Despite being in the middle of a six-game losing streak, Temple (14-14, 6-9 American Athletic Conference) has had little issue scoring throughout the 2024-25 season. It boasts the third-best scoring offense in the AAC with 79.6 points per game, good enough for 50th in the country. But one glaring issue has caused the team to slide in the standings.
While the offense has become one of the better units in the country, its defense has floundered for much of the season. The Owls are the worst in the AAC in scoring defense, giving up 78.6 points per contest which places them 326 out of 355 programs in the nation.
The Owls’ defensive woes have especially come into the spotlight during the last month. Temple has given up 90 points three times during its six-game losing streak and has allowed 80 or more points in seven of its last eight games.
“We got to try to eliminate some mental lapses on the defensive end,” said head coach Adam Fisher. “We just got to keep improving and getting better. We’re in February, we’ve hit a little adversity. Nobody is going to feel bad for us. We’ve got to stay together, we’ve got to be better.”
The Owls’ defense has lacked discipline and has committed avoidable fouls that puts the team at a disadvantage. Temple has two players who rank among the top 10 in the conference in fouls with forward Babatunde Durodola ranking fourth with 83 and guard Quante Berry at ninth with 73.
The Owls picked up three fouls in less than four minutes into their 83-82 loss to FAU on Feb. 16. All three fouls came from Durodola and forward Steve Settle III, forcing Fisher to sit his starting forwards early which left the team shorthanded for the remaining 36 minutes of the game.
Forward Elijah Gray and center Mohamed Keita were used as relief players but continued the trend by finishing the afternoon with four fouls each. Keita has the length to be a defensive threat, standing at 7-foot, 1-inch, but has lacked the ability to make consistent stops and Gray recorded a technical foul in back-to-back games.
The Owls committed 26 fouls in the game and 15 of them came from the frontcourt. FAU was trailing by three but connected on seven of its nine free throw attempts in the final two and a half minutes to steal the win. This has been a common theme all season as Durodola and Gray both average three fouls per game and Settle commits 1.6 per contest.
“[Defense] is something we’re trying to get better at to get to where we’re trying to go,” Settle said after the FAU loss. “Finishing out these last few weeks of the regular season, that has to be our main focus.”
The defensive troubles have also spread to the backcourt where Temple has struggled to defend the perimeter effectively. The Owls’ guards have allowed opponents to blow right past them in hopes that someone down low will step up. If no one steps in, then the opponent is either given an open shot or fouled due to a defender trying to play defense too late.
If someone does jump in to guard the driving opponent, not everyone rotates to a new player and someone is wide open to drill a three.
Temple also scrambles getting around screens, further hurting its defense from behind the line. The Owls’ hesitancy in deciding whether to fight through screens oftentimes leaves a three-point shooter all alone by either going under a screen or by both defenders staying with the roller.
Despite defeating Holy Family 110-81 on Dec. 10, the defense left much to be desired for a pay-to-play game. Temple allowed the Division-II school to make 10 of its 20 three-point attempts, with seven coming from the same two players.
Temple’s main source of offense this season has come from guard Jamal Mashburn Jr. The burden of getting the majority of the buckets has limited his efforts to prioritize the defensive end of the floor. This ultimately results in the Owls having to play four versus five — Mashburn’s defensive rating is 117, which is the amount of points he allows per 100 possessions.
Guard Zion Stanford has shown the same issue on the opposite end of the court. Stanford has shown growth with his offensive play by averaging 12 points per game, but he has severely struggled on defense. The sophomore fails to use his 6-foot, 6-inch frame on the perimeter and hesitates when met with contact.
Most of the Owls’ defensive struggles stem from miscommunication. Increased talking would make the Owls’ help defense more effective by not leaving players open, but it has been a season-long issue that they’re still unable to solve.
“It’s really just communication [that stopped the defense from clicking] and just going with what the game has given us,” Mashburn said after Temple’s win against Buffalo on Dec. 29. “It’s been a story for us all year, just communicating on defense, finishing possessions. We just got to continue to get better and every day is a 1% chance to get better.”
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