Owls, seven other teams land in Denver for NCAA tourney

Temple's Christmas sends 12th seed into tournament on roll

By Pat Rooney, Special to the Rocky

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

David Gard / Associated Press

Temple's Dionte Christmas, right, drives the ball past La Salle's Kimmani Barrett in a quarterfinal game in the Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship last week.

Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press

Oral Roberts' Moses Ehambe, right, made seven three-pointers in the Golden Eagles' Summit League championship game win.

Christmas arrived in Denver on Tuesday. So did the rest of the Temple Owls, as well as the other seven teams whose dreams of a Final Four berth will begin at the Pepsi Center.

Temple, led by Atlantic 10 Conference tournament Most Outstanding Player Dionte Christmas, held a workout Tuesday afternoon at Manual High School to work out the kinks after the team's flight and to begin getting acclimated to the elevation.

"Me, personally, when we first got in and started running up and down, I got a little out of breath the first five minutes," Christmas said. "I started getting used to it, though."

The Owls are seeded 12th in the South Regional and will play fifth-seeded Michigan State at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. The Owls enter the NCAA Tournament with a seven-game winning streak and seemingly have the depth and versatility to add to the tournament's long list of No. 12 seeds that have recorded first-round upsets.

If Christmas can maintain his scoring average of 20.2, he will become only the third Atlantic 10 player, and the first since 1985, to lead the league in scoring in consecutive seasons.

And senior Mark Tyndale not only is the Owls' second-leading scorer at 15.9 points a game, but he also leads the team in rebounding, assists and steals.

"Dionte has had a lot of attention . . . but I give a lot of credit to our two seniors," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "(Tyndale) has had a phenomenal late season and has led us in so many ways. And Chris Clark, another guy that has come off the bench, knows when his moments are going to be, and is a great leader, too."

Reunion

Temple's placement in Denver allowed Dunphy to enjoy reunions with two people who have played prominent roles in his basketball career - Eric Osmundson of the Colorado 14ers, who played for Dunphy at Pennsylvania, and former Nuggets player Roland "Fatty" Taylor, who was teammates with Dunphy at La Salle University.

Osmundson and Taylor shared a few words with the Owls after practice.

"If you're old enough and been around long enough like me, whatever the city was it probably would have happened," Dunphy said. "I think it's important to share that with the guys, to make them understand that building these relationships is so critical to their growth and overall happiness as they get older."

Golden Golden Eagles

Fans will be well aware of the top players playing for traditional powers such as Michigan State, Temple, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame, but two of the hottest players in the Pepsi Center field hail from tiny Oral Roberts.

The Golden Eagles won their third consecutive Summit League tournament championship behind a stellar inside-outside performance by forward Andre Hardy and guard Moses Ehambe.

Ehambe, the Summit League tournament Most Valuable Player, tied a tournament record with eight three-pointers in a tournament-opening win against Centenary and made seven three-pointers in the title-game victory against Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis.

Pressed into a bigger role because of injuries, Hardy, who averaged only 3.4 points in 16 games, responded with a double-double (18 points, 11 rebounds) against Centenary.

Streaking

Oral Roberts will play surging Pittsburgh in the first round Thursday. The Panthers have won seven of eight, including five in a row, and won four games in four days to capture the Big East Conference tournament title. Pittsburgh has qualified for the NCAA Tournament a school-record seven consecutive seasons.

Mainstays

Winthrop still is relegated to Cinderella status in the tournament, but the Eagles have become a fixture in March Madness.

The Big South Conference champions will be making their fourth consecutive appearance in the tournament and their eighth in 10 years.

It will be Winthrop's first appearance under first-year coach Randy Peele, who took over last offseason after serving three years as the Eagles' top assistant. Winthrop begins the tournament with a first-round game against Washington State.

Victories by the Eagles and Notre Dame, which plays George Mason, would set up an intriguing second- round matchup; Winthrop upset the Fighting Irish in the first round last year.

Numbers game

9 teams have reached the NCAA Tournament in each of the past seven seasons, two of which will be playing in Denver - Pittsburgh and Michigan State. The others with a nine-season NCAA Tournament streak are Arizona, Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Texas and Wisconsin. The longest current streaks belong to Arizona (24), Kansas (19), Kentucky (17), Duke (13) and Michigan State (11).

Elite company

Michigan State's Tom Izzo ranks fourth among active coaches with the most Final Four appearances with four, trailing Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (10), Louisville's Rick Pitino (five) and North Carolina's Roy Williams (five).

Izzo, whose Spartans play Temple, will have a chance to add to his total, but so will the coaches ahead of him.

Lute Olson of Arizona also has reached the Final Four five times but is not coaching this season.

PEPSI CENTER LINEUP

WEDNESDAY'S PRACTICES

* Noon-12:40 p.m.: Temple.

* 12:45-1:25 p.m.: Oral Roberts.

* 1:30-2:10 p.m.: Michigan State.

* 2:15-2:55 p.m.: Pittsburgh.

* 4:25-5:05 p.m.: Washington State.

* 5:10-5:50 p.m.: Notre Dame.

* 5:55-6:35 p.m.: Winthrop.

* 6:40-7:20 p.m.: George Mason.

THURSDAY'S GAMES

South Regional

* Michigan State (25-8) vs. Temple (21-12), 10:30 a.m.

* Pittsburgh (26-9) vs. Oral Roberts (24-8), approximately 1 p.m.

East Regional

* Washington State (24-8) vs. Winthrop (22-11), 5:20 p.m.

* Notre Dame (24-7) vs. George Mason (23-10), approximately 7:50 p.m.

SATURDAY'S GAMES

South and East regionals

* Thursday's winners, 4:40 p.m. and 7:10 p.m.