Temple With Early Season Break After 2-0 Start
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Temple Owls are in the midst of an early season extended break in the schedule after a 2-0 start.
The Owls last played Saturday night when they beat Rice 77-63, and they won't take the floor in game action again until Sunday when they host Delaware at the Liacouras Center.
Head coach Fran Dunphy says this long lay-off isn't a perfect scenario by any means.
"We would rather play a game lets say Tuesday or Wednesday, sure," Dunphy tells KYW Newsradio. "I think now we need to be in some sort of a rhythm so it is not the ideal. But there are not many ideals that happen during the course of November and December (with regards to the schedule). In another couple weeks, we're going to go into exams and that really chops things up. So, there's not much you can do about it, you learn to live with it and learn to deal with it and hopefully we'll be ready to go on Sunday."
LISTEN: Matt Leon interviews Fran Dunphy
Dunphy breaks down what he has seen in the seasons first two games.
"I think we're still finding out who we are to be honest with you," Dunphy says. "I'm hoping that we are going to come together on the offensive end. The reality is we are getting good shots, I don't think we're shooting it well, but I think you are always searching for that perfect flow, so we're hoping to get more of that. We turned it over a lot in our first game, not so much in the second one.
"Defensively, I think we're okay. We've got to get better each and every day at that."
As for Delaware, they are currently 2-1 on the season and that mark includes a win over Penn and loss to La Salle. Dunphy expects a tough game in this one.
"First of all, we were very fortunate to win the game last year down at Delaware (66-63 was the final)," Dunphy says. "We got rescued by Khalif Wyatt at the end of the game and I think (Delaware head coach) Monte (Ross) has him team in very good shape at this point. They're going to play two games on Wednesday and Friday (in the NIT Season Tip-Off), that will have them even more ready to play us. We're just going to have to play our very best basketball on Sunday to win."
Temple and Delaware will tip-off at 2:00pm on Sunday.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
