Was Temple’s NCAA Match Up a Conspiracy?
Temple vs. Cornell pits master vs. apprentice
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Temple coach Fran Dunphy may have helped fuel the conspiracy theory fire.
Temple won the Atlantic 10 regular season and tournament championships; they have 29 wins, only five losses and have spent much of the season in the Top 25.
But, despite their many accolades Temple may have gotten the shaft by the tournament selection committee.
Temple is the No. 12 team in the country. That should have earned them a three or four seed at worse -- likely playing a low-end at-large team. Yet, Fran Dunphy’s Owls find themselves as a five seed needing to go up against 12th-seeded Cornell in the opening round of the East Bracket.
Did the committee have it out for Temple, most likely not. But, they could have been salivating at having a pupil vs. master match up.
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue was an assistant for a decade under Dunphy when Dunfs coached across town at UPenn. In a pretty tough East bracket that also features Kentucky, West Virginia and Wisconsin this is the only game with a “built-in back story,” said Deadspin.
Enter the conspiracy theorists.
Dunphy possibly helped fuel the fire.
“You don’t think that was a preordained match up, do you?” mused Dunphy on Sunday's Sports Final.
“If you had said to me ‘who you gonna play and just take a wild guess,’ I would have said ‘Cornell,’” joked Dunphy.
Dunphy’s Owls could put the whole thing beside them by dispatching Donahue’s team.
“We are going to play a good team not matter who we play in the first round of the NCAA tournament,” Dunphy said.
But, it doesn’t help Dunf’s Owls that they drew a Cornell team that is far better than most NCAA-bound Ivy League schools as they feature a senior-heavy lineup highlighted by forward Ryan Wittman. The Big Red played Kansas to the brink, hung with Syracuse and beat tournament team Vermont.
At 27-4 Cornell plays tough defense (allowing only 63.2 points per game) while shooting about 48 percent from the floor and more than 43 percent from beyond the arc.
Of course Temple is very similar. They have allowed the third fewest points per game (56.1) while shooting about 44 percent. But, they average less than 34 percent per game from 3-point range.
So this game could come down to Temple’s defense versus Cornell’s shooting. But really it comes down to apprentice versus master -- if the NCAA wanted it or not.
At least Dunphy holds the advantage when he plays a former assistant. He is 22-1 against former assistants, according to Philly.com's Soft Pretzel Logic.
Tune in Friday at 12:30 p.m. to see if the Owls can beat Big Red.
Posted Tuesday, Mar 16, 2010 - 5:42 PM EST
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