Temple lacks talent to compete

Facing the consensus No. 1 team in the country is not an easy task to begin with.

It gets worse when you have to play the Blue Devils in Cameron--not exactly touted as a fun place to play on the road.

Temple had enough to worry about with just those factors, but on top of that it had to play with one hand tied behind its back.

With big man Kevin Lyde out due to injury, and guard David Hawkins ineligible until next semester, the Owls found themselves dipping too far into the reserve pool.

"It's pretty difficult to coach walk-ons," Temple coach John Chaney said. "I've got three kids that are walk-ons, and you just can't coach walk-ons. You treat them nice, they're good people and they're good students. You put them on the team and you scholarship them. But they aren't blue-chip players."

With Temple lacking offensive weapons, the Blue Devils were able to gear their entire defensive attack around the Owls' best player--guard Lynn Greer.

With Chris Duhon and Dahntay Jones swarming over him, Greer, who entered the game averaging 28 points, scored only seven points on twelve shots in the first half.

"We expect to have players double Lynn," Chaney said. "That's going to happen every game until we get a couple of players back. They're going to double him-he's just that good."

"We know [we've got three kids out there that can't put the ball in the hoop]," Chaney said. "We're hoping we get some people back."

On the inside, center Ron Rollerson could not pick up the slack with Lyde out of the lineup, as Duke netted 14 offensive rebounds, and finished with an eight-rebound advantage over the outsized Owls.

"I could say [that I am disappointed] about the last four years," Chaney said. "Rollerson is what he is. I don't have any ideas that he is going to become a great player. When Lyde comes back, Rollerson will be able to come in for a few minutes here and there."

While Temple had problems in almost every aspect of the game, their inability to hang on to the ball enabled Duke to dominate its own half of the floor. The Owls turned the ball over a whopping 17 times. That was particularly surprising as Chaney-coached teams are best known for hanging onto the ball.

"When you play a team and a coach like this, it's very difficult to call time-out and teach your players where they should be and how to protect the ball," Chaney said. "We never come up with turnovers like that when we have our team. But we don't have nine players. We don't have apples for apples. Sometimes we go from an apple to a lemon. That's not good."

The leading victim of the Blue Devils' pressure was freshman point guard Nile Murry. Murry could not get by any of the four Duke guards who covered him during the game.

He had four turnovers and only three assists. More importantly, his inability to generate penetration kept Temple from getting inside and made it far more difficult to get open looks for Greer.

"When you have a freshman running the point, every player on the court is a freshman," Chaney said. "He has the ball 80 percent of the time. He turned the ball over four times, and did it three times on a five-second call because he didn't know to back up."

Extremely pleased with Duke's effort, especially on defense, Krzyzewski acknowledged he expects better things out of Temple than he saw last night.

"They are a really good team," he said. "When they get Lyde and Hawkins back, they're going to be one of the top teams in the country. We got them undermanned."