Teams scouting the Owls tend to focus their energies on stopping much-acclaimed junior Dionte Christmas. But while Christmas leads the Atlantic 10 in scoring, senior Mark Tyndale might be Temple's most important player.
Second on the team to Christmas in points and rebounds per game with 15.3 and 5.9 respectively, Tyndale does a little bit of everything. He leads the team in assists, with 52, and steals, with 27 (although he also leads in turnovers).
And he's been doing it for all four years of his career. So far, he's started 94 games out of a possible 102, not counting the additional six games he missed at the start of last season because of academic trouble.
"He's a good basketball player," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "We don't like to play minutes without him. He makes great decisions all the time."
Although Tyndale is technically listed as a forward, his 6-foot-5, 210-pound frame lets him play nearly any position on the court.
"I do what my teammates need me to do," he said. "I've played point guard some games; I might play center some games. My goal is to get us to the tournament and help my team do whatever it takes to get there."
And this versatility has made him such an asset for the Owls.
"Mark is a slasher/scorer kind of player," Dunphy said. "He's our best playmaker. He's one of the guys who can get in the lane and score."
Much like the situation for Penn, only two of Temple's three seniors see significant playing time. That makes Tyndale the emotional leader of the team.
"Mark's spent the most time in the program, so he understands the importance of each and every game," Dunphy said.
Tyndale grew up in Philadelphia and attended Simon Gratz High School, where he won the 2004 Philadelphia Public League Championship, so he has always been connected to the City of Brotherly Love.
"He's a kid who wants to do well here in Philadelphia," Dunphy said. "He understands the importance of winning in the city. We did not do very well in the city last year, so we're looking to right that ship. And Mark's a big, big part of it."
For Tyndale, the chance to boast to his Philadelphia peers makes the Big 5 so important.
"It's all about bragging rights in the city," Tyndale said. "Hopefully those teams will be ready. I've never won the Big 5, but it's exciting. Everyone always comes out to those games. You can talk a little trash about who won those games."
With this extra motivation, Tyndale has stepped it up during Big 5 play. Over his last five Big 5 games, he has averaged 20.8 points and 6.6 rebounds. Thanks to numbers like those, he was named to the First Team all-Philadelphia Big 5 last year.
And tonight Tyndale has extra motivation. The Quakers won a nail-biter last season, as then-senior Mark Zoller hit all three free-throw attempts with 1.4 seconds left to put the Quakers up by two.
"Last year was a very emotional game," Tyndale said. "We wanted to win it for Coach Dunphy. He wanted to win it so badly [in his first game against his former team]. It was a very tough loss, but we came out with a lot of good things."
So when the Quakers play the Owls tonight, they can't just focus on Christmas. With a versatile four-year starter trying to win bragging rights also on the court, the Penn will have to pay attention to Mark Tyndale as well.
