Temple Men’s Basketball was 40 minutes away from shocking the world last season. After looking like a doormat for much of the 2023-24 season, the Owls went on a tear by winning four of their final six regular season games to close out the year.
They followed it up by getting on the doorstep of an NCAA Tournament appearance by winning four games in as many days in the American Athletic Conference tournament.
After suffering a historic 10-game losing streak, Temple went the furthest it’s gone in the conference tournament since 2010 when they were members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. Caleb Williams, the number one pick in the 2024 NFL Draft was still in grade school and Alice and Wonderland was the number one movie at the box office.
The Owls lost their top three scorers from last season but revamped in a major way. Head coach Adam Fisher brought in New Mexico transfer Jamal Mashburn Jr., Saint Joseph’s transfer Lynn Greer III and former Penn State guard Jameel Brown to fill the gaps.
Temple now enters Fisher’s second season as head coach with higher expectations both internally and from fans. The Owls were picked to finish sixth in the AAC preseason poll after being picked to finish 12th in 2023. Despite the high hopes, it might be time to reconsider how well this team will actually fare.
“I don’t look too much into the preseason rankings,” Fisher said. “I think it’s one of those things that comes out for one day and then you reference it in November. I think we were 12th last year, whatever it may be. All that stuff is great for the preseason. It gives some hype and buzz and people talk about it, but there’s nothing else to talk about.”
Make no mistake, the team has improved since last year, but it’s going to be a work in progress. Fans can’t forget that Temple looked like a team in limbo for most of the season before making a big run that changed fans’ perspective of the season.
Temple entered last season without five of its top six scorers from the 2022-23 season, where guard Hysier Miller was the sole returner. He had the responsibility to be the team’s primary scoring threat and new faces like guard Jordan Riley and forward Steve Settle III were brought in to serve as complementary pieces.
Temple took some time to get the ball rolling as a result of all the changes. Miller and Settle were both acclimating to new roles while Fisher was still getting his feet wet as a head coach. There were still adjustments to deal with and it showed, with Temple finishing nonconference action with a 7-6 record before going on a 10-game losing streak during conference play.
The same problems might affect the new-look team this year. Temple did improve but it will take time to build chemistry between the new faces and returning players. Mashurn Jr. will likely assume Miller’s role as the main scorer but it might take time for him and the rest of the backcourt to gel.
Greer III will also miss the first nine games of the year, including the Big 5 Classic, for a situation that occurred while he was still at St. Joe’s, The Temple News reported.
The suspension also bars Greer III from playing in Temple’s uber-important games against Boston College and Florida State. While his absence isn’t going to crash the season, Temple losing maybe its third-best player isn’t ideal. Guard Shane Dezonie is the most likely option to fill the gap, but his playmaking ability doesn’t match up.
Guard Zion Stanford played a key role during the Owls’ run in March, but was inconsistent for much of the regular season and was almost out of the rotation entirely during conference play.
Temple is still a good basketball team and in better shape than it was heading into last season. Still, Temple fans shouldn’t count their chickens before they hatch. This is still a young team with a young coach and most importantly in the middle of a rebuild.
“We told this year’s team we believe this is team 12” Fisher said. “ It’s our turn to continue this legacy that was built here. Last year’s team is last year’s team. This year’s team is going to get one shot at it. This is our one shot to do this together. What do you want to invest in? How together do we want to be?”
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