UAB won the last meeting by 28 points on the road. Since that game, the Owls have won seven straight and will be playing their fifth game in five days. Temple has nothing to lose and are playing their best basketball at the right time. The Blazers have the rebounding edge, but Temple’s defense has really improved, holding their opponents to 62.3 points per game and defending the three well. Their offense is also shooting 41.3% from beyond the arc. The Owls protect the ball on offense and if NC State can win five games in five days, why not them.

OK, let's try this again after missing twice picking against Temple. Before their storybook run, the Owls' last loss was to UAB. It wasn't a routine defeat, either, with the Blazers hitting triple digits in a 28-point smashing. Enduring its fifth game in five days at this tournament, Temple deals with tired legs, which could allow UAB to flirt with 100 again. Three Owls logged between 34 and 37 minutes Saturday. The Blazers are relatively refreshed in facing only their third game of the AAC. N.C. State's similar run to the ACC title, with five wins in as many days, offers a cautionary tale. Can't happen twice, right?

Charging from nowhere, Temple is one step from one of the more-unlikely Big Dance invitations in recent memory. This recent surge for new HC Adam Fisher has the Owls on the brink after Saturday's rouser past FAU, a seventh win in nine for John Chaney's old team. One of the two loses in that stretch, however, was a 100-72 blowout loss, at home, no less, vs. ascending UAB, which put five players in double figures less than two weeks ago in Philly. The Blazers have taken care of Wichita and tourney top seed USF with dispatch the past two days in Fort Worth, and featuring five double-digit scorers in the win over the Bulls. Play UAB (American at Fort Worth)