Rams Come to Philly for Revenge

After a long week off to recover and regroup, the Temple Owls will return to the floor against the Rhode Island Rams looking to get back on track.

The Owl's Nest will give you an in-depth look at Saturday night's outing for the Temple Men's Basketball team.

#21 Temple Owls vs. Rhode Island Rams
The Liacouras Center (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Television: (TV) - | (RADIO) 1210 WPHT
Tip-off: 4:00 PM

The head to head matchup has Temple merely leading 52-15. Earlier this year, the Owls were able to beat the Rams in overtime at the Thomas M. Ryan Center by a score of 68-64.

Rhode Island Rams

Overall Record: (19-3)(7-2)
2008 Record: (22-9)(11-5)
Last Game: (69-67 loss to Richmond)

Key Losses: (G) Jimmy Baron, (F) Kahiem Seawright
Key Returns: (F) Delroy James, (G) Keith Cothran, (F) Lamonte Ulmer

The Rams have been very successful during their out of conference schedule, going 12-1. The Rams have an impressive wins over Boston College and Oklahoma State. Rhode Island's strength of schedule is ranked the 56 toughest schedule by RealTimeRPI.

Rhode Island's RPI current sits at number 13.

Field Goal Percentage: 46%
3PT Field Goal Percentage: 34%
Free Throw Percentage: 72%

As a team, the Rhode Island averages 78 points per game, and see scoring from nearing everyone on the team that sees efficient playing time.

Here's an idea of Rhode Island's scoring, as we refer to their statistics from their previous game against Richmond:

Delroy James (13 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist)
Keith Cothran (11 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist)
Orion Outerbridge (10 points, 3 rebounds)
Lamonte Ulmer (9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assist)

The Rhode Island Rams have a number of contributors:

The leading scorer of this team is Keith Cothran, who averages nearly 17 points per game. He's the team's main weapon on the stat sheet, but no where near the only one. Earlier this year against the Owls he had the team's second most points. He also achieved the milestone of scoring 1,000 career points.

Right behind him is Delroy James, who scores 14 a game himself. James, at 6'8, is a solid rebounder as well. He was a one man wrecking machine early on in URI's home game against the Owls.

Lamonte Ulmer, however, is the team's leading rebounder, and also the team's third leading scorer. He averages 12 points and 7 rebounds

Rhody''s defense gives up 71 points per game; however, the team does average six blocks and eight steals.

Please be sure to visit the following Rhode Island sites for more on the Rams:

GoRhody.com | Projo.com | Running With The Rams
#21 Temple Owls

Overall Record: (19-5)(7-2)
2008 Record (20-12)(11-5)
Last Game: (71-54 loss to Richmond)

Key Losses: (G) Dionte Christmas, (G) Semaj Inge, (C) Sergio Olmos
Key Returns: (G) Ryan Brooks, (F) Lavoy Allen, (G) Juan Fernandez

Temple has had a tough out of conference schedule leading up to Atlantic 10 Conference play. The Owls have seen the likes of three Big East teams (Villanova, St. John's, and Georgetown), a Big 12 team (Kansas), and teams from the ACC and Big Ten. The Owls have been challenged early on and have been very successful thus far. Temple's Strength of Schedule is currently ranked 39th in the country.

According to RealTimeRPI, Temple's RPI is currently ranked as 11th in the country.

Field Goal Percentage: 42%
3PT Field Goal Percentage: 35%
Free Throw Percentage: 69%

As a team, the Owls average 65 points per outing. This comes from the contributions of several players.

Here's Temple's last top performers in their game against Richmond:

Lavoy Allen (17 points, 19 rebounds, 3 steals)
Ramone Moore (17 points, 1 rebound)
Luis Guzman (7 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists)
Rahlir Jefferson (5 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist)

Temple's leading scorer is Ryan Brooks, who struggled against Fordham. He is both athletic in the scoring column as well as the rebounding stat. Brooks averages 16 points and 5 rebounds. His production has somewhat decreased over the past few games.

Guard Juan Fernandez is the second leading scorer, averaging 14 points and 4 assists. His shooting has improved tremendously and has been a major factor in his success. His play has been limited though in the past several games due to a head injury he suffered against Fordham.

Lavoy Allen is Temple's third leading scorer and top rebounder. Averaging 11 points and 10 rebounds, Allen has been a force to reckon with all year long. Against Fordham, though, he was held scoreless. He has picked up a large amount of the slack that has been left by the absence of Juan Fernandez.

Temple's bench has picked up a large amount of the production when Juan Fernandez went down. Ramone Moore, Rahlir Jefferson, TJ DiLeo, and Scootie Randall have seen increased minutes for the Owls and have taken advantage of the opportunities.

The Owls' defense gives up 58 points per game, which is over 21 points less than Rhode Island's scoring average. Temple averages roughly 5 steals and 3 blocks per game.

Predicted Starting 5

Here's our prediction of Saturday's starting five for the Temple Owls:

(G) Juan Fernandez
(G) Ryan Brooks
(G) Luis Guzman
(F) Lavoy Allen
(C) Micheal Eric

Key Players (TEM): Delroy James and Keith Cothran caused a number of problems for Temple, scoring a combined 41 of their team's 64 points. The Owls will need to manage these two scorers who are accompanied by a slew of talent. Foul trouble plagued Temple against URI earlier this year as well, as they committed 11 more fouls than Rhode Island. Shot selection and consistency are two other keys to victory.

Key Players (URI): Rhode Island allowed strong showings from Lavoy Allen (16 points), Ryan Brooks (16 points), and Juan Fernandez (18 points). The sluggish play of Ryan Brooks and the injury to Juan Fernandez are two keys to Rhode Island coming to Philadelphia and earning the 'W'. Rhode Island will also need to continue to bring the defensive pressure and force Temple into bad decisions.

We'll have more in store for Saturday's meeting with the Rams as we approach gametime!