Temple University Athletics
Owls Open 2000-01 Campaign vs. Delaware In Preseason NIT
11.12.00 | Men's Basketball
PHILADELPHIA - With the walk-on tryouts, preseason practice sessions,
Morning Madness, two exhibition wins and the Atlantic 10 Conference
Media Day a thing of the past, Coach John Chaney's 2000-01 Temple
University basketball team is ready for the genuine article.
The Owls will get the chance to play for keeps on Monday night (Nov.
13), as Temple hosts the University of Delaware in a first-round match
of the Preseason National Invitation Tournament. Tip-off is slated for
7:30 p.m. at the Liacouras Center and the game will be televised locally
by Comcast SportsNet.
The Preseason NIT consists of a 16 team single-elimination format, with
first-round winners advancing to second-round games at designated campus
sites Nov. 15 and 17. The final four will then advance to semifinal and
championship-round contests at New York's Madison Square Gardens,
scheduled for Nov. 22 and 24. The Temple-Delaware victor is slated to
meet the winner of Monday night's George Mason at New Mexico clash. The
second-round contest will be played on Wednesday (Nov. 15) at a site to
be determined.
In two exhibition games played last week, Temple defeated the California
East All-Stars, 90-62, and the London Leopards, 78-60. Senior guard
Quincy Wadley and junior forward Alex Wesby tallied 23 and 22 points,
respectively in the California East All-Stars game, while junior forward
Kevin Lyde paced the win over the London Leopards with an 18-point,
15-rebound performance. Junior guard Lynn Greer added 17 points in the
latter contest. The Owls come off a 27-6 season in which Temple
collected its fifth Atlantic 10 Conference championship and made a 16th
appearance in the NCAA Tournament under Coach Chaney.
OWL NOTES
THE SERIES: Although Temple and Delaware have met 40 times on the
basketball court, the two schools have not played since the 1981-82
season, the year before John Chaney was hired at TU The Owls hold a
commanding 34-6 lead in the series, which dates all the way back to the
1905-06 season The Blue Hens won four of the first five meetings and
collected additional wins in the 1951-52 and 1962-63 seasons Temple
has won the last 14 meetings and 24 of the last 25 The last game
between the Owls and Blue Hens took place at McGonigle Hall on January
14, 1982, a game Temple won handily under then-coach Don Casey, 73-49.
OWLS IN THE PRESEASON NIT: Temple makes its fourth appearance in the
Preseason NIT and enters the opening round with a 4-3 record in the
competition In its first PNIT appearance in 1986-87, Temple advanced
to the final four in New York with victories over Virginia (79-75) and
Villanova (80-73), before bowing to UNLV in the semifinal, 78-76 ... The
Owls rebounded to win the consolation game, 67-59 over Memphis State
(now the University of Memphis) In the 1990-91 tournament, Temple was
defeated at Iowa in the first round, 73-71 In its last appearance,
1995-96, Temple defeated Rider in the first round, 65-62, before being
eliminated at fifth-ranked Georgetown, 74-49.
2000 PRESEASON NIT: A field of 16 teams will play a single-elimination
tournament with a final four (semifinals and finals) scheduled New
York's Madison Square Garden Nov. 22 and 24 Upper bracket first round
matchups: Delaware at TEMPLE (Nov. 13); George Mason at New Mexico (Nov.
13); Pepperdine at Indiana (Nov. 14); South Alabama at Marquette (Nov.
14) Lower bracket first round matchups: Mississippi State at
California (Nov. 13); Navy at Texas (Nov. 13); Fairfield at Villanova
(Nov. 14); Princeton at Duke (Nov. 13).
ABOUT DELAWARE: First-year head coach David Henderson returns just one
starter from the most successful class in Blue Hen basketball history,
senior guard Bill Wells (6-3, 8.7 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 2.4 apg, 52 steals)
Henderson replaced Mike Brey, who accepted the Notre Dame position after
guiding Delaware to a 24-8 record, third-place finish in the American
East Conference and a berth in the National Invitation Tournament The
Blue Hens look to replace three starters who finished with double-figure
scoring averages last year, including the school's all-time career
scoring leader, Mike Pegues Pegues averaged a team-high 20.8 points
per game last season and finished a tremendous collegiate career with
2,030 total points Along with Wells, the key returnees are senior
guard Greg Miller (6-4, 12 starts, 5.8 ppg) and sophomore guard Austen
Rowland (6-1, 7 starts, 4.1 ppg) The top newcomers include 6-9 senior
center Ajmal Basit (U-Mass transfer); 6-8 sophomore forward Maurice
Sessions (Wisconsin transfer); and 6-3 freshman guard Ryan Iverson
(Minnesota transfer).
FOR OPENERS: The Temple basketball program has proven tremendously
proficient in season-opening games, having won 86 of 104 contests all
time That's a winning percentage of .827 on opening night In fact,
the all-time Temple records show that between the 1951-52 season and the
1987-88 campaign, the Owls were a perfect 36-0 in season openers Under
Coach John Chaney, Temple is 15-3 on opening night, with a current
streak of three wins: 68-42 over Auburn in the 1997-98 season; 65-49
over Georgetown in the 1998-99 season and 60-47 over Miami of Ohio last
year The Owls' last loss in a lid-lifter was a 64-57 overtime affair
with Wisconsin at McGonigle Hall on Dec. 4, 1996 Temple's most
memorable season-opening games of the John Chaney era include an 81-76
victory at UCLA on Dec. 3, 1987; a 91-74 double-overtime loss at
eighth-ranked Missouri on Dec. 2, 1988; and a 73-59 win over
third-ranked Kansas on Dec. 1, 1993 Perhaps the most memorable of all
for Owl fans, however, was a thrilling 68-67 win at George Washington on
Nov. 30, 1982 John Chaney's first game on the Temple bench By the
way, does anybody else notice that the season used to start nearly a
month later?
