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Khalif Wyatt and the Temple Owls will tip off their season at noon as part of ESPN's college basketball tip-off marathon, heading to Kent State as they begin a chase for a sixth straight NCAA Tournament bid.
Fran Dunphy's squad loses two players who made four straight tourneys with Temple, as Ramone Moore and Juan Fernandez are graduated. Moore and Fernandez were both great shooting threats that allowed Temple to shoot 39. percent from deep, 11th in the country, while sealing a No. 5 seed in the tournament. Wyatt, the 6-foot-4 senior guard who averaged 17.1 points per game last year, contributed from deep, as did junior guard Aaron Brown, who led the team at 41.5 percent shooting. They'll both be expected to help out in shouldering the scoring load abandoned by the graduated seniors.
The Owls can't overlook the Golden Flashes, who just took down another Philadelphia squad by beating Drexel 66-62 in overtime. Kent State didn't play particularly well, shooting only 35.1 percent from the field and 6-for-22 from deep, but were led by 21 from Chris Evans and 17 from Randal Holt.
Here's the info on the game:
Temple Owls vs. Kent State Golden Flashes, 12 p.m., ESPN