The RoundHouse | 3/9/2018 3:02:00 PM

 
No. 2 Wichita State vs. No. 7 Temple
 
When: 6 p.m. Friday
Records: Wichita State 24-6, Temple 17-14
Listen: KEYN 103.7 FM/goshockers.com
Watch: ESPNU/WatchESPN
 
By Paul Suellentrop
 
Temple, by most statistical measures, is a fairly average offensive team. The Owls rank ninth or lower in conference games in shooting accuracy (40.7 percent), three-point shooting (32.6 percent) and foul shooting (67.2 percent).
 
That is not the Temple team most Wichita State fans remember after two thrilling games. In the first half of the first meeting, Temple made 7 of 13 three-pointers on its way to an 81-79 win in Philadelphia.
 
In the rematch, Temple scored 56 first-half points, making 11 of 15 threes and 19 of 30 shots. Wichita State won that one, 93-86, when the Owls cooled off a bit in the second half. A bit – 5 of 14 from three remains a threat.
 
And so, the seventh-seeded Owls provided two of the most memorable games of Wichita State's first American Athletic Conference season. The Owls are a guard-dominated team that lives on jump shots, dribble drives and winning the turnover stat. They thrive on fast-break baskets and in isolation plays that give their guards room to create.
 
Those tendencies create a hot-and-cold team that nobody – perhaps not even coach Fran Dunphy -  fully understands. The Owls trailed Tulsa 24-0 in their final regular-season game before losing 76-58. They made 49.2 percent of their shots in the loss at Wichita State. Then Temple finished the regular season with three losses in four games and shot under 37 percent in all of the defeats.
 
"Shooting good shots leads to us making shots," Dunphy told reporters before the tournament. "I just hope we can make shots."
 
Because of their reliance on jump shots, the Owls are often outscored at the foul line. In American regular-season games, opponents attempted 77 more foul shots than the Owls and outscored them 239-170. Dunphy emphasizes drawing fouls, but it's not a natural move.
 
"That's not who we are or how we're built," he said.
 
Again, all this angst by the Owls regarding points seems stranger to the Shockers. They watched Obi Enechionyia score 17 points at Koch Arena. Quinton Rose scored 19 in 25 minutes in the first meeting. Freshman guard Nate Pierre-Louis came off the bench to score 11 points, nine in the second half, in the game in Philadelphia. Shizz Alston Jr. made 4 of 6 threes in Koch Arena.
 
"Shizz Alston, Rose, Obi, those guys can go get buckets," Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said. "And (Josh) Brown, their point guard, is a tremendously experienced and tough leader. Great team, given us a lot of problems the two times we played them."
 
Wichita State center Shaq Morris is tough matchup for many teams, especially the Owls. They are not a great shot-blocking team. Conference opponents make 51.9 percent of two-point shots against Temple, third-highest rate in the American.
 
Morris is 19 for 26 from the field in two games against Temple, scoring 24 points in the first game and 23 in the rematch. He averaged 11 rebounds in the two games.
 
The rest vs. rust debate is a topic that fits this week, whether or not it's a real factor in the NCAA Tournament. Wichita State has won a lot of NCAA games because it is a good basketball team, one that happened to take a week off in previous seasons after the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
 
That schedule changes dramatically in the American. The Shockers could play on Sunday afternoon and travel to their NCAA first-round site on Tuesday or Wednesday. That's not much time off to heal or rest, certainly not like in past seasons.
 
Marshall, as coach at Winthrop in the Big South and Wichita State, grew to like that luxury. He was able to call off practices for two or three days before regrouping and ramping up the activity heading into the weekend before the NCAA selection show.
 
This routine will be different, especially if the Shockers advance to Sunday's title game. They would then watch the selection show in a room in the Amway Center before making travel plans for the NCAA Tournament.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.