Nov. 12
Temple opened with losses to Florida and Maryland, two of the preseason top five. The Owls last opened 0-2 in 1988-89.

John Chaney's team should bounce back. Remember, last year the Owls suffered through a seven-game losing streak and still made the Big Dance.

I love the way Temple guard Lynn Greer plays. He is such a fighter and scrapper with a never-say-die attitude. Just look at the way he played at the end of the IKON Classic consolation game against Maryland. He hit shot after shot to keep his team close.

Greer is going to log a lot of minutes. He sat out just 25 minutes all of last season. The Owls really miss his backcourt mate, Quincy Wadley. I was impressed by the outside shooting of Brian Polk. Nile Murry will have to step up and hit shots.

Temple joined a pretty impressive group of teams that left the IKON Classic 0-2: Texas, Georgetown, Duke and Kentucky all left without a win in recent years.

Loving the center-court tap
During the early-season tournaments, a number of experimental rules are being utilized. One I really like is the jump ball at center court on held-ball situations.

Why should a defense be penalized when it makes a great play? If the arrow pointed the wrong way, a great defensive play would be virtually meaningless. I also liked putting the tap at center court.

A perfect example of the rule working came with 14.3 seconds left in the Arizona-Florida championship game at the IKON Classic. Florida guard Brett Nelson was tied up by Arizona forward Luke Walton. If the arrow favored Florida, that would have taken away from Walton's great effort.

That rule makes coaches work harder. They have to work on those jump-ball situations in practice and set up plays.

UConn milestone alert
Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun will go for his 600th career win when the Huskies open Nov. 19 against Vanderbilt.

I really believe Connecticut will emerge as the top team in the Big East, which is wide open this season. I love the potential of Caron Butler and Taliek Brown. Georgetown suffered a loss when Demetrius Hunter decided to leave. Boston College also suffered a blow with Troy Bell's injury (though he isn't expected to miss much of the season).