In the Atlantic 10 tournament, the team nobody wants to face once lost six straight games. The team nobody wants to face once was 3-8, and then 6-12.

The team nobody wants to face is Temple.

So you understand.

"They're playing now," says Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli, "to the level everyone always thought they could."

They're playing now like the team that returned four starters, including leading scorer Lynn Greer, from last season's Elite Eight squad. More than that, they're playing now like a team that has graduated successfully from John Chaney Boot Camp -- the Owls' annual purification-by-fire that includes a brutal schedule early and the incessant carping of Chaney often.

After their miserable start, giving them a 3-8 record skewed by losses to Maryland, Duke, Alabama and Florida, the Owls are playing like an NCAA Tournament-caliber team. They have won nine of their last 10 games, including a double-overtime win Sunday at Saint Joseph's and a 67-56 victory Feb. 20 against A-10 regular-season champion Xavier.

That miserable start is a big reason the Owls are soaring right now. But it's also the reason they might need to soar all the way to the A-10 tournament championship to get into the NCAA Tournament. Even with their flourish of a finish, Temple's record is 15-13 -- NIT territory.

"There's no way I could believe they would come around," Chaney said Monday. "There were no signs, no indications at all. They've just begun to play like I expected them to play in the middle of December or the first part of January. But it could be too little, too late, as I see it."

Temple routinely drifts close to the edge of NIT oblivion before surging into the NCAA Tournament -- and then tearing up its half of the bracket. In the past six years, Temple has been a mediocre 31-28 in November and December, then taken off in January and February to reach the NCAA Tournament. Five times they won at least one NCAA tourney game, and twice they reached the Elite Eight. Last season the Owls advanced to the South region final with the same team that once dragged around an unseemly 4-7 record.

"We've scheduled tough games, win or lose," Chaney says. "I always believe if kids are used to being in situations where it's tough -- you play Duke, or you play Kansas -- my God, the kids can't help but grow up or fall down.

"They are playing with a lot of rhythm, getting a feel for each other, knowing where each other is on the floor," adds Chaney, who avoided his first losing year since going 14-15 his first season, in 1982-83. "But I'm still apprehensive."

Not that they need it, but the Owls have the easiest road of the A-10 favorites to the league championship game. For one thing, the tournament is at the First Union Spectrum in Philadelphia. For another, they're in the half of the bracket opposite the league's other two titans, Xavier (22-5) and Saint Joseph's (18-10), who could meet Friday in the semifinals.

With nobody else in the league owning an RPI rating better than Saint Joseph's No. 69, or a win-loss record better than Dayton's 18-9, Xavier could be the league's only NCAA Tournament team if it wins the league championship.

Matta doesn't buy into that theory, but even if he did, he'd go into the A-10 tournament with a selfish heart.

"I'm not going to lie," he says, "I want to win the tournament. But I think, in my opinion, there is more (from the Atlantic 10) than just Xavier that belongs in the NCAA Tournament. If people sat down and looked at who this league has played -- this league will play anybody, anywhere, any time -- I think this league is deserving of more than one team."

Gregg Doyel covers college basketball for The Charlotte Observer and is a regular contributor for ESPN.com. He can be reached at gdoyel@charlotteobserver.com.