Xavier (16-8) Battles Temple (18-5)

Filed under Game Preview on February 10th, 2012

Share this preview

Tweet

or

Musketeers basketball heats up on Saturday as Xavier visits Temple in an A-10 clash. We get started at 9:00 EST and you can see it on ESPN2.

Temple is holding down the 1st spot in the A-10, right above Xavier in 2nd place. Furthermore, Temple is ranked #20 in the RPI and is a tough match for Xavier, which brings a record of 2-5 against Top 50 teams. The Musketeers are 16-8 overall including 7-3 in the A-10. The Owls maintain a record of 18-5 and are a very good 7-2 in the conference.

This one looks like the advantage goes to Temple going in. Temple boasts a 7-1 record at home while Xavier is only 5-4 on the road. Temple has also won seven games straight. This is a difficult thing to stop and we're not sure it happens in this game. Last season, the Musketeers beat the Owls 88-77. Over the last four seasons, Xavier is 2-3 against Temple, including 0-2 at Liacouras Center.

• Kids want to come here. Since 1998 Xavier has recruited more Top 50 high school players than Temple (2 vs 1).
• We just win. Xavier has more wins over the last 5 years than Temple (148 vs 128).
• We have a history of cultivating talent. Over the past 10 years Xavier has had more players drafted by the NBA than Temple (5 vs 2).
• Xavier has a much better overall winning percentage over the last 10 years (0.728 to 0.616).

Get more Temple StatSmack