WH

This is why I usually don't draw conclusions or make sweeping assessments early in the season. You just cannot know how an organic thing - a sports team - will develop. My bad - again. No more of that!

The Temple loss to Canisius puts the Bona loss in perspective. Canisius is much better than the team that lost 20 games-plus last season. I thought it was a bad Bona loss, but maybe not so much.

That said, I am hard pressed to believe that Canisius really is better and more talented than experienced Bona and Temple squads. New coach, lot of new players, small school in small conference. And where was this defense at Rhody when Baron was there?

I dunno. This is why college hoops is so great - and so maddening.

And how bout Dayton. Listen up A-10 coaches: zone the Flyers every minute of the game!

paulxu

We played a nice first half...and went to sleep at the start of the second. Really showed up our short bench when Semaj is injured and Davis cramps. Depth a big issue for us.

Some nice moments, but overall we looked scattered and couldn't effectively break their press. Going to be a long season for this team. Fun to watch some development, but obviously missing Lyons and Wells.

The big difference was foul shooting (3-14) and 3's (2-13).
Don't win many games with those numbers.

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...he went up late, and I was already up there.

paulxu

Who is this Morgan guy?

Can we borrow him?

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...he went up late, and I was already up there.

e-parade

Our starting guard opposite of Williams...who is currently shooting 70% from 3 on the day.

X-band '01

You're not going to win ANY games shooting 20% from the free throw line, Paul.

At least ripping off that bandage is now complete. Time to move on to Wofford and a couple of other key roadies before A-10 play.

Bona84

I agree with you, WH. Neither Bona nor Temple should have lost to the mythical Golden Griffins. I think it was Muddy's suck factor thread where Bona/Canisius comments were made. I don't recall, but the spread on that game was pretty close. I was pissed about the loss, but wasn't sure it qualified for the A-10 suck factor classification.

Pretty sure that Baron is now a hero in Buffalo, rebuilding another floundering program. That's his specialty.

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Bona84

owlfan2272

Temple hasn't really played a game where I have thought "Wow this is a great team". They look like an NIT team so far but hopefully they can regroup and pull off a miracle Saturday.

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Temple Owls have won a lot.

jpschmack

Bona can float you some points.

WH

Dunphy's system doesn't require a classic dribble-penetrating point guard, but one could argue that the point is a big weakness this year. Cummings has struggled and DiLeo is just a caretaker. However, Cummings probably had the best game of his young career tonite.

I think Temple needs to do a better job establishing the inside game so the Owls don't have to rely so much on Wyatt and Randall (just 1-12 on treys vs. Canisuius).

antboy

The box score sure seems crazy. Randall went 1-12 and Wyatt 0-6 from 3. Was that really good defense, or just a bizarrely bad shooting night where a guy who's off keeps heaving it?

Wyatt is really off so far this year from 3. Maybe having those other guys around him last year helped, or maybe he's pressing? What's the issue there? Randall is actually worse from 3, and he shoots around 6.5 a game! Seems strange that a Dunphy team would be taking bad shots.

Don't worry though. They are in no danger of being at the bottom of the conference. The Niners' sg Williams is currently 1-18 from 3.

owlfan2272

Nice win for UMass

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Temple Owls have won a lot.

e-parade

Lalanne very quietly had a double-double for UMass, that was also very nice to see.

DukesDan

Wrong again Z-8, Duquesne cruised to the win. Colter is going to make your little Chaz look silly by the way.

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Duquesne Dukes: 2012 A10 tournament qualifier!!

2012-2013 Locks of the Day TBA
2011-2012 Locks of the Day NIT participant 29-26-0...... .527
2010-2011 Locks of the Day Regular Season Champion 31-20-4 ..... .600

#15 Cooper #11 Green #10 Nixon #12 Ricketts #24 Somerset

TUOwl06

Outside of Butler and VCU I'm not seeing much depth in the A10 right now.

Temple, Umass, Xavier, Dayton, Charlotte, SLU, SJU etc all seem like the definition of mediocrity...

bprichard

Just in from the Flyer game. It was not pretty. Dayton deserved to lose. Oliver played his worst game of the year by far, and Dillard didn't look too good (and went down with some sort of back pain late in the game).

Dayton could not figure out what to do with the 2-3 zone, a typical Flyer problem. Illinois State played a quality game, not counting the last 3 minutes of each half. Their defense was just the right amount aggressive, they hit some timely three, and their big guy was a monster. He was too strong for Benson to guard and too skilled for Robinson or Gavilovic to handle.

Dayton came alive late and had two looks at the end, a contested 18-footer by Oliver and a desperation flip by Price. It was a rough night.