Temple Basketball 2008-09, My Final Thoughts
Well, what a year of Temple Basketball. While it ended with a disapointing loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament, in a game we could have won, it was an exciting season. Actually, it was, in many ways, a very typical Temple season, full of exciting moments, and other that left you scratching your head.
The season started with two great wins in the Charlston classic and a disappointing loss Clemson in the finals, and I think that three game stretch may have typified the season.
But overall there were many positives. Here are some of the good things I took away from the season:
- Another 20 plus win season in which we made yet another NCAA Tournament. I know a lot of people were very disappointed with our early exit, myself included, but seeing that the week before I was prepared for a NIT berth, I’d rather take an early exit.
- Another great A-10 tournament run ending in a record 8th championship.
- Sweeping St. Joe’s for the season, now winning five in a row against the Hawks. Given our lack of success against them in the previous years, it’s nice to re-establish our dominance over them.
- Dionte Christmas becoming the first player in A-10 history to lead the league in scoring for three consecutive season with a 19.5 ppg average. Despite being in a slump late in the year, Dionte has proven himself as an individual who can play at the next level. We’ll miss him on North Broad St.
- The development of Sergio Olmos. The way the year started for Sergio, you had to wonder (missing the Charlston Classic). Then his amazing performance against Tennessee made many of us beleive he was finally reaching his potentional, only to be bench several games later. But much of Temple’s late season success can be attibuted to Sergio steady offensive and defensive play down the stretch. It amazed me when I was sitting in the Liacouras center how almost everytime he caught the ball, someone would make a remark like “Why you throwing him the ball?” only to have Sergio turn and score. Did he make mistakes? Yes, but more often than not he’d be very, very productive. Sergio will have a long professional career over seas.
- The emergance of Craig Williams. Craig has the potential to be big time for the Owls. In addition to his outside shooting, he can rebound and showed signs of an inside game. If he can further devolop the intermediate to short game, he could be a major force for the Owls. I think injuries lead to his late season slide, but he can overcome that with a strong off-season work out program.
- Juan Fernandez not breaking into the starting line up. The big question at the end of 2008 was when will new-comer Juan Fernandez start. The fact that he didn’t showed how much Semaj Inge contributed to this team, but it also gave Juan a chance to learn more about the college game. And he did often deliver when put into the game.
Unfortunately, the season also had it’s share of disappointements.
- LaVoy Allen. I know what your thinking. How could a guy who almost averaged a double-double (10.9, 9 rebounds a game) season be considered disappointing? Well, I have very high expectations for LaVoy, as I think he could be one of the most dominate Forwards in the country. There were times when he was completely unstoppable, and other like he didn’t even know where he was. I also think the team didn’t do a good enough job getting him the ball where he could score. With his ability and range he will have a big, big season next year, but only if he gets a little meaner!
- The schedule. Only having 11 home games sucked, especially give our home and away records (9-2 in the Center). It was a fluke that the schedule got set up this way, and lets hope it doesn’t happen again.
- Our play away from the Liacouras Center. This team was truly Jekyl and Hyde when it came to playing home vs. playing away. There is something that the coaching staff has to either change and do completely differently in the way they approach the games on the road, as the A-10 has become to balanced to automatically assume that you will win in anyone’s gym.
Well, these are my thoughs on the past year. Overall, I think Coach Dunphy and his staff had another great season and, quite obviously, is way ahead of where many of us thought he would have the program. Next year will be the big test though. With all of his own players and a much better schedule, he must have another 20 win season and be back to the NCAA. Anything short will be disappointing.
And now Owls fans, let’s look forward to kicking Villanova’s ass at the Linc on September 3rd!
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: The Food City 500 at Bristol
The Good: All things Busch, as in the Busch brothers. Kyle dominated the race and showed real patience in doing so. Two years ago he would have wrecked half the field. Brother Kurt had a ho-hum 11th place finish, but did it with a wrecked car. Speaking of wrecked cars, how about Marcos Ambrose finishing 10th despite being down two cylinders.
The Bad: The last ride for Travis Kvapil and the Yates 28 team due to a lack of sponsorship. Travis is a really good driver who just never got the chance with a good team. He proved that by keeping the 28 out of the dreaded go or go homers last season. Lets hope the team kind find sponsorship or Travis can find a ride.
The Ugly: Juan Pablo Montoya. JPM should have been parked for intentionally spinning Jamie McMurray. I know what you are all thinking, but it was pretty obvious and could have caused a huge wreck at such a small track. JPM, not so obvious next time. And don’t bitch when JamieMac get you back!
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: The A-10 Finals, Temple vs. Duquesne
The Good: Where to start, Dionte? Sergio? LaVoy? The Fans!!!! Lets start with Dionte, who showed the heart of a champion and that all great players come out of there slumps when they’re in the spotlight. His 20 first half points paced the Owls when others struggled, and game high 29 came when the team needed it. Fellow senior Sergio Olmos proved that he will be a professional basketball player for a long time (in Europe, don’t get carried away!!) by providing the two in the Owls one-two offensive punch in the first half. He also had a huge day on the boards, with 9 rebounds, six on the offensive glass. Speaking of rebounding, LaVoy Allen was a force on the glass. Whenever Duquesne had a chance to get back in the game, it seemed that LaVoy (14 rebounds, 5 offensive) cleared the glass keeping Duquesne to one and done. LaVoy also had 10 points to give him yeat another double-double this season.
Semaj Inje proved that scoring the basketball isn’t the only way to contribute to a team, and his contributions were huge. 8 assists, 5 rebounds, a block and a steal all when it mattered most. And let’s not forget Ryan Brooks. Ryan hit some early shots and then went quiet until it was needed, hitting a huge three at crunch time.
Finally, a not about the fans. They were amazing and could be heard loud and clear over the radio. Finally, Temple is building a fan base that will propel this program for years to come. I couldn’t be prouder of the students of TU!!!!
As for the Bad and the Ugly, there really is none. Back to back A-10 champs!!!
Some final thoughts:
Congrats to Duquesne University and their Head Coach, Ron Everhardt. To make it to the finals only five years after the tragic shooting of five players on their team, and after no real success in over thirty years is an amazing triumph for them. And to do it with such a young team!! This team is going to challenge for many an A-10 championship in the future, and I pitty the teams that have to play them in the NIT.
Coach John Chaney should get some of the kudos, as Temple’s seniors, Dionte, Sergio and Semaj, lead this team all year. Coach Chaney’s legacy will be with this program for a long time, and it’s nice to know that his final group could go out the way so many of his other players have, as Champions.
Also, how about Coach Dunphy. He is proving that his success at Penn wasn’t because he played “softer” teams in the Ivy league. I still think Coach needs to change some of the things he did at Penn, but this season Temple had it’s most successful home season, despite only 11 home games, in years (9-2 at home), but another amazing tournament run. The sky’s the limit for Coach Dunphy on North Broad street and he’ll continue to have my support on North Broad, no matter how good, bad and/or ugly!
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: A-10 Semi Final, Temple vs. Xavier
Before I get into it, and in effort to make full disclosure, I am a proud graduate of both Temple (Comp Sci, ’92) and Xavier(M.Ed., ’95), however, while I hope the best for X, I bleed Cherry and White that said . . .
The Good: This was a heavyweight championship fight between two of the A-10 elite. The truth is the top 5 teams
in the A-10 (Temple, X, Dayton, Duquesne, URI) this season are about equal, and I believe all of these teams, with the exception of X, are VERY underated. However, tonight was the Owl night, as they did it with their best defensive game of the season, holding Xavier to season lows in points, 53, and shooting percentage, 34.5%. Temple also struggle to make a shot until late in the game (X plays tremendous defense), but senior Dionte Christmas showed what a tremendous play he is, making two long threes and hitting a foul shot to seal the win. It would have been very easy for Dionte to pack it given his struggles for the first 50 plus minutes of basketball he had played over the first two days of the tournament, but instead he wanted the ball as all great players do, and he delivered.
The Bad: It’s really hard to find anything bad about this game. As I said, this was a great basketball game between two really good teams.
The Ugly: Despite this win, the Owls could still be left out of the NCAA tournament if they don’t get the automatic bid by winning tomorrow. Unfortunately, I don’t see the A-10 getting 4 teams in, so if Duquesne wins tonight the winner of tomorrow game would be in and the looser in the NIT. That said, let’s hope the Owls take care of business in what should be a very partisan Temple arena tomorrow night.
GO OWLS!!!
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: Temple-St. Joe’s 3, the A-10 Tourney
The Good: As always, beating St. Joe’s is always good. This time it was done by great team scoring lead by Ryan Brooks 19 points (6-12 from the floor, 3-4 from 3 pt range) and 14 from Senior Center Sergio Olmos, who has done a great job scoring the basketball of late. If Sergio averages 14 points over the next two days, the Owls will win the tournament. Also, a great rebounding day for the Owls, as they outrebounded the Hawks 42-37. Lavoy lead the way with 13 boards (5 offensive) despite only playing 24 minutes due to foul trouble. Craig Williams and Juan Fernandez were also huge coming off the bench, with Williams hitting several threes when the Owls trailed 12-6 early, and Juan making several great passes for assists.
The Bad: Unfortunately, there’s no other way to put this but Dionte Christmas was just horrible shooting the ball, making 1 field goal on 10 attempts. He also commited some bad fouls that forced him to the bench for much of crunch time when St. Joe’s made a run. Unfortunately, this far overshadows the great job he did in creating easy shots for his teammates throughout the day.
The Ugly: Five turnovers on five straight possesions late in the game, giving St. Joe’s hope late in the game. This kind of play tomorrow against an aggresive Xavier team will lead to a blow out loss for the Owls.
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: The Kobalt Tools 500 from Atlanta
The Good: A dominate day by Kurt Busch. It was nice to see the Blue Deuce run up front like it did in the days it was driven by Rusty Wallace. Given how strong Kurt has been to start this season, look for the other Dodge teams to be switching to the new Dodge engine sooner than later. Another great run from Jeff Gordon, look for him in the winners circle at a track near you in the not so distant future. Also, great runs from the Childress duo of Harvick and Bowyer. Clint is now second in the standing, and may be the best driver in the RCR stables.
The Bad: A terrible day for Kyle Busch, but it also showed his maturity, hanging in for an 18th place finish. In the past he would have just wrecked. Also, more problems for Mark Martin keeps him in the Top-35 danger zone. This isn’t the type of season we were looking for from Hendrick’s 5 bunch.
The Ugly: Not only did a tire get loose on pit road, but the crewman tried to chase it down, putting himself in danger and completely changing the tone of the race. The resulting caution, in the middle of green flag stops, left only nine cars on the lead lap early in the race and left many contending cars one or two laps down.
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: Temple Men’s BBall vs. St. Joe
The Good: A great team game played by the Owls, with 16 assist on 21 made field
The Owls and Hawks Tip-off
goals. The Owls consistanly looked for each other and made a lot of easy shots as a result. This continued on the defensive end as well, highlighted by senior Sergio Olmos, who held St. Joe’s leading scorer Ahmad Nivins to a 6 for 16 shooting night, 27 points lower than his season shooting average. Sergio also showed great spurts on the offensive end. Dionte Christmas also seemed to end his shooting funk, hitting several large shots when St. Joe’s pulled to withing two late in the game.
The Bad: Really, is there anything bad when Temple beats St. Joe?
The Ugly: The game was real chippy late, and Sergio Olmos took exception late in the game shoving Tasheed Carr after after an extra hard foul that should have been called flagrant. If a guys winds up, it’s usually intentional. Another ugly spot in the second half when the referees allowed a St. Joe’s basket on a shot the was clearly taken after the shot clock had expired. Even if it hadn’t, it was close enough that replay should have been used, a request made by the Temple bench that was ignored by the officials. (Overall, it was a well officiated game, at least compared to the typical horrible officiated in many TU-SJU games.)
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: The Shelby 427 at Las Vegas
The Good: Kyle Busch wins the pole, starts dead last because of an engine change, takes his time and works his way to the win. The driver a lot people love to hate (I’m sure Jeff Gordon loves not having the title anymore) is maturing into on of, if not the best driver on the circuit. He has already won at least one event in each of the three major touring series (Truck, N’wide and Cup), but is also showing the smarts that many have questioned. Kyle is establishing himself as the early favorite to win the cup, showing that he has learned from last years miserable chase.
It’s also great to see Bobby Lebonte run up front again, finishing fifth on Sunday and moving up to tenth in points. Bobby is a class act and was a great champion in his years at Gibbs. I hope he continues his strong runs.
The Bad: Cautions galore, in fact, a record 14 cautions, mostly caused by one car wrecks. Drivers were loosing it big time coming out of the turns.
The Ugly: Blown engines galore. Matt Kenseth’s shot at history never got off the ground, blowing up on lap six. Teammate David Ragan’s engine blew soon there after. Teammates Carl Edwards engine blew on the white flag lap. Mark Martin’s engine blew for the second week in a row, dropping him to 34th in points. These are two of, if not the two, best teams in racing. What’s going on if they’re blowin’ up like that?
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