Temple Readies For Huge Test Sunday Against Larry Brown And No. 8 SMU
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Temple Owls will face one of their toughest challenges of the season on Sunday when they welcome Larry Brown and his No. 8 SMU team to the Liacouras Center.
This game was originally scheduled for a Saturday night tip-off, but the snowstorm making its way through the area forced the game to be moved to Sunday at noon.
"Well, we've been through it before," Temple head coach Fran Dunphy tells KYW Newsradio about the schedule change. "Couple years ago we did a similar thing with Louisville, so (the players) are a little bit used to it, those guys that have been around."
Listen: Fran Dunphy with KYW's Matt Leon
The Owls are 10-7 on the season (4-2 in the American Athletic Conference) and coming off a 62-49 Big 5 win over La Salle on Wednesday night as part of that Palestra doubleheader.
"I thought our two young guys got us off to a pretty good start," Dunphy says. "(Freshman center) Earnest Aflakpui and (freshman guard) Trey Lowe did a really good job getting us out of the gate. I thought La Salle really did what they had to do to play a terrific game and they gave us all we needed. I thought we did what we needed to do at the right times. We had a 15-point lead in the first half, they cut it to one and then we got back out to 12,13. We made shots when we needed to, I thought we defended fairly well."
SMU comes to Philadelphia as the lone undefeated team remaining in Division I men's basketball. The Mustangs, who are ineligible for postseason play due to NCAA violations, are 18-0 (7-0 in the AAC).
"First of all, their offensive efficiency is scary," Dunphy says. "Then they guard you very, very well."
Dunphy's praise of the Mustangs doesn't stop there.
"It's obviously a very well coached team," Dunphy says. "They have good balance. The kid (senior guard) Nic Moore was the player of the year in our league last year, will probably be the player of the year in our league again this year. He just seems like he distributes the ball early in the game and if he doesn't like how things are going, he totally takes over. He has that kind of ability. He is terrific."
Moore leads the Mustangs in scoring at 15.6 points per game. He also paces them with 84 assists.
Last season, Temple went 0-3 against the Mustangs, with the third loss coming in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament.
"We had three very good games against them last year," Dunphy says. "We had leads in all of the second halves, we just couldn't figure out a way to win the game."
