Greetings from Atlantic City!
Some rambling thoughts before today’s semifinal between Xavier and Temple:
-A big key will be the health of Temple power forward Lavoy Allen. Allen sprained his right ankle in practice early in the week, and has been less than 100 percent all week. Despite playing on a wounded wheel, Allen still grabbed 13 rebounds on Thursday in the semifinal against Saint Joseph’s. If Allen is not able to repeat such a performance less than 24 hours later, Xavier—namely Derrick Brown—will be able to score inside, and utilize their height advantage to the fullest to grab extra possessions.
-Don’t believe the hype you hear about this being a home crowd for Temple. 300 people do not constitute a home crowd. Just ask the Florida Marlins.
-The matchup to watch is between B.J. Raymond and Dionte Christmas. If Raymond is able to limit Christmas’ perimeter shooting as he did the first time around, in a Xavier win, then the Temple has to turn to alternative forms of offense. While Juan Fernandez, Sergio Olmos and Ryan Brooks have all shown that they can score throughout the A-10 schedule this year, none has a favorable matchup against the Xavier defense. Even if Raymond does not match his scoring output from the first time around, merely holding Christmas to single digits—thus continuing the Temple senior’s recent shooting struggles—will go a long way towards a Xavier win.
-Atlantic City is a great City to travel to, but not for a basketball tournament. The arena is old, decrepit, and lacking energy.
Overall, my prediction is Xavier 68, Temple 63
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