-9 shoots the 3. Michael Eric at 6-11 clogs the middle. Luis Guzman plays well against XU. He's a third guard starter with some size and experience. Two frosh are earning minutes-Ramone Moore and Rahlir Jefferson.
X can win this but they have to find a way to score from the foul line and amp up the tempo to net some easy baskets.
In the Muskies current 4 game win streak (La Salle, GW, Charlotte, Dayton) X is outscoring the opposition 91-50 at the FT line. That's plus 10 points a game!! X was minus 10 in FTs their last game vs Temple and lost by 2.
Road wins start with stops on defense. A 50-50 split on the boards would be nice.
Offensively, XU guards have to damn the torpedoes and get to the basket then earn points at the FT line. The Big Guys need to finish around the rim. Jason Love will do his part at home in Philly but Kenny Frease and Jamel McLean have to step up and help unlike against Dayton.
If they can't contribute, give us more Andrew Taylor who just keeps making smart plays, grinding and producing.
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