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Temple preparing for No. 1 Villanova, Big 5 championship opportunity

12/12/2016, 5:00pm EST
By Jeff Griffith

Daniel Dingle (above) and Temple have developed a reputation for top-25 upsets under Fran Dunphy. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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The Temple Owls have the opportunity to end a three-year reign of undefeated Villanova terror in the Big 5 Tuesday night.

And although Vegas oddsmakers and college basketball experts throughout the country may consider that opportunity a slim one – the Wildcats are favored by 15 – a game with the city’s top basketball honor on the line against the NCAA’s top team has the Owls ready for war.

“You have to play your best basketball game, no question about it,” said head coach Fran Dunphy, whose Owls (7-3) are 3-0 in the Big 5 this season, tied with No. 1 Villanova (10-0). “They’re really good, very good on both ends of the court. They have a great sense of who they are. They’re a very secure team, as well they should be, they’re talented and they’ve accomplished things.”

Temple has played that “best basketball game” before in recent years, and earlier in this season to upset ranked teams like West Virginia and Florida State.

The Owls last ousted a top-10 opponent when they drubbed 10th-ranked Kansas by 25 in December 2014 and beat No. 3 Syracuse in 2012, but haven't toppled a No. 1 in over a decade and a half. 

Enter top-ranked, defending national champion and three-time defending Big 5 champion Villanova.

“I think we’ve had a degree of focus that we’ve needed,” Dunphy said of his team’s knack for upsets. “If I had a secret to it, or had the formula then I could go back to it. We’re just going to do what we always do and try to prepare as best we can. Our coaches have done a terrific job of putting us in the right position to do well.”

“We’ve had our share of success, but every game is a new challenge,” he added. “This is a great, great challenge for us, and we’re looking forward to it, it’s an awesome opportunity for us.”

As far as the Philadelphia-based meaning of Tuesday night’s de facto Big 5 championship game, Dunphy’s team is riding its undefeated record in the city, but knows its Philadelphia finale will be nothing like their three previous wins over La Salle, Penn and St. Joe’s.

But the Owls, who hold the most Big 5 titles with 27, are ready to fight for their first outright championship since 2009-10.

“We’ve had three Big 5 games so far and we’ve done okay, and now we have to play Villanova who is arguably the best team in the country,” Dunphy said. “They certainly were the best team in the country last year, they haven’t lost yet, they’ve got it going on.”


Josh Hart (above) is playing like a National Player of the Year frontrunner. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

If Temple is going to have any shot at a Big 5 title and a win on the floor of the nation’s top team, it’s going to start with finding a way to stop senior guard Josh Hart, who has started off the season as hot as anyone else in the country, shooting 57 percent from the field and 46.7 percent from beyond the arc.

Hart – who comes into Tuesday night off of 37-point performance that carried his team to a win over then-No. 23 Notre Dame on Saturday – is averaging 19.5 points and 7.1 rebounds and is the biggest reason the Wildcats sit atop the national rankings.

The 6-foot-5 Sidwell Friends grad has taken his game to another level this season, and is considered one of the top candidates, if not the frontrunner, for national player of the year. 

“He’s really a talented guy,” Dunphy said of Hart. “For me, when I watch him, his focus is spectacular. His single-mindedness of purpose is to do the best for his team always, that’s the thing I think I get most jealous of and wish that everybody who plays college basketball could have that kind of focus, because that’s what it takes to be a winner.”

In order to stop Hart as an explosive scorer on an offensively sound team, the Owls will need their defense as a whole to step up to a level it hasn’t reached yet this season. Temple ranks 104th in defensive efficiency accoridng to KenPom and faces a Wildcat team that scores just over 80 per game.

Villanova, to this point, has been led by Hart in the scoring column, as well as last year’s hero, Kris Jenkins (13.5 ppg) and sophomore point guard Jalen Brunson (12.7 ppg).

Temple has been scoring the ball at a decent level, too, behind the likes of junior forward Obi Enechionyia (18.6 ppg), sophomore guard Shizz Alston Jr. (12.6 ppg). As a team, the Owls average 75.9 points per game, but broke 80 in both of their top-25 wins.

One of their best on-ball defenders, senior guard Josh Brown, will hope to see his most minutes yet this season, in just his fifth game back from a May achilles tear after playing 28 solid minutes in a win over DePaul in Miami.

“He’s working hard at it and he’s going to give us whatever he can give us tomorrow,” Dunphy said. “He’s probably not the same defender, but at the same time he’s giving you everything he’s got and he’ll figure it out.”

Brown still has yet to officially decide whether he will accept or decline the option to redshirt this season but will be ready for the challenge as he will see a substantial amount of playing time Tuesday.

“I came into this season looking to play, and I’m playing right now,” Brown said regarding the open redshirt possibility. “I’m going by today, going to practice today, go hard and I’m going to play tomorrow.”

“I’m feeling good, I’m ready to go tomorrow,” Brown said. “I’m excited to play, I’m looking forward to leading the team and get this victory.”

Despite the bitter city-rivalry nature of his team’s upcoming test, Dunphy expressed great respect for his counterpart on the sideline, Villanova head coach Jay Wright, and the program that he has built up during his now fifteen years at ‘Nova.

“Throughout Jay’s career, they’ve been unbelievably successful,” he said. “They have a fantastic basketball program, and that’s what we’re able to do tomorrow, we’re playing against a fantastic program. Not just Villanova’s team this year, we’re playing a program with a great coach and a great style.”

And he knows that the opportunity – albeit an unlikely one to walk out of with a win – is nothing to take for granted.

“It’s so special to the fabric of Philadelphia, and certainly to the sports fabric of Philadelphia,” he said. “People get into it. So here’s an opportunity that we have as Temple University men’s basketball program to go out to the Pavilion and play a number-one ranked team in the country. If you don’t like this, you’ve got to check your saliva here. It’s pretty cool, it’s really cool.”


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