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Saturday: A Noon 6* Sets the Stage
As always the Saturday NCAA hopes board will have us in action early and often, and this week we start with particular fireworks, with a Noon Eastern tipoff bringing us the edges to go to our Top 6* Rating.
Dave once again delivered for his Clients with Big Fireworks as promised.
6* #517 TEMPLE over ST. JOSEPH?S
Two weeks ago Temple fell out of public favor in an ugly loss at
Richmond that did not mean all that much for our charting ? Juan
Fernandez did not play, and the 3-point shooting brought some huge
rolls of the basketball dice into play (the Owls were 1-10; the
Spiders 9-16). But they seemed to fall out of public favor with that
defeat, and yet the only two games since then were special, a 78-56
drubbing of Rhode Island in what was billed as a showdown, and a cozy
73-55 domination of St. Bonaventure on Wednesday in which Fran Dunphy
only needed his starters on the floor for 120 minutes. It means that
we have a fresh team at the top of their game for this cross-town
rivalry, and that is more than Phil Martelli and his fading Hawks can
deal with right now.
The cupboard is simply bare at St. Joseph?s this season. Martelli
usually fields the kind of scrappy side that will still compete even
when the opposition has more talent, but even that will is not there,
with five defeats by 23 points or more, three of them coming in their
dismal 3-9 Atlantic 10 showing. One of those was by a 73-46 count
across town vs. these Owls earlier, when the Hawks were crushed to a
43-22 tune on the boards, a night in which temple got more offensive
rebounds (18) than St. Joseph?s had on the defensive glass (16). That
latter imbalance should be a rarity, but it is not for the Hawks
these days ? Xavier accomplished the same feat in Wednesday?s 88-52
blowout, with grabbing 17 offensive boards while Martelli?s bunch
only cleared the glass 11 times. And it was not like the Musketeers
were trying all that hard, with 14 different players seeing at least
two minutes of action.
You can not make up the kind of personnel deficits that St. Joseph?s
has this late in the season, and it is not as though the Hawks can
threaten by getting hot from the outside ? they are making an anemic
26.6 percent from 3-point range in conference play. Meanwhile the
Owls are simply first class across the board ? they are shooting 47.3
percent in league play, including 39.3 from long range, courtesy of
excellent offensive sets that have produced 172 assists vs. only 126
turnovers. They are holding conference foes to 39.2 percent from the
field, and winning the battle of the boards by +5.5. The Hawks can
not get in the way of that, and there is little reason to believe
they can shave as much margin off of that earlier rout as the
oddsmakers are calling for, especially with their decision to play
this game at the Palestra instead of on campus. That makes this only
a neutral court at best for them, and in reality given the kind of
season the Owls are having they should have more fans in attendance
(this will also be their fourth game on this court this season). That
makes is even easier to turn this into another rout, with that solid
Temple free throw shooting keeping the back door firmly locked.
Dave fails to mention the only time in the past month he backed Temple was as another 6* play -1 at UNCC and they lost by 10.
It is an amazing spin these guys can put on games. You read above how cant they cover !!
The numbers don't lie guys. Malinsky is just another loser in the world of sports handicapping. You can only live on the past so long. The numbers dont lie.