Temple

[Queens_NYC]

Tuesday, January 25th, 2022
7:00 PM
Liacouras Center
ESPNU

Temple (10-6, 3-2 AAC, NET #126, KenPom #125) has gone nearly two weeks without playing after they had back-to-back Covid postponements against Wichita St and USF. Like the Bearcats, they are currently sitting on a 3-game winning streak - with each win (@UCF, ECU, @Tulsa) coming by 5 points or less.

The Owls are looking to obtain their first winning season under 3rd-year head coach and alum Aaron McKie. They'll have to snap a 9-game losing streak against UC to get one step closer to that feat as the Owls have not beaten the Bearcats since January 2016.

The Owls will get a boost with 6'2 guard Tai Strickland returning to the line-up after he missed 6 games with a back injury. Temple's best player, 6'5 guard Khalif Battle, is out for the season due to a foot injury suffered in early December.

The Owls have made 59% of their 2-point shots during their last 3 games and unsurprisingly lead the league in 2-point FG% during AAC play. On the contrary, they are one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the league. They're shooting just under 27% through 5 AAC games and just below 30% as a team for the entire season.

They have been one of the best teams in the nation at drawing fouls and getting to the line where they shoot a pedestrian 70%. They have the second-lowest Adjusted Tempo of any team in the league where they currently rank 302nd in the nation.

The Bearcats are 3.5 point favorites on the road.

 

[sedziobs]

Temple is a tough team to scout with all of the injuries. Only five players have seen the floor in every game this season, and four of them are freshmen (3yrs eligibility remaining - some are in their second year). Overall they are a very young team featuring no seniors and two juniors who don't play a lot. The two lineup mainstays are freshmen Damian Dunn and Jeremiah Williams.

Dunn has the highest usage rate on the team, and most of that is scoring since he has average assist and turnover rates. He takes a lot of shots inside the arc but isn't very efficient at 43%. Dunn gets to the free throw line 5 times per game where he converts 85% (19-22 over the last 2 games), and he also shoots 35% from three. He put up a very efficient 33 pts on only 16 shots against ECU.

Williams also takes a lot of 2s but he's more efficient at 49%. He has been terrible from three though, shooting a miserable 16%. His biggest strength is distributing the ball (32 assist rate).

Overall, Temple is a poor shooting team that gets to the line and grabs offensive rebounds. On defense they defend the paint and block shots despite being undersized, but they don't create turnovers or grab defensive rebounds. They give up a lot of assists, which could be due to inexperienced players missing assignments. I think the keys to the game will be rebounding, ball movement, and defending Dunn without fouling.

 

[waterhead]

Sounds like we will be at full strength tonight which is great news! Hoping a little time off helps Vik come out more focused.

 

[skyblade]

Mason played a little PG. He keeps looking more and more comfortable out there and has started playing some good defense (though maybe a bit too prone to risk taking).

We haven't shot it well from three thus far, but we've had good shots. If some of those dropped we'd have a big lead.

 

[skyblade]

Refs aren't calling anything on Temple in the interior and we can't make a three. Luckily we are doing an excellent job on the offensive glass (especially Newman) and Temple has a bunch of TO's.

 

[waterhead]

Too many mistakes to play at a high level. This game seems disjointed on both sides e

 

[Bcatfollower]

These camera angles are tough. I never remembered the temple games being like this to watch.

 

[skyblade]

Shots have started falling now, probably worse ones than the ones we missed, but that's how it goes sometimes. Nice lead at half.

 

[skyblade]

These camera angles are tough. I never remembered the temple games being like this to watch.

I was thinking the same thing, this might be the worst camera angles of any game this season and that's saying something in comparison to our early season ESPN+ games.

 

[waterhead]

Nice little run there. Looked much better

 

[skyblade]

Too many mistakes to play at a high level. This game seems disjointed on both sides e

We missed quite a few shots we normally make and then got out of sorts. Temple just looks inept on offense.

 

[Queens_NYC]

Davenport and DDJ started the half a combined 0-10 from the field and finished the half a combined 6-9.

Just goes to show how much more dangerous we are when they're both hitting shots.

 

[skyblade]

Absolutely horrible offense in the second half. Temple has kept the ball out of DDJ's hands and no one else has been able to create.

 

[sedziobs]

We're not moving the ball. Everything is one-on-one this half.

 

[skyblade]

Could we be worse finishing around the rim?

 

[Bcatfollower]

Koval 7ft tall and gets stuffed…

 

[sedziobs]

I don't understand why DDJ has been on Dunn so much. Makes no sense.

 

[Bcatfollower]

I don’t understand why we don’t really run an offense and jack up threes

 

[Lawrugby]

Worst reffing I have ever seen. Newman was clearly calling time out.

 

[Lawrugby]

It is so obvious that ball was off Hensley.