Thanksgiving is for football? Nope. Thanksgiving is now for Temple Basketball erasing 18-point deficits. Who did they do it against, though? Probably Penn or La Salle or something. No? It was 25th-ranked Florida State? And Florida State is currently ranked 36th on KenPom?

Is this the same team that lost to New Hampshire? Well even bad teams get lucky sometimes – they probably won’t keep it up. Especially for a team playing with mostly a 7-man rotation playing on back-to-back days.

Yup – that’s a real image. I didn’t have to photoshop a picture of Mark Williams holding a trophy in a Temple uniform. Temple beat 19th-ranked West Virginia 81-77 on Friday, and in the process, won the NIT Tip-Off Championship.

Does this tournament ACTUALLY mean anything? Not really, but those 2 wins over ranked opponents sure do. The Mountaineers are currently ranked 18th on KenPom. Between these two wins, Temple now has 2 potential resume building wins that were played on a neutral court. The value of that may be worth more than that trophy Mark is holding when it comes time for Selection Sunday.

This picture is also not fake. Temple is now back-to-back AAC East Division Champions. After losing the season opener at home to Army, the possibility of this picture ever existing was pretty low. When Temple was down by 5 at Central Florida with 32 seconds and 70 yards to go, the possibility seemed slim to none. A couple of Ventell Bryant catches, a Keith Kirkwood jump ball with 1 second left, and 6 wins later, the Owls are heading to Annapolis next Saturday to play Navy for the outside shot at a New Years Six Bowl (Go Ohio!).

How did this happen? After the loss to Army, the thought was, “If they can get to 6 wins and be bowl eligible for a 3rd straight year, that would be a successful year for the program.” Now? This Owls team has the chance to become the most successful Temple Football team ever. A second straight 10-win season would be big. An American Championship would be huge. A Bowl win over a Power 5 school would be enormous. A New Years Six Bowl win is almost unfathomable – (Rematch against Penn State, anyone? Go Ohio!).

The Owls went out and won in classic Matt Rhule fashion on Saturday. They consistently beat East Carolina off the ball and pounded them with a heavy dosage of the 5-God and Ryquell Armstead. They dominated on the defensive side of the ball, and left the Linc with a 37-10 win and another prize for the trophy case.

Last year was great. Beat Penn State. 7-0 start. Hosted College Gameday on Halloween. Won the AAC East Division. This year – minus Matakevich, Ioannidis, Tavon Young, and Robby Anderson – has the potential to be even greater. Temple heads down I-95 to face Navy in Annapolis this Saturday at Noon. Expect there to be a respectable Temple following there, and maybe expect this team to keep exceeding expectations.