8 Temple

After temple lost to Duke 85-64 in the East Regional final last March, forward Mark Karcher sat in the Owls' locker room, his face buried in his hands, and declared his season a disappointment. It didn't matter to Karcher that he had just scored a team-high 19 points against the top-ranked Blue Devils or that he was Temple's leading scorer for the year (13.4 points a game). Having sat out the previous season as an academic non-qualifier, the 6'5" Karcher had ballooned to 255 pounds and played most of last season about 30 pounds over his normal weight. As a result, says Karcher, he was a shell of the player who averaged 22.8 points a game as a high school All-America at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore. "I wasn't able to take people off the dribble like I normally do, and I had to settle for my shot. I got tired easily, too. Right after the Duke game I promised myself I'd never again come into a season out of shape."

Last spring and nearly every day this fall, Karcher has gone to McGonigle Hall at 6 a.m. to run on the treadmill for an hour before working out with the team. Coming into his junior season he's shed the extra weight, and at 218 pounds he should be a much more explosive player.

The Owls have three other starters back from a 24-11 team, including point guard Pepe Sanchez, who provides senior leadership. Sanchez isn't flashy or a scoring threat, but he is a heady player who had a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and averaged 3.1 steals per game last season. Temple typically struggles on offense and relies on its matchup zone to win games. But the Owls, who have an inside presence in 6'10" forward Lamont Barnes and good shooters in Quincy Wadley and Lynn Greer, should score more easily this season. "Defense has always made us, and we can't get away from that," says coach John Chaney, "but now we have a few players we can rely on offensively."

Karcher is looking to be one of those guys. "I have all my tools back," he says. "I was always a step behind last year, but this year I think you're going to see the real me."

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