The RoundHouse | 1/10/2018 10:40:00 AM
By
Paul Suellentrop
Temple leads the American Athletic Conference with five non-conference wins against teams in the top 100 of Ken Pomeroy's rankings. And it's not a soft five – wins over No. 17 Clemson and No. 21 Auburn look legit. Nobody else has beaten either team this season.
Temple is also 0-4 in the American Athletic Conference and plays at SMU on Wednesday, where the Mustangs own a 33-game win streak at Moody Coliseum.
"We're in a tough position, and it's not going to get any easier," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "We've got our hands full."
The Owls (7-8 overall) have seen this movie before. Last season, they defeated Florida State and West Virginia in non-conference play. Then they started America play 1-6 and finished 16-16.
This season's fade removes the Owls from NCAA Tournament at-large consideration. Yet Cincinnati needed a last-second shot to escape Philadelphia with a 55-53 win last week. These wild swings means it is difficult to tell what it will mean to play the Owls – good win (ranked No. 45 in the RPI) or bad loss?
Dunphy points to his team's offense as the culprit, understandable after losses to Cincinnati and Central Florida, two of the nation's best defensive teams. The Owls made 18 of 56 shots against the Bearcats. Against UCF, they committed 19 turnovers and shot 32.1 percent from the field. In those two games, Temple is 10 of 55 from three-point range.
"What has not been good enough is our offensive game," Dunphy said. "We had 10 turnovers in the first half (vs. UCF) that led to 13 of their points. Our set offense was not very good, either."
Temple faded from NCAA bracket projections. That hurts the American's depth for March Madness. SMU and Houston are the teams best positioned to join Wichita State and Cincinnati in the field. Both possess good non-conference wins – SMU over Arizona, Southern Cal and Boise State and Houston over Arkansas and Providence.
Knight injury update - UCF might slip into the NCAA picture with the right wins in conference play.
The Knights (12-4, 3-1) are scoring 58.8 points a game in conference play. If guard B.J. Taylor returns from a fractured bone in his foot, UCF would gain a redshirt junior who averaged 17.4 points last season.
Knights coach Johnny Dawkins called Taylor day to day and seemed confident he will return soon. Taylor played in UCF's season-opener and the school announced the injury four days later. The Knights are also without Aubrey Dawkins (son of the coach), benched for the season by a shoulder injury.
"(Taylor is) getting better, that's for sure," Johnny Dawkins said. "He's asserting himself more and more. It's going to be . . . when he feels right. We're all excited and realize there's light at the end of the tunnel."
UCF plays at Connecticut on Wednesday.
Love the Shockers – Wichita State earned its honeymoon in the American and it shows no sign of fading. Coaches enthusiastically endorse the fifth-ranked (Associated Press) Shockers with leading the way for its new conference.
Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin watched the Shockers this summer and came away impressed with their effort and their talent. He called not recruiting Shocker forward
Markis McDuffie a colossal mistake. Shaq Morris' shooting touch impressed him and he sees
Landry Shamet's next stop as the NBA.
"If you compared our team to their team, I would consider it an extreme compliment," Cronin said. "The way that they argue over who's going to the take charge is really impressive. You have to take a number – they have two guys waiting to draw the charge. There are two guys looking to block every shot. They have two guys diving on every loose ball. You're lucky if you've got one to do that stuff."
That theme continued through this week's conference call with American coaches.
"Wichita State completely changes the dynamic of our league," Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. "This is their year."
Worth noting – According to the Tulsa World, fewer than 1,800 tickets remain for Saturday's Wichita State game at Tulsa . . . The American owns the nation's top home win streaks – 35 for Cincinnati and SMU's 33 . . . Tulane is 11-5 after going 6-25 last season. It is 2-2 in the American entering Saturday's home game vs. UConn. The Green Wave went 3-15 in the American in each of the past two seasons.
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
