Temple-SJU observations

This weekend marks the beginning of Penn's Ivy League season, but a week from today the Big 5 schedule starts up again as well when the Quakers head to La Salle on Thursday Jan. 18, and then host Temple on Jan. 24 and St. Joe's on Jan. 27. While the Quakers (0-1 Big 5) are one game into the Big 5 year, they don't control their own destiny. They must win out and hope for Villanova (3-0) to lose its last city game next month to St. Joe's.

Last night I made the trip up SEPTA's Orange line to the Liacouras Center to see Temple host St. Joe's. The Owls opened up a big early lead, but quickly got passed for good by the Hawks, going on to win 80-67. Here are a few notes from the game.

It was clear for any fan to see, the Hawks dominated the Owls on the inside. Temple (6-8, 0-2 Big 5) starts no one over 6-foot-6, and as a result St. Joe's (10-5, 1-0 Big 5) starters 6-10 Pat Calathes, 6-9 Ahmad Nivins and 6-8 Rob Ferguson dominated inside. The three combined for 57 percent shooting and averaged 17 points and six rebounds each. Nivins was the most active of those players, going 6-of-10 from the floor and three offensive boards, but also turned it over four times.
When the Quakers match up against the Hawks, they will probably do a much better job inside, as Stephen Danley (6-8) Mark Zoller (a generous 6-7) and Brennan Votel (6-7) off the bench have the defense, size and rebounding skills to keep them under wraps.

The St. Joe's freshmen guards (basically everyone besides those three forwards) -- Jawan Carter, D.J. Rivera, Garrett Williamson and Darrin Govens -- played up to their hype. They combined for 12 assists and only six turnovers against an athletic Temple backcourt.

Temple's 7-foot center Sergio Olmos did just about nothing. No wonder former coach John Chaney barely played him last year. In 15 minutes of play, the sophomore project from Valencia, Spain had one nice offensive rebound, but followed it with a miss from point blank range.

This was a fairly ugly game, and St. Joe's coach Phil Martelli made sure he had the officials on his side for it. Martelli called a timeout some five minutes in just to argue with the refs. The Hawks were huddled up, but by the time he said a word to his players, the timeout was over. Whatever he said had a profound effect, his squad went on a tear and never looked back.

On the way back on the subway, Buzz writer Josh Hirsch and I ran into an interesting character. The man asked us if we went to Temple, we replied no, and he proceeded to guess what school we go to. "St. Joe's? Villanova? Drexel? La Salle? Sciences [USP, five blocks SW of Penn]? Textiles [Philadelphia Univ.]?" After telling him Penn (while even dropping clues like it is in between Sciences and Drexel), he immediately recalled that the Quakers are in their first season under the new head coach, and start up their Ivy season this weekend. Wow, I guess that's Philly for you.