I was hoping that Quincy A and D.Dunn would be Temple’s best guards this season, not K.Battle, as I didn’t think he was that good in high school.

Therefore, I was surprised by HC Mckie saying his new players only showed “flashes” of being good, and he went on to insinuate that Battle was the best of the lot and he was going to “lean” on him. There are reports that Battle shot well at times in team scrimmages. Although a good athlete, I don’t see him presently as being an impact player.

He’s coming here off a season in Big Ten play, Battle averaged 10-mpg, 2.3 ppg, and shot 30 percent on two’s and 26 percent on three’s. Hardly inspiring numbers and what one would expect from a 4-star rated HS player. Looking deeper into his poor performance at Butler, I am put-off by his inability to score well at the hoop nor get to the foul line, as well as his lack of rebounding, and excessive turnovers and fouling.

I have far more confidence in transfer Brandan Barry shooting, as he shot the lights out on three’s in each of his three years at Dartmouth, and has shot two’s far better than Battle did in his freshmen year. Injured T.Strickland also shot his three’s well his freshmen year at Wisconsin.

I’m looking forward to seeing the Virginia Tech game, and seeing for myself how all the new players stack-up to each other.

The Virginia Tech game will also provide us an opportunity to see how Temple’s guards compare to Virginia Tech’s guards Bede, Cattoor, Alleyne and Diarra.

Since I strongly believe that Temple’s best line-up is when it plays small, I do hope that we don’t see the Center position only manned by Forrester, Parks, and Jourdain, and not by Moorman or Perry at times.

I’m also fearful that Temple will be turnover prone if both Battle and Forrester are in Temple’s starting line-up, as the last thing Temple needs is for two experienced players in the starting to be turnover prone.

Temple fans are going to see in television broadcasts of games a sharp contrast in the playing style of Temple’s guards.

As Williams, Quincy A., Battle, and Strickland all have some hops, Barry and Dunn do not. I suspect both Barry and Dunn have the best bb IQ’s which should result in them taking better shots and committing fewer turnovers.

Looking forward to seeing if both freshmen Quincy A, and Williams have high bb IQ’s.

I don’t think Temple will have as many backcourt players who are good at getting to the rim and foul-line as last season, and that’s why I think it’s imperative that both Perry and Moorman drive much more to the rim than they have in the past.

Virginia Tech is a relatively young team that has also stocked with recent transfers. Two recent transfers Aluma and Diarra played well in their first win over Radford.VT is good at disrupting opponent offenses, and thus winning the turnover battle. This may cause Temple real problems as Temple won’t be starting a true PG.

Radford played well against VT, but VT still managed to beat them 77-62, a 15-point margin.

VT likes to shoot the three ball and shot them at 42 percent on 11-26 shooting. It’s up Temple’s players to try to stop VT’s three-ball, and for Perry, Moorman, Quincy A, and Battle, to shoot three’s well. Temple will miss Brandan Barry not being able to play as yet.VT shot 2’s at 52 percent and held Radford to shooting just 41 percent on two’s. Will be interesting to see if Temple will have similar trouble scoring on two-point shots.

Temple plays Virginia Tech at 5 pm on Saturday.

Sagarin has Virginia Tech ranked 59th in the nation and Temple 135.

Bart Torvik has Virginia Tech ranked 67th in the nation, and Temple ranked. He has VT beating Temple by 11 points. He has Temple winning only the two conference games they play against Tulane.

Ken Pomeroy’s rankings has Virginia Tech ranked 35th in the nation, and Temple at 148.

Temple men’s bb HC McKie just announced that season has been paused due to covid problem, and Temple players will enter 14-day quarantine. This is a bummer for Temple players, coaches, and fans.

This post has been revised..

Temple has signed transfer guard Colin Daly from West Chester University as a walk-on. He averaged 4.3 points playing 11.6 mpg, and averaged 44 percent shooting three’s, and he shot 90.5 percent from the foul-line. He’s the brother of Ryan Daly, St. Joseph’s star basketball player.

If they so chose, someone else can start a new thread on Temple’s upcoming season. I’m just going to take a back-seat. Enjoyed chronicling last season’s play. Appreciate the viewership.

Given that Temple’s basketball team is quarantined for 14 days, Temple’s first game is on December 12th against St. Joseph’s, unless it’s postponed due to Temple having but just a few days to prepare for it. In it’s first game, St. Joseph’s was beaten in overtime by Auburn.

It’s unknown whether transfer Brandan Barry will be able to play for Temple after Dartmouth finishes it’s term on December 4th, or whether he’ll have wait to enroll after Temple finishes it’s semester on October 17th. I would suspect the later. If so, the earliest Temple game he could possibly play-in will be on December 22nd when Temple opens conference play at Houston.

Whenever Barry can play, it’s likely he’ll start at PG.

It will be interesting to see who McKie decides to start if Barry doesn’t play in Temple’s first game.

McKie will have 7 players-Williams, Battle, D.Dunn,Quincy A, Perry, Moorman, and Forrester, to chose from to start Temple’s first game.

While nationwide players, coaches, and staff, contracting the covid virus at ever increasing rate at colleges, at the same time we’re not being told the nature, severity, hospitalizations, residual damage, nor recovery of individuals from contracting the virus. We do know that in some cases the covid virus is not only causing loss of life, but also causing permanent heart damage.

We don’t need to know names, but we do need the know the foregoing information in order to know if sport administrators are making the right decision in limiting players and staff to just 14-day quarantines or should they be cancelling games like the Ivy league colleges have.

I blame colleges for providing us with very limited information, that prohibits us forming solid opinions in judging whether their decisions are the right one’s. I don’t blame them for sufficiently stopping the spread. That’s more on us for not wearing masks nor social distancing, but nothing we do short of total isolation can protect us from this contagious virus, and few of us can do that.

Just hope our desire for sports as an outlet from everyday life, is not pushing college sports administrators to make bad decisions. We need more transparency to answer that question.

But given that hospitalizations are not limited to seniors, and even if they were, one senses college administrators are not making the correct and right decisions they should. Maybe the Ivy League is smarter than other colleges and universities.

Fully expect more games to be cancelled, and post-season tournaments to be in jeopardy.

The AAC is a terrible three-point shooting conference as UCF shooting only 33.7 percent on three’s led the conference. The AA finished 30 out of 32 conference’s shooting three’s.

Temple finished third in the conference shooting three’s, but that went for naught as first year HC McKie did not design more plays for Alani Moore to shoot more three’s even though he was among the the conference leaders shooting three’s at 42.5 percent, and he didn’t play Dre Perry enough to allow him to shoot more often, even though he shot three’s at 41 percent for the season.

Hopefully, McKie will not make the same mistake this season. He must double Perry’s playing time 35 mpg and tell him to shoot at least every 2.5 minutes per game, not once every 4 minutes or so like he did last season. He’s also Temple’s best two-point shooter.

With transfer Brandon Barry shortly going to take over the PG reins, his being a 44 percent three point shooter, should put Temple in good stead shooting three’s. I have lots of confidence in Stricklandg shooting the three ball, but want to see him shoot few two’s, and get his turnover rate down.

The AAC is a defensive conference. it has very few consistently good shooters on one team.

Temple should have good shooters among it’s other new players. We’ll have to see who they are when the season starts. Do thing that Dunn and Quincy A are the best shooters among the freshman.

Battle is a big question mark, and although a good athlete, I question his total game.

Defense being as good as last year is an open question, but less so for me, as few teams have god shooters.

SMU does have the best shooting team. Will Temple be right there with them?

I’m confident Temple has the players it needs to win. Based on last season’s debacle, I have little confidence that McKie is a good coach, as any HC who has his worse shooters take Temple’s most shots doesn’t know what he’s doing. When a team beats USC, Wichita State, UConn, and SMU, and plays close with Houston, and Cincy, and losses to ECU and Tulane, both far worse teams, one knows that something is amiss. McKie was right when he said that he had a team that should have won more than it did in conference play. He just doesn’t realize he was the primary cause for Temple not doing so.

Temple needs to do something to dramatically increase their shooting but 43 percent on two’s as they did last season.

The best way for Temple to do so is to play either a 3 quarter or full court press the whole game to create turnovers that results in easy lay-ups. Teams that do that shoot around 50 percent on two’s. That’s a formula for winning basketball.

Temple has enough depth and decent guards to play that way. It also allows Temple to play small in the front court.

Temple did have success early in the year last season when it employed a pressure defense occasional. Would have had a terrific record it they did that last season as it would have brought out the strengths of both Nate and Rose, and hidden their weakness of being poor two point jump shooters.

Temple should be an even stronger three-point shooting team than last season. Playing a pressure defense and getting easy lay-up will complement Temple- three point shooting.

Playing offensively in mostly in half court offensive sets may well produce the same or worse results as last season.

Last season, Nate led Temple in rebounds with 8 per game. He did that by running from anywhere on the court to the hoop on each opponent possession and shot. That’s how Rose, Nate, and Scott should have been employed by McKie as well. They weren’t told to do that. Need to send players to the offensive boards when opponents don’t fast break off defensive rebounds.

Opponents will get far fewer second shots if Temple guards are told to go rim hard for rebounds.

Offensively, the AAC is noticeably weaker this season, and it’s coming off a horrible offensive season.

Temple fans are prepared to pass on this season due the big turnover in the roster and Temple niece having a relatively inexperienced roster. It should and need not be that way if McKie will only install an offensive and defensive system that matches the skill-set off his players. He says he wants Temple to be more aggressive running team. Not is the time for him to implement that.

Temple will attract even better recruits if they play that way, as recruits want to play for teams that fast break and average in the high 70’s ppg, and not below 70 ppg as Temple did last season.

Playing in his first game for Santa Barbara, Josh Pierre-Louis came off the bench and scored 12-points in 19-minutes. As he shot 5-7 on two’s, 0-2 on three’s, and 2-2 from the foul-line. He also had 6-rebounds, 3-assists, 1-steal, 1-block, and committed 1-turnover and 2-fouls.

As of now, It appears that Temple plays it’s first game at St. Joseph’s on December 12th, then home against NJIT on December 19th, and at Houston on December 22nd.

Looks like NCAA will be voting on October 16th on an NCAA Oversight Committee recommendation to allow all transfers to play this season. It’s likely to pass, and if so, transfer Sage Tolbert will be able to play this season.Transfer K. Battle has already been approved by the NCAA to play. Will give Temple’s bb program a huge lift.

Temple will have a shot in the arm now that Barry, Battle, and Tolbert will be able to play and them all bringing much needed experience. This changes not only Temple’s composition, but adds more depth.

Should also bring more competition at the Center position with Forrester, Moorman and Tolbert, vying for playing time. Think it will be obvious that Moorman and Tolbert are Temple’s best two centers.

Barry is Temple’s best PG, and should start as soon as he’s enrolled at Temple this month. Strickland should back him up when he recovers from his shoulder surgery.may well start at SG.

Battle may well start at SG.

SMU will also get a big lift by having transfer big Anei declared eligible to play, as he will make SMU a force to reckoned with in the AAC. He’s almost recovered from a wrist injury.

I would start either Moorman or Tolbert over Forrester, but suspect McKie will start Forrester. If Temple does not play scheduled game against St.Josephs in December 12th, than more likely there first game won’t be till on December 19th against NJIT at home. Tolbert will be able to play in either game. The stars are lining up for Temple.

Unless Forrester can greatly reduce his excessive turnovers and fouling, and defensive play, he will really hurt Temple when he plays. And When Tolbert starts to play, Temple can’t afford to play two low-post players which Tolbert and Forrester both are, as such keeps perimeter players from getting to the hoop.

Temple now has a deep enough roster that allows Temple to pressure to ball a lot and run. To win, Temple needs tonight to both pressure the ball and play up-tempo.

Hope Brandan Barry is enrolled and able to start at PG on December 19th and again on Dec.22nd when Temple starts AAC play against Houston.

Looking forward to seeing if Battle, Dunn, Quincy A, or Strickland, is Temple’s best SG.

Like to see who McKie starts at FF. His choices are Perry, Quincy A, or D.Dunn at SF.

Looking forward to seeing if Perry or Moorman starts at PF.

Playing in his first game for Kent State, Kent State beat Point Park 91-41.

Weak competition, but Justyn Hamilton still had a great game. As Hamilton scored 8-points in 23-minutes, making half of his fga’s, and making the only three-pointer he took. He had an astounding 14-rebounds, including 7-offensive rebounds.

While fouling plagued him at Temple his last season, he committed but 1-foul, and 1-turnover. Some indication what good coaching can produce in a player. Will have to see how he does as the season progresses.

Now that it’s likely that Sage Tolbert will play this year, it’s time to compare him to Jake Forrester.

Offensively, with Tolbert playing for Southeast Missouri State last season, SMS averaged 109.1 points per 100 possessions when Tolbert played, while Temple only averaged 91.8 points per 100 possessions when Forrester played. Such is also reflected in Tolbert’s individual stats, as he shot 57 percent on two’s and 64 percent at the foul-line compared to Forrester’s 53 percent on two’s and 43.9 percent at the foul-line. Both Tolbert and Forrester scored well at the rim, but neither shot 2-point jump shots well. Tolbert committed fewer turnovers than Forrester per 40 minutes.

So, if Tolbert playing for Temple shoots as well and commits as few turnovers as he did SMS, and assuming Forrester’s offense is no better than last season, then Tolbert’s offense will give Temple opponents fewer scoring opportunities than if Forrester played.

While Forester was not a good interior defender last season, it’s hard to say if Tolbert is better, as his former team Southeast Missouri State was worse defensively than Temple was last season, as it’s opponents averaged 74.4 ppg and shot 53.6 percent on two’s. Tolbert garnering so many rebounds when his team’s opponents missed far fewer shots is impressive. Whether such was partially due to bad defensive schemes is not known.

Tolbert out-rebounded Forrester last season, as Tolbert averaged 10.2 rebounds per 40 minutes, compared to Forrester 8.6 rebounds per 40 minutes. Tolbert also committed a third less personal fouls than Forrester did.

Since Temple needs more offense this season, and rebounding on defense,I would favor Tolbert over Forrester.

I would also favor Moorman over Forrester as Temple scored more points and gave up less points per 100 possessions when Moorman played than when Forrester played. Also like the fact that Moorman can stretch the floor allowing perimeter players to get to the hoop.

While I previously said that I don’t like Temple cluttering the floor in the low post that’s not bad if Mckie has his low-post players kick the ball out to the three-point line. Yet, McKie did not do that last year, and one can only hope he does so this season, as he has some deadly three-point shooters who hit the three-ball.

Unless Forrester has vastly improved in many statistically categories, do think Temple’s best bet is going with a Moorman-Tolbert tandem at the Center position.

Temple’s first game will be at home against NJIT, followed by Temple opening conference play on the road on December 19th at Houston. It many ways, could not have worked out much better for Temple. Will most likely have Battle, Barry, and Tolbert, it’s three transfers, ready to play. Strickland may join them shortly thereafter.

Will make a huge difference that Temple will be able to put experienced college players on the court, and not have to rely on in-coming high school recruits. Too bad that Temple will start conference play against Houston SMU, and Memphis, three of the better teams in the AAC, but at least, the later two are at home.

Kent State almost upset Virginia as the score was tied 62-62 at the end of regulation tonight. Virginia went on to win in overtime 71-64.

Former Temple transfer Justyn Hamilton played well for Kent State as he scored 12-points, shooting 6-10 on two’s, and 0-1 on three’s.

Hamilton played well for Temple his sophomore year, and although Hamilton started for Temple his junior year, and Temple was winning games, when new HC McKie replaced him with Forrester in the starting line-up, and Temple went on to fair poorly in conference play, and subsequently both McKie and Hamilton agreed at the end of the season to part ways.

It’s good to see Hamilton having the chance to show-off his obvious offensive and defensive potential. It’s Temple’s loss that he did not return, as Temple could have surely used both his scoring and defense this season.

Temple was fortunate to by-pass having to play both Virginia Tech and Villanova with so many inexperienced players so early in the season.

Starting off the season playing NJIT on Dec. 19th at home, hopefully will produce both a win and confidence going forward. And even though the following games are against conference foes Houston, SMU, and Memphis, three teams that are highly regarded, in my view none of them are as good as both Virginia Tech and Villanova are. And while I wish Temple did not have to face them early in conference play, and I’m not predicting that Temple will win those games, Temple is more in a position to do so as both Houston and Memphis are not as strong as they were last season.

Moreover, Houston is a defensive team that wins games by sending two players to the offensive glass and winning the battle of offensive rebounds, thus keeping opponents from getting scoring opportunities they otherwise would have had.If Temple keeps Houston from scoring off of put-backs off, and concentrate on stopping both Sasser and Grimes from shooting deep three’s, Temple will have a chance of beating Houston, as Temple overall has far better three and two-point shooters than Houston does. Last season, Houston only bear Temple only by four points 78-74, because Houston took 11 more fga’s than Temple did as the result of winning the offensive rebounding battle 23-8, even though Temple outshot Houston.

Hard to say how good SMU will be as they picked-up a true shot-blocking Oklahoma State PF transfer Yur Anei, but saw hot-shooting Tyson Jolly decide not to play.


Memphis has a 3-2 record in non-conference play, and is averaging just 71-ppg. Memphis suffers from committing excessive turnovers and by having few consistent shooters.

Looking forward to the season starting.

On Temple’s Message Board, Temple alumni fans refer to the illustrious era of Temple basketball when HC John Chaney took his teams deep into the NCAA tournament. Many were glad to see Fran Dunphy’s tenure as HC end last year because he did not propel Temple to advance deep into the later rounds of the NCAA tournament, ignoring the fact that FD has many 20-win seasons during his stint at Temple.

Little regard was also given to the fact that recruiting has changed, and fewer players today want to remain and play in a cold section of the nation, and have instead sought out better options.

Dunphy was able to secure so may wins in large part due to his teams turning the ball over less than it’s opponents over the course of the season. The fact Temple didn’t go far just shows how talented most of the teams are that are invited to tournament, and that teams winning in the tournament and advancing is very difficult.

Jury is still-out on how good a HC McKie is. In his first year as HC, it’s clear Temple fell dramatically last season, and his decision to let some former players depart, and bring in so many new players was a high risk play. But for new NCAA rules that will allow transfers to play as the result of the unforeseen covid virus, his decision to change the program so dramatically would have likely fallen on it’s face. But now that Temple will have a deeper roster such gives HC McKie a chance to show that Temple did not make a big step backwards in it’s basketball program. McKie has also added some good recruits will join Temple next season.

But HC McKie still needs to show he has learned from his myriad of mistakes of last season, and coach the team well this season. It’s my opinion, he now has a better team than last season, as it’s likely he will be able replace Temple’s two leading scorers with better shooters, as Dre Perry, who was not given the chance to display the full extent of his shooting skills, will be one player who hopefully will be thrust to the forefront of Temple’s offense. Do think that there are other new guards who are good shooters will emerge as well. Looking forward to
which players will step into the limelight and succeed.