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Scouting Temple!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/7/2013
The Muskies' serious (A-10) season begins in whirlwind fashion with home A-10 games against Temple (Thursday-7PM-CBS Sports Network) and GW (Saturday-4PM). Over the past 6 years at Cintas Xavier has ruled in conference games (47-1) with the lone loss last January to St. Louis (73-68) an NCAA-bound senior laden stingy defensive team. Obviously, the Muskies have been leaking oil big time over the past few weeks, losing 4 in a row and 5 of 6. The 7-6 overall non-conference record is well below normal XU production although not drastically.
Chris Mack's first 3 teams all started the years at 9-5. X has had well over a week to retool after road defeats at Tennessee and Wake Forest. We'll see if home court and work in practice lead to better results very quickly. Since joining the A-10 in 1995, Xavier's above .500 against every team in the league expect Temple.
The Owls have owned the Muskies in Philly and in the A-10 tournament but not so much at Cintas. X won a wild shootout over TU here two seasons back, 88-77. Scootie Randall went micro-wave for the Owls pouring in 28. He's back and healthy this season after missing all of 2011-2012 with knee and foot injuries. Temple plowed X 85-72 in Philly last February just before the Muskies found themselves and made a strong NCAA run.
Frankly, Xavier needs a healthy helping of inspiration and/or home cooking and/or consistent play to avoid being dusted by Temple. TU is a senior laden team that knows its capabilities and plays its roles well. The Owls (10-3) are lanky and athletic and unselfish. Their losses are to #1 Duke at the Meadowlands (Cameron Indoor Stadium North)-#6 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse where KU has not lost a non-conference game in 10 seasons and home to Canisius (Jimmy Baron exacting revenge on the A-10 for being fired by URI).
Temple's not perfect. They struggle shooting the ball at times thus the loss to Canisius and the late fold at Kansas (L 69-62) when nobody could make a jump shot even though the Owls beat the Jayhawks in every other category. 6-4 Senior Khalif Wyatt is their key player. He takes over 30% of their shots, passes well, gets to the FT line almost as much as TU Holloway used to and comes up large in big games. He scored 26 at Kansas and had 33 in TU's upset of Syracuse at Madison Square Garden just before Christmas.
Scootie Randall's been cold lately but he burned Kent St for 31 and had 21 in a road win at Villanova. He's 6-6. Wyatt and Randall are match-up nightmares for Xavier.
Justin Martin can only guard one at a time and he's been a shadow man since his fall against Vandy. I guess Semaj Christon gets one by default and he's struggled with foul trouble lately. Teams have scouting tape on Semaj now. They know he's very right-handed. They slip in constantly to take charges on him. They do not respect his outside shot. Time for Semaj to make the adjustment to the defense and re-establish his go-to role. There's no choice for Xavier to prosper!!
Temple has an improving young speedy PG Will Cummings. Dee Davis will guard him. Soph Anthony Lee is TU's most improved player. At 6-9 230 he gives the Owls a double-double post presence. Lee learned on the job last season filling in for injured Michael Eric. He's bordering on All-League caliber now. Senior Rahlir Hollis Jefferson is a solid 6-5 player who rebounds and defends. If he ever finds a jump shot,watch out.
There's a 3 man bench. Boston U transfer Jake O'Brien is a rangy big body who can shoot the "3". 6-5 West Virginia transfer Dalton Pepper is a solid all court player and 6-3 SR TJ DiLeo is a back court glue guy.
Coach Fran Dunphy has all the parts he needs and blends them well. He's made 5 straight NCAA's at Temple. The Owls are stubborn a la St Louis and will not beat themselves.
XU has been fragile and arguably beat themselves versus Vandy and Wofford and Tenn and Wake. The only consistent Muskie recently has been Travis Taylor (15 PPG, 10 reb over the losing streak). That has to change if XU is to pull the upset over TU.
We've seen re-makes on the fly before under Coach Mack. In his first year the Muskies learned to play together and integrate Jordan Crawford's rare talents culminating in a Sweet 16 NCAA run. In year two, X looked horrible in the Shootout loss at UC and two days later launched a 15-1 A-10 record with a near perfect game at Rhode Island. Last season Xavier took weeks to recover from the guilt of the stupid fight and then won two NCAA games.
The material isn't as plentiful this season. But there is talent!! Temple is rolling after losing Ramone Moore (16PPG) Juan Fernandez (triple threat PG) and Michael Eric (6-10 rebounder-shot blocker). X has to find a way to win with this line-up and avoid second half meltdowns.
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