NCAA Tournament Second Round
#7 Temple Owls vs #10 Penn St Nittany Lions
McKale Center, Tucson, AZ
Thursday, March 17, 2011, 2:10 pm Eastern, TV: TNT
Opening Line: pick
Current Line: -2 1/2
Opening Total: 122 1/2
Current Total: 121
Money Line: Temple -145 / Penn St +125
These two schools are located around 200 miles apart from each other in Pennsylvania, and yet have to travel 2,000 plus miles to Tucson, Arizona to play each other in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Temple is the #7 seed in the West region and they take on the #10 seed Penn St Nittany Lions. Temple is 25-7 overall and finished second in the Atlantic 10 a game behind Xavier with a 14-2 record. Temple finished the regular season winning 11 of their last 12 games, with the only loss coming at Duke. They lost to Richmond 58-54 in the A-10 semifinals in their last game out. Penn St finished the regular season with a 19-14 record and finished 9-9 in the Big 10. They made a great run in the Big 10 tournament making it all the way to the finals to play their way off the bubble and into the field. They lost to Ohio St 71-60 in the finals. The winner of this game will play the winner of San Diego St and Northern Colorado in the third round.
These two teams are very familiar with each other. The former conference rivals have played 92 times. The last time they played was in December of 2009 in Philadelphia. Temple won that game 45-42. Temple leads the overall series 59-32, including 4-1 in neutral site games. Temple beat Penn St 84-72 in the 2001 South regional semifinals, the last NCAA tournament game for the Nittany Lions. Temple has won the last two meetings, and both games went under the total in the series. Temple is 59-40 ATS in all games the last 3 seasons, including 46-29 as a favorites in the same span. The Owls are 26-15 against teams with winning records the last 2 seasons. Penn St is 14-7 ATS after a conference game this season.
Penn St reserve guard Taran Buie has been suspended for the rest of the season. He only plays 15 minutes a game and averages 5.8 points a game. The Nittany Lions are led by guard Talor Battle. He is averaging 20.1 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.9 assists a game. He leads the team in scoring, and is second in the conference in scoring. Forward Jeff Brooks averages 13.3 points, 6.5 rebounds to lead the team, 1.7 assists, and 1.4 blocks a game to lead the team. Forward David Jackson averages 9.8 points and 4.5 rebounds a game. Tim Frazier leads the team in steals with 1 a game and assists with 5 a game. Penn St is outscoring opponents 63-62 on the season. The Lions are shooting 43.7% from the field and 33.6% from 3-point range. PSU opponents are shooting 43.8% from the field. Penn St shoots 72.5% from the free throw line. Penn St averages 31.6 rebounds a game and has a rebounding margin of +1.4. Penn St averages 12.2 assists and 10.6 turnovers a game. Penn St forces 10.8 turnovers a game on defense. They average 4.5 steals and 2.5 blocks a game.
Temple forward Scootie Randall is listed as probable against Penn St with a foot injury. Forward/center Michael Eric is out for the season with a knee injury. He averaged 7.1 points and 5.9 rebounds a game. Five Owls average double digit scoring. The Owls are led by guard Ramone Moore who averages 14.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.3 steals a game. He leads the team in scoring and is tied for the team lead in steals. Lavoy Allen averages 11.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.8 blocks a game. He leads the team in rebounds and blocks. Randall averages 11.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.1 steals a game. Guard Juan Fernandez averages 10.7 points, 3 rebounds, and 4.1 assists a game to lead the team. Khalif Wyatt averages 10 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.3 steals a game. Temple is outscoring opponents 71-62 on the season. The Owls are shooting 44.8% from the field and 35.4% from 3 point range. Owl opponents are shooting 41.1% from the field. Temple shoots 69.4% from the free throw line. The Owls average 36.1 rebounds a game and have a rebounding margin of +2.8. Temple averages 15.3 assists and 10.8 turnovers a game. Temple forces 13.3 turnovers a game on defense. The Owls average 6.9 steals and 4.7 blocks a game.
Last week in the Big Ten quarterfinals Penn St beat Wisconsin 36-33, an amazing score in this era of the shot clock and 3-point shots. That score sounded like Joe Paterno’s team kicked a field goal to win the game. Temple would prefer to play the game in the 60’s and Penn St would like to play this game in the 50’s. Don’t expect a lot of scoring in this game and even though the total is only 121. I like the under in this game. As for the winner, These two teams are pretty evenly matched but I like Temple to win a close game.
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