Author Archives: Joey Cranney

Bradshaw talks conference re-alignment

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Temple Athletic Director Bill Bradshaw confirmed the notion that money is what’s driving the recent surge of conference re-alignment in an interview with Harry Donahue of 1210 AM WPHT during halftime of the men’s basketball game Wednesday night.

Bradshaw, speaking to any Temple fans worried about the school’s future prospects in a fractured Big East Conference, said the revenue the Big East draws negates any problems the conference may have with schools leaving.

“If anyone’s confused and frustrated, just know one thing: It’s the color green,” Bradshaw said. “Think of the color green, and that answers all of your questions.”

The Big East admitted Tulane for all sports and East Carolina for football, effective the 2014-15 season, on Tuesday. The moves have come the same week as announcements made by Rutgers and Louisville indicating their intent to leave the Big East before the 2014 season.

While Bradshaw said the recent shifting of teams has been frustrating, he maintains Temple is in a good place in the Big East.

“As soon as you get comfortable, it seems like something pops up,” Bradshaw said. “And as soon as someone makes a statement saying they’re never going to leave the league, look out, something’s coming. We don’t know when it’s going to end, what’s more important is how we react to it.”

Bradshaw said Temple should still feel optimistic about the Big East due to the conference’s access to BCS bowls, the prestige and exposure of Big East basketball and the media rights deal being negotiated for Big East football and basketball.

“I think it’s going to be very lucrative, particularly with the markets being brought into the Big East, such as San Diego, Houston, Dallas, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Orlando, and certainly Philadelphia,” Bradshaw said. “All those markets are going to mean more eyeballs, more exposure and hopefully more revenue.”

Though Bradshaw remained hopeful for Temple, he couldn’t say the same about the state of conference alignment in college football.

“Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, there’s another big shark sighting out there,” Bradshaw said. “The question is: What does it all mean? It’s going to be very important as we move ahead.”

Men’s basketball adds two recruits

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The men’s basketball team has officially signed two recruits to National Letters of Intent for during the early signing period of the 2013 class, it was announced in a press release Wednesday.

Josh Brown (St. Anthony’s) and Kyle Green (Camden Catholic) become the first two members of Temple’s 2013 recruiting class.

Brown is a 6-foot-3-inch guard from Irvington, N.J. who averaged nine points, five rebounds and four assists last season. He played with UCLA freshman Kyle Anderson under coach Bobby Hurley at St. Anthony’s High School.

Green is a 6-foot-5-inch guard from Woodbury Heights, N.J. who averaged 22.7 points per game last season at Camden Catholic High School.

“We are excited to add these fine young men to the Temple Basketball family,” coach Fran Dunphy said in a statement. “They are both upstanding citizens who come from wonderful families.  We are looking forward to great things from them, both on the court and in the classroom, during their Temple careers.”

Addazio opens up at season’s end

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Steve Addazio was in rare form in his last weekly press conference of the year at Edberg Olson Hall Tuesday afternoon.

A candid Addazio said he isn’t surprised by his team’s 4-7 finish, and that he expected to win four to six games. He spoke of the team’s youth and lack of depth as ongoing issues that the Owls couldn’t overcome during the strain of the Big East Conference season.

“Basically through the year, there was a theme where we’d have those moments where we’d come unglued a little bit and we didn’t have the ability to overcome that,” Addazio said. “I think what you saw was a young, inexperienced team making a transition this year.”

Though he noted the Big East move as a reason for the team’s struggle, Addazio maintained that it was still the best move for Temple.

“The best thing that happened was that we went right into this league,” Addazio said. “There was going to be an adjustment period. I’d rather have the youth and the adjustment period in one shot. I think we’re better for it.”

Addazio said he feels motivated by the offseason do the team’s losing season, the first he’s experience since he was offensive coordinator at Indiana in 2004.

“I’m disappointed that we’re not playing in a bowl game right now,” Addazio said. “I’m disappointed that we’re not practicing right now. I’m not used to this. But I can’t look you in the eye and say we aren’t where I thought we’d be.”

But his concern with the past season was met with his optimism for next season, which he said will begin with the most competitive offseason program Temple’s ever had, starting Tuesday.

“I don’t want to put forward this thing like Rome’s built in a day and next year we’ll be good to go. It’s a process,” Addazio said. “I just like where we’re headed. We’re going to get better and continue to grow.”

“I’ve had a chance to talk to a lot of guys in our league that I know and they’ve all said the same thing, ‘Boy, you’ve got a good young football team,'” Addazio added. “Your kids play really hard.’ It’s a resounding theme, it’s not bs. Our kids do play hard. They do compete.”

Addazio gave a nine-minute opening statement before fielding questions about what went wrong this season, his team’s offseason preparation and his take on conference re-alignment.

When asked about the recent addition of Tulane into the conference, Addazio wouldn’t comment on the matter, because it was the first he had heard of it.

Women’s basketball hosts Rutgers

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The women’s basketball team will look to win its third straight game in a home game at 7 p.m. tonight against Rutgers at McGonigle Hall.

After knocking off Seton Hall and Northeastern last week, the Owls will bring a 3-1 record against the Big East Conference’s Scarlet Knights. Rutgers is 1-1 with a win against George Washington and an opening night loss to Georgia.

Wednesday’s Thanksgiving Eve game will feature two centers who lead their respective sides in scoring.

Temple is led by senior center Victoria Macaulay, who is averaging 18 points and 11 rebounds per game in the early going of the season. The Owls’ second leading scorer is freshman small forward Sally Kabengano, who is averaging six points per game.

Through their first two games, senior center Monique Oliver leads Rutgers with 13 points and 8 rebounds per game. Senior guard Erica Wheeler and senior forward Chelsey Lee both average nine points per game.

After a sloppy win against Northeastern on Saturday in which the Owls committed 29 turnovers, coach Tonya Cardoza said following the game that a performance like that will not be good enough to beat a team like Rutgers.

The Scarlet Knights have received votes to be included in the NCAA National Rankings.

-Tyler Sablich

Cross country completes fall competition at ICA4

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Cross country will wrap up its season Saturday as the men’s team will race in the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletics of America Championships and the women’s team participates in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships at Van Courtlandt Park in the Bronx.

“We need to just keep going out there and getting better,” coach Adam Brady said. “It’s another opportunity to go out and race and show what we can do and take some more steps forward.”

At last year’s meet, then-sophomore Will Kellar’s 16th place finish helped the team claim a fifth-place finish of the 16 that participated. The women placed 15th in their race, the highest in program history.

The teams last raced at regionals last weekend, when redshirt senior Travis Mahoney won the event and qualified for the NCAA Championships in Louisville, Ky. Sophomore Jenna Dubrow’s streak of leading the team in races stopped at 10 last week, as junior Anna Pavone finished four seconds earlier.

The men’s team will be without Mahoney, who will race in the national meet on Monday as he attempts to become Temple’s first ever All-American in cross country.

-Avery Maehrer

Two Owls earn volleyball honors

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Two Owls received Atlantic 10 Conference awards following a season which saw the team climb from the bottom of the conference to the fifth seed in the playoffs.

The Samoan duo of senior libero Chelsea Tupuola and junior outside hitter Gabriella Matautia were named the A-10 Libero of the Year and First Team All-Conference, respectively.

Tupuola also was named to the A-10 Second Team.

Matautia was second in the conference with 4.05 kills per set this season while leading the A-10 with .39 aces per set. Tupuola, who coach Bakeer Ganes has repeatedly claimed is the most important player on his team, lead the conference with 5.3 digs per set. She currently sits in seventh in school history with 1,385 digs.

Both players have been instrumental to the Owls resurrection this season, who stand at 8-6 in the conference heading into their first round match against fourth-seed Duquesne

-Jake Adams

Mahoney named USTFCCCA Regional Athlete of the Year

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Off the heels of his first-place finish at last weekend’s regional race, redshirt senior Travis Mahoney has been named Mid-Atlantic Regional Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, it was announced Tuesday.

Mahoney, who is the first regional champion in school history, is having a career year in cross country having also won the Atlantic 10 Conference Championships last month. His win there catapulted the men’s team to a program-best 4th place finish. Mahoney has already been named A-10 Outstanding Performer of the Year, and has been awarded the same title in track & field three times in his career.

Mahoney will look to become the first cross country All-American in Temple history when he competes in the NCAA Championship in Louisville, Ky., on Nov. 19.

–Avery Maehrer

Three-point shooting key in tonight’s match-up

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The women’s basketball team’s loss to Nebraska on Sunday, Nov. 11, ended a big run for the Owls. Prior to the contest Temple had made at least one trey in 100 consecutive games.

While in previous seasons the Owls thrived off three-point shooting, connecting on 31.8 percent from down town last season, this year’s squad isn’t built for long distance shooting.

The team right now has been out shot 52-17 from beyond the arc. Temple has connected on just four of those 17 attempts, shooting 23.5 percent. And only two players are responsible for those connections, sophomore guard Rateska Brown (2-for-5) and freshman guard May Dayan (2-for-4).

In two games Seton Hall, who the Owls host on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Liacouras Center, Temple has allowed their opponents to shoot 10-for-34 from down town.

While Temple relies heavily on getting the ball to senior center Victoria Macaulay, the Owls may need to find a way to open up their long-range attack to hand the Pirates their first loss of the season.

-Jake Adams

Football to compete in Big East West in 2013

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The football team and other new additions to the Big East Conference will compete in the newly established West Division of the conference next season, Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco announced Tuesday.

The 12 teams set to compete in the Big East next season will be split into two, six-team divisions, where the winner of the divisions will meet in the Big East Championship game. Temple will be in the West Division along with other conference newcomers: Boise State, Houston, Memphis, San Diego State and Southern Methodist University.

“I’m not involved with all these meetings here, but for the beginning part of this thing, we will be on the Western side,” coach Steve Addazio said in a press release. “I’m excited to do that. I think that’ll be good. We’ll still have some of our regional games in here, and I think it’s a great new beginning and I’m excited for it.”

Each Big East team will play eight conference games per season, five within its division. That means Temple will have to head out west for at least two games against Western opponents next season. Home/away breakdowns will be announced after the Big East athletic directors meeting on Dec. 3.

Addazio said playing in western markets opens up new doors for recruiting.

“It’s exciting. You’re talking about some great trips and some great programs,” Addazio said. “You’re playing nationally. It’s a national perspective, and I think the kids will enjoy that. When I was at Notre Dame, we played a national schedule. I know that’s a bit of a difference scenario, but it was a cool deal – going to places you’ve never been. It can be very, very exciting. The future is really exciting. I’m thrilled that we’re a part of I,t and I’m looking forward to bringing this young team into that whole new beginning. I think it’s going to be nothing but growth.”

The conference alignment is likely to be revisited after the 2014 season when Navy will be added to the Big East, among other schools, the press release indicated.

Women’s basketball season begins at McGonigle

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The women’s basketball team kicks off the 2012-13 season in the friendly confines of McGonigle Hall when the Owls host Montana on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

The Grizzlies finished 16-14 last season, and 9-7 in the Big Sky Conference. The Owls finished 23-10 and 13-1 in the Atlantic 10 Conference before falling in the conference semifinals to eventual champion Dayton.

Temple returns standout senior center Victoria Macaulay and redshirt junior forward Natasha Thames. The rest of the team, however, is sophomores and freshmen.

The projected starting lineup for Friday’s game is sophomore Tyonna Williams at the point, freshman May Dayan at shooting guard, freshman forward Sally Kabengano at the three, and Thames and Macaulay.

Cardoza likely won’t decide for sure until Friday shoot-around.

-Jake Adams