Temple University Athletics
MEN'S BASKETBALL TO TAKE ON #5 DUKE SATURDAY
1.6.05 | Men's Basketball
DURHAM, NC - It will be a reunion of the Hall of Fame Class of 2001 when Temple and Duke square off at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Temple coach John Chaney and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski are members of not only the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Class of 2001, but they are two of the six active coaches with 700 career wins. Saturday's nationally-televised game (ESPN2 -- 2:00 p.m.) will be the first meeting for each against another 700-win coach, and just the 14th time in NCAA Division I history that two 700-win coaches were on opposing benches.
Duke, undefeated (10-0) and ranked fifth nationally, is led by arguably one of the nation's top backcourt tandems in junior J.J. Reddick (21.5 ppg.) and senior Daniel Ewing (16.1 ppg.). The Blue Devils also possesses a strong inside presence with 6-9, 250-pound junior Sheldon Williams averaging a double-double (14.5 ppg./12.3 rpg.).
Temple comes into the game with a 5-5 record against the nation's toughest schedule. The Owls are led by junior Mardy Collins. The 6-6 point guard tops the Owls in scoring (17.3 ppg.) and assists (3.9 apg.) while leading the nation in steals (3.7 spg.). Freshman Mark Tyndale (13.0 ppg.) joins Collins in the backcourt while another newcomer, sophomore forward Wayne Marshall (7.8 ppg./5.1 rpg.) has been the Owls most effective inside player. Sophomore Dustin Salisbery (10.9 ppg.) is expected to make his second consecutive start in place of an injured Keith Butler (shoulder sprain).
The Owls will also have to combat the "Cameron Crazies". The Blue Devils own an imposing 178-8 record against non-conference foes, and have won 84 of their last 85 games against non-conference unranked opponents.
OWLS AGAINST THE BLUE DEVILS: This will be the 23rd meeting between Temple and Duke with the Blue Devils holding a 13-9 advantage. Duke has won the last four meetings in the series and six of the seven encounters during the John Chaney era. The Owls' lone win under Chaney came on January 25, 1996, a 59-58 decision at the Spectrum. Two of Duke's wins, 63-52 in 1988 and 85-64 in 1999, came in the Elite Eight and denied Chaney a berth in the NCAA Final Four. Duke will play Temple in Philadelphia next season.
LAST MEETING (Dec. 5, 2001 @Duke 82, Temple 57): Jason Williams (26 pts., 10 rebs.) and Mike Dunleavy 24 pts., 10 rebs.) led #1 Duke to an easy 82-57 win over Temple at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils scored the game's first 10 points and opened up a commanding 29-12 lead over the first 10 minutes. The Owls cut the deficit to 41-28 at halftime as Brian Polk scored 10 of his then-career high 20 points in the frame. Duke opened the second stanza with a flurry, extending the lead to 54-36 over the first four minutes. Lynn Greer tallied 15 of his team-high 22 points for the Owls in the second half, but it was not enough to overcome Duke's barrage from the perimeter (13 three-pointers).
LAST GAME (Jan. 5, 2005, Temple 61, Massachusetts 49): On a night when both teams' shooters were colder than ice fishermen, Temple's Dustin Salisbery got hot at the right time. The sophomore guard, making just his second start of the season, scored 14 straight Temple points on six-of-six shooting, including all 10 in a decisive 10-0 run that put Owls ahead of UMass for good, 54-47 with 3:34 to play.
Temple would go on to defeat the Minutemen, 61-49, in front of 3,139 fans at the Mullins Center in the Atlantic 10 Conference opener for both teams. Mardy Collins, who posted his first career double-double, tallied eight of his game-high 18 points just prior to Salisbery's heroics to help bring Temple back from a 10-point deficit (42-32) with 11:29 to play. Collins also grabbed a career and game-high 11 rebounds as the Owls out-hustled the Minutemen on the boards, 48-36. Temple, which hit just one of its first 23 field goal attempts, hit 12-of-20 to close the game out. Antywane Robinson kept Temple in the game in the first half, scoring 10 of his season-high 13 points in the frame. Robinson connected on four-of-eight in the first 20 minutes while his teammates combined to make just three-of-32 (9.4%) from the floor during the frame. Freshman Mark Tyndale was the coldest Owl, missing his first 16 attempts and finished 1-of-20 (0-9 3PT) for the game. He did contribute season highs of nine rebounds and five assists Rashaun Freeman, Art Bowers and Maurice Maxwell tied for the Minutemen scoring honors with eight points apiece.
RANKED RECORD: Temple University is 31-60 against ranked opponents during John Chaney's 23 years at the helm of the program. The Owls last win against a ranked foe came against #10 Xavier, 63-57, on March 14 at the Atlantic 10 Tournament. Temple's last win over a non-conference ranked opponent came against #8 Florida, 75-54, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament (3/18/01). The Owls last win over a ranked opponent on the road came against #1 Cincinnati, 77-69, on February 20, 2000. Five of the Owls six losses to Duke under John Chaney have come when the Blue Devils have been nationally ranked. Four of those five encounters Duke was ranked #1 in the nation. The other meeting the Blue Devils were second in the nation. The Blue Devils were not ranked during Temple's 59-58 win on January 25, 1996.
LONG LAYOFFS: Under John Chaney, the Owls are now 9-3 in games following a break of 10 days or more, including this year's 61-49 win at UMass on Jan. 5 (16 days between games). The losses include #24 Rhode Island (74-64, 1/1/98), #17 La Salle (63-62, 1/3/90) and Stetson (79-73, 1/29/83).
FOR OPENERS: Temple opened its Atlantic 10 Conference schedule at Massachusetts on January 5. The Owls defeated the Minutemen, 61-49, and are now 17-6 in A-10 openers, all under head coach John Chaney.
DOWN TO THE WIRE: Six of Temple's 10 games have been decided by three points or less. The Owls are 3-3 in those contests, defeating Villanova (53-52), Penn (52-51) and Princeton (48-46) while losing to Auburn (80-78), Arizona State (65-62) and #5 Wake Forest (67-64). The Owls also dropped a four-point decision (75-71) at #19 Alabama.
THEY SHOOT, THEY SCORE: Temple has won 36 straight games when shooting better than its opponents. In John Chaney's 23 years at the helm, the Owls are 351-25 (93.4%) when out-shooting the opposition. The last time Temple lost when shooting better than its opponent was January 23, 2002, a 75-68 loss to Richmond. The Owls are 2-0 this year when shooting better than their foes.
RETURNING CHAMPS: Temple led the nation in fewest turnovers per game for the second straight season in 2003-04, averaging a mere 8.96 miscues per contest. The 260 turnovers committed by the Owls last season were also a record-low for the program. In John Chaney's 23 years at Temple, the Owls have averaged 10 turnovers or less 10 times. The best average for a Temple team under Chaney came during the 1992-93 season when the Owls posted an 8.54 turnovers per game average. Also, in the 11 seasons that the conference has been tracking the statistic, the Owls have led the league in all but one season, that coming in 2001-02 when new member Richmond averaged 10.2 turnovers per game. The Owls again lead the nation in '04-05 with just 86 turnovers in their first 10 games (8.6 tpg.).
MORE TOs: In the 12 years that the NCAA has been tracking fewest turnovers per game, Temple has led the nation nine times. Besides last year, the Owls ranked first nationally in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003. The three years that Temple did not lead the nation, it was among the Top 10 in the country, ranking third in 2002, fourth in 1998 and seventh in 1996.
FORTY PERCENT MARK: Since 2001-02, Temple is 40-13 (75.5%) when hitting over 40 percent from the field. The Owls are 1-2 when hitting over 40 percent in 2004-05.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Mardy Collins was named the Atlantic 10 Conference and Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Week for second time this year for his play in the Wake Forest game (12/20). He earned the first Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Week award of his career for the week ending December 12. He had previously earned the first Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Week honor of his career for the week ending Nov. 27. Collins tallied a season high 25 points on nine-of-19 shooting (3-8 from 3PT) against #5 Wake Forest (12/13). He also dished five assists and made seven steals while playing 40 minutes for the fourth straight contest. For the year, he leads Temple in scoring (17.3 ppg.) and assists (3.9 apg.) and the nation in steals (3.7 spg.).
IT TAKES A THIEF: Mardy Collins leads the Atlantic 10 Conference and the nation with a 3.9 steals per game average. Collins recorded nine steals (2nd best total in A-10 history) at South Carolina (11/27), six steals at Alabama (12/11) and seven versus Wake Forest (12/13). Collins entered the season with a 1.81 career steal average.
MARDY'S MILESTONE: Mardy Collins became the 41st Temple player to reach the 1000-point milestone in the Owls' 48-46 win over Princeton on Dec. 20.
IRONMAN: Mardy Collins ranked third in the nation in minutes per game last year, averaging 39.3 minutes per contest. He played the entire game 17 times. He is off to a similar start this year, averaging 37.9 minutes per contest. He has played the entire game six times this season. He has a current streak of 234 straight minutes played, second longest streak of his career (250, 12/6/03-1/7/04), snapped when he sat out the final six minutes of the first half at UMass (1/5/05) due to foul trouble.
STREAKING: Mardy Collins is riding a 28-game streak of double figure scoring games. He tallied double figures in the final 18 games of the 2003-04 season and then opened the 2004-05 campaign with 10 straight double figure scoring games.
