Low state revenues leave Temple facing another budget cut

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Due to a projected revenue shortfall of $486.8 million, Gov. Tom Corbett announced in a press release Tuesday that Temple—along with the other three state-related universities—will face a five percent funding cut for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.

The $25.7 million reduction in state funding comes after a year in which the four state-related universities saw their state appropriation cut by 19 percent.

The cuts are part of a plan to reduce spending across the board in order to make up for the revenue shortfall.  In addition to the state-related universities, Corbett ordered state agencies to curb spending by three percent and in some cases as much as ten percent.

For more on this, pick up The Temple News when it returns to newsstands on Jan. 17.

-Sean Carlin

Owls play host to No. 3/5 Duke

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Temple (9-3) will play in arguably its most anticipated regular season game of the season tonight as the Owls host Duke (12-1) at  7 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia.

The game, which will broadcast nationally on ESPN 2, is a part two of the schools’ home and home agreement. The Owls lost to the Blue Devils, 78-61, last year at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Blue Devils’ then senior Kyle Singler led all scorers with 28 points, while then senior forward Lavoy Allen led the Owls with a double double.

Both Singler and Allen have now moved on, making it so that this year’s matchup promises to feature some new faces.

For Duke, the USA Today third-ranked and Associated Press fifth-ranked Blue Devils are led in scoring by freshman guard Austin Rivers, who averages more than 15 points per game. Duke also features a plethora of lengthy forwards, including a pair of 6’10 brothers named Plumlee, junior Mason and senior Miles.

Temple counters with its trio of high-scoring guards and undersized forwards. The Owls senior guards Juan Fernandez (13.3 ppg) and Ramone Moore (17.4 ppg), and junior guard Khalif Wyatt (14.2 ppg) all average more than 10 points per game, but injuries have cost the Owls in the frontcourt.

Graduate center Micheal Eric and senior forward Scootie Randall have both missed significant time due to injury this season and will not play tonight. Randall is expected to redshirt this season as he has struggled to recover from offseason surgery in June to repair torn meniscus cartilage in his knee. Eric has missed Temple’s last eight games after re-injuring the same kneecap that kept him out of his last 10 games last year.

Both Eric and Randall were also injured for Temple’s game last year against Duke.

In Eric and Randall’s absence, the Owls are left with two inexperienced forwards in the frontcourt. Redshirt-freshman Anthony Lee will start in only the 13th game of his career alongside junior forward Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson, who is a natural three-guard forced to play power forward.

The 6’9 Lee and 6’6 Hollis-Jefferson will have their hands full trying to defend the bigger Plumlee brothers, along with Blue Devils junior forward Ryan Kelly, who is six foot, eleven inches and weighs 230 pounds.

The Blue Devils high-scoring offense is built around the three-point shot. Duke has the sixth-best three point percentage in the country and has hit 90 threes in 13 games so far this season. Temple counters with the 4th-best defense in the country defending the three, holding opponents to a three-point percentage of just 25.6 percent.

Instead of trying to win the game in the paint, the Owls will try to rely on their talented trio of guards and their excellent perimeter defense.

This is a formula that has proven to give Duke some trouble this season. In the Blue Devils’ season opener against Belmont, the Bruins’ trio of experienced guards all shot better than 50 percent and scored more than 10 points as Belmont took Duke to the buzzer in a 77-76 loss.

If Temple can shoot the ball better than their 37.8 average in their past two games and defend the three as well as they have all season, then its experienced club could pull off the upset against the young Duke squad that features only one senior.

Temple is no stranger to upsetting elite programs of late, either. In the past three seasons, the Owls have defeated a program ranked in the Top-10 in the country.

Tonight, in front of a national audience and a home crowd, the Owls will try to make it four in a row.

Wyatt three lifts Owls over Delaware

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To conclude a back and forth contest, Owls’ junior guard Khalif Wyatt hit a game-winning three pointer with 35 seconds left to lead Temple to a 66-63 victory against Delaware.

Wyatt had been 1-10 shooting before making the game-deciding shot, apart of a lackluster offensive performance from the Owls that saw the team shoot 39.1% from the field.

Owls’ junior forward Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson led the team with 13 points and eight rebounds.

This was the second game in a row for Temple that came down to the wire after the Owls’ 87-85 defeat of Buffalo on Wednesday.

Check back to The Temple News later tonight for full game coverage.

Men’s basketball injury updates: Randall and Eric

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“We’re undersized and undergirthed (sp),” coach Fran Dunphy said after the Owls’ win against Buffalo on Wednesday. “Is that a word, ‘girthed?’ But that’s the way it is. We’re going to have to battle like crazy and figure out ways to win games.”

Dunphy has played a guard-heavy lineup without both senior forward Scootie Randall and redshirt-senior center Micheal Eric due to injuries.

Eric, who sat out the Owls’ 10 remaining games last season, reinjured his right knee during a practice on Nov. 25. The Nigerian native was fourth on the team in scoring (10.5 points per game) and led the Atlantic Ten Conference in rebounding (11.3 per game) after playing four games this year.

“[Eric] feels pretty good,” Dunphy said. “He’s been jogging around a little bit, doing some light running, not scrimmaging anyone else. In shooting drills and those kinds of things he looks good. It’s just a matter of hopefully another couple of weeks, but then when that couple of weeks hits, then how ready is he going to be right away. So it’s going to take some time. It will be on Mike’s schedule and we’ll just play along with it.”

Randall has yet to play this season as he continues to recover from off-season surgery on his knee. The six-foot-six-inch forward was named the Atlantic Ten Conference and Big 5 Most Improved Player and received A-10 Honorable Mention honors last season after averaging 10.7 point and 4.7 rebounds per game.

“[Randall] just doesn’t feel comfortable enough to go and it’s going to be his decision alone,” Dunphy said. “As long as he’s not comfortable then he’s not going to play. Although he’s doing a good job in practice. It’s just his level of comfort, it’s not where it needs to be.”

“If he doesn’t play all year long, then he gets the extra year,” Dunphy said. “If he says at somepoint, ‘I’m ready to go and I want to play,’ then that’s what it will be. But it will be his decision.”

Special teams coordinator leaves for Ohio State

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Zach Smith, who served as special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach for Temple this season, has accepted the job of wide receivers coach at Ohio State, it was announced Thursday.

“I am very happy and supportive of Zach Smith’s new opportunity at Ohio State,” Temple coach Steve Addazio said in a press release. “He grew up in Columbus, and as the grandson of former Ohio State coach Earle Bruce, he is a lifelong Buckeye fan. I thank Zach for his contributions to Temple Football this year and wish Zach and his family all the best.”

Smith will be reunited with Buckeyes’ head coach Urban Meyer, who Smith worked under at Florida as an offensive and special teams assistant and recruiting evaluator from 2005-09. Smith served as the special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach at Marshall University in 2010 before joining Temple this year.

“Zach has done a terrific job as wide receivers coach at both Marshall and this past year at Temple,” Meyer said in a press release. “I am really looking forward to having the opportunity to work with him again. Ohio State is going to benefit from his coaching and his abilities as a recruiter.”

Smith is the first member of Meyer’s former coaching staff to leave Temple and join him at Ohio State amid speculation that Meyer is trying to get his old group back together.

Addazio, offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler, offensive line coach Justin Frye, defensive coordinator Chuck Heater, defensive line coach Sean Cronin, graduate assistant Mark DeLeone and head strength and conditioning coach Frank Piraino all worked with Meyer at Florida.

 

Former TTN EIC linked to child molestation

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Former Temple News Editor-in-Chief and Temple alumnus Bill Conlin has been accused of sexually molesting four children between the ages of 7-12 in the 1970’s.

In a Philadelphia Inquirer article published Tuesday, Conlin is described as molesting three young girls and a young boy, all family members and friends of Conlin’s children.

Conlin, 77, resigned from his positon as columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News amid the allegations on Tuesday. Conlin had worked at the Daily News for more than 40 years and was the 2011 recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the highest award given by the Baseball Writers Association of America, presented at the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Conlin is a 1961 graduate of Temple and an award-winning former EIC of The Temple News. He was recently selected for the Lew Klein Alumni in the Media Award and the School of Communications and Theater Hall of Fame.

Conlin declined to comment on the accusations through his lawyer on Tuesday.

Temple’s defense looks to key in on Cowboy QB

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.– Less than 24 hours before the football teams concludes its season against Wyoming in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl, the Owls said they are more prepared for postseason play than they were two years ago when they played the UCLA Bruins in the EagleBank Bowl.

“We’re doing a lot more than what we did last time and we’re basically living in the film room right now and we’re committed to playing a great game,” senior linebacker Tahir Whitehead said. “Two years ago was the first time we went to a bowl game in a long time and this year we know how to whether the storm and manage bowl games with practice and get ready for the game.”

Senior linebacker Tahir Whitehead KATE MCCANN TTN

 

For Whitehead and the rest of the Owls’ defense, the majority of that time spent in the film room has been focused on Cowboys’ freshman quarterback Brett Smith. Smith is a two-way threat for the Cowboys as he averaged 250 passing yards and 50 rushing yards a game.

“I would say he’s similar to [Ohio sophomore quarterback Tyler Tettleton], he’s young but it seems like he knows what he’s doing, he has really good lineman that can really get after our defensive line,” senior defensive end Adrian Robinson said.

Wyoming employs a spread attack that averages nearly 400 yards a game of total and boasts an offensive line that is very stingy when it comes giving up sacks and this season, the Cowboys average less than one sack a game.

“They keep you on your toes, they can come at you in any way possible, they spread you out and they get all their receivers involved the passing game, they use screens, draws and the quarterback runs,” Whitehead said. “It’s going to be a tough game and we have to be locked in and ready to go.”

The Owls will look to win their first bowl game since 1979 tomorrow at 2 p.m.

“A win tomorrow would mean a lot, in the past couple of years, we haven’t finished the season the way we wanted to and a win would change that all around for us because it would send the younger guys into the next season with a good feeling, that’s all it about.” Whitehead said.

“This is a big game for us, this is like our championship, we want our legacy to be that we won our last game,” Robinson said.

Senior defensive end Adrian Robinson KATE MCCANN TTN


 

Owls go bowling for bowl game

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To commence the festivities of the New Mexico Bowl, Temple Owls took part in a “Family Feud”- like trivia game and bowling match against the Cowboys. The Owls were shutout for both events, but cheered on their teammates and in the midst of the excitement became slightly rowdy.

Owls shut out in Bowl events

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ALBUQUERQUE, NM-Temple was defeated by Wyoming in “Survey Says” and bowling on Thursday night as a part of Gildan New Mexico Bowl-sponsored events hosted by ESPN at the Santa Ana Star Casino in Albuquerque, NM.

“Survey Says” (Family Feud) featured a combination of offensive, defensive and coaching matchups from the Owls and the Cowboys. Temple assistant coaches were defeated by Wyoming’s offensive squad in the final round. During the course of its five-year existence, whichever team wins “Survey Says” has gone on to win the New Mexico Bowl.

Temple was also defeated in the bowling competition that followed. The Owls and Cowboys competed in a showdown of the five best players from each team at the Santa Ana Star Bowling Alley. Wyoming’s team of five beat out Temple’s, 172-147.

Stay tuned to TTN for ongoing coverage of the New Mexico Bowl.

 

Deputy athletic director resigns

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The current deputy athletic director has resigned from his position effective Jan. 23, 2012, according to an announcement by Director of Athletics Bill Bradshaw today.

Eric Roedl, who began his tenure in Temple’s athletic department in the fall of 2003 as associate athletic director finance and administration, will become the executive senior associate athletic director at the University of Oregon.

Roedl’s responsibilities at Temple include all financial matters for the 24 intercollegiate sports with a budget that exceeds $30 million. The Villanova University graduate (’97) balanced athletic department budgets, accumulated $2 million in reserve funds for facility projects and other strategic initiatives, and chaired an athletics strategic planning committee and created a plan which identified and prioritized $100 million in athletics facility improvements, add assisted in the development of a scholarship equivalency structure and roster management plan to improve gender equity.

All information courtesy Temple Athletics Communications.