After watching Temple through 12 games this season, it's apparent that the Owls have a good collection of players. Despite what some may say on this board, coach Fran Dunphy has recruited consistently well dating back to a 2015 class that brought in Shizz Alston, Ernest Aflakpui and Trey Lowe, whose status moving forward remains uncertain. This team has two guys in Quinton Rose and Obi Enechionyia who both could play in the NBA. Alston will probably be a very good player overseas for a decade. And Josh Brown, the starting point guard, is a fifth-year senior. My point is that there's enough talent and experience on this team to make an NCAA tournament run.
The issues on this team go way beyond talent. These guys are capable of locking down Tulane defensively. The effort and energy just wasn't there. Dunphy stresses the importance of every game, but his team lacked a sense of urgency on Thursday night in the conference opener at home. It was evident when the Green Wave jumped out to a 9-2 lead. There has to be more energy from the start of the game. It also was evident when Temple allowed Tulane to shoot 62.5 percent from the floor in the second half. When I asked Dunphy about the poor second half defensive effort, he attributed it to over pursuing and the lineup changes.
Looking for energy? The guy who brought that was freshman combo guard Nate Pierre-Louis. One source suggested that Dunphy should play Pierre-Louis about 25 minutes per game. The North Jersey product is a dog on the defensive end and follows his man throughout the court. I don't see that level of intensity from anyone else on the team. Maybe it's an issue with the program's culture as a whole. Dunphy needs to find more minutes for NPL. That type of energy can be infectious.
It's hard for this team to win with poor performances from the two true veterans in Brown and Enechionyia. Brown threw up a weak pass that was intercepted for a three-point play at the end of the first half. He needs to be smarter with the ball when closing out a half. It was not a move that one would expect from a fifth-year senior. After Enechionyia dropped a career-high 27 points in an 18-point loss at Georgia last Friday, he followed that up with just 3 points on 1 of 9 shooting, including an 0 for 5 mark from 3-point range. These two guys have to be better.
As we near the midway point of the season, this team has not leveled off in one way or the other. Looked great in Charleston, upset loss at La Salle, good showing at MSG against South Carolina, clunker down in D.C. against GW, two close home wins against Wisconsin and SJU, then dropped three of its last four. There's no true trend with this team other than inconsistency. On paper, this team doesn't look like it should be around .500. This is a more talented and experienced team than last year, but some of those bad things about last year's team have stuck around this season.
This is a good collection of players, not a basketball team. Maybe the talent will come together and this team will win a couple games in March, but a lot has to change between now and The Big Dance.
The issues on this team go way beyond talent. These guys are capable of locking down Tulane defensively. The effort and energy just wasn't there. Dunphy stresses the importance of every game, but his team lacked a sense of urgency on Thursday night in the conference opener at home. It was evident when the Green Wave jumped out to a 9-2 lead. There has to be more energy from the start of the game. It also was evident when Temple allowed Tulane to shoot 62.5 percent from the floor in the second half. When I asked Dunphy about the poor second half defensive effort, he attributed it to over pursuing and the lineup changes.
Looking for energy? The guy who brought that was freshman combo guard Nate Pierre-Louis. One source suggested that Dunphy should play Pierre-Louis about 25 minutes per game. The North Jersey product is a dog on the defensive end and follows his man throughout the court. I don't see that level of intensity from anyone else on the team. Maybe it's an issue with the program's culture as a whole. Dunphy needs to find more minutes for NPL. That type of energy can be infectious.
It's hard for this team to win with poor performances from the two true veterans in Brown and Enechionyia. Brown threw up a weak pass that was intercepted for a three-point play at the end of the first half. He needs to be smarter with the ball when closing out a half. It was not a move that one would expect from a fifth-year senior. After Enechionyia dropped a career-high 27 points in an 18-point loss at Georgia last Friday, he followed that up with just 3 points on 1 of 9 shooting, including an 0 for 5 mark from 3-point range. These two guys have to be better.
As we near the midway point of the season, this team has not leveled off in one way or the other. Looked great in Charleston, upset loss at La Salle, good showing at MSG against South Carolina, clunker down in D.C. against GW, two close home wins against Wisconsin and SJU, then dropped three of its last four. There's no true trend with this team other than inconsistency. On paper, this team doesn't look like it should be around .500. This is a more talented and experienced team than last year, but some of those bad things about last year's team have stuck around this season.
This is a good collection of players, not a basketball team. Maybe the talent will come together and this team will win a couple games in March, but a lot has to change between now and The Big Dance.
