Your Temple Pick Was Probably Wrong

Aw, nertz. Temple played good defense early, but is now simply getting outhustled down the court by Michigan State and it’s a big Michigan State lead at halftime. The Spartans went on a 15-2 run midway through the half and lead, 35-26. Ryan Brooks scored 7 points in just over a minute for the Owls and has 10.

Dionte Christmas has no points at halftime, and Mark Tyndale only has 2. For a while, Temple was shooting 20 percent from the field. Twenty percent! Temple had the 19th best effective field goal percentage in the country during the season.

Temple opened the second half with a 16-2 run in the Atlantic 10 Championship game against Saint Joseph’s; it will take something at halftime from Fran Dunphy, the Wizard of North Broad Street.

On the plus side, Billy Packer isn’t announcing this game. On the Xavier-Georgia game — one of my Sweet 16 teams is losing by double digits! — Packer just said a player “didn’t start playing basketball until he was much later in his years. From Kentucky.”