Charlotte guard Derrio Green
It’s no secret that Temple’s bench is a work in progress. Some nights they get nearly no contribution from the bench. Other nights, they receive contributions from various different players. Whether the contributions are from Craig Williams, Rahlir Jefferson, Ramone Moore, or Scootie Randall remains to be seen. All of these players have been inconsistent throughout the course of the season. This inconsistency has caused Fran Dunphy to play his starters an abnormal amount of minutes throughout the course of the season and rightfully so.
Wednesday night at Charlotte Fran Dunphy had no choice. The game was being called tightly, something that will in most cases give the 15th ranked Owls a major headache. A team that relies on good hard defense without much depth will always have trouble in a tightly called contest. If Fran Dunphy had his way, Juan Fernandez and Lavoy Allen would see the court for the entire game, every game. Against Charlotte the duo combined for a total of 46 minutes. Temple just is not a team that is going to win many games against anybody when both Fernandez and Allen see foul trouble.
All the credit in the world goes to the 49er coaching staff for exploiting the lack of depth on the Temple roster. Charlotte drove the ball to the basket time after time in an attempt to get Temple’s star players in foul trouble. The best player on either sides of the ball tonight had to be junior college transfer Derrio Green. Green came into the game averaging 12.1 points per game but shooting an abysmal 36.7%. All signs pointed to the owls having their way with Green.
Sometimes a player just gets hot and Green was quite obviously feeling it down the stretch. Quite frankly, it did not matter who Fran Dunphy chose to defend Green. When a good guard is on, there is no stopping him. Green had a night kind of reminiscent of the night that Juan Fernandez had in the Villanova game. He finished with 26 points on 9-15 shooting. It’s a game that Derrio will probably remember for the rest of his life.
Temple’s main downfall other than foul trouble was the fact that the entire team fell in love with the 3 ball after a hot start. Without Fernandez in the lineup, the owls really have trouble working it inside. After the hot start from the outside, Temple finished a less than stellar 11-35 from beyond the arc. The looks were there over the zone, but the ball stopped finding its way into the hoop.
Fran and his staff are kind of like Al Golden in regards to injuries. They never let anyone know what’s going on with their players. We were all led to believe that Juan Fernandez was going to be just fine after the elbow he took at Fordham. I’m no doctor, but Juan certainly looked to be displaying symptoms of a mild concussion. At times during the game, Juan wrapped a towel around his head and closed his eyes. The atmosphere at Charlotte was insane and clearly bothering him. Lets hope Juan makes a speedy recovery because Temple will certainly need him in this Saturday’s contest.
Notable Performances
Lavoy Allen: 12 points, 14 rebounds
Ryan Brooks: 20 points
Derrio Green: 26 points, 5 assists, 2 steals
Chris Braswell: 15 points, 7 rebounds
Shamari Spears: 11 points, 9 rebounds
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=300272429
