A look ahead

Final exams start in two days, and that means another school year is about to come to a close. Before anyone realizes, though, August will be here, and Temple Athletics will be back on the field/court for another season filled with sports.

Football
The Owls finished the 2008 season with a 5-7 record, their best record since 1990, when they finished 7-4. Yes, it’s really been 18 years since Temple football recorded at least five wins. And for the second consecutive season, the Owls also finished at .500 in the Mid-American Conference at 4-4.

Coach Al Golden and his squad should be capable of repeating that MAC record, just by looking at 2008’s opponents. The Owls recorded victories against Miami (Ohio), Akron and Ohio last season but lost to Kent State, Buffalo and Eastern Michigan. Their two remaining MAC games will come versus teams Temple did not face last year – Toledo and Ball State. The Cardinals went undefeated until a MAC Championship loss to Buffalo.

Non-conference opponents again include road contests at Penn State and Navy, as well as a home matchup with Army. Last season, the Owls lost two of those three games.

That leaves the home and season opener against city rival Villanova Sept. 3 at Lincoln Financial Field. At least if the Owls can’t beat the Wildcats on the basketball court, maybe they’ll be able to defeat a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) team.

Temple lost nine starters to graduation, and all eyes will be on the quarterback battle between redshirt junior Vaughn Charlton and redshirt sophomore Chester Stewart when summer camp breaks.

Men’s Basketball
The Owls’ chances in the upcoming 2009-2010 season hinge less on opponents and more on components.

The Owls will face the typical Atlantic Ten Conference slate, although they get Dayton, Xavier and Massachusetts at home in the Liacouras Center this year. Big 5 rival Villanova, Penn State and Kansas will also travel to North Broad Street.

But the real question is who will take the place of senior guard Dionte Christmas and his 19.5 points per game.

Right now, it looks like it will have to be junior guard Ryan Brooks.

The departures of senior center Sergio Olmos and senior guard Semaj Inge are accounted for with sophomore forward Lavoy Allen and freshman guard Juan Fernandez.

That still leaves two open slots in the starting lineup, though.

Coach Fran Dunphy can choose among junior Luis Guzman, freshmen Scootie Randall and T.J. DiLeo and incoming freshman Khalif Wyatt for the backcourt.

His options in the frontcourt are a little more limited, with only incoming freshman Rahlir Jefferson and the injury-pending return of sophomore Craig Williams and freshman Micheal Eric.

So, it might be a little overly optimistic to expect a third consecutive A-10 Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance with the current question marks. But then again, Dunphy has until November to figure those out.

Women’s Basketball
Coach Tonya Cardoza will have one full season as a coach under her belt, and in the first one, she led a team full of players recruited by former Temple coach Dawn Staley to an NCAA Tournament berth and a regular season upset of then-No. 13 Xavier.

She lost only two seniors, forwards Shenita Landry and Shanea Cotton, to graduation and has already signed four incoming freshmen to National Letters of Intent: forwards Alyssa Bennett and Natasha Thames, point guard Tiffany Davis and center Victoria Macauley.

As a result, there’s really no reason, sans injuries, not to expect the Owls to repeat last season’s performance.

Non-revenue sports
Two fall non-revenue sports reached A-10 postseason play last year.

The field hockey team, which finished 8-12, lost senior defender Mary Catherine Kinneman, senior goalkeeper Erin Hanshue and senior forwards Liz Watto and Jamie Adams but returns otherwise intact. The Owls have made it to five straight A-10 semifinals.

The men’s soccer team also reached the A-10 semifinals, losing, 2-1, to Dayton. Junior forward J.T. Noone will lead the Owls next year, as he scored seven goals and assisted on 12 more. Only two seniors won’t return to the team, which ended the season 10-5-4 overall.

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

Owls end Xavier’s perfect conference record with upset

The women’s basketball team hasn’t lost a home conference game in over three years. Xavier hasn’t lost an Atlantic Ten Conference game this season.

Something had to give.

The Owls didn’t budge as they defended their home court by upsetting Xavier 74-65 Wednesday night at the Liacouras Center.

“It was big because it keeps us alive,” first-year coach Tonya Cardoza said of her team’s upset of the No. 13 Musketeers. “We knew our backs were up against the wall. I think we put ourselves in a good position for post-season play.”

While the Owls are looking forward to playing in March, it was a bittersweet win for the Owls as two of their seniors played their last games on their home court.

It was Senior Night for forwards Shenita Landry and Shanea Cotton. Landry leads the team in scoring and rebounding while also ranking 30th in the nation in rebounding. Cotton leads the team in blocks this season.

“I don’t know if I could tell my teammates thank you enough,” Cotton, who is in her second season for the Owls, said.

Temple (19-8, 10-3 A-10) came out firing in the first half as they hit six three-pointers, shooting 50 percent behind the arc. The Musketeers made only three from behind the line and the Owls went to the locker room with a 14 point lead and upset on their minds.

Xavier (24-5, 12-1 A-10) showed why they were undefeated in the conference by not going away easily. The Musketeers opened the second half with a 13-4 run, cutting the Owls lead to five.

With the game still up in the air, sophomore guard Lindsay Kimmel took over. The reserve player hit a three-pointer to put the Owls up by 12 with under ten minutes to go. Xavier cut the lead in half with 7:30 to play but it was Kimmel who again had the answer. She responded with another three-pointer to put Temple up by nine, and for good.

“They were focusing on the big guys so that left an opening for me,” said Kimmel who hit all three of her three-point attempts finishing with 9 points.

The win marks the Owls 21st straight home A-10 victory. Temple hasn’t lost a home conference game since falling to George Washington three years and a day ago. The crowd of 746 erupted in celebration as the clock struck zero and stormed the court.

“The court and home advantage is really important,” said Landry who finished with 14 points.

Landry wasn’t on the court for the final horn as she fouled out with less than four minutes remaining but she’ll gladly cheer on her teammates if it means a win.

“It really bothered me but everyone else held it together,” she said.

Landry is talking about the bench including Kimmel and junior forward Jasmine Stone who added 7 points. Sophomore guard Qwedia Wallace played 28 minutes off the bench and scored 18 points with 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.

“I thought our bench did a great job,” Cardoza said. “It’s good for them to be in this type of game.”

The Owls will be in another one of these battles Sunday afternoon when they wrap up regular season play against rival George Washington. Charlotte, who is ranked second in the conference, defeated the Colonials tonight 59-57.

That win now moves Temple into sole possession of third place in the A-10.

“It’s a definitely a game we have to win,” Cardoza said of Sunday’s contest. “I think we know that. It’s a must-win game if we want to go to post-season play.”

Pete Dorchak can be reached at pete.dorchak@temple.edu.

Owls swoop past the Hawks again

For a while there, it looked like the women’s basketball team might repeat what happened to the men’s team on Thursday versus Saint Joseph’s: blow a big lead by failing to make free-throws.

In the end, though, the Owls won easily, defeating the Hawks, 60-48, despite letting St. Joe’s close the gap to within three points at halftime, 28-25, after holding an 11-point lead in the first half. Twice, the Hawks (11-14 overall, 3-7 A-10) climbed to within one point, and coming out of the locker room, they even tied it at 28. But the Owls (16-8 overall, 7-3 A-10) immediately went on a 26-6 run to put the game out of reach.

Of course, that score would have been even larger had the team connected on more than 53 percent of its foul shots.

“That’s just a lack of concentration on our part, to be honest with you,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “That wasn’t a blowout finish to me. The fact that we were up by 20 with about two minutes to go. We made the game look more respectable than it should have in the second half. That’s something we need to get better at – closing games out, blowing teams out when you can.”

Neither team’s leading scorer made much of an impact on the floor, as both Owls senior forward Shenita Landry and Hawks junior forward Brittany Ford spent more than half of the first half on the bench with two fouls. St. Joe’s coach Cindy Griffin waited until five minutes into the second half to put Ford back in the game, but she quickly picked up her third foul a minute later. Ford finished with four points, nine points below her season average.

“When we’re in sync and all five guys are paying attention on the floor and talking and communicating and trying to limit people and doing what they’re good at, like we know that Brittany Ford likes to get the ball in up and under, if we just stay on our feet and make it hard for her to catch the ball, [we’re fine],” Cardoza said. “Just knowing what the game plan is and sticking to it.”

In Landry’s absence, senior forward Shanea Cotton, the team’s third-leading scorer, picked up the slack, leading all players with 19 points, 10 of which came in the first half. She was the only player to score in double-digits on either team during those first 20 minutes.

“In practice, we talked about how we really have to bang the ball inside the post,” Cotton said. “And usually when Coach says, ‘Ball in the post,’ it means the ball is coming to me. So, I expected to play well, and I knew I could do that.”

Of course, it didn’t hurt that the performance came against rival St. Joe’s.

“I think the biggest thing in watching film, Shanea, the first time we played St. Joe’s, she missed a couple of easy shots, and she was down on herself and wanted to redeem herself,” Cardoza said.

With today’s victory, the Owls redeemed themselves after losing 71-60 to Massachusetts, the No.11 team in the Atlantic Ten Conference, on Wednesday.

Now, Temple will head to Charlotte this Wednesday for a match up with the No. 2 team in the A-10.

“It’s in our hands,” Cardoza said. “We’re playing against four of the best teams in the A-10. We lost some games we probably shouldn’t have lost, and we have our backs up against the wall, but we control our own destiny. If we take care of business, we should be fine. We got Xavier, Richmond, Charlotte and GW – four really good teams.”

Game Notes: Today’s game was part of the WBCA’s Pink Zone initiative, with both teams wearing pink to support breast cancer research and the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund…Double fouls were called on St. Joe’s senior guard Mary Kate McDade and Temple senior forward Shenita Landry at the 5:09 mark in the second half after the two tumbled to the court fighting for a loose ball. Landry had to be held back by junior forward Jasmine Stone…The Hawks have now lost seven games in a row to the Owls and 12 of the last 13 meetings, including a 58-53 loss back on Jan.11.

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

Midseason makeovers underway

While the rest of Temple’s 34,000-plus student body got a month off for winter break, the women’s basketball team was busy playing seven games.

And while the team went 5-2, including 4-2 on a six-game road trip, its lineup suffered some bad breaks along the way.

Junior guard Kristie Watkins-Day hasn’t seen game action since the Dec. 10 contest against Toledo, and backup point guard BJ Williams was on crutches before Wednesday’s game versus Rhode Island.
That brings the lineup rotation down to only nine players.

But luckily for the Owls, the team’s role players have picked up their games at the right time.

“A lot of teams are focusing in on Shenita [Landry] and Shanea [Cotton] now and looking to double team them because they know that’s a big part of our offense,” coach Tonya Cardoza said, “but I thought all those guys, Kristen [McCarthy], Lindsay [Kimmel] and Keisha [Eaddy] have been doing a really good job of making themselves available and knocking down open shots. Once you’re knocking down open shots, it’s going to be hard to guard us.”

Senior forwards Landry and Cotton continue to pace the offense, with Landry averaging 13 points per game to go along with Cotton’s 12.7. Earlier in the season, the two accounted for just about 40 percent of the offense. During the past seven games, however, it’s been sophomore guards Shaqwedia Wallace, Kimmel and freshman forward McCarthy who’ve picked up the slack.

In her first game back following a thumb injury, Wallace dropped 26 points in a 65-56 loss to Villanova Dec. 20. She’s also taken over the backup point guard duties while Williams is out.

Kimmel got out of her early season funk by hitting six 3-pointers versus Tulane in a 75-71 overtime win on Dec. 28. She followed up that performance with a career-high 22 points against Rhode Island on Wednesday.

“It’s about time [I did that],” Kimmel said. “I think it’s just being more consistent and following through into the game. Like Coach said, being more focused on the actual shot itself. The first few games my head wasn’t where it needed to be, but it’s A-10 now, and I’m getting focused.”

McCarthy has added 9.3 points per game and 5.5 rebounds since entering the starting lineup on Jan. 2 against Penn. She had her first career double-double on Wednesday.

“One of the biggest things we need to do, and we told Shenita and Shanea this, is that they need to try and get double-doubles,” Cardoza said. “And Kristen’s seen when Shanea isn’t able to get some rebounds or do something, and she’s gotten herself in there.”

All five starters scored in double figures in Wednesday’s Atlantic Ten home opener. Four players currently average double digits. The Owls will need that kind of scoring balance going forward in the A-10 with their lack of depth on the bench.

“We don’t want anybody to get that [title] over us,” Kimmel said. “We feel that it belongs to us, and we need to get it back. We’re still hungry because we’ve had so many close games.”

Those close games haven’t just come because of the role players’ abilities to step up on the offensive side of the ball. They’ve also picked up their defensive presence in their teammates’ absences, as opponents have averaged only 66.7 points per game during the seven-game stretch over break. That number is slightly skewed because of Temple’s 87-52 loss to No. 5 Duke on Jan. 5.

“A lot of teams have been scoring on us, and it’s more so that we’ve just allowed people to come right at us,” Cardoza said. “We needed to get back to what we were doing early on in the season, being aggressive and getting up in people’s faces and denying passes.”

If the role players can continue their progression, the women could be playing straight through another break: spring break.

“This time [of year] really sets you up for the [NCAA] Tournament,” Landry said. “And that’s our goal.”

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

Owls have liftoff

Defense and rebounding.

They’re like defense and pitching in baseball.

They’ll always keep the team in the game.

And that was the case for the women’s basketball team tonight, as it beat Toledo 73-46.

“We just wanted to be aggressive [on defense],” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “We weren’t happy with how we performed in the Florida State game and letting somebody else come into our building and dictate how we play.”

The Owls (5-3) used that aggressiveness, forcing 18 Toledo turnovers and stealing seven balls. The Rockets (3-6) didn’t make a 3-pointer until a little over four minutes were left in the game, but it didn’t matter because on multiple trips down the court, they weren’t even able to get up a shot before the shot clock fell under 10 seconds.

But the real key to the victory was Temple’s strength inside, which was largely absent versus the Seminoles on Sunday.

The Owls outrebounded the Rockets 56-21, with senior forward Shenita Landry leading the way with 12 of them. She also chipped in 13 points after having her first non-double-digit scoring game of the season on Sunday.

“I think the key was just not fouling as much,” Landry said. “But I know I came out after a low from last game, and I came out with more energy and more leadership.”

And not to be outdone was fellow senior forward Shanea Cotton, who dominated the paint, scoring a new career-high 23 points to lead the game.

“I didn’t even know it was another career high,” Cotton said.

“Don’t let her fool you,” Cardoza added. “Yes, she did know it.”

After leading 31-21 at halftime, the Owls built their lead to as large as 29 points in the second half at 60-31 and 73-44 thanks to 21 second-chance points and two long runs of 9-0 and 10-0.

But it wasn’t all smiles after the game for Cardoza, as the Owls’ 23 turnovers continued to loom large. They average 17.9 a game.

“It’s a recurring problem,” Cardoza said. “It’s not even what the other team is doing to us. It’s what we’re doing to ourselves. So many unforced turnovers. We have to be more aware. We don’t really have to force the issue. Our guard play and the turnovers have got to be corrected.”

The Owls will have 10 days to work on those problems, as they don’t return to action until Dec. 20 at Villanova. It will be the first Big 5 game of the season and Cardoza’s first ever, although she has seen the Wildcats numerous times before during her 14 years at Connecticut.

“I hate to play Villanova,” Cardoza said. “I think everyone does with Harry’s offense and the way they run around out there.”

Now finished its five-game homestand, Temple will embark on a six-game road trip, returning to the Liacouras Center on Jan. 14 to face Rhode Island in the Atlantic Ten Conference home opener.

Game Notes:

The game featured a match-up of two first-year coaches in Cardoza and Toledo’s Tricia Cullop…The Rockets record dropped to 0-5 on the road…No Toledo player scored in double figures in the first half…This was only the second time the two teams have met. The last time out, on Nov. 26, 2006, Temple won 61-51. The Owls will play four Mid-American Conference teams this season.

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

A fresh coating in the paint

Staying strong on the inside – it’s a tactic the women’s basketball team has relied on heavily so far this season.

Senior forwards Shanea Cotton and Shenita Landry account for just about 40 percent of the Owls’ offense, averaging 25 points per game combined. Cotton leads the team in scoring, averaging 12.9 points per game. Landry is right behind her at 12.1.

“I feel as though in order for our team to be successful, I’m going to have to average double figures,” Cotton said. “I can’t continue to be just in the background. I have to step up and become more aggressive. So that’s my mindset now. If I don’t average double figures, I feel like if we lose it’s my fault.”

For Cotton, all the attention from opposing defenses is rather new.

Last year, she averaged only 6.3 points per game, starting slightly more than half of Temple’s games after transferring from Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Fla.

This year, she’s frequently seen double teams, especially with the way she’s picked up her game versus nationally ranked opponents, scoring 17 points against then-No. 21 Auburn and a career-high 18 against then-No. 15 Rutgers last Monday. Dartmouth even threw a triple team in her direction last Wednesday.

“I like to compete against top-ranked post players, and I feel as though if I can do it against top-ranked post players, then I should be able to do it against anybody,” Cotton said. “I get yelled at a lot because I don’t recognize the double team or triple team at first, but once I slow down and get composed, I can figure it out.”

And it’s to be expected that Cotton is still learning out there on the court. After all, she only started playing organized basketball in ninth grade.

“I had a 4-inch growth spurt my eighth-grade summer. I was a cheerleader before basketball,” Cotton said. “I had never played before, and I tried out, and I made it. I’ve stuck with it since then.”

Landry, on the other hand, might as well have been born with a basketball in her hands.

Her older brother, Carl, played power forward at Purdue University and earned All-Big Ten Conference honors his senior season. He’s now in his second year in the NBA with the Houston Rockets.

Another brother, Marcus, a senior forward at the University of Wisconsin, is the Badgers’ second leading scorer. His wife, Efueko Osagie-Landry, played basketball at Marquette University until she graduated in 2006.

“Basketball runs in my family,” Landry said. “Everybody plays basketball. One through five — my sister, my mom and my three brothers, but my mom taught us how to play. Many people don’t know that, but she’s the one who actually taught us how to play. She played in high school and got in a real bad accident when she was 21, and she really can’t play anymore, but she tells us she can beat us all, no matter who we are.”

That lengthy experience, along with Landry’s levelheadedness and composure on the court, led coach Tonya Cardoza to name her a captain before the season.

“I love Shenita’s leadership,” Cardoza said. “You know, sometimes it’s hard for a post player to be a leader and to get everybody together out there, but I think she’s been able to do it, and her teammates gravitate toward her. She’s just the hardest worker. She’ll go through a wall for you.”

Both Cotton and Landry will have to be hard workers as the new focal points of the Owls’ offense.

“Any challenge is good,” Landry said. “[It means] you’re somebody.”

But they aren’t just anybody to Cardoza.

“First-team All-A-10, that’s what I think they’re both capable of doing.”

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

As easy as it gets

Well that was quite a follow-up statement to the Rutgers game, now wasn’t it?

The women’s basketball team beat Dartmouth (1-5) tonight 65-29, holding the Big Green to only 11 points after halftime.

The 36-point win is Temple’s (4-2) largest since it beat Kent State 74-34 last December.

The Owls came out of the gate slowly, though, falling behind 10-4 early on before promptly going on a 23-0 run. They led 36-18 going into the second half.

“We talked about that, we talked about trying to put that game [versus Rutgers] behind us,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “And the only way we’d really be able to put that behind us was if we came out here and played well for 40 minutes. I think the adrenaline was probably going, and they might’ve had a little bit of thoughts about it, but once they were able to get things going, everything went out the door. It was just hard to get it started.”

That 18-point halftime lead swelled to 44-18 before Dartmouth scored its first points of the second half at 14:05.

At that point, Cardoza began resting some of her starters and used her bench players. Freshman forward Kristen McCarthy and freshman guard BJ Williams both saw more than 20 minutes of action a piece, and little-used junior guard Ranecia Fields and sophomore forward Danielle Brinkley both checked in at the end of the game.

“Anytime you can get those guys more minutes, it’s just going to help, especially with BJ [Williams] with Keisha [Eaddy] really being the only point guard,” Cardoza said. “Getting BJ minutes tonight was really important. I wanted to get her into the Rutgers game but never really felt comfortable, and I apologized to her. I told her I was going to look to get her more minutes from here on out.”

Williams’ play may have been Cardoza’s focus during the game, but it was sophomore guard Shaqwedia Wallace who stole the show. She led both teams in scoring with 18 and shot four of six from 3-point range. The team as a whole knocked down six of its 18 3-point attempts, an improvement from the 27 it took Monday night.

“I think for the most part, yeah, I am happy [about the outside shooting in this game], but we could always get better at it,” Cardoza said. “Six for 18, that’s still not a good percentage, but at least it wasn’t 27 jack-ups. Those guys, Shenita and Shanea, were able to shoot 22 shots. That’s something we need to continue to do. They need to get double-figure shots every single night. When they get collapsed, they need to be able to kick it out and find the open guy.”

Senior forwards Cotton and Landry both scored in double-figures again, as they’ve done in every game thus far this season.

They’ll look to continue that trend when Temple faces Florida State Sunday afternoon. The Seminoles came into the season ranked No. 21 and currently sit at 7-2. It will be the fourth game of the Owls’ five-game homestand.

“It’s another opportunity to play another team that’s really good and to see where we stand against top competition,” Cardoza said.

Game Notes:

Junior point guard LaKeisha Eaddy played only 10 minutes in the game. Cardoza said after the game that Eaddy was on crutches following the Rutgers game because of a groin injury. Cardoza said she limited her playing time because of that and because Eaddy was sick yesterday…Cotton came out early in the first half to ice her left hand. She played 22 minutes overall…This was the first meeting between Dartmouth and Temple since the Owls won 76-65 on Jan. 29, 1983…University of Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma is rumored to be looking to do a home-and-home with the Owls in the future.

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

Temple Athletics: 10 reasons why you should care about your Owls

For the incoming freshmen and transfer students, we’ve got you covered when it comes to Temple athletics.

The beginning of the semester can be stressful as you move-in into residence halls, attend classes and get acclimated to the campus and its surroundings. We here at The Temple News are going to take some pressure off your transition by introducing you to Temple athletics with a top ten list that would make David Letterman proud.

1. “Return to Glory”
It’s a very exciting time for the men’s basketball program. Last season, the men earned their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2000-01 by beating city rival Saint Joseph’s University in the Atlantic Ten Conference Championship. They finished second in the A-10 regular season standings and will return all but one starter to the team this season. Expectations are high for Coach Fran Dunphy’s squad in 2008.

2. “Flying high”
The times when the football program was the butt of everyone’s jokes are over. Third-year coach Al Golden and company look to improve on a 4-8 record as they return all but one starter from last season. Watch out for the Owls defense, which continues to improve after leading the nation in redzone defense, and ranking 14th in third-down defense and 44th overall in total defense. A Mid-American Conference title is within reach.

3. “We want revenge”
You might see some students around campus wearing a white T-shirt that says “JUSTICE!” Don’t ask the meaning because it’s a touchy subject for all Owls fans. Last September 15th, Temple trailed 22-17 with a 4th-and-6 in University of Connecticut’s redzone. Senior quarterback Adam DiMichele handed the ball off to junior running back Jason Harper on a reverse, who then handed off to junior wide receiver Dy’Onne Crudup. Under pressure, Crudup tossed it into the back of the endzone, intending it for DiMichele. The ball was tipped and senior wide receiver Bruce Francis looked to catch it with a foot in bounds. The pass was originally ruled incomplete and then, after a review, the play stood. The two teams meet on Sept. 6 at Lincoln Financial Field.

4. “Quietly dominating”
It might not get the publicity of other sports, but the lacrosse team was arguably the most impressive program last season. With a 13-7 record and an A-10 regular seashhon title, the Owls earned a birth in the NCAA Tournament. Despite falling to Maryland in the first round, the Owls posted a successful season led by then-seniors Nicole Caniglia, Berkley Summerlin and Whitney Richards.

5. “Extreme Makeover: Women’s Basketball Edition”
There will be a whole new look for the program after the departure of esteemed coach Dawn Staley. Former Connecticut assistant Tonya Cardoza will replace the local legend, who spent eight years on North Broad Street. Also leaving is center Lady Comfort and guard Ashley Morris, two key members of a team that went to the NCAA Tournament last season. Look for junior guard LaKeisha Eaddy and senior center Shanea Cotton to take over as the leaders of the team as the Owls head into the 2008-09 season.

6. “Big Man on Campus”
Senior guard Dionte Christmas from the men’s basketball team is trying to improve on a season where he led the team in scoring at 19.7 points per game. He is a threat to score from
behind the three-point line and the clear go-to guy after the departure of senior guard Mark Tyndale. Another strong year for Christmas could mean a chance to get drafted into the NBA.

7. “Throwing Stones”
Senior Amanda Cole broke her own school record in the indoor weight throw with a distance of 52-2 ½ feet and also holds the school record for the outdoor hammer throw. Watch out this year as Cole tries to improve on her record.

8. “Who’s the best Hooter?”
Graduates Richie Blyweiss and Erik Johnson are leaving behind the suit meaning that a new Hooter, the university’s official mascot, will be kicking off the 2008-09 athletic season. The mascot will be at the football and basketball games entertaining the crowd. Keep your eye out for when Hooter leads the band.

9. “Ambler Annex”
While walking around campus, you might wonder why you don’t see a baseball or soccer field around. To find them, you have to head to the Ambler Campus in the suburbs of Philadelphia. It’s a distance away but transportation is provided and it’s worth the trip.

10. “Show us what you got”
So you were a pretty big deal in high school? Well, let’s see if you still have it. Start off by joining an intramural team. There is no shortage of choices including flag football, soccer, softball, floor hockey and basketball.

Pete Dorchak can be reached at pdorchak@temple.edu