The Connecticut Huskies and the Temple Owls both entered the season with high expectations and in UConn’s case a Top 25 rankings, but both teams have woefully underachieved. Both of these teams likely need to win the AAC conference tournament in March if they have any hope of making the NCAA Tournament as both are hovering right around the .500 mark. For Temple, this one is especially important as a loss would assure the Owls of having a losing record in conference play.
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Connecticut overcame a 14-point halftime deficit to knock off Memphis on Thursday night and move to a game over .500. The win didn’t end up covering the number, but Kevin Ollie will take them any way he can get them at this point. The Huskies have now won six of their last seven, but have only covered in three of those meetings.
Temple sits at just 5-9 in conference play and 14-13 overall coming into its game against UConn. Defense has been partly to blame for the Owls’ issues, but more notably we haven’t seen Temple’s traditionally good offense score points. The Owls are hitting just 42.2 percent of their shots from the floor, but despite that have seen six of their last eight games finish over the total.
Last Meeting
The Owls struggled from the field the entire night against the Huskies when these teams met earlier in the season. Temple could only manage to hit 35.9 percent of its field goal attempts with Obi Enechionyia and Daniel Dingle combining to go just 6 of 26 from the floor. UConn had a fantastic night from Kentan Facey conversely, with Facey hitting 9 of 11 shots and finishing the night with a double-double.
UConn’s presence in the paint completely disrupted Temple throughout the night. The Huskies outrebounded the Owls by 9 in the game, but more importantly were blocking shots all night long. UConn ended the night with 9 blocks and Amida Brimah was the star, swatting away six of those himself.
Key Stat
If it wasn’t for the Huskies’ defense, this team would be abysmal. UConn has one of the worst offenses of any school in the country, averaging 67.9 PPG. Not having Terry Larrier or Alterique Gilbert definitely plays a role, but many expected Jalen Adams and Rodney Purvis to be much better than what we have seen.
Few teams have been as stout as UConn has on the defensive end. The Huskies have allowed opponents to shoot just 39.2 percent from the field and only two AAC teams have cracked the 70-point barrier against them this year, Cincinnati and Memphis. Vegas caught on to this team’s defensive proclivities early on though and their last six had gone over the number before last night’s game against Memphis finished under.
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Kevin Ollie’s job might be on the line depending on how the season plays out. Although it’s only been a handful of years since the Huskies shocked the world and won the NCAA Tournament, recent results have been less than stellar and many fans in Storrs are calling for a change. Finishing the season with a sub.-500 record would likely be a deal-breaker, so he needs this win.
Expect a close, hard fought game between these two sides with home court advantage prevailing in the end. The spread in this game should be pretty narrow, but it wouldn’t be a shock to see the victor not cover with how low scoring this one could be. We’re going to call for Temple to get the win, but just barely.
College Basketball Odds: Temple 66, Connecticut 64
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