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Game 8: Temple 88, Tennessee 72 - now with audio

Welcome to the Bruce Pearl show.

I've added audio of the postgame press conferences to the bottom of the post.

There's also a bonus track of no small consequence: an interview I did with ESPN bracketologist and St. Joe's radio analyst Joe Lunardi at halftime this afternoon. We talk about the Atlantic 10, the Big East and whether any team in the country can measure up to North Carolina. Be sure to listen to it.

"When you're hot, you're hot," Dionte Christmas said after Temple shocked No. 8 Tennessee, 88-72, this afternoon at the Liacouras Center.

Christmas was certainly that, making seven of 14 three-point attempts and scoring a game-high 35 points. It was not his career high - that was a 37-point performance against Duquesne on March 8th of this year. But given the opponent and the national television audience, it was a performance that folks on North Broad Street will be talking about for quite a while.

"Christmas played about as good as you can play," Owls coach Fran Dunphy said.

Some reporters in the press room even compared Christmas' day to a guy Dunphy knows well - former La salle great Lionel Simmons.

I never saw Simmons in person so I'll let you all debate that, but it's high praise no matter what.

The other game ball goes to Sergio Olmos, whose evolution under Fran Dunphy and assistant coach Shawn Trice took another huge step today. Olmos scored a career high 19 points, grabbed seven rebounds, blocked five shots and dished out three assists.

Also notable: Ryan Brooks' 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Temple's 55.4 percent shooting performance as a team.

As a whole, Temple recorded 71 possessions and scored 1.232 points per possession. Tennessee recorded 72 possessions and scored 0.988 points per possession.

So here's the question: was this Fran Dunphy's biggest win as Temple coach? I'm not sure it's quite as big as the Owls' win over St. Joe's last season in the Atlantic 10 tournament final, because of what was at stake in that game.

But it's up there, even though Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl admitted afterwards that "we're ranked too high right now."

After you read the live blog transcript -- and we had a hell of a time today -- let me know what you think.

And check back later for audio from the postgame press conferences, as well as an interview I did at halftime today with Bracketology guru Joe Lunardi..