DAYTON, Ohio – He had some pretty harsh words -- for himself, for his teammates, for the program. If people were expecting him to put a positive spin on things, to smile and be cheery and do the whole rah-rah bit, Khalif Wyatt wasn’t interested.

Earlier in the week, after the NCAA Selection Committee announced that No. 9 Temple would face No. 8 N.C. State at UD Arena on Friday at 1:40 p.m., someone asked Wyatt about the Owls’ chances and insinuated that the Wolfpack are the favorites. Temple’s senior guard didn’t take umbrage with the implication. Quite the contrary.

“They really shouldn’t respect us,” Wyatt said at the time. “We really haven’t proven anything in March. I can understand why everybody’s choosing N.C. State.”

Wyatt might have been caught at a bad time. While the Owls were expected to make the NCAA field, Temple (23-9) was coming off a disappointing loss to UMass in the Atlantic 10 Tournament. Wyatt -- who led the A-10 in scoring with 19.8 ppg and was named first-team all-conference -- had a lot to do with the defeat. The guard had one of his worst outings of the year, making just four of his 19 shots from the field while missing nine of his 11 attempts from long range.

On Thursday, Wyatt sat at a table in the UD Arena interview room. Though he was a few days and a few hundred miles removed from his critical comment, his position didn’t change.

“We’ve got a little chip on our shoulder this year,” Wyatt said. “We want to prove that we can belong here and that we can make a run in this thing.

“We’ve been here six straight years and we only won one first round game. So the fact that people pick N.C. State is not a surprise, but that’s just added motivation for us and a chance for us to go out there and prove some people wrong.”

The Owls have won seven of their last eight games entering the NCAA tournament. They’re 5-3 this season against other teams in the field. And this is Temple’s 31st appearance in the Big Dance. Those are solid accomplishments. And yet Wyatt has a point.

The Owls are one of only eight teams to compete in the last six consecutive NCAA tournaments. The others are some of college basketball’s best programs: Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Louisville, Marquette, Michigan State and Wisconsin. While that’s impressive company, the Owls, as Wyatt mentioned, haven’t performed nearly as well as those schools over the same span. Temple has just one tournament win under Dunphy.

Temple is 1-6 all-time versus N.C. State, though the Owls won the last meeting back in 2003. The limited history between the two teams isn’t nearly as important as Temple figuring out a way to stop the Wolfpacks’ interior players. Anthony Lee is expected to be available for the Owls, but how many minutes the 6-9 sophomore forward will give Dunphy is still unknown (see story).

That makes an already difficult task more complicated. N.C. State (24-10) has two excellent forwards in 6-9 junior C.J. Leslie and 6-8 senior Richard Howell. Leslie leads the team in scoring with 14.7 points per game, while Howell paced the ACC this year with 10.7 rebounds. As a team, the Wolfpack average the fifth most points in the country (77.5) and boast the fifth-best shooting percentage (49.4).

“We’re going to have to limit the isolations they do for Leslie,” Temple senior Scootie Randall said. “They’ve all got size. So we’re just going to have to be tougher than them and prevent isolations plays.”

N.C. State’s post presence isn’t the only concern for the Owls. The Wolfpack hit 39.3 percent of their shots from three-point range, good for 12th in the nation. That has quite a bit to do with 6-6 senior forward Scott Wood, whom Dunphy called “unique” and “just ridiculous” in his ability to get a shot off from long range. Wood leads N.C. State in three-point attempts (230) and makes (102).

Dunphy also singled out 6-5 junior guard Lorenzo Brown, an excellent defender who also led N.C. State in assists this season. Put it all together and, according to Dunphy, “there’s no one specific area” for the Owls to concentrate on as they prepare for the game.

It is how things go at this time of year. There are no easy teams, no easy games. The Owls know that better than most.

“Two Marches ago, we had a good win against Penn State, and I thought we played very well against San Diego State,” Dunphy said about his team’s recent tournament history. “[We] had our chances to win that game and we lost it in double overtime. Last year, we played well defensively in the first half and just couldn’t score in the second half. I thought South Florida was a very, very good basketball team at that point.

“Are we disappointed that we didn’t do better? Yeah, certainly. I think that’s always the case. We’re thrilled that we’re here. But we have to do better.”