(01-25-2020 08:55 PM)sfink16 Wrote: Was John Chaney such a great coach that no one can come close at Temple? I'm embarrassed for the inconsistency that Temple has shown this, and several of the previous seasons.
The question for those closer to what's happening, are injuries, coaching, or something else the reason for Temple's inconsistency from game to game? Something has to improve and soon. I never thought I'd see the day where both Penn and Penn State are better in basketball than Temple.
The team's morale and chemistry - particularly of the bench players - seem to have collapsed during the past three weeks, after the team's good start in conference play.
Temple won 9 OOC games and earned a NET ranking in the mid-40s by running a deep rotation to help offset the loss of Shizz Alston and the team's starting Center in 2018-19. Not every bench player performed well in every game, but in most cases, there were at least 2 or 3 bench guys who played well enough to help the team win games.
That changed toward the end of OOC play, in large part, because the team was depleted by injuries to seven Temple players. Nate Pierre-Louis, one of the team's top two starters, suffered a severely scratched cornea that forced him to wear protective goggles and had a very adverse impact on his performances.
The team's only true Center (D Moore) has been severely hampered by injuries that have put him out of action for much of the season, and another player (Dunn) had a severe foot injury and may end up meeting the entire season with a medical red shirt.
The Owls lost some heart-breaking games due to the multiplicity of injuries, and it has had an adverse affect on morale and chemistry. They played poorly on the road. They mounted a heroic effort vs Houston, Wichita, and Cincy, but narrowly lost 2 of those 3 games, with their top bench player missing the Cincy game. Those two losses probably put them out of contention - not only for the NCAA, but quite possibly for the NIT as well.
The team has definitely hit bottom, and it's possible that all they're really playing for now is pride and the hope to end the season with a winning record.
This is a critical time in the early HC career of Coach McKie. He has to recruit 6 players (5 for the 2021 class) in the coming months, and every additional loss going forward will make it that much harder for him to recruit a talented group of players for his third season as Head Coach.
He's faced with a formidable challenge.