Friday's Shootaround: A-10 bounces back

Temple 68, No. 10 Georgetown 65: Amazingly enough, Temple never trailed Georgetown, opening a lead as big as 11 in the first half and hanging on as the Hoyas slowly worked their way back into the game. This game was actually quite similar to Temple's win over Maryland last weekend. Georgetown finally tied the game at 56 (the same score when Maryland finally got the game tied), but at the other end Temple didn't panic, simply running their offense before Juan Fernandez found Ramone Moore coming off of a screen. Moore buried a three that gave Temple a 59-56 lead. After a Jason Clark turnover, Temple scored again to go up five and held on from there.


Moore is the most important player on this team. Sure, Fernandez is terrific at the point. He understands what Fran Dunphy wants him to do and he executes it well, but this season he has played much more as a facilitator than a creator. Lavoy Allen has as much talent as anyone in the country, but after four years its pretty obvious he's never going to have the drive to reach his full potential. Moore is the most talented scorer on this team. He is one of the only guys that can create his own shot against a set defense -- he's also terrific at leaking out in transition and getting easy layups -- and that is hugely important for a team that struggles to scores like Temple. Moore went for a career high 30 last night.

Georgetown can attribute this loss to Temple's defense. The Owls may not be playing their best basketball early in the season, but this is still one of the best defensive teams in the country. How many open threes did Georgetown get last night? How many times did they get a layup off of a back door cut? Not many. Temple is unranked right now, so this win looks ugly, but this is a very good basketball team and Georgetown was playing a true road game. This is a loss that Hoya fans should be able to take in stride.

The biggest question I have for Georgetown is their decisions late in the game. Austin Freeman and Chris Wright are two of the best players in the country. They are both senior leaders on this team. But at the end of both the Missouri game and this game, Hollis Thompson has been the guy that has tried to penetrate and create. Against Missouri, he missed a shot, but was lucky enough that the balled bounced back into the hands of Wright, who tied the game. Last night, he got off a terrible shot in the lane when Georgetown was down by one point with a chance to win. That ball has to get into Freeman or Wright's hands.

Xavier 51, Butler 49: I wrote about Ronald Nored's horrid night over at Beyond the Arc last night, but one more note I wanted to throw in here was that neither of these teams looked very good last night. There is something to be said for a team that can win a defensive battle, but this game was less of a defensive battle or more of a mess on the offensive end of the floor. It was sloppy, there were unforced and unnecessary turnovers. Bad shots were taken and open shots were missed. Both of these teams are really struggling to replace their NBA Draft Pick.

Ohio State 75, IUPUI 64: We talked about Sullinger's performance already right here.

Florida 65, Kent State 52: Kenny Boynton is in the midst of a dreadful cold streak. Last night, he had just seven points of 3-12 shooting and 1-8 shooting from three. Against American, he went 0-9 from the floor, 0-6 from three, and notched a goose egg in the scoring column. Against, he was 0-3 from deep.

Billy Donovan has said that he doesn't want to tell Boynton to stop shooting, and he's right. Boynton is a streaky shooter, and if he gets hot he is capable of hitting five or six threes in a game and scoring 30 points. There is also something to be said for shooting yourself out of a slump. Its better for Boynton to be missing these shots when the Gators are up double digits on American and Kent State than a close game against a team like Kansas State or Tennessee.

Florida has nine days off before their next game against Kansas State. That's a lot of time to get in the gym and get some extra shots up. If Boynton once again has a shooting performance like this one, then I'll get aboard the Boynton-needs-to-stop-shooting train.