Temple making first visit to storied Butler arena

INDIANAPOLIS - Fran Dunphy is no stranger to historic college basketball arenas.

Before coaching at Temple, he spent 17 seasons at Penn, which plays its home games at the Palestra. Dunphy, in his seventh season on North Broad Street, has taken squads to Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium and Kansas' Allen Fieldhouse. The Owls' latest trip to "The Phog" was Jan. 6.

On Saturday, Butler's Hinkle Fieldhouse will be the site of the Atlantic Ten showdown between the Owls (13-5, 2-2) and the ninth-ranked Bulldogs (16-3, 3-1).

The 10,000-seat arena, named after former Butler coach Tony Hinkle, was built in 1928 and is the sixth-oldest college basketball arena still in use.

The venue is remembered as the site of the state championship game in the 1986 movie Hoosiers. The movie followed the small-town Hickory High team that was based on the miraculous 1954 run made by Milan High, which won the Indiana High School Athletic Association championship game on a last-second shot. Hinkle was the site of the IHSAA state championship game from 1928 to '44 and from 1946 to '71.

The field house is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Seven presidents - from Herbert Hoover to Barack Obama - have spoken there. Track star Jesse Owens tied the 60-yard-dash world record (6.1 seconds) at the venue in 1935. And it has some civil-rights history: The Oscar Robertson-led Crispus Attucks High basketball team won the state title in 1955, becoming the nation's first all-black state champion in an integrated sport, according to the Indianapolis Star.

On Saturday, Temple will look to become the first team to hand Butler a home loss this season.

The squads' first-ever meeting will mark the Owls' fourth game against a top-ranked team this season. They suffered a 90-67 loss to then-second-ranked Duke on Dec. 8 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. Fourteen days later, Temple upset then-third-ranked Syracuse, 83-79, in New York's Madison Square Garden. And in early January, the Owls gave then-sixth-ranked Kansas fits at Allen Fieldhouse before eventually losing, 69-62.

But since then, Temple hasn't looked like a team expected to make its sixth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance.

On Wednesday, the Owls posted an unimpressive, 76-69 victory over a struggling Penn squad at the Liacouras Center. They committed 15 turnovers and gave up numerous open shots before rallying to win.

"We will come together," said Anthony Lee, Temple's redshirt sophomore center. "I don't have any doubt in this team. . . . I think everybody knows that we have to play well."

The Bulldogs "are really well known, and they are a top team in the country," Lee added. "When we play a top team like that, it should get you juiced up and get us fired up."

The Owls are 4-2 on the road, losing two of the last three. There's a chance that Jake O'Brien will make his third start in place of injured power forward Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson (bruised left knee).

Butler's standout shooting guard, Rotnei Clarke, could return. The Bulldogs' leading scorer has been sidelined since spraining his neck at Dayton on Jan. 12.