The Owls went from off the radar in mid-January to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 7 years, in their second season under Fran Dunphy.

But the run, which included a seven-game winning streak to close the season and an Atlantic 10 Tournament championship, came to an end today at the Pepsi Center, where Allen Iverson now plays his games.

The Owls (21-13), the 12th seed in the South Region, were eliminated by fifth-seeded Michigan State, 72-61. The same Spartans (26-8) who had taken them out in the 2001 Final Eight.

The Owls played like a team that hadn't been here in a while. And even though this supposedly isn't one of Tom Izzo's more vintage MSU clubs, he still has a lot of guys who have. It does make a difference.

Junior Dionte Christmas, who's led the A-10 in scoring each of the last two seasons, managed only three points on 1-for-12 shooting. Senior Mark Tyndale, the team's second-leading scorer, finished with 16. But a lot of that came after it was pretty much a foregone conclusion.

"Christmas just had some shots that didn't fall," Izzo said. "I still think he's a heck of a player.

"We couldn't quite contain Tyndale down the stretch, but defensively, I thought we were as good as we've been for a long time."

It was 35-26 at the half, at which point MSU's main guy, Drew Neitzel, had only three points. He'd add just two more. But it didn't matter. The Spartans got 15 from Raymar Morgan, 12 off the bench from Chris Allen and 10 from Drew Naymick.

The Owls also got 13 points and 11 rebounds from freshman Lavoy Allen, and 14 off their bench from Ryan Brooks, who went 3-for-6 from the arc. The rest of the team was 3-for-17. Some of that was due to MSU, which has been known to play a little defense. And some of it was probably just the Owls having an off day.

MSU shot 26-for-54, which is tough to beat, and had eight more boards, which is what the Spartans do.

Chris Clark, who's been a catalyst for Temple in the second half of the season, played only 13 minutes and missed his two shots. The matchups simply didn't work in his favor.

The Spartans will now play either Pittsburgh or Oral Roberts on Saturday, for the right to move on to Houston next week.

The Owls will start planning for next season, where the expectations figure to be high. Even though Dunphy loses two leaders in Tyndale and Clark, he'll add two guys who sat out this season: Ramone Moore, the Public League Player of the Year last season, and Michael Eric, who should provide much-needed help inside. Moore might be asked to do a lot of things that Tyndale provided, which won't be easy. Freshman Martavis Key, who didn't play much at all, should also have more of a role. And the Owls just added Scooty Randall from Communications Tech, who might also be the Pub's top player.

So there is a future in place. Doesn't make this one any easier to digest. *