After missing out on the tournament by the slightest of margins last year, Temple is back in March Madness with a vengeance. Temple had just lost to UConn in the American Athletic Conference tournament semifinal and the fate of the Owls was again unknown, though the case for getting in was much stronger this year.

Bolstered by a tough schedule and the best record in AAC play (14-4) the selection committee gave Temple a nod with the #10 seed in the South region. The match-up they drew is the #7 seed Iowa Hawkeyes.

This will be the first time juniors, sophomores, and freshman get to actually see their school in the real tournament (the NIT is lame and everyone knows it), and the excitement is plastered all over Twitter right now.

Temple’s biggest fan also got on the Twitter hype train:

What makes things even better is the locale that the committee put Temple in for the first round: The Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, NY. This means that a train/bus/car ride is all that separates us fans from the game, so it should feel almost like a home environment in there for the Owls. The game tips off at approximately 3pm this Friday, March 18. If you can’t get to NY, the game will be aired on TruTV, so make sure you don’t miss out on the action.

Another thing to watch out for is the potential second round match-up pitting two Big 5 rivals against each other. If the Owls can get past Iowa, which is no small task, then they would presumably face Villanova in the round of 32.

The Wildcats come into the tournament ranked as the #2 seed in the South, though they may have been a #1 seed if they didn’t blow the Big East Tournament Championship game against Seton Hall. Nova has a history of choking in the tournament, so it’s not a certainty that either team will win their opening round games, though the prospect of a Big 5 match-up right around the corner in Brooklyn would be huge for the city of Philadelphia.

Both Iowa and Villanova are very talented teams (at one point this year Iowa was a top 5 team in the country and Nova was #1), but Temple has a big opportunity to make a lot of noise in this year’s tournament.

@robertwhite2123

@robertwhite2123