Temple's non-conference schedule (Soft Pretzel Logic)

Temple's non-conference schedule

So here I am at Eagles training camp, working on videos every day and not generally having that much time to consider the rest of the world beyond Barry Bonds, and somewhat out of nowhere Temple men's hoops releases one almighty non-conference schedule for this season.

The Owls open at Tennessee, which means Fran Dunphy and Bruce Pearl will be on a basketball court at the same time. That is cause for celebration in and of itself.

Then it's off to San Juan (in November... now that sounds good) for a tournament that involves, among others, Arkansas, Miami, Providence, Virginia Commonwealth, and the always successful TBA. Those games will be hard but I bet Temple could win a few of them, and that could carry them a long way.

I dare say that beating VCU could look best at the end of the year. Regardless, that will be a game with some great guards in it, with Eric Maynor, Dionte Christmas and ~~Dustin Salisbery~~ Mark Tyndale (thanks Ariel).

Right before New Year's, Temple goes to some soulless suburb of Miami (I've heard there's a hockey team there) to play Florida. I'm willing to bet a few Owls fans will head down for that one, but I'm also willing to bet that the hotels and flights will be obscenely expensive that time of year.

And then, January 9, what will probably be seen as the biggest game of all, even if it isn't: Duke at the Wachovia Center. I wonder when the last year was that Duke and North Carolina played in Philadelphia in the same season.

As for the Big 5 games, Temple gets both nonconference matchups at home: Villanova on December 9 and Penn on January 23. The Owls also go to the Palestra to play Drexel on December 15. Which is interesting because I'm not sure John Chaney would have ever agreed to that one.

So chew on that for a while, and if you're out there, let me know what you think. And read the Eagles blog... though I'm pretty sure you're doing that already.

(Man, I can't believe I said that. But it does pay the bills.)

Tags:

Posted by Jonathan Tannenwald on August 7, 2007 10:29 PM | Permalink

Comments (2)

Ariel:

Don't you mean Mark Tyndale? In the section about 3 good guards. Dustin has (thankfully) moved on.

Posted by Ariel | August 27, 2007 11:48 AM

Posted on August 27, 2007 11:48

Jonathan Tannenwald:

Yep. Thanks.

Posted by Jonathan Tannenwald | August 27, 2007 5:34 PM

Posted on August 27, 2007 17:34

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Jonathan Tannenwald is a producer with Philly.com.

I fell in love with the Big 5 at first sight upon moving to Philadelphia in 2002. At various points in my journalistic career, I've covered all six of the region's Division I teams. During that time, I've eaten many soft pretzels from the Palestra's concession stands, which is how this blog got its name.

In addition to the blog, I host and produce the Inquirer's College HoopsCast. It's a weekly podcast that features all the latest news and analysis from around local and national college basketball. Regular guests include Inquirer writers Mike Jensen, Joe Juliano and Mel Greenberg.

I also occasionally contribute to the Inquirer's women's basketball weblog, Women's Hoops Guru. If you've come here from there, this blog deals mostly with the men's side of things, though I do write about women's basketball and other sports when they fit in.

When not focusing on college hoops, I host and produce the Inquirer's PhilliesCast with Phillies beat writer Todd Zolecki, and can occasionally be found behind the camera shooting videos of the Eagles, other professional sports teams and the tiger cubs at the zoo.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on August 7, 2007 10:29 PM.

The previous post in this blog was Skip Prosser has died.

The next post in this blog is Here comes football season.

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Soft Pretzel Logic

A blog about college sports in the Philadelphia region and across the country.