Less than 24 hours after defeating Saint Joseph's to win its first Atlantic 10 championship in 7 years in Atlantic City Saturday night, Temple was celebrating their 12th-seed selection for the NCAA Tournament at the Draught Horse on Selection Sunday.

The Owls, who landed in the South Region, will face fifth-seeded Michigan State at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Thursday.

"Honestly it hasn't sunk in yet," said Dionte Christmas just moments after Temple's fate was announced on CBS. "Maybe it will sometime between today and when we land in Denver. Right now, though, it's still like a dream to me. I been dreaming about this since I been watching basketball and now my dream has come true and it feels great."

Temple will be making its first tournament appearance since 2001 when it eventually lost to Michigan State in the Elite Eight. Second-year head coach Fran Dunphy said he was glad to see three Big 5 schools make the Big Dance and wasn't concerned with where his team would play.

"You expect nothing in college basketball," said Dunphy, who will be making his first tournament appearance with Temple after nine with Penn. "You have no idea of where you're going, who you are playing or where you are going to be seeded.

"If you would have said to me before the St. Joe's game that we were going to be a No. 12 seed and have to play Michigan State in the first round in Denver, would you take it? I'd be signing those papers right away."

The Spartans (25-8), who average 71.3 points per game, are led by speedy senior point guard Drew Neitzel (14.2 points, 4.1 assists) and sophomore Raymar Morgan, who is averaging 14.5 points per game.

Temple, who is riding a seven-game winning streak and averaging 72.6 points an outing, has yet another opportunity to prove nonbelievers wrong.

"We had a great run," said senior co-captain Chris Clark. "From 12-18 last year to 18-12 this year, A-10 champs, Big 5 co-champs and make the tourney . . . It's been special. But now it's a different season for us. We're looking forward to playing on Thursday, winning on Thursday and moving on to see how far we can go."

Most of the players said they don't look at the seedings, or who did what during the regular season, although they are well aware of the annual occurrences of bracket busters. Since 1985, the No. 12 seed is just 29-63 against No. 5 seeds. However, last year was just the second time since 1988 that at least one No. 12 seed failed to advance to the second round.

"I heard someone say [the No. 5-No. 12 matchup] was always guaranteed to have at least one upset," said Clark. "We can't worry about that stuff though. We just have to go out and play the game and see what happens."

Clark, who has been one of the most instrumental pieces for the Owls down the stretch, said it was a relief for him and fellow senior Mark Tyndale to finally reach the NCAA Tournament.

Christmas, who leads the team in scoring at 20.2 points per game, said the Owls would be nowhere near this position had it not been for Tyndale, who leads the team in rebounds (7.2) and assists (4.3), and Clark, who has averaged 14.3 points in the last four games.

As they sat in the front row and inched closer to the TV screen with each seeding selection, the Owls finally reaped their reward at 6:26 p.m. But while the rest of the world may have seen Temple earn an automatic bid over the last few days, Christmas said he's been a psychic every since the victory over Xavier on Jan 16.

"I had it in the back of my mind that we would be sitting vying for a tournament spot," said Christmas. "We did good job this year and now everything is a bonus in a sense for us. Our job is not done though. We have no high expectations, no pressure and nothing to lose." *