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Temple reportedly received a commitment from Wake Forrest transfer freshmen Emmanuel Okpoma. He’s 6’10.” Averaged 9.4 mpg and 1.1 ppg. Averaged taking a fga once every 13 minutes, but did shoot 55.6 percent from the floor. Committed a personal foul once every 7 minutes. Had few rebounds. Can see why he played sparingly on a bad team.

Excellent shot-blocker at 3.2 blocks per 40 minutes.

Did play for Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. Outstanding HS program. Okpomo is from Mississippi.

They loss of both Barry and Perry will have some impact. Both were underutilized, and Temple will miss their shooting.

Temple has found a potential defensive presence in Okpomo, but not anytime soon. Understand that he looked lost defensively playing for Wake Forest. Not signing an experienced transfer big shows how hard a time Temple is having recruiting.

Temple’s defense was strengthened slightly with Tolbert joining the rotation at the Center position.

White and Hicks probably will see time playing at SF, along with Williams, Battle.

Hope Miller, Battle and Williams earn the right to each average 30 mpg, with White, Dunn, and Hicks, playing the balance. Key is seeing either Dunn improve from last year or White replacing both his playing time and scoring more points.

Why Strickland, Parks and Quincy A., are returning as they will likely be played sparingly, is beyond my comprehension.

Baylor earned the national title as the nation’s best men’s bb team. They used their quickness to score at the hoop, and were deadly shooting three-point shots.On defense, Baylor forced Gonzaga turnovers. Clearly, Baylor has three best guards in college bb. Their bigs cleaned the boards. Bravo Baylor! Played basketball as one dreams it should be played.

Do believe if Temple is to improve it’s three best offensive players for Temple next season will be Battle, Miller, and Jourdain.

Even though Battle shot but 31 percent on three’s in the 11 games he played in, he did shoot 43 percent (13-30) on three’s in his last four games. So I can see him shooting in the high 30’s on three’s next season Last season, Battle took as many three's as he did two’s. Since he shot two’s at a terrible percentage (38 percent) he’d be wise to shoot way more three’s than 2’s.

Miller shot 43 percent on three’s his senior year in HS, but he didn’t shoot a lot of three’s. Even though the distance in shooting three’s is further out in college, I do expect him to shoot quite well on three’s, but I sense he won’t be shooting as many three’s per game as Barry did. One needs to see how well he performs driving to the hoop, before deciding whether he should be shooting more three’s than two’s.

Although Jourdain didn’t play much till the end of the season, Temple had it!s being scoring margin (plus 7-points) per 100 possessions when Jourdain played than any other player except for Barry Brandon who also Temple had almost provided Temple with a plus 7-point margin when he played. Temple will miss Barry. One can only hope that Mckie will have Jourdain shoot a lot, especially three’s which he shot very well. But don’t hold your breath as Mckie will probably favor backcourt players shooting the ball.

For Temple to average more ppg than last season, Jourdain iOS Temple’s best hope and really needs to produce.

Barry and Perry, both were very good three point shooters and both will be missed. Miller will basically replace Barry’s three-point shooting, and hopefully with more playing time, Jourdain will replace Pperry’s three point shooting. Temple could use another three point shooter, but doesn’t seem to have one.

Temple would be wise shooting more three’s than did last season. Will be interesting to see if that happens.

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Temple’s HC Mckie needed to sign a transfer big who is better than Forrester. Didn’t accomplish that. In obtaining a commitment from Okpomo, Mckie failed to do so. As Okpomo is a project and bigs take to a long time to develop. That’s the last thing Temple needs.

Any hope of Temple’s front court improving this season now falls on whether a tandem of Forrester-Jourdain can both produce a good number of points and defend as well.

The backcourt is weak. Here’s Temple’s main problem: Battle made half his two’s in only 2 of the 11 games he played in. Dunn made only half his two’s in 2 of the 13 games he played in. To compound matter both players shot the most two’s for Temple.

J.Williams has made half his two’s in 9 of the 16 games he has played. As such, Williams should be shooting more two’s than Battle and Dunn
Mckie would be wise to insert Miller as Temple’s PG from the get go, and start both Battle and Williams o the wings, with Dunn coming off the bench.

Some fans think HC Mckie is implementing a cultural change and has a vision for change in how Temple plays bb. There’s absolutely no evidence of that.

Two noticeable change is in the opposite direction. As Temple now commits more turnovers than opponents. The opposite was true before his tenure commenced. Also, Temple’s two-point shooting percentage has declined.

For those who think this upcoming season is just a transition year and the following year is when Temple’s time in the sun will come, should re-think that. As with Forrester and Tolbert graduating, and without other Temple players not likely to transfer out, and even if they did, I doubt that any incoming players will be difference makers.

Temple fans likely will see at best a .500 record which is far better than this past season.

Wish I could be more optimistic, but I can’t. As I don’t foresee Temple returning anytime soon to it’s prominence of the past.

It’s sad to see Fran Dunphy as Athletic Director
have to preside over this sad chapter in Temple’s bb history.

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Everyone agrees that Brandan Barry should have shot more three’s, but some argue that Mckie could not have created more plays for Barry to do so.

Barry only averaged 4 three-point attempts every 27.6 minutes in conference play, or approximately once every 6.8 minutes of playing time. Only once, did he take 11 fga’s in a game. The next most was 6 fga’s per game. Barry could of taken way more three’s. Often, he passed up three’s.

Mckie could have run way more in and out plays through the Center or thru dribble penetration and kick-backs to Barry. Mckie chose not to.

Contrast Barry with Alani Moore who averaged taking 4.7 three’s per game playing 32 mpg in conference play, which is similar to how often Barry shot three’s. But Alani Moore on a few occasions took from 6-10 three point attempts. Other times far fewer. Barry could have done the same.

But Mckie did not create many plays for either Moore or Barry to shoot three’s. They had to do so on their own. Such is a shame as both were excellent three point shooters. Mckie rather had other players do most of Temple’s shooting. Such was a mistake as Temple lost games the last two season by averaging just 65 ppg. That did not need to be so.

In not so shocking news, Portland State's really mediocre coach quit to become an assistant coach at Texas Tech. I guess James Monty Scott's mediocre defense wasn't good enough to convince him to stay.

The former mediocre coach of Portland State never finished better than 4th in what is a nothing special mid major conference. In 2020, Portland State finished 8th behind notable blue bloods like Idaho State and Northern Colorado.

The mediocre former coach of Portland state won more than 18 games exactly once in 4 seasons in said mediocre conference. He did very impressively take Portland State to the CIT, where they beat Hartford before losing to the University of San Diego (not to be confused with San Diego State).

Coincidentally, USD ended Portland State's CIT Championship hopes both times they appeared in it.

Portland State has been to the tournament twice (both times under a different coach than the mediocre coach who left to become an assistant), and has yet to win a single NCAA Tournament game.

That former coach was Ken Bone, who lead Portland State to two 23 win seasons in four years before leaving for Washington State, where he was fired after 5 seasons.

News has come out that Hartford is considering dropping from D-I to D-III because they're bleeding money. A real shame for a program on the rise, and a coach with a much better future than the mediocre former coach of Portland State, Jake Peavy.

I think this is a mistake, as Hartford is a smaller private D-I school without football, and basketball is pretty big in the Mid Atlantic and New England. They definitely have a niche to fill and offer much better opportunities than nothing schools like Portland State and La Salle.

Cincy fires their coach, who they hired from Northern Kentucky. Seemed like a weird fit from the beginning, geography aside. Seems like there was some verbal abuse and a major cultural problem at Cincy. Will see how it impacts their football program, as he reportedly has a great relationship with Luke Fickell, and was instrumental in his hiring.

Cincy is a top-notch basketball program, and should be better than they are. Will be interesting if they hire former UC assistant Darren Savino, who is with Cronin at UCLA, or one of the Miller brothers.

When D.Dunn was in HS, newspaper accounts indicated how smart his bb decision-making was.

We didn’t see this season except when he drew fouls on pump fakes and drives to the hoop. He often took bad shots. Didn’t have that problem in HS. Maybe with Battle injured, he was ceded too much responsibility to score.

With Barry and Perry gone, Temple does not have a consistently good shooter. One can only hope that Battle, Williams, and Miller can be efficient shooting the ball, and that Dunn ups his game. Those fans who think Temple will be better by subtraction of certain players are sadly mistaken.

Both Battle and Jourdain (want to see him shoot three’s a lot) are Temple’s best hope to lead Temple in scoring. But seriously doubt Mckie will give Jourdain the chance to prove himself.

The addition of H. Miller, J.White, Tolbert, Z. Hicks, and E.Okpomo. could make Temple a better team, but it still remains to be seen how significant were the departures of Barry, Perry, and Moorman.

With that said, Temple does have a chance to improve it’s play, if HC Mckie puts-in an offense that allows Temple players to score easy baskets at the hoop off of back-cuts, installs an extended half-court pressure defense that creates more opponent turnovers that will be turn into uncontested Temple baskets. By doing so, Mckie will be highlighting his players positive athletic skill-sets, and hiding their deficiencies shooting the ball in half-court sets.

Is such likely to happen? I would say no given that Mckie did not employ a pressure defense the last two seasons, and the only time he does so was at the beginning of his first season as HC. Since then he only applied a pressure defense when his team was trailing.

lol

Temple’s number 1 priority this season should be to increase it’s scoring. To do so, Temple needs to get a combined 30 ppg from the Center and PF positions. If Temple does that they can average 75 ppg, almost 10-points more than they did last season.

Temple will be hampered by the fact that will get little offensive production from Tolbert, Okpomo, nor Parks.

Temple’s best bet at times is to have Forrester and Jourdain share the Center position, and to play small ball with four guards, and create mis-matches they can exploit.

Doubt Battle and Dunn playing together can be effective as both have high turnover rates.

Hope Jourdain earns starting at PF. Would play White on the wing and at PF.

Barry and Perry departing has cost Temple two good shooters, something Temple is in short supply of.

Fully expect Mckie to have J.Williams start at PG with Battle and Dunn at the wings.

Mckie should experiment to find out his best combination of players.

POSTSCRIPT: As predicted Tolbert, Parks and Okpomo combined for only 5.9 ppg in conference play.

A poster on the Temple Cherry and White Board said that his brother a Wake Forrest graduate said fans didn’t mind Okpomo transferring from WF to Temple, as he often got lost on defense.His defensive rating was much worse than Temple’s bigs, but better than WF’s starting bigs. We must keep in mind that WF plays in the AAC and has better players.

What gives me a slight pause in assessing Okpomo, is the fact he played at Oak Cliff Academy which is a HS powerhouse.

HC Mckie said Okpomo is good on defense.

He was a true ******* freshman figuring it out.

(04-18-2021 05:26 PM)JHG722 Wrote:  He was a true ******* freshman figuring it out.

If a “ big” does not display talent from the outset, it usually takes years to into a decent player.

Postscript: Okpomo has yet to figure it out.