IS LIVE CHATTING EAGLES-BEARS
MIAMI - Pssst. You want the scoop, the inside skinny, the real deal on Temple's chances to upset Arizona State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament? OK, then, here it is, just between us:
For the Owls to advance, senior guard Dionte Christmas needs to light it up.
Well, all right, that's not exactly a stop-the-presses insight. Pretty much everybody is making the same point. Christmas is, after all, Temple's best player. He has a chance to become the first player ever to lead the Atlantic 10 in scoring three straight seasons. He's considered a legitimate NBA prospect.
Throw in the fact that when the Owls were bounced in their March Madness opener by Michigan State a year ago, he went 1-for-12 from the floor and scored only three points. So it's logical to conclude that there is a direct link between how well he fills it up and No. 11 seed Temple's chances of beating the No. 6 Sun Devils this afternoon at the American Airlines Arena.
"Dionte has been a catalyst for us these last couple years now," testified guard Semaj Inge who, along with Christmas and center Sergio Olmos, is one of the three remaining players from John Chaney's last recruiting class. "I don't think we're going to win a lot of big games if Dionte doesn't have a great game."
And that may very well be the way the game develops after the 2:45 p.m. tipoff.
Here's the thing, though. Christmas was held to 12 or fewer points seven times during the season. The Owls were 6-1 when that happened.
He didn't break out of single figures four times. Temple was undefeated in those games.
In his last four games, he's shooting just 32.3 percent from the floor. "He hasn't been shooting the ball that well lately," Inge noted.
The Owls swept those games anyway.
"At the beginning of the season, I said that [others could carry the load] and a lot of people thought I was crazy, but I knew what kind of team we had," Christmas said before the team ran through a light workout yesterday. "I knew the kind of players we have on this team. I knew the kind of work these guys put in throughout the summer.
"When I'm not scoring, you've got a guy like Ryan Brooks, Craig Williams, Semaj [Inge], Sergio [Olmos], all those guys step up. If teams focus on me, there are a lot of guys behind me. That's good when you know you've got guys to back you up like that."
Said coach Fran Dunphy: "He's had an interesting year. I think he's made more big shots for us, but he hasn't shot his best percentage. He's had some struggles against teams that have really concentrated their defenses greatly on him. And at other times, where he's had open looks, we've become so spoiled watching him play that we think every time he shoots it, it's going in the basket."
If his shots aren't falling, or if the opposing team sells out to keep him from getting his shots, Christmas will look for other ways to try to help his team win.
"Definitely," he said. "When I'm not shooting well, I try to do other things whether that's rebounding or trying to get a lot of assists. I like to help my big guys on the boards and I like to give other guys the ball. When I'm not on and I see that Ryan Brooks is on, I'm going to do everything in my power to get him the ball. Or everything in my power to get Craig [Williams] the ball or Semaj or any of those guys."
The kicker, of course, is that this isn't just another regular-season game or even a win-or-go-home A-10 Tournament matchup. This is another step up the ladder and it figures that the importance of any team's top player will be magnified accordingly.
"Dionte is a great shooter," Inge said. "I've been playing basketball for a long time now, played with a lot of great guys, played against a lot of great guys. But as far as shooting the basketball, Dionte has to be up there with the best.
"Sometimes he might not be open, but just because he has such a quick release, he can get a shot off just about any time he wants. Just as far as him shooting the ball, he's one of the greatest in the country."
And, yes, that clunker against Michigan State last March is a memory he would like to erase with a big effort today.
"I definitely want to redeem myself and come out and have a great game," he said. "But it's not for me. I want to do it for my team, man. Just be a leader of this program and lead these guys to a win.
"That's the past. I try not to think about the past. I'm thinking about the future and I'm thinking about what I've got to do to help my team as much as possible to get this win. If that's me only scoring 10 points but getting everybody else involved, that's what I've got to do. If it's me scoring 30 points, I've got to do that."
The reality remains that Temple's odds of advancing to Sunday to play the winner of today's Syracuse-Stephen F. Austin matchup will probably be a lot better if he's closer to 30.
And, just remember, you heard it here first. *
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