Temple's Khalif Wyatt is second in the A-10 in scoring, at 16.4 points per game. (Rick Kauffman/Philahoops)
By JOSH VERLIN
Philahoops Staff
Twitter: @jmverlin
6pm, Feb. 8, 2012: Liacouras Center (TCN)
After eight conference games, the Temple Owls are exactly where they want to be, in first place in the tough Atlantic 10 Conference. After losing two out of three to begin the conference slate, the Owls have won five straight in league play and are now the only team in the A-10 with just two losses.
The key now for the Owls (17-5, 6-2 A-10) is to continue that momentum toward a weekend clash with another league powerhouse in Xavier. To do that, however, they first need to get past the George Washington Colonials (8-15, 3-6 A-10) at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at the Liacouras Center.
The Colonials are under the direction of first-year head coach Mike Lonergan, who comes to George Washington after six years at Vermont. Lonergan directed the Catamounts to four 20-win seasons in his years at Vermont but the Colonials have struggled in his first year in the nation’s capital.
George Washington comes into this game losers of eight straight road games (1-8 on the season) and four straight overall, including home contests to Xavier (59-58) and Massachusetts (86-75) last week. The Colonials haven’t won away from the comforts of the Charles E. Smith Athletic Center since beating Bowling Green back on Nov. 23, though it hasn’t been the easist slate.
Road contests against Syracuse, Kansas State, Harvard and Cal before the Atlantic 10 season started plus away games at La Salle, Saint Louis and Saint Bonaventure are seven reasons the Colonials have such a bad road record, though they’ve also lost every one of those games by 10 or more points. The only road loss where G.W. was within 10 points was at Fordham, which lost at Temple by 18 points last Wednesday.
Temple has historically and recently had success over George Washington, with a 50-16 advantage all-time while currently riding a four-game winning streak in the series. Prior to the Colonials’ last win over the Owls in Feb. 2007, however, George Washington had won five out of six against Temple during a stretch where they also won 20-or-more games in three consecutive years (2005-07).
The leading scorer on the Colonials is 6-foot-1 Tony Taylor at 14.1 points per game, which has risen to 15.7 in conference play. Taylor, a preseason A-10 first team all-conference selection, is coming off a season-high 26 points against UMass, the seventh time this season the senior guard has hit the 20-point mark.
Taylor and 6-5 junior guard Lasan Kromah (10.6 points, team-high 41 steals) are the only two George Washington players averaging double figures on the season, but another Colonial has stepped up his game in conference play.
Sophomore forward Nemanja Mikic has been averaging 10.4 points in nine conference games, keyed by improved long-distance shooting. The 6-8 Mikic, who led the country in 3-point shooting as a freshman last year (43.6 percent), shot 31.4 percent (22-of-70) from beyond the 3-point arc before A-10 play started but is 20-of-46 (43.5 percent) in conference play to lead the team in that time span.
Mikic does only have eight free-throw attempts over those last nine games, so he’s not really much of a threat to drive to the rim. Watch for the Owls’ tenacious 3-point defense (30.2 percent, 30th nationally) to close out on the Serbian forward and force him to put the ball on the court or give it up.
Lonergan has played with a variety of starting lineups, using eight different lineups over the course of the season. Kromah is the only player to start all 23 games, while Mikic and Taylor have both come off the bench for one game each. Forwards Jabari Edwards (13 starts) and John Kopriva (17) are the only other two players to start more than 10 games, while Dwayne Smith (eight), Aaron Ware (four), Bryan Bynes (three) and David Pellom (three) have all started games over the course of the season.
Temple’s starting lineup is finally set now that grad student Micheal Eric is back, with the 6-11 center getting his first start since November in the Owls’ 73-56 road win over Rhode Island on Saturday. Anthony Lee, who started 17 games in Eric’s absence, now becomes a very valuable bench piece for Temple over the final month of the regular season.
The Owls are still powered by their three-headed monster at guard, with Ramone Moore (18.0 points) and Khalif Wyatt (16.4 points) ranked first and second in the conference in scoring. The two have taken turns dominating games in stretches, combining with Juan Fernandez (11.5 points) to give Temple one of the most potent backcourts in the nation.
My Take
Mikic has been a big matchup problem for some teams, but Temple’s one of the stronger defensive teams in the country and tends to have problems more with interior big men more than those who like to shoot jumpers (see: C.J. Aiken). Taylor and Bynes are going to have to create off the dribble to try and free up Mikic.
The Colonial offense has been one of the worst in the country at getting to the free-throw line, with a free-throw rate (FTA/FGA) of just .279, or about one free throw for every four field-goal attempts. The Owls aren’t much better, at .307, but that’s partly due to Temple’s newfound propensity for shooting the 3-pointer.
Temple is the only two-loss team left in the Atlantic 10, and I don’t think they’re going to pick up number three–even with a big home game against Xavier looming on Saturday night. The big concern for the Colonials is their depth, going a legitimate nine players deep, but now that Eric is back (and considering GW doesn’t draw fouls), that depth becomes much less of an issue. If Eric and Lee can stay on the court and be aggressive when they’re out there, then Temple wins easily. Temple, 73-60.
