Temple would like nothing better than for Christmas to emulate Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat, who dropped a neat 48 points on the Chicago Bulls on March 9, ending that performance when he stole the ball from John Salmons and drained a game-winning three-pointer at the end of overtime.
Even for Wade, it wasn't a bad night, and he jumped up on the table - right in front of Heat owner Micky Arison - and screamed to the crowd, "This is my house. This is my house." Arison, who could have, didn't argue the point.
Eight NCAA teams will be in the house today, any of which would love to claim ownership of the place for the weekend. Judging by the seedings, No. 11 Temple has only an outside shot to be the surviving pea from the South Regional pod, one of two teams that will leave tree-lined Biscayne Boulevard with their destiny still in their palms.
But with Christmas on the court, that's exactly what the Owls have - an outside shot.
This is the time of year when teams need defense, and they need luck, and they need all the statistical biorhythms to reach a peak for the NCAA tournament. They also need the guy who can lower the odds against you just by rising off the floor.
Christmas is that type of player. He is streaky and has suffered through bad games recently, but his shot is silkily pure, and he doesn't need much of an opening to launch it.
If Temple is to make any noise in the tournament - which would mean winning twice as an underdog here - it will be Christmas who starts and finishes the racket. Perhaps it isn't likely he will end up on the courtside table Sunday afternoon, claiming some floor space in Wade's house, but at least he knows how it's done.
"He's amazing to watch on tape," said Herb Sendek, coach of sixth-seeded Arizona State, Temple's first-round opponent. "He makes shots that, quite frankly, seem indefensible. Defenders are draped on him, hand up, nose-to-nose, and somehow he creates a little bit of space and the ball is up and in."
