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Posted at 2:15 PM EST.

7:00 PM EST. The Bulldogs were a sexy pick last season after they stormed out of the gate winning 11 of their first 14 games including notable victories over St. Mary's, Marquette, Georgia Tech and these Owls, while also hanging around in a 66-61 loss at Kentucky in a New Year's Eve game that had Georgia eager to turn over the calendar and continue its stellar end to 2017 in 2018. Instead, the wheels came off the wagon and the Bulldogs won just five more games the rest of the season. That caused the program to fire Mark Fox after nine seasons as head coach. Tom Crean comes over after a decade at Indiana and any thought about how long it would take Georgia to adapt to his system was squashed in a very nice showing in a 110-76 win over Savannah State. The Dawgs shot over 57% from the field, while also hitting 40% of their threes with 14 different players picking up baskets. Sophomores Teshaun Hightower and Nicolas Claxton thrived under their new bench boss, as the former led the way with 18 points while the latter dropped 15 and added 13 boards, which is quite a step up over 3.9 Claxton averaged as a freshman under Fox. Claxton also added five blocks, which makes for a very nice night on the stat sheet and he looks like he could be a handful on both ends of the floor. The absence of Yante Maten left a big hole, but the Dawgs have a number of talented players that should be chomping at the bit to fill the void. Many have predicted the Bulldogs will be near the bottom of the SEC standings, but last seasons flame out is carrying too much weight. Crean brings a much needed new coat of paint and his Dawgs could be much better than advertised.

Temple played one of the most brutal schedules in Division I hoops last season, but Fran Dunphy and his team paid dearly, as the Owls finished below .500 and nowhere near the NCAA Tournament. Temple still got a postseason invitation to the NIT because of its outstanding RPI, but the gamble to play a tougher schedule than it needed to did not pay off there either, as the Owls went out in the first round. The storyline driving the Owls here in 2018-19 is that this will be Dunphy 's swan song after 13 years at Temple and 18 years at Penn before that. Dunphy is Philadelphia Big 5 royalty and the narrative that he could go out with his 17th NCAA Tournament appearance this season is captivating, but the reality is, the Owls are ill equipped to make such a run, as they still appear to be just as inconsistent this season as last. They are also going to live and die with the play of Shizz Alston Jr., who has had many ups and downs. The downside has been his shooting the last two seasons, which has him scoring at just a 40% clip. In game one against La Salle, Alston Jr. was just 3-of-13, but Temple still got the W. When the Owls took a step down to play Detroit Mercy in game two, he had a huge night dropping 30 points in a 16-point victory. Alston Jr. and therefore the Owls are precisely what we are looking for when we talk about selling high. It would be no shock if it were crickets here from Alston Jr. and the Owls with a big opportunity to knock off a Power Five foe on their home court.

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