Temple, which is off to a 3-1 start for the first time since the 2000-01 team won its four, is at Buffalo Saturday. That 2000-01 team, by the way, was the last of five that John Chaney took to the Final Eight. And those Owls would follow that opening winning streak by losing their next seven. It would then win six straight, and win 10 in a row before losing to defending national champion Michigan State by seven in Atlanta. But we digress.

This Temple team, which appears to be both deep and athletic, will finally play a home game on Wednesday, against Miami (Ohio). It will also host nationally ranked Tennessee on Dec. 13 on ESPN. And we hear that for whatever reasons, a fair amount of tickets are still available. We’ll see. You would think there’s no way that should be anything but a sellout. Or at least very close to one. Anyway, those are the only two home dates Temple has before its 12th game on Jan. 5. And the four games after that are also on the road, though two are at Penn and LaSalle.

So the Owls will be at the Liacouras Center only three times in their first 16 games, which seems almost impossible. But we’re told that’s just the way things broke. Which probably means next season the situation should be somewhat reversed. The Owls are at Kansas on Dec. 20, and at Villanova Dec. 29.

The first time the Owls are back-to-back at home is Jan. 22 and 24, against St. Louis and Charlotte. The only other time is in late February, when they actually get three in a row on North Broad Street, against Fordham (on the 18th), St. Bonaventure (22nd) and LaSalle (26th).

On paper, it’s not the easiest journey. But the feeling here is that it will only make Fran Dunphy’s team more equipped to deal with the stretch run and beyond. Not that Dunph usually needs much help in getting his guys ready for that stuff.

Temple has not played a game at home. Villanova has not played a game anywhere but home. So, making pronouncements at this stage is probably silly. But this blog needs a little action so, I am thinking, rankings and expectations aside, the Owls may very well be as good as the Wildcats. And that really is not a slight against Villanova, which has yet to get all its rotation players on the court. It is just based on what Temple already is and might become down the road. There is a chance the city has not just one but two teams that deserve to be ranked.

The Owls look good now and may look much better by the end of the year when point guard Juan Fernandez from Argentina arrives. If Fernandez, described by Davidson coach Bob McKillop as ``Pepe Sanchez with a jump shot’’ after watching him torch a USA Basketball team this summer, is as good as advertised, I can’t think of much the Owls don’t have. And that includes depth, something the Owls really have never had, even in John Chaney’s best years.

Fernandez, after finishing high school in Argentina, is scheduled to arrive in Philadelphia on Dec. 26. He will be eligible to play immediately.

``How well he’ll fit in over those first couple of weeks I don’t know.’’ Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. ``I don’t know enough about all the nuances of him yet, how well he’ll adjust to what we’re doing, what kind of condition he’ll be in, all of those things. Everything we’re hearing, he’s doing well, in shape, lifting, doing all the things that we’ve sent to him to do.’’

The Owls play at Villanova on Dec. 29. That would be asking a lot of Fernandez to be ready to contribute then, but who knows?

``One of his thoughts is that `you’ll have your team pretty well set and I’m coming in kind of a third of the way through the year and I don’t want to disrupt that,’’’ Dunphy said. ``My response was `let us worry about that, just come and play and do your best and we’ll try to figure it out.’’’

So, Fernandez will play. By the way, it was Sanchez, the great Owls point guard who helped Argentina win the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal, that suggested the Owls coaching staff take a long look at Fernandez.

Now, with the scoring of Dionte Christmas, the versatility of Ryan Brooks, the inside play of Lavoy Allen and Sergio Olmos, the experience of Semaj Inge and Luis Guzman, along with the bench play of Ramone Moore, Scootie Randall and Michael Eric and, in a month, Fernandez, the Owls look like a very serious team ready to play some very serious ball.
...

When Rob Kennedy of the Hoop Group conceived the Philly Hoop Group Classic, he looked at the hybrid tournament that ends at the Palestra today and tomorrow as something that could help fill the big vacuum left by the late (and very lamented) Big 5 tripleheader. In just its second year, the Classic, afternoon and evening doubleheaders, is anchored by unbeaten Villanova, which automatically gives the tournament some cachet.

The Wildcats (4-0) play Towson (3-1) in tonight’s second game after Penn State (5-0) plays Rhode Island (4-1) in the 6:30 p.m. opener, a game that should be the most entertaining of opening day. Winners and losers in the “Independence Bracket” play tomorrow night.

Dan Leibovitz’s Hartford (1-4), with Joe Zeglinski (Archbishop Ryan), plays NJIT (0-3) at noon, followed by Niagara (3-1) vs. Monmouth (0-5) in the “Liberty Bracket.” Winners and losers play tomorrow afternoon. Joe Mihalich’s Niagara team, with Tyrone Lewis (Truman) and Bilal Benn (Cardinal Dougherty/Villanova) is a heavy favorite in that bracket.

Last year, Drexel won the Liberty Bracket and Seton Hall beat Virginia to win the Independence Bracket. Penn finished third in that bracket.

Kennedy’s idea for the tournament is to have at least one city team in each event. Temple has committed for next year and Saint Joseph’s for the year beyond that. Kennedy also wants at least one other school from a BCS conference in the night bracket.

This is strictly an Eastern tournament with a couple of teams that are “opponents” in every sense of the word. Each of the teams has already played two games at campus sites. Those results had nothing to do with the Palestra pairings, which were preset.

Villanova, Penn State and Rhode Island are 2-0. Towson and Niagara are 1-1. The other three are 0-2. NJIT, in fact, is 0-for-its-last-36. In just its second year in Division I, NJIT went 0-29 last season.

Pat Kennedy’s Towson team has some talent, but the Wildcats will be heavy favorites for a reason. ’Nova might get its first serious test of the season tomorrow night against Penn State or Rhode Island.

Thanksgiving is the time of year to pause and remember all the things one has to be thankful for. An athletic team is a family, and so, since I have been coaching, I have used this holiday to gather the team together and have everyone that is part of “our family” express what it is that they are most thankful for.

This year, we will do this at Wednesday’s practice, our final one before sending our players off to enjoy the holiday, with family, loved ones, or in the case of players like Sergio Olmos, close friends, for the Thanksgiving holiday.
What typically occurs as we gather around the center circle, is that players talk about their families. They may also talk about their health or the fact that they are so fortunate to be playing college basketball.

Good things always come out of this team gathering. At times it can be emotional, as one of the players may think about a loved one that has passed, or a friend who is not doing well. This is just our way, as a family, to give thanks for what we are fortunate to have.

Even though we play on the road Saturday, we still will take off Thursday to celebrate the holiday. We will come back to practice Friday, refreshed and ready to work hard in preparation for our game at Buffalo.
Happy Thanksgiving,

The Atlantic 10 Conference men’s basketball tournament will be broadcast on Selection Sunday on CBS beginning in 2010 and the league also announced a new format for its conference tournament starting that year.

In 2010, the top 12 teams will participate with the top four seeds receiving a bye. The four opening-round games will be held at campus sites of the higher seed on Tuesday, March 9. The quarterfinals will be played on Friday, March 12, with the site to be determined. The semifinals will be played the afternoon of Saturday, March 13, with the championship game at 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 14.

The 2009 Atlantic 10 Tournament will be held at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, beginning on Wednesday, March 11, with the title game on ESPN2 at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 14.

.In a phone conversation yesterday from the Virgin Islands, La Salle coach John Giannini sounded somewhat disappointed that his team had lost two of its three games in the Paradise Jam down in the Virgin Islands. I don't think his attitude is solely because of the losses there, but more because of the team's frustrating ablility to play well against good teams, stay close in the game, but come up short more times than not.

The Explorers certainly have been in their share of nail-biters. Ther last seven wins, including last year, have been by a total of 20 points. But it's the close losses that seem to stick with coaches and fans longer than the close wins. So far this year the three losses have been by 15 points. Last year, 12 of their 17 losses were by nine points or less. But more than that, had La Salle been able to beat a good Southern Mississippi in the second round on Saturday, that would have made for a very successful trip to the isles. And maybe given the team a little more confidence in beating a quality team. Missing two foul shots with 1.8 seconds left and the game tied just adds to the sour taste of losing. 

That isn't to say the Explorers haven't won big games. Their win against St. Joe's last season at the Palestra was one of the biggest since Giannini's been there. But it's just a feeling we have that if they could pull off a big upset, it would go a very long way for the team's confidence.

Look for Giannini to try to concentrate on getting Vernon Goodridge more involved in the offense during the practice sessions leading up to next Tuesday's home game against La Salle. The team has to learn to get the ball inside to Goodridge better, and the Mississippi St. transfer has to stay out of foul trouble so his team can get used to him a bit more. 

..

...What La Salle needs to do now is learn how to win games. Even at 2-3, that was the lesson from the Explorers' journey to paradise.

What is no longer in doubt that is the La Salle has the athletes to compete. That was obvious Friday night when they hung with No. 2 Connecticut all evening. UConn is going to lose some games, but it won’t play many teams with comparable athletes. La Salle hung because they had those athletes.

Now, if the basketball skill and small details that separate winning from losing can be located, this really could be the season when La Salle’s postseason drought ends. I was there in 1992 when La Salle outplayed Seton Hall, but lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament with seniors Randy Woods and Jack Hurd. Everybody knew La Salle was going to take a step back at that point, but nobody could have known there would be no postseason games for the next  16 years.

Saint Joseph’s was never really in its Maui Invitational game against Texas. Everything was difficult for the Hawks against the bigger, stronger, better Longhorns.

Long-range shooting is going to be an issue for this team. So is ballhandling and decision-making. But it is early and the Hawks won’t play a team any better than Texas the rest of the season.

Texas has everything but a point guard. If the Longhorns had been a bit more organized on offense, the margin likely would have been much larger much earlier.

The competition for St. Joe’s now gets much easier, starting this afternoon (ESPNU, 1:30 p.m.) against Indiana. Tom Crean’s team has almost no talent and got blown out by Notre Dame yesterday.

There are rarely must wins in college hoops, but this is a game St. Joe’s really needs to win. The Hawks have better, more experienced players than the Hoosiers who were decimated by the Kelvin Sampson phone fiasco. IU won its first two games against suspect competition, but ND exposed all its flaws in the game following SJU-Texas. 

Villanova's 23rd-ranked hoops team continues the non-Big East portion of its schedule Tuesday night at home against Monmouth, in the second preliminary game of the second Philly Hoop Group Classic. The same Monmouth team that just got beat by Penn at the Palestra by 21. But if you were expecting to find out a lot about the Wildcats before Jan. 1, you probably weren't paying attention. Because it figures to be a lot like last season, when the nationally-ranked Wildcats started 10-1 (close loss to North Carolina State, close win in South Philly against LSU), then lost at DePaul and Cincinnati (sandwiched around a 1-point win over Pitt at the Pavilion).

This season, the Wildcats will leave Philadelphia just once in their first 13 games. That will be a train ride to New York to face Top 10 Texas on Dec. 9. So far, the Cats have beaten Albany, Fordham and Niagara, all at home. They'll play Towson Friday at the Palestra, and either Penn State or Rhode Island (which almost beat Duke) the next night, also in West Philly. They'll also host Navy, Houston Baptist (where Colin Montgomerie matriculated, for all you Final Jeopardy fans), Saint Joseph's and Temple. And go to LaSalle and Penn.

Right now, with all the injury problems Jay Wright has already had, the schedule is probably a good thing. The last thing he needs right now is to get even more beaten up. And that's what can happen, once you get into the Big East. The thing Wright needs most at the moment is to get healthier. The stress fracture in Dwayne Anderson's left foot still might not be ready by early January. But all the other stuff , like Corey Stokes' wrist, Shane Clark's knee and Casiem Dummond's sore foot, should be. And that's what matters. The Wildcats should win a bunch of games between now and then, even if it doesn't do much for their RPI. But their postseason fate, as Wright will tell you, will be largely determinded by how they do in those 18 conference games. Hard to argue the point.

It would have been nice if the Philly Hoop Group Classic could have come up with a stronger field. Or if Wright could have scheduled at least one other loseable game against a non-conference opponent. Other than, of course, the four Big 5 games, which Wright will also tell you is something no other team in his position/situation has to deal with. And that's just the way it is, and it's probably not going to change much. So it amounts to a rather long preseason.

Once the New Year arrives, we'll likley have a lot of the same questions we had at the start of 2008. Except that these Cats are a year older, and hopefully a year better. It does make a difference, Until then, try to accept the Monmouths and Towsons and Houston Baptists of the food chain for what they are: necessary evils. As long as nobody else gets hurt, it can't be too bad a thing, can it? And it's not like Villanova's the only big-time program that chooses this route. If it works out come March, nobody remembers anyway.

During my years at Saint Joseph’s, I have always prided myself on our preparation on and off the court. Keeping everyone and everything going in the same direction has allowed our players to concentrate on daily improvement, competing at the highest level and hopefully enjoying the experience that is Hawk basketball.

Our trip to the EA Sports Maui Invitational was the program’s most daunting undertaking in my time on Hawk Hill.

Start with the top-notch competition like Texas, North Carolina, and Notre Dame. Factor in the time changes, the academic responsibilities despite missed class time, how, what and when to eat, where to practice and you begin to get a feel for the amount of logisitics. Then you understand why the trip was years in planning.

It is an honor for my program to represent Philadelphia, the Atlantic 10 and the non-BCS schools that rarely get such an invitation.

The Maui Invitational has the feel of an NCAA Regional. Fans representing each school invade the lobbies, restaurants and shops. Tables full of tournament wear are operating day and night. The top referees in the country are flown in to take care of business. ESPN expertly covers every practice and game. What an invaluable experience! This has to pay dividends as the calendar turns to December.

Much credit should go to Rob Sullivan, our director of basketball operations, who allowed the coaches to concentrate on basketball. Sully did it all with a kind word for all and an unmatched energy.

Hopefully all the readers of this blog get a chance to spend quality time with their families during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Talk with you soon.