Things had turned sour even before John Chaney's now-infamous maneuver against St. Joseph's.
Temple's basketball season will go down in history for one word, goon, and all it represents.
But lost amid the furor that Owls coach John Chaney created a couple of weeks ago is the fact that Temple's season already had gone downhill on the court. Back in January, the Owls looked like a decent bet to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Then the season went off the rails, before Chaney ever sent a "goon" on the court against St. Joseph's.
When the Owls began their Atlantic Ten season by thumping Fordham and St. Bonaventure, then impressively taking care of Xavier in Cincinnati, they looked capable of being the A-10's top team. Put that together with the nation's toughest nonconference schedule, and a return to March Madness after three seasons in the NIT looked like a real strong possibility.
Since the Xavier victory, the Owls have gone just 7-5 in the A-10. Which means that - on the court - this Temple team, 15-12 overall, goes down as one of the most disappointing in the Chaney era entering tonight's A-10 quarterfinal against Dayton.
Of course, the focus hasn't been on the court for a while now, and still wasn't yesterday. Temple's team did not attend Tuesday night's A-10 awards banquet because the league would not allow Nehemiah Ingram to attend the banquet. Ingram was not suspended by the league for his actions in last month's game against St. Joseph's, which resulted in Hawks forward John Bryant suffering a broken arm. But the league informed Temple that Ingram could not go to the dinner, so nobody did.
"The team wanted to eat together," said Temple spokesman Larry Dougherty, who said Temple's players weren't told of the league action until after practice Tuesday.
With Chaney sitting out the tournament, there's no way of knowing if Temple will be in any kind of sync. It proved it could play against top competition early in the season. It just didn't win many of those games, and went downhill from there.
"When you try to build your team by playing the best opponents, the toughest opponents, you certainly get better week in and week out," said Owls assistant Dan Leibovitz, who will continue coaching the Owls during the A-10 tournament, as Chaney sits out for his actions during last month's St. Joe's game.
"But when you're not winning those games, it certainly becomes tougher and tougher to keep convincing your guys that what we're doing is the right way to go and just stick with it," Leibovitz added.
The Owls had tried to convince themselves that the A-10 would be an easy road after playing at places such as Duke, Maryland and Alabama. But when Temple lost at Fordham, "a little bit of doubt crept in," Leibovitz said. "I also think that these guys respond to the best atmospheres in college basketball. They've been to Duke now, so they know what the best place is like. It's a bad thing to say about a team, but they respond to that kind of excitement."
That's why the Owls don't consider it such a bad thing to be the villains in Cincinnati this week. They know that will be true even without their coach there, after Chaney's anti-Bush and anti-Ohio-voting-for-Bush tirades, coupled with the national furor surrounding the "Goongate" fiasco.
"This is a tough group to figure out," Leibovitz said of Temple's team. "It's a little bit too loose from what we're used to."
At times this season, Temple played a tough zone defense that almost deserved a "vintage" label. In other games, opponents got great looks and were able to control play.
"When we put our minds to it, and come out and play hard with energy, our defense is hard to get around," Owls guard Dustin Salisbery said earlier this week. "We know what we're capable of doing. Just sometimes, we don't do it. Like the coaches say, sometimes we do feed off the offensive end. When the ball isn't going in, it affects our defense."
This week is the first time in a while Salisbery says he has felt healthy. He had been wearing an ankle brace for the last couple of weeks, and also dislocated a finger.
"There's no question we're a better team when he's making baskets, as simple as that," Leibovitz said after Saturday's La Salle game, which Salisbery sat out to rest his ankle. "We need his scoring."
Earlier this week, Leibovitz said, "Probably the most accurate thing you can say is we're a talented team which needs to put it together."
Temple's basketball season will go down in history for one word, goon, and all it represents.
But lost amid the furor that Owls coach John Chaney created a couple of weeks ago is the fact that Temple's season already had gone downhill on the court. Back in January, the Owls looked like a decent bet to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Then the season went off the rails, before Chaney ever sent a "goon" on the court against St. Joseph's.
When the Owls began their Atlantic Ten season by thumping Fordham and St. Bonaventure, then impressively taking care of Xavier in Cincinnati, they looked capable of being the A-10's top team. Put that together with the nation's toughest nonconference schedule, and a return to March Madness after three seasons in the NIT looked like a real strong possibility.
Since the Xavier victory, the Owls have gone just 7-5 in the A-10. Which means that - on the court - this Temple team, 15-12 overall, goes down as one of the most disappointing in the Chaney era entering tonight's A-10 quarterfinal against Dayton.
Of course, the focus hasn't been on the court for a while now, and still wasn't yesterday. Temple's team did not attend Tuesday night's A-10 awards banquet because the league would not allow Nehemiah Ingram to attend the banquet. Ingram was not suspended by the league for his actions in last month's game against St. Joseph's, which resulted in Hawks forward John Bryant suffering a broken arm. But the league informed Temple that Ingram could not go to the dinner, so nobody did.
"The team wanted to eat together," said Temple spokesman Larry Dougherty, who said Temple's players weren't told of the league action until after practice Tuesday.
With Chaney sitting out the tournament, there's no way of knowing if Temple will be in any kind of sync. It proved it could play against top competition early in the season. It just didn't win many of those games, and went downhill from there.
"When you try to build your team by playing the best opponents, the toughest opponents, you certainly get better week in and week out," said Owls assistant Dan Leibovitz, who will continue coaching the Owls during the A-10 tournament, as Chaney sits out for his actions during last month's St. Joe's game.
"But when you're not winning those games, it certainly becomes tougher and tougher to keep convincing your guys that what we're doing is the right way to go and just stick with it," Leibovitz added.
The Owls had tried to convince themselves that the A-10 would be an easy road after playing at places such as Duke, Maryland and Alabama. But when Temple lost at Fordham, "a little bit of doubt crept in," Leibovitz said. "I also think that these guys respond to the best atmospheres in college basketball. They've been to Duke now, so they know what the best place is like. It's a bad thing to say about a team, but they respond to that kind of excitement."
That's why the Owls don't consider it such a bad thing to be the villains in Cincinnati this week. They know that will be true even without their coach there, after Chaney's anti-Bush and anti-Ohio-voting-for-Bush tirades, coupled with the national furor surrounding the "Goongate" fiasco.
"This is a tough group to figure out," Leibovitz said of Temple's team. "It's a little bit too loose from what we're used to."
At times this season, Temple played a tough zone defense that almost deserved a "vintage" label. In other games, opponents got great looks and were able to control play.
"When we put our minds to it, and come out and play hard with energy, our defense is hard to get around," Owls guard Dustin Salisbery said earlier this week. "We know what we're capable of doing. Just sometimes, we don't do it. Like the coaches say, sometimes we do feed off the offensive end. When the ball isn't going in, it affects our defense."
This week is the first time in a while Salisbery says he has felt healthy. He had been wearing an ankle brace for the last couple of weeks, and also dislocated a finger.
"There's no question we're a better team when he's making baskets, as simple as that," Leibovitz said after Saturday's La Salle game, which Salisbery sat out to rest his ankle. "We need his scoring."
Earlier this week, Leibovitz said, "Probably the most accurate thing you can say is we're a talented team which needs to put it together."
