 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|
|
Posted: Tuesday October 22, 2002 2:36 PM Updated: Monday October 28, 2002 1:57 PM Temple Owls
The following preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the most thorough preview available of the upcoming season, order the 2002-03 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518. Team Preview | Blue Ribbon Analysis
John Chaney loves it when his players prove someone wrong, and he loves it even more when that someone is the NCAA. That’s why Sept. 13, 2002, a beautiful late-summer Friday, was a proud day for Temple’s Hall of Fame basketball coach. It was the day Chaney helped celebrate Alex Wesby’s college graduation. Chaney is happy when any of his players earn their degrees, but Wesby is special. Forget for a moment that Wesby, a 6-foot-6 senior forward earned an extra year of eligibility from the NCAA for graduating within four years, and consider everything it took for him to do it. An honor-roll student at Philadelphia’s Ben Franklin High School (which is also Chaney’s alma mater), Wesby did not meet the required NCAA criteria to play basketball during his freshman year at Temple. Instead of hanging his head, he studied. "He’d be in the office every day at 5 a.m. to study for an 8 o’clock class," Chaney said. "And he’d sit there every day and study alone." Wesby also dealt with personal tragedy on his way to his degree, as both his brother and mother, Ella Mae Wesby, died during his time in college. He also has endured physical problems (a wrist injury kept him out of five games last season) and academic challenges, such as performing 500 service hours in his major of tourism, hospitality and management. But in the end, he got it done -- in four years.
"With all that he has been through, he was able to stick with a plan, like someone with a pencil with no eraser," Chaney said. Chaney has so much respect for Wesby the person ("He’s the ideal son," the coach said), that it naturally carries over to the court, where the 6-foot-6 wing will be one of the Owls’ captains this year. Temple went 12-3 after Wesby (11.3 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 1.3 apg, 2.0 spg) returned from his wrist injury, and he will be counted on to lead a team that saw its streak of NCAA tournament appearances end at 12 last spring. The Owls will deeply miss departed seniors Lynn Greer (23.2 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 4.2 apg, 1.7 spg) and Kevin Lyde (8.6 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 1.6 apg, 1.3 bpg). "He leads by example and offers no excuses, never," Chaney said. "He just gives you 100 percent of what he has, no matter what he does. "Just from his deeds alone and what basketball has brought out in him, he becomes a little more aggressive in what he wants from his teammates." Wesby’s expectations of his teammates are probably not a lot different from what Chaney wants from them -- their best effort on and off the floor. Three Owls, including Atlantic 10 Sixth Man of the Year Brian Polk, weren’t living up to their end of the deal in the classroom and will not be eligible to play first semester. In addition to Polk (8.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.5 spg), a 6-foot-4 junior guard and member of the A-10’s All-Rookie Team, 6-foot-5 senior forward Greg Jefferson (1.5 ppg, 1.8 rpg) and 6-foot-8 sophomore forward Nehemiah Ingraham, who did not qualify last year, also will sit out. "It bothers me that I have to punish them, because I don’t like to cut my nose off," Chaney said. "But we teach lessons every day, and people don’t listen. I hope they listen and that their behavior will change." The disciplinary actions mean Temple will carry just nine players, excluding any new walk-ons, the first semester. The Owls' depth will be tested often, especially when they play at Wake Forest and South Carolina on Dec. 1-2 and complete their NBA-like three-games-in-four-days swing at Charlotte on Dec. 4. The two other questions facing the Owls this season are point guard and center or, more simply put, replacing Greer and Lyde. Neither will be done easily, but Chaney does have some choices. Junior David Hawkins (15.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 2.2 apg, 1.5 spg), the Owls’ top returning scorer, and sophomore Nile Murry (5.3 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1.2 spg), who are both 6-foot-4, are the top candidates to succeed Greer. The function of the guards is similar once Temple crosses halfcourt and sets up its offense, but the point man is the leader in Chaney’s system and often dictates the pace of the game with his decisions. "In our system, it is very important to be the point guard, because he’s the guy that’s going to be playing most of the time on the floor and he’s going to direct our offense," Chaney said. Hawkins started the final three games of the NIT at the point -- after Greer’s career ended with an ankle injury on a slippery floor in Louisville -- and played well against Villanova, Memphis and Syracuse. A seasoned vet, he also may be better suited to handling some of the stress (read: pleasing Chaney) associated with the job, but Chaney said he won’t decide on the position until after the preseason. "I didn’t know where he’s going to be playing just yet," Chaney said of Hawkins. The good news for Hawkins is he also can play both shooting guard and small forward. Murry, who was a bit inconsistent (55 assists, 50 turnovers) as a freshman, showed a glimpse of what he can do by scorching Fordham for 33 points in the Owls’ Atlantic 10 opener. Keith Butler, a 6-foot-11 freshman from Medford, Mass., will step into the center spot as soon as practice opens. "Much is needed from Butler right away because of his size and because we lost all of our size with Kevin Lyde and Ron Rollerson," Chaney said. Butler attended Philadelphia’s Celestial Prep but did not play basketball last season. He averaged 24 points and 16 rebounds as a senior in high school and was regarded by some to be one of the top 10 centers in the class of 2002, but Chaney doesn’t want Butler to be burdened by the pressure others may put on him. "We’re not expecting him to be an offensive power, but we expect him to give us a big effort in terms of the defense we play and rebounding," Chaney said. "We want to contain and maintain the expectations so that he can succeed and feel good about himself." The rest of Temple’s roster is filled with young players who are, for the most part, short on college game experience. Sophomore forwards Glen Elliott and Hawley Smith were teammates at Bolles High School in Jacksonville and were steady contributors for the Owls last season. The 6-foot-9 Elliott (0.6 ppg) appeared in 28 games, and the 6-foot-6 Smith (1.2 ppg) saw action in 31. They could be called on early, considering Temple’s lack of depth. Maurice Collins (17.0 ppg, 9.8 rpg), a 6-foot-5 freshman forward, played for new assistant coach Bill Ellerbee at Philly’s Simon Gratz High School last season. Collins’ high school teammate, Michael Blackshear, who averaged 14 rebounds for Gratz, is sitting out this season under NCAA guidelines. Antywane Robinson, a 6-foot-8 forward, comes to Temple from Charlotte, N.C., via traditional national power Oak Hill (Va.) Academy, where he put up modest numbers (6.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg) on the third-ranked team in the nation. Robinson also shot 61 percent from the field and 83 percent from the free-throw line. Collins and Robinson already have had a positive experience as teammates, winning the Hank Gathers College League division in Philly’s famous Sonny Hill League over the summer. Collins scored 24 points in the final and was voted MVP for their Pep Boys team. Robinson added 16 points in the title game. Chris Gaither, a 6-foot-1 freshman guard from Leitchfield, Ky., signed his scholarship papers in front of his high school student body. A prolific scorer (16.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg), Gaither graduated as Grayson High School’s career points leader with 1,441. As his career wound down, people used to ask NFL Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy about his thoughts on retirement. Levy, as eloquent a coach as there has ever been, usually replied with some variation of "I haven’t thought about retirement, because once you start thinking about it, you have already retired." Chaney, who turned 70 last Jan. 21, offers similar sentiments. "As long as my health is good, I feel as though I’ll stay around here," he said. "I, myself, have never looked at when I should retire. Nobody bothers me around here, which is nice. They just let me sit and fuss by myself." As long as Chaney keeps fussing (and teaching and molding young men), it won’t be wise to count the Owls out of contention. Even this year, after losing a 2,000-point scorer (Greer) and 1,000-point scorer and rebounder (Lyde), Temple has as good a chance as anybody else to win the super-tight A-10 East. It seems like stating the obvious, but the Owls need to find suitable replacements for Greer and Lyde if they are going to have a chance. Hawkins and Murry certainly have the credentials to be effective point men, and Temple may wind up functioning best with both of them on the floor. It often takes big men time to develop, so Butler should be granted a little slack. He, Robinson and Collins give Chaney a solid frontcourt foundation, and Temple’s depth will improve significantly (and in time for the conference schedule) if Polk, Jefferson and Ingram are cleared to play after the first semester. The Owls know they have a proven leader in Wesby, who will do whatever it takes on the wing to contribute to a victory. Polk will be interesting to watch if/when he returns. He was a big-time scorer in high school, but he may have relied on Greer’s kickouts a bit too much last season while hoisting 170 3-point shots. If Polk proves he can take people off the dribble this season, he will be difficult to stop. A slow start seems like a real possibility for Temple, but that’s nothing new. Chaney’s brutal nonconference schedule will prepare the Owls for the rigors of conference play and give them a chance to play their way back into the Big Dance, which is all Temple fans can hope for with a team that starts the season with only one senior. "I would be ecstatic if this team could get to the NCAA tournament with these young kids that we are putting on the floor," Chaney said. "If we could put a ribbon around this season and do that, that would raise their level of confidence and be great."
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
