Hard work pays off for Williams

For most, the U.S. Virgin Islands is a friendly vacation paradise in the Caribbean Sea. For sophomore forward Craig Williams, it is where he learned to play the game he loves.

Williams hails from Christiansted, a town with only a couple thousand residents. It’s also the same place NBA superstar Tim Duncan calls home.

“Growing up from the Virgin Islands, [Duncan] was the only [and] the biggest icon,” Williams said. “[He came from] a small place to play college basketball, and then he went to the [NBA]. A lot of people looked up to him.”

Three years ago, Williams attended a John Chaney-Sonny Hill summer basketball camp at the Ambler Campus. Now, instead of being just another face in the crowd, he’s schooling opposing defenses with his smooth shooting touch.

On Jan. 5, the college basketball world learned of Williams. Twenty-two minutes, 16 points and one victory helped cement his place in Fran Dunphy’s rotation. Now every Owls opponent might want to get a detailed scouting report on the 6-foot-9-inch 3-point specialist.

“I was confident in my abilities, but just the fact that I came out there and did that on that night meant a lot more,” Williams said.

The real transformation began this past summer, when Williams lost about 20 pounds. The forward has been dedicated to improving his stamina and conditioning on the court. Once buried on the bench, Williams is now averaging 14.1 minutes per game this season.

“I think Craig made some serious strides this summer,” assistant coach Shawn Trice said. “He had a chance to go home. He came back lighter and in a little bit better condition. He’s got some ways to go, but he’s made the commitment to get his body in shape.”

Williams estimates that his workout regimen takes up to six hours per day. He sacrifices early mornings traveling to Pearson Hall with assistant athletic trainer Steve Spiro to “get his blood pumping.”

In October, Williams was in the pool three times a week doing basketball-related drills.

A knee injury in practice temporarily set Williams back, as he missed the Owls’ Jan. 28 game against Rhode Island. He also had his minutes trimmed for the following two games while still recovering. However, he said he’s now healed, and his 12-point performance against Rhode Island Sunday would indicate the same.

With Williams in the starting five, the Cherry and White are 6-1. In those seven games, Williams is averaging 9.3 points per game, a welcome addition to the box score.

He has also been beneficial to the Owls’ other big men, who gratefully accept the extra minutes of rest from time to time. Sophomore forward Lavoy Allen has been able to get more production underneath the rim, as opponents are forced to crash Williams along the perimeter. Anytime Williams puts in 20-plus minutes, Allen averages just more than 14 points per game.

“Anytime there is any type of penetration and kick, [Williams is] always spotting up,” said Dion Dacons, former Owls forward and current coordinator of student development.

“Lavoy doing what he’s doing in the post, on the block and [Williams’] knocking down shots on the perimeter, it compliments each other really well.”

Williams’ consistent play stems from his ability to do all the little things right. His solid passing and catching attributes have led to minimal turnovers and quick shots from behind the arc. The next step is developing on the defensive end.

“[He needs to work on] becoming a better defender, lateral movement, [being] a little bit more athletic,” Trice said. “That will come with him continuing to lose weight, shed pounds and make the commitment to improve his foot speed.”

So far, Williams has been a lesson in hard work. His determination in the weight room has paved a path onto the hardwood. But, the real lesson is that Williams continues to stay focused on the task at hand.
“I’m trying to work on my body,” Williams said. “Coach tells me everyday, “Work on your body, work on your body,” so I’m trying to do that.”

Anthony Stipa can be reached at anthony.stipa@temple.edu.

Dunphy’s changes pay off in new year

Sometime between the men’s basketball team’s loss to Villanova on Dec. 29 and its home win against Kent State on Jan. 5, coach Fran Dunphy had a “hunch.”

Sophomore forward Craig Williams was outplaying his competition in practice. The Owls were in the midst of a three-game losing streak. So, with that, Dunphy made a surprising change to his starting lineup.

With only 25 career minutes of collegiate work, Williams took the floor against the Golden Flashes — and found a cozy little spot at the top of the key to rain 3-point buckets. A then-career-high 16 points in just 22 minutes marked the beginning of a retooled Owls squad that is 4-1 in the new year.

“I think we’re doing a great job of coming out and starting off great,” senior guard Dionte Christmas said. “The games before we would start off kind of slow, but now with Craig in the starting lineup, with Juan [Fernandez] coming in, we’ve been starting off fast.”

Freshman point guard Juan Fernandez has been a solid addition to an Owls backcourt that can occasionally lose focus. The Argentinean has averaged 5 points and 2.8 assists in five appearances this season.

“I think he’s getting better,” Dunphy said. “We are trying to get some of tahose mistakes that he’s making out of his system. He tries to do still a little bit too much on both ends of the court.”

The mistakes include errant turnovers and wild passes, things that can be amended with experience and time. Fernandez has also been caught in a web of fouls, fouling out against Penn last week and committing four more against Massachusetts this past Saturday.

Fernandez’s Spanish-speaking counterpart, senior center Sergio Olmos, has been the odd man out.

He lost his customary spot in the starting rotation and has seen a decrease in minutes. But the 7-footer understands his role and provides a much-needed spark from the bench.

“It’s just a new thing,” Olmos said. “I started every game last year, most of these games [this year]. It’s just a new experience. Craig’s playing great basketball right now.”

Dunphy spoke highly of his big man, complimenting his character and urging him to be patient.

“Serg has handled it very, very well,” Dunphy said. “There’s some frustration that sets in. He wants to play, but right now the way we’re playing, the way we’re going, his minutes are going to come depending on how well he plays.”

In the past month, the Owls have found a new identity and plenty of viable scoring threats to help make Christmas’ life easier. Since Williams’ insertion into the starting lineup, he has averaged 9.4 points per game. Sophomore forward Lavoy Allen has also been assertive during the run, averaging 11.8 points per contest.

In a landslide win against Penn last week, the Owls were paced by some hot shooting hands. The Cherry and White nailed a season-high 13 triples to go along with a 53.6 shooting percentage from the field.

Against Massachusetts, the Owls found themselves playing a bit more one dimensional. They attempted 33 3-pointers and never really challenged the Minutemen in the low post. The end result was a 79-75 road loss in Amherst, Mass., to even their conference record at 1-1.

The next question Dunphy will find himself pondering is if the Owls stick with the course that was laid out against Kent State or if it’s time for another shake-up. The team has averaged a 9.4 point lead heading into the locker room in 2009 but failed to hang on against UMass.

The good news is that the well-seasoned Dunphy is not afraid to add wrinkles to the rotation. The Owls will just have to take it one hunch at a time.

Anthony Stipa can be reached anthony.stipa@temple.edu.

No doubt about it

Sometimes it’s just that easy.

Behind 25 points and nine rebounds from senior guard Dionte Christmas and 17 points from sophomore forward Craig Williams, the men’s basketball team had little difficulty with Penn in a 78-53 victory Wednesday night at the Palestra.

The Owls never trailed in the game, as a quick 25-7 lead right out of the gate proved to be too much for the Quakers to handle.

Central to that run and the Owls’ overall domination of the contest was the team’s 3-point shooting, as Christmas connected on all five of his 3-point attempts, with Williams also adding five of his own. Junior guard Ryan Brooks also joined the party, hitting two treys in two attempts and finishing with eight points for the night.

On the whole, the Owls hit a season-high 13 field goals from downtown, shooting a stunning 68 percent from beyond the line.

A humble and soft-spoken Williams attempted 10 of those 3-pointers, as he set a career high in points and three pointers made.

“I’m just trying to make good decisions,” Williams said. “Some shots were not as good as others, but that’s how it is.”

But, half of those shots found the bottom of the net, and that led to the Penn defense paying more attention to players that aren’t Christmas.

And that is something that can only be good for the Temple offense.

“One of the reasons I’m having big first halves is [because] of Craig, and Lavoy, those guys,” Christmas said. “Teams [can’t] just focus on me, they have to focus on Craig, Lavoy, [Ryan] Brooks. Everybody’s playing great basketball right now.”

That is certainly the case for Temple (9-6, 1-1 Big 5), as coach Fran Dunphy’s squad beat their cross-town rivals for the second straight time and advanced their all-time record to 42-22 against Penn (3-8, 0-2 Big Five).

The game also marked the second time Dunphy returned the Palestra to face Penn since leaving the school to coach Temple in 2006.

The return was not as crazy this time around.

“I knew it was coming, but it was almost too much to take, that night,” Dunphy said. “And I’m not sure whether it was fair to the guys on the team, I felt bad for those guys. It was a crazy night. [But] tonight was much different…It was much, much easier this time around.”

In fact, he argued that it’s really not a big deal.

“It’s not novel anymore,” Dunphy said. “It’s what it is.”

The Owls were also able to hold Penn’s leading scorer, guard Tyler Bernardini, to just four points on 2-9 shooting from the field.

“I think everyone’s pretty attuned to how good a player Bernardini is,” Dunphy said. “You’ve got to find him, and I think we did a pretty good job throughout.”

The win marked the Owls’ fourth victory in a row, and heading into the remained of the Atlantic Ten Conference portion of the schedule, the team looks to be finding its groove at the right time.

But just don’t tell Dunphy that his team is in that kind of zone.

“I guess that’s still to be determined,” he said. “While it looks like we’re cooking on some cylinders, we have to be very attentive to every detail.”

The Owls return to action Saturday against Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN2.

Game Notes

The Owls held a 37-28 advantage on the boards…After not getting off the bench Sunday against La Salle, junior guard Luis Guzman played 11 minutes and scoring five points…Freshman guard Ramone Moore also played, though, his three minutes came when the game was well in-hand…The Owls are now wearing a white patch on their jersey’s commemorating Temple’s 125 year celebration…Gov. Ed Rendell (D-Pa.) was in attendance, as was former Owl Mark Tyndale.

Todd Orodenker can be reached at todd.orodenker@temple.edu.

New faces help stop skid

The men’s basketball team was in a rut.

The Owls closed out 2008 with a three-game slide, mustering just 58.3 points per game, so coach Fran Dunphy decided that it was time to mix things up.

Enter sophomore forward Craig Williams.

The little-used bench player earned his first career start and provided a career-high 16 points, as Temple stomped Kent State 73-58 at the Liacouras Center Monday night.

It was just a hunch, just throwing Craig in there,” Dunphy said. “He had worked pretty hard over the last couple of weeks. He has that ability where he can make shots.”

Williams opened up the Owls’ scoring with three successful jumpers, totaling eight points. The 6-foot-9-inch forward accumulated a total of eight points for his entire collegiate career prior Monday’s game.

I’ve always been working toward starting, but I didn’t know it was going to come at this point in my career,” Williams said.

Even though Williams practiced with the first stringers all week, he said he learned of his insertion into the rotation minutes before tip-off time.

A light-hearted Dunphy, however, had another opinion on the matter.

“He was the first guy out on the court at like 5:15 [p.m.] working on his jump shot,” Dunphy said. “Now you tell me he didn’t know whether he was going to start.”

The Golden Flashes rivaled the Owls’ offensive output early on and forced several turnovers, while Dunphy continued to throw out several unique lineup combinations in search of the right blend.

At the 14:22 mark of the first half, freshman guard Juan Fernandez got his first taste of college basketball. The Argentinean found the bottom of the net minutes later on a smooth three-pointer, pushing the Owls’ advantage to five.

On the night, he posted eight points, four assists and three turnovers.

“I was real nervous, actually,” Fernandez said. “[But] it was only just for the first play, then I calmed down a bit. I think the result was pretty good today.”

Fernandez admitted he had trouble sleeping the night before. He was also surprised at the atmosphere in the Liacouras Center.

We don’t have the kind of show that every basketball game has here. No cheerleaders,” Fernandez said.

Kent State managed to keep a leash on Owls’ senior guard and leading scorer Dionte Christmas until late in the first half.

Then, in what has become a recurring theme, Christmas went on a tear, netting eight straight points.

The run helped stretch a 24-23 Owls’ lead to 32-24 heading into the locker room.

The second half brought new life to sophomore forward Lavoy Allen. After a scoreless first half, Allen would end the night with seven points and ten rebounds.

Other than a few brief scoring spurts, the Golden Flashes could not trim the Owls’ lead under a touchdown. The Owls’ defense picked up its game, holding Kent State to just 32.8 percent shooting from the field.

Christmas continued to work, dazzling from beyond the arc and within the paint. He efficiently scored 26 points on 9-18 shooting.

“[Kent State was] looking for Craig [in the second half], and it kind of opened me up in the second half, which was great. If this could continue I think we’re going to have a very successful season,” Christmas said.

The Owls improve to 6-6, while Kent State drops to 7-7. On the year, the Cherry and White are 1-2 against Mid-American Conference opponents, with one final game at Eastern Michigan on Wednesday.

As for Williams? Dunphy will have a hard time sitting the big man, who worked hard all season.

Right now I’d be foolish not to start Craig Williams against Eastern Michigan,” Dunphy said. “I’m guessing everyone would say, ‘He did a real good job, let’s play him again.’”

As Atlantic 10 Conference play rears its head in the coming weeks, the Owls will have to mold their newfound pieces around an already solid core.

Everybody needs to pay attention,” Dunphy said. “And if we’re going to be any good we need everybody to be working as hard as they can.”

Anthony Stipa can be reached at anthony.stipa@temple.edu.