Freshman guard Rodney Purvis dunks the ball on Jan. 12, 2013 in PNC Arena. The No. 20 Wolfpack defeated the No. 1 ranked and previously undefeated Blue Devils 84-76. Photo by Chris Rupert
N.C. State returns to the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season Friday at 1:40 p.m. in Dayton, Ohio. The eighth-seeded Wolfpack will play the ninth-seeded Temple Owls in a game that will nationally broadcast on TBS, with the winner of this matchup to face the survivor of the game between top-seed Indiana and 16th seed James Madison, who defeated LIU-Brooklyn, 68-55, Wednesday night.
Temple will enter the tournament with a 23-9 record on the season, 11-5 in the Atlantic 10 conference. The Owls earned several marquee victories during the regular season, including wins versus Villanova and Syracuse, while suffering some tough setbacks to high profile opposition, including single-digit losses at Xavier and at St. Joseph’s.
This is the Owls’ 30th overall appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and sixth straight berth for the Owls under the leadership of Philadelphia coaching legend, and native son, Fran Dunphy. Dunphy is in his sixth season at Temple after coaching Penn of the Ivy League for 17 seasons. He also was an assistant for several seasons La Salle before coming to Temple.
Temple is led by senior guard Khalif Wyatt, who averages 19.8 points and 4.1 assists per game. Wyatt is one of three players on the squad to posts double-figure averages in scoring, and he has N.C. State head coach Mark Gottfried’s attention.
“I think they have an elite player, elite level, high level guy in Khalif Wyatt,” Gottfried said Sunday after the NCAA Tournament pairings were announced. “He is a combo, point guard, off-guard. He is a terrific player.”
Senior forward and Philadelphia-native Scootie Randall provides Dunphy’s squad with 11.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per contest. Sophomore forward Anthony Lee also has posted solid numbers, averaging 10 points and seven rebounds in his 30 games played this season.
“They are very well-coached, beating Syracuse and Villanova in the non-conference, they play in a tremendous league with Butler, St. Louis and VCU,” Gottfried added. “[Temple is] a team that is proven and has done it all year long. They have played very well.”
State and Temple have a limited history competing versus each other, with the Pack holding a 6-1 edge in the series.
Most recently, the two schools split two games of a home-and-home during the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons, which were Herb Sendek’s first two teams at N.C. State to reach the NCAA Tournament. Before that, the Wolfpack won back-to-back matchups over Temple during Jim Valvano’s final two seasons in Raleigh (1988-89 and 1989-90) when the Owls were led by John Chaney and featured one its greatest players in school history, Mark Macon.
N.C. State is continuing its return to relevance under Gottfried. The Pack’s second year coach is 48-23 overall in Raleigh and is only the third coach in ACC history to take his first two teams to the NCAA Tournament (along with Bill Guthridge and Roy Williams of North Carolina).
“[N.C. State] has done a phenomenal job of helping to build our program,” Gottfried said. “So I am excited about [the overall record]. I am excited about some of the things we have accomplished here.”
“I am excited about playing,” Gottfried said. “I believe we can play with anybody, and we can beat anybody.”