The unofficial online home for fans of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

After Temple beat USC, I read the USC message board.

USC’s fans described Temple as a “basketball school,” and said that Temple players are very athletic, who with their pressure took USC’s PGs off their games. Said USC needed better ball handlers and should have played small ball to keep up with Temple.

Described Temple’s offense as a “dribble penetration one that caused USC problems.” Said USC missed too many shots.

USC fans seem to be impervious to the fact that Temple shot thirty three’s and beat USC by making more three’s than USC did. USC fans acknowledged that Temple forced USC to commit more turnovers than Temple did.

They blamed USC Head Coach for not making proper adjustments. USC’s HC seems not to have watched videos of Temple’s pressure defense.

Hopefully, Temple will bring the same pressure defense the entire game against Maryland.

I see Temple having a real chance to beat no.5 ranked Maryland, and here’s why. Although Maryland is a very athletic team, Temple is more so, and Temple should use their athleticism and play a relentless pressure defense throughout the game.

Maryland has a very good defense that has held opponents to shooting only 40 percent on two’s. Temple should shoot a much higher percentage as I fully expect Temple to make more steals than Maryland that will lead to easy hoops. Temple has done that in it’s last 4 games, and has shot 45 percent on two’s.

Rose has to stop shooting as much as he’s taken 23 percent of Temple’s 2-point shots, and shot them poorly.He’s shot very well on three’s (40 percent). Playing Maryland, Temple should shoot a good number three’s as it will be difficult for Temple to score inside on Maryland. Alani Moore should shoot a lot of three’s as he’s Temple’s best three point shooter.

If Rose off it’s important theat Temple’s better shooters shoot the ball.

Temple should also score some easy hoop by fast breaking off of defensive rebounds and steals.

Although Maryland is an excellent two-point shooting team, so was USC that Temple held to shooting but 45.7 percent on two’s. If Temple does that Temple will be in position to beat Maryland.

The one area I’m uncertain of, is which team will score the most points at the foul-line. I predict that Maryland will, but if Temple holds Maryland to scoring no more than four points more than Temple at the foul-line, Temple should be in a position to win. I’m banking on Temple having at least six extra scoring opportunities off of forced Maryland turnovers to offset any point deficit at the foul-line.



Happy Thanksgiving!

Maryland beat Temple 76-69, but the score does not reflect how close the game was as Temple trailed by only 3-points with only 53 seconds remaining in the game. Temple should have won, been been 5-0, and ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation. Instead, they find themselves with a 4-1 win-loss record.

One comes away with the feeling that Temple can match-up with any of the top teams In the nation.

In the first-half, Temple applied a pressure defense, forced turnovers, and and established a 34-29 half-time lead. Temple made 5 of it’s 7 steals in the first half. Maryland made but4-steals in the entire game. Maryland shot but 30 percent (4-13) on three’s.

Inexplicably, Mckie abandoned his pressure defense in the second-half and as a consequence, Maryland scored an astounding 47 points, including 18 points on three’s, shooting 46 percent (6-13) on three’s.

Temple should have scored far more points than it did. As Mckie allowed Rose scored only 9 points on 4-16 shooting from the floor, and he committed 4 of Temple’s 15 turnovers. Nate played 34 minutes scoring 0-points, shooting 0-7 from the floor. Both kept jacking-up shots even though they were missing them badly. They also drove to the hoop and we’re shut down by Maryland’s interior players which was foreseeable.


Rose and Nate combined in shooting 4-23 from the field. Here, temple almost beat one of nation’s best teams even with it’s most prolific shooters shooting so poorly. If any of Temple’s good shooters had taken some of the 19 missed shots, Temple would have easily beaten Maryland.

What Mckie should have encouraged Alani Moore to shoot more. As Alani in scored 22 points on 7-11 shooting, 2-2 from the foul-line. 18 of his points were three’s as he shot 6-10 on three’s. He should have taken far more three’s than he did as Alani is a far better shooter than either Rose or NPL.

Instead, McKie relied on Rose and NPL who we have see were are off big-time. Mckie should have told both to shoot far less when he saw they were off. Both Perry and Scott are better shooters and Mckie should have played both more.

James Scott played only 20-minutes and scored 8-points, as he shot 3-6 on two’s, 0-2 on three’s, 2-2 from the foul-line, and had 2-rebounds.

It also made no sense for Perry to play only 22 minutes and score only 6-points. He should have played more.

Maryland shot two’s at only 40 percent ( 6–15) in the first half when Temple applied it’s pressure defense, but 53 percent (8-15) in the second half, when Temple abandoned it’s pressure defense.

A pressure defense on the perimeter stopped the three ball in the first-half, but also reduced the opponents two-point shoot because Temp’s defense sped up and made Maryland players rush or take bad shots on 2’s and 3’s alike.

The television announcer pointed-out that Temple didn’t shoot enough three’s.

Rose should not have been distributing the ball as he committed 4 of Temple’s 15 turnovers.

Rose also committed 25 percent of all Temple fouls, as he committed 5 of Temple’s total. 20 fouls, resulting Maryland taking four more foul-shots then Temple did, and scored four more points there than Temple did.

McKie failed to heed the lesson from the from the La Salle’s game that Temple needed to pressure the perimeter in both halves. He only did so in the first-half playing Maryland. As a result, Temple lost a game they should have won.

Temple should have scored more than the 69-points they scored, and Maryland far less than the 76-points they scored.

Even though this was Temple’s first loss HC McKie needs to realize he needs to make some changes moving forward.

Rose scored 9 points against Maryland, and had four turnovers. Maryland scored 8-points off his 4 turnovers. So Rose scored but one-net point for the game. This does not even account for points Temple would have had if better shooters were taking some of his shots..

His 9 points were primarily the result of Rose shooting only 4-16 from the field, as he missed fga’s..

Rose also had poor shooting stats in 11 games he played in last year. There’s no reason that Rose won’t struggle this year if he continues to be Temple’s primary shooter. Why HC Mckie has Rose as Temple’s main scorer is a head-scratcher, and reeks of unwarranted favoritism.

fGA FGM
1. 6-17
2. 4-15
3. 4-13
4. 7-19
5. 6-18
6. 5-17
7. 4-12
8. 2-12
9. 3-9
10. 3-13
11. 4-13

Both Scott and Perry are far better shooters and than Rose is. Feel confident that playing Scott with Rose and NPL would make both Rose and NPL more efficient scorers.

Mckie should move Rose to PF, and start Scott in place of Moorman, with Perry subbing in for Rose, Scott and Nate.

Scott coming off the bench and being shuttling on and out is keeping him from finding his rhythm, and shooting as well as he should be shooting. McKie should know that.

With A,Moore and Scott in the starting line-up, Temple would have two good shooters starting. Both would make NTe and Rose better players.

Nate is is a slasher. Nate has to start as he’s Temple’s best rebounder and on-ball defender, as well as Temple’s best ball stealer. Te
Scott can both hit jump shots and get to the hoop.

Temple beat a bad Texas A & M team by 23 points, 65-42, and finds itself with a 5-1 win-loss record.

Temple had trouble scoring as it committed 12 turnovers, but it’d defense was excellent as Texas A & M scored but 17-points in the first-half. Temple held Texas & M to scoring 7 fewer points then A &M scored when they played and lost to no. 1 ranked Gonzaga.

Scott played 22 minutes, scored 11-points on 2-5 on two’s, 2-4 on three’s, and 1-2 at the foul line.

NPL played 24 minutes and scored only 8 points on 7 fga’s. He missed three 3-point attempts.

Moorman played 24 minutes and scored but 5-points, He shot 2-5 from the field, and shot 1-4 on three’s, and had 2turnovers, and 7 rebounds.

Temple shot 52 percent on two’s. Temple shot decently on three’s as it shot 37 percent on three’s, with Alani, Scott, and Perry, all shooting well.

Texas A & M shot 31.8 percent (7-22) on two’s, and shot only 18.2 percent (6-36) on three’s. Texas A & M only scored 10 points at the foul-line.

Forrester, Hamilton, and Parks, did a fine job defending the paint, but did not stop Texas A and M from garnering 10 offensive rebounds. Forrester had no offensive rebounds, Moorman and Perry each had 2, Parks had but 1.

Forrester, in 18-minutes had 7 defensive rebounds, but was 0-1 shooting, 0-2 at the foul-line. He also committed 2-fouls and committed 2 turnovers.

In Texas A & M game. Temple was plus 25 with Alani, plus 23 with Scott, and plus 20 with Rose.

Alani Moore is a big reason Temple is shooting three’s much better. As his three pointed shooting has sky-rocketed as he shot a combined 10-19 or a whopping 57 percent on three’s in the past two games.

Temple and Texas A and M committed approximate the same number turnovers but Temple scored 10 more points off Texas A and M’s turnovers.

After 6 games, Temple now leads it’s opponents in nearly every statistical category. Temple is ranked as high as number 43 by one national ranking service.

Temple’s offensive stats are slowly moving up, but still not anywhere near they have to be. As Temple is only shooting 44.2 percent on two’s, and 32.1 on three’s.

Temple wins games with it’s defense, but for Temple to be a top team, Temple has to increase it’s 2-point shooting percentage to 52 percent, and it's 3-point percentage to 37 percent.

Nate should shoot less as he’s recently shooting only 11 percent (2-18) on three’s, and 27 percent on (3-11) on two-point jump shots.

Up next Is Davidson. Even though Davidson has a 3-4 record, it’s well-coached, and only lost to nationally ranked Villanova by 10-points. Temple beat Davidson in overtime last season. Davidson has length and good players, but team is not athletic.

Davidson’s offense features back-cuts, high-low action, and good three point shooting. Sixty-five percent of Davidson’s shots are three-pointers. Temple will have to concentrate on shutting down Davidson three-pointers, but also shoot a lot of three’s and shoot them at a high percentage.

Temple beat Davidson last season by forcing turnovers, and not excessively fouling Davidson players, and putting them at the foul-line. .

While Temple is winning most non-conference games, if Temple is to succeed in conference games, it’s becoming very clear that HC McKie should have both Rose and Nate take a step backwards in Temple’s offense as both are shooting less than 40 percent on field goal attempts, and let Alani, Scott, Perry, Moorman,take a bigger role in the offense.

Oth Rose’s and Nate need to look for and pass the ball to the open man who is often close-by, rather than take contested drives or shots. They both don’t seem to like to pass the ball to better shooters.

How good is Alani Moore? Alani presently has a an excellent Total Shooting Percentage of 62.4 percent. Alston’s TSP last season was 55.8 percent. Alston went to foul-line more. Alani shoots three’s at a much higher rate.

Alani averages 31 mpg, takes 8.8 field goal attempts per game, and scores an average of 12.2 ppg. 81 percent of his fga’s are three’s. Alani also averages 2.2 steals per game, commits but 1.3 turnovers per game, and but 1.0 foul per game.

Shizz Alston averaged 36.6 ppg took 15.5 fga’s per game, and averaged 19.7 ppg last season. Alston also averaged 1.5 steals per game, 2.5 turnovers per game, and 1.9 fouls per game.

Shizz shot a field goal almost once every 2.37 minutes; Alani once every 3.51 minutes.

Fairly clear that Alani should shoot as often as Shizz did.

In last two games, Alani averaged 9.5 three’s per game, and shot three’s at 57 percent.

His non-shooting stats are way better than Shizz.

Mckie uses Alani as a SG, and not as a point guard who distributes the ball and makes assists. He’s Temple’s third option on offense. Should be it’s first.

He also averages more rebounds, but less assists than Shizz.

Temple are 2-point favorites to beat Davidson.


Davidson’s Frampton is not playing today. He torched Temple in last year’s game.

Time for Temple’s disruptive pressure defense to run Davidson out of the gym. Alani needs to perform like he has last two games.Rose has to have a solid game.

If Temple holds Davidson to scoring no more than six three’s, and commits but 14-fouls, Temple should win handily.

Nice 13-point Temple win over Davidson 66-53.

Temple now has a 6-1 non-conference win-loss record. But another l game in which Temple couldn’t put 70 points on the scoreboard.

Temple applied no pressure pressure in the first half allowing Davidson to kill the three-ball. Davidson led 33-30 at the half. Mckie reversed course in second half, and had Temple guards contesting the three ball that resulted in Davidson only shooting 1-13 on three’s in the second half.

Temple outscored Davidson 36-20 in the second half. If

Rose finally played a great game scoring 14-points and garnering 11-rebounds. Nate scored 15-points, Forrester 10-points, and Scott 8-points.

Ridiculous that Moorman plays 26 minutes, takes 5 FGA’s and scores but 3-points. While Perry plays 19 minutes takes but one shot and scored no points. That’s 46 points from the PF position with only 3 points scored. Can readily see why Temple scored but 66 points.

Temple shot 43 percent on two’s which is not good. Temple only shot 30 percent on 3’s (6-20) do to Alani shot 1-7 on three’s.

Forrester did a good job defending the rim as Davidson shot but 37 percent (10-27) on two’s.

Forrester and Hamilton combined for 16 points from the Center position.

Temple scored 10 points on second chances, Davidson only 2-points in second chance points.

Temple scored 32-points in the paint, Davison just 18-points.

This game was won by Temple’s pressure defense on the perimeter that hat caused Davidson to shoot poorly on threes. in the second half. Temple’s offense had a lot of unforced errors as it turned the ball over too much. As a result, Temple had no turnover margin over Davidson. Hope this doesn’t continue because it bring into question whether Temple’s defense will continue to help Temple win games.

Temple did manage to score 3 more points than Davidson on turnovers than Davidson did on Temple’s turnovers.

Temple scored 10-points off of fast breaks, Davidson scored none.,

Parks and Forrester committed to many turnovers, and both Forrester and Rose committed four fouls.

Tempe returns home with a 6-1 record, and plays Missouri at home next Saturday.

If Nate continues to shoot three’s poorly, Temple’s half-court offense will not function very well especially since Nate also struggles with decision-making as to when and when not to drive to the hoop in half court-sets. Also, Moorman’s scoring has been erratic.

Temple playing a non-pressure defense completely wastes Nate’s immense lock-down and ball-stealing defensive talents of it’s players. Rose too.

Since Nate thrives in making many steals, and locking down three-point shooters that’s what Temple should mostly do to fully take full advantage of Nate’s special skill set.

If Temple is to be even more successful, Nate the great has to be told to lookup steal the ball at every opportunity. Temple players will play better when Temple speeds up the game defensively.

Temple moving up in national rankings. Sagarin has Temple ranked 44th, and based on recent games 34th in the nation.

Last season, Temple played a traditional half-court offensive sets. Temple was careful not to turn the ball over, while at the same time they forced opponent turnovers that resulted in Temple having an average of 3.5 more scoring opportunities per game than opponents did by committing fewer turnovers (11.2-13.7) Such resulted in more points for Temple.

One reason a big turnover margin is so important is that often the shooting percentage differential margin is quite lose. In fact. in conference play last season, conference opponents slightly outshot Temple on 2’s, but Temple’s positive turnover margin allowing for more scoring by Temple resulted in Temple winning far more conference games then it lost.

Last season, Temple actually committed less turnovers and made more steals than Temple has so far this season.

Temple also relied on the ability of Shizz, Nate, and Rose to get to the rim, and be fouled, which resulted in Temple making more foul shots at a higher percentage, and opponents took fewer foul shots.

This formula of scoring more points than their opponents by having a positive turnover margin that allowed for more fga’s and foul shots taken, led to Temple finishing the season with a 23-10 season’s win-loss record, and 13-5 record conference play.

Temple accomplished such a fine season despite it’s defense allowing conference opponents to shoot 51.5 on two’s compared to Temple’s 50.1 percent on two’s. Both Temple and it’s opponents shot and 33 percent on three’s.

In Temple’s first seven games this season, Temple has run a traditional half-court offense that hasn’t worked for them mainly due to both Rose and NPL not scoring as well as they did the prior season. Rose is shooting lot’s of two’s poorly. As Temple is only shooting 44 percent on two’s, and 31.8 percent on three’s, down from 50.1 percent on two’s and 33 percent on three’s last season.

Even with Temple shooting poorly so far this season, Temple’s defense has forced opponents to also shoot worse than they did last season.

But unlike the season before when opponents shot far better than Temple from the field, under Asst Coach Ross defense, led to opponents so far this season shooting only 44 percent on two’s (38th lowest in tge nation) and only 28.3 percent on three’s (55th lowest in the nation). Opponents overall FG percentage is only 35.3 percent (8th best in nation), far lower percentages than last season.

Temple has employed a pressure defense that has resulted in more steals that increased from 8 steals per game last season to 12 steals per game per game (best in nation) this season, which has resulted in Temple averaging 7 less turnovers per game than their opponents. Or to put another way, Templd is having 7 additional scoring opportunities per game, while opponents 7 less scoring opportunities. Hard to lose games with that advantage and has resulted in Temple enjoying a 7-1 record, with it’s only loss to Maryland due to Temple not pressuring three point shooters in the second half of game.

Temple has played it’s pressure defense from 25 to 50 percent of the time in games played.temple!s ple’s steals and forced turners have tapered off somewhat lately.

Even with Temple’s poor shooting, its’s pressure defense has resulted in Temple having a 10-point scoring margin over it’s opponents.

Temple would be much better off playing it’s pressure defense more often to maximize Nate’s skills, and to reduce Rose’s erratic shooting. As both perform better when they get in the open court.

If Temple plays it’s pressure defense more Temple’s shooting percentages should increase, and opponents shooting percentages should decrease as opponents get out of whack when they are forced to play quicker than they want to which is what a pressure defense causes. Temple’s scoring average and scoring margin over opponents should increase as well.

What’s important is that Temple have a pathway to be even better, and for it’s defense to dominate conference foes. This season has a chance to be a special one.

Andy Katz ranks Temple 25th in nation! Memphis 26th.

In NCAA tournament brackets, Katz has Temple with an 8 seed.

Bart Torvik has Temple with an 11th seed.

Alani Moore has improved his foul-shooting and his three point shooting.

His foul-shooting percentage has increased from 78.1 percent last season to 93.3 percent thru 7 games this season. It was suggested to him by me that he place his right shooting hand directly behind the ball. By doing so, he has also improved his three-point shooting as well.

Even though Temple’s scoring has pummeled from last season to 69.3 ppg this season, Temple’s has increased it’s positive scoring margin over non-conference opponents from 3.2 points per game last season to 9.9 points per game this season, due to Temple’s employing more a pressure defense.


As Temple’s intermittent pressure defense has forced more opponent turnovers which has resulted in opponents scoring dropping to 59.4 ppg.

Temple’s offense last season shot 50.1 percent on two-pointers compared to Temple this season shooting only 44 percent on 2’s. The decline is due to both Rose and NPL not being good jump shooters, and Temple’s half court offense is not good.

Temple’s 2-point shooting percentage would be even lower but for Temple playing at times a pressure defense that results in easy baskets off of steals and forced turnovers. Temple’s two-point shooting percentage for both players and the team would be even higher if Temple tried to force turnovers more often.

Rose’s 2-point shooting percentage has dropped from from 47 percent on two’s last season to shooting only 37.7 (23-66) percent so far this season. NPL has 2-point shooting has dropped from 50 percent to 40 percent this season.

Since Temple’s starters shoot poorly, Temple needs to avoid staying in half court sets.

Also, Rose and NPL should reduce the number of two-point shots they take in half court sets and let other better shooters take those shots. Nate should also stop shooting three’s as he’s shooting only 14.3 (3-21) percent on three’s.

Rose is averaging 31.9 mpg, down 2.7 mpg from last season.

Rose has improved his rebounding (4.6 per game), number of foul shots (4.6 per game), foul-shooting percentage (78.1 percent) , assists (3.6 per game), and has an equal number of steals to turnovers (1.6 per game). Last season, he had more turnovers than steals.

Rose is shooting 33 percent on three's, and has averaged taking 8.6 two’s per game, but converts them at only 36.7 percent. Better that he shoots fewer two point jumpers. Has always shot them poorly. HC McKie should not have allow this problem to exist thru seven games.

Rose’s defense has been very good.