(Photo of Dionte Christmas and Mark Tyndale in tonight’s game in Atlantic City, N.J., taken by Kevin Cook of The Temple News)
Four years ago I matriculated into a large, urban American research university with one of the more successful men’s basketball programs in the country. Trouble is, it was on the way out.
Legendary Coach John Chaney retired and the Owls hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2001 – including all of my years of cheering on the time. Of course, that is before tonight, when Temple beat arch rival St. Joseph’s, 69-64, in the championship game of the Atlantic-10 conference tournament, giving the Owls an automatic bid to the most watched college athletic playoffs.
The Owls were trailing at intermission, and it was looking bleak, but they came out and smothered the Hawks, with whom Temple split their two regular season matchups.
