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!
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