End of the Season Awards -- Temple Owls Basketball Forum

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Date Posted: 21:05:20 03/06/02 Wed
Author: Adam
Author Host/IP: user-2inikf6.dialup.mindspring.com / 165.121.81.230
Subject: End of the Season Awards

Good we have a Temple dedicated message board. I wasn't too satisfied with the Owlscoop board. Here is a message I posted right after the St. Joe game on the Owlscoop board. Comments are welcome.

Well, here we are one more time. It is the end of the regular season and what a rollercoaster it has been. The season started off with great hopes coming off a most improbable Elite Eight appearance that was Lynn Greer's three free throws away from never happening. The team was coming in with almost all their players from last year's team and with the availability of Polk and Murray. The team started with hope although they lost to Florida and Arizona. What happened next was probably more painful to watch than last year's seven game losing streak. The team turned into the Anti-Temple- A team adrift with only one credible offensive threat and a defense that was downright offensive. Probably the worst basketball in JC's tenure. Then, the team became as they always become in February, an NCAA caliber team with a more balanced offense and a defense that kept the opposition away from the basket and identified and matchuped the shooters better. Now we are left with are the biggest question mark of all: Will they do it again as they have done before and runn the table in the Tournament? As Yogi Berra said: "It is Deja Vu all over again." Here is my third annual(!!) list of awards, one man's extremely uniformed opinion about this most improbable yet strangely similar year.

1. MVP-Lynn Greer- A no-brainer, eh? Where would this team be without Lynn? I cannot fathom. Lynn was basically the cause of at least two amazing wins this season-Wisconsin and today's wild Palestra tilt against St. Joe's. At one point the only offense for the team. The man who set the table for this team. Heck, he was the team. He put the Owls on his shoulders and willed them to A-10 East title (!!!!). The man with probably the prettiest shot in Temple history. David West will be the Player of the Year in the A-10 and deservedly so. However, I do not believe there is anyone who is more valuable to his team than Greer was.

2. Greatest Disappointment- The Temple Owls. Yes, I mean the whole team. This team really should not have to need to run the A-10 tournament to get to the Big Dance. Yet here we are at two games over .500. There has been great talk about whether Temple scheduled too hard. To me, the argument is irrelevant. It is the losses to the really crappy teams that Temple really should have had no problems beating that put them there. We are talking LaSalle, friggin UMASS, a team so bad that they don't know what they are doing, DePaul, and Villanova. That would be eighteen wins right there. Throw in a possible win against a good Penn a team that should be an at-large bid, if the team was playing like it is today and then you really have the selection committee having no doubt letting Temple in rather than the other way around. This season really put the dagger in the those who say you play in March rather than in December. It really is the whole season you got to play. And that is what is most damning. Every player and coach is responsible. It is Hawkins missing eight games for academics, It is the coaching when the team couldn't put two halves of good basketball together, (UNC-Wimington) and looked flat coming out of the clubhouse in the second half of many games. It is Brian Polk for being so one dimensional, it is Nile Murray not learning the system, it is Wesby, although with some excuses, playing non-existent with a shot-selection out of the twilight zone, it is even Lynn Greer who sometimes felt that he had to carry the whole team and made the occasional bonehead turnover or made the ill-advised shot and it is ESPECIALLY Ron ROllerson being so out of shape and had questionable commitment and last but Exhibit 1A, Kevin Lyde for not showing up time and again early in the season when they need him the most, as it appeared that he realized he would never get in the NBA and appeared to give up on the season. The team seemed to lack direction and leadership and that was the worst part as this team is not a young team at all.

Runner Up- The Fans- Or the lack thereof. THe Xavier game was huge for this team, yet it was seen by 6400 at most. Attendance this year has ben off and some of the blame has been the lack of big matchups at home, the teams woes, yadda yada, however, this team has deserved alumni and student support. It has been lacking this year. Hopefully, there will be a presence at the Spectrum, however, the track record has not been encouraging.

Best Games- 1. Xavier- THe best Temple played this year. Temple controlled the tempo on both sides of the ball, contained David West and harrasses Romaine Sato all day long. The score was even as close as it seemed.

2. St. Joe's- (Home)- Same as Xavier. Basically A great balanced attack offensively as they had the most assists and Lyde was huge on the boards and the Owls really kept St. Joe off balance all game and they never got into a rhythem.

3. St. Joe's (Palestra)- A barn burner. A game which showed the resilience of this team in a game both teams really wanted to win, the intensity and caliber of play was unbelievable. Lynn really showed why he is a winner with the clutch play especially afterthe bad first half he had. Wesby was monstrous with that block of O'Conner.

Honorable Mention- Charlotte

The Ugly... And I mean ugly

1. UMASS (road) THis game showed the absolute worst of Temple this season. I say it again, UMASS cannot shoot, cannot ball handle, is poorly coached, just a bad team. Yet there they were, making three pointers at will, controlling the game and out-hustling the Owls. The absolute worst.

2. LaSalle- Yeah, yeah they played well (and lost) to Xavier and St. Joe, however, this team is a one note Johnny, or should I say, a one note Rasual with absolutely no low post presence. How the heck the Owls let them back into the game and let the one guy they absolutely had to stop to go off is inexcusable.

3. Villanova- THis game showed that something was really wrong with this team. Everyone standing around waiting for Greer to do something. Rollerson and Lyde getting outrebounded outhuslted and outplayed by guys that they should be man-handling. A lifeless effort in a Big 5 basketball game.

Dishonorable mention- DePaul.

Best Posters The level headed ones- The ones that support the team but are not blind to the deficiencies. The ones who have been there from the beginning. Unfortunately, I can't put myself in this category as I have been too busy with my wedding plans to post regularly.

The worst posters-RonJeremy- Vpitcherella, meet ROnJeremy. Ron, Vpitcherella. Every year, you get that one poster who you know is not playing with a full deck. This year its Ron. Anyone who names himself after the hedgehog of Porn has some serious social and emotional issues. The worst thing is that during the early part of the season, this guy was questioning the loyalty of everyone on the board (While no doubt going to every Temple game), then all of a sudden, he was dissing the whole team. This guy was not worth responding to, yet somehow people took the time to pick fights and post long winded posts (you know who you are).

Death and his brother Life- The act is really old.

Questions 1. Will another rabbit be pulled out of the hat?

2. Will Nile Murry develop into an adequate contribution to this team?

3. Who will take the place of Lynn Greer? I shudder to think of life without him even more than when Pepe left.

4. Will the incoming center next year be even better than Kevin Lyde?

5. Will this team next year have serious growing pains? Hawkins is really the only returning player with starting experience.

6. When the Old Man goes to see Adolph Rupp (and that is the only way JC will go out) will they recruit from within or hire from without? I say it will be the later.

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Replies:

I personally think the biggest disappointment was and is Kevin Lyde. Is it possible that he thought the opposing teams would shrivel up and die when he stepped on the court? He's playing well now, but it may be a day late and a dollar short. Lasalle, Richmond, Depaul, UMASS...these were brutal losses. Win them and we are dancing. I can't honestly say that it would be disappointing if we didn't win the A10 tourney, but it would be a shame because we are playing some good B-Ball right now. Wesby is finally taking the ball to the hoop. He can qualify just like Quincy did I believe. (NT) -- RickO, 21:19:59 03/06/02 Wed