Temple Owls (Atlantic 10 Conference)

Record: 25-7 overall (14-2 in A-10)

Coach: Fran Dunphy (109-56 in 5 years with Temple, 419-219 overall in 22 years of coaching)

Series History: Temple 59-32 (won 45-42 in 2009)

Players to Watch: Ramone Moore (14.9 ppg), Lavoy Allen (11.8 ppg, 8.4 rpg) and Juan Fernandez (10.7 ppg, 4.1 apg)

Temple comes into the tournament having won 12 of its last 14 games. The two losses were to a #1-ranked Duke team and to eventual Atlantic-10 tournament champion Richmond in their semifinals this past Saturday. During the regular season, they have beaten fellow tourney-members Georgia, Richmond and Georgetown while losing single-digits games to Texas A&M and Villanova. This team has definitely played more competition than what many people are giving them credit for.

The Owls are led by senior forward Lavoy Allen, a first-team A-10 selection for the past two years an all-Defensive team selection for the past three years. He has scored nearly 1,400 points in his career and is the Temple all-time leading rebounder. Standing at 6-9 and weighing 225 pounds, he will provide a tough test for the inside combination of Andrew Jones and Jeff Brooks.

Supporting Allen are Ramone Moore and Juan Fernandez who were selection to the second and third teams in the A-10, respectively. Moore was 12th in the conference, scoring 14.9 points a game. Fernandez, the Temple defensive stopper, has already been given the duty of covering Talor Battle according to Coach Fran Dunphy.

Temple’s biggest strength when compared to the Nittany Lions may be their depth. They boast five players scoring at least 10 points a game and seven different players averaging 20 minutes a game.

Penn State will need to make the Owls shoot the ball from outside (which they have let everyone do this season anyway) as they only shot 35.4% from three for the season. Another important stat is the 15.3 fouls that the Owls commit a game which ranks 325th in the nation. If the Nittany Lions are able to get Allen in foul trouble and negate his athleticism and height advantage, it would go a long way in coming up with the upset.

The x-factor in this game might be Temple forward Scootie Randall. Randall, who has been out the past seven games, has said that he feels good enough to play. The 6-6 swingman could really stretch out the Penn State zone and create holes for other players to take advantage of.