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The average record of the 12 teams is approximately 7-3 at this point.

However, only a few AAC teams have been ranked in the top 50, and some teams may need to make a few early to mid-course corrections as conference play approaches.

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Here are a few observations about the Temple Owls.

At 7-3, the Owls have gotten off to a stronger start than many might have expected of a team with a first-year Head Coach, after losing Shizz Alston and their starting Center.

The Owls successes have come despite injuries to 4 players. Only 7 of 12 eligible players have been available to play all of the first 10 games.

On the positive side, PF (transfer soph) Jake Forrester (8.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg) has surpassed expectations in games 5-10, after being granted a NCAA waiver to play this season.

The team has been capably led by Quinton Rose (Wing) and Nate Pierre-Louis (CG), though the pair has scored ~5 fewer ppg than they did in 2018-19. The rest of the team has played somewhat inconsistently to date.

Temple's offense has sputtered at times. Defenses have been able to limit their scoring by focusing their efforts on the teams top two scorers. Others have picked up most of the slack, but the team has averaged only 72.4 ppg, compared to 74.7 ppg in 2018-19.

On the other hand, Temple's defense has given up only 61.9 ppg, on average, which is a marked improvement over last year's total of 71.5 ppg scored by opponents.

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The main challenge for Temple, going forward, will be to get more scoring production out of the supporting cast backing up Rose and NPL.

The tricky part is getting the ball to the supporting players in scoring position, given that the team is effectively playing with 3 back court combo guards, rather than the traditional PG-SG-Wing arrangement:

Rose 3.6 assists, NPL 3.5 assists, Moore II 2.8 assists.

In addition, Temple has to improve its ball control (current average: 12.3 turnovers per game).

Another challenge is to boost the team's shooting percentage, currently FG2% .473, FG3% .324, & FT% .686.

Further, the current starting 5 (Rose, NPL, Moore II, Hamilton, & Moorman) has been somewhat underwhelming, with sub-optimal productivity from the latter three players.

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Adjustments may be in the works:

Forrester and Perry are already playing minutes comparable to those of Hamilton & Moorman, and their minutes may continue to increase.

Another possible or likely adjustment is that guards Monty Scott and Josh Pierre-Louis may see increases in playing time. Scott has regained his shooting touch after getting off to a slow start, and JPL has shown flashes of ability to be a game changer, though making freshman mistakes and currently recovering from a wrist injury.

After G/W Damian Dunn finally joins the team, after recovering from the foot injury, it is hoped that he'll be able to boost the team's offensive performance in the back court. Another possibility is that the team's true Center, Damion Moore, may be able to help the team win a few games later in the season - health permitting.

Dexter Dennis has been surprisingly bad so far...

2019: 105.0 ORtg, 50.6 eFG%
2020: 88.5 ORtg, 35.4 eFG%

Part of our offense woes so far.

The Tigers need to continue to gel and integrate Wiseman and Quinones upon their availability. Also, Memphis - per Penny - requires work on "getting rid of the ball when people come double team us." Penny added: “We’ve really got to be smart on how we share the ball. We only had five assists today (against Tenn.) and that’s not nearly enough.”

Fortunately, the issue with passing is not due to selfishness. Rather, I think players revert to their high school days when stressed.

WSU needs to find ways to get the bigs involved more in the offense. They do for parts of games then fall back to 3s and guard play (which has been very good this year). If we can get that going along with Dexter finding his shot, WSU could be in for a high seed (I sound like Miggy here)

tulsa needs to not suck and recruit people that can shoot

(12-19-2019 10:15 AM)FadedCrown Wrote:  Dexter Dennis has been surprisingly bad so far...

2019: 105.0 ORtg, 50.6 eFG%
2020: 88.5 ORtg, 35.4 eFG%

Part of our offense woes so far.

Took the words out of my mouth. We're not playing too bad considering the mystified absence of this guy. If he ever comes back to Earth, we could be really good.

I also agree with stick that we need to utilize the inside game more. We aren't a great 3 point shooting team (we have a couple really good shooters and a few chuckers). Inside out always has been a recipe for success with Marshall-coached teams.

UConn needs to play more consistently, and learn to not turn the ball over. I believe I read on the yard last night we have more turnovers than assists on the season, I haven't fact checked that but it wouldn't surprise me. We've also had multiple games where it looked like our best players were reserves, but lately the bench hasn't been nearly as good. Getting more consistent minutes out of guys like Adams, Bouknight and Gafney will make our team much more formidable.

Obviously getting Vital and Gilbert to actually take and make good shots would be huge for us as well.

If we can do all of these things, we have a chance to beat Nova and have a nice run through conference play, which should make us an at large bid. Do none of them, and we'll be staring at an NIT bid.

(12-19-2019 10:35 AM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  The Tigers need to continue to gel and integrate Wiseman

When is Wiseman returning?

(12-19-2019 11:20 AM)DrBox Wrote:  

(12-19-2019 10:35 AM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  The Tigers need to continue to gel and integrate Wiseman

When is Wiseman returning?

Jan 12 vs. USF. His last game missed will be at Wichita.

(12-19-2019 11:18 AM)Nameless Wrote:  UConn needs to play more consistently, and learn to not turn the ball over. I believe I read on the yard last night we have more turnovers than assists on the season, I haven't fact checked that but it wouldn't surprise me. We've also had multiple games where it looked like our best players were reserves, but lately the bench hasn't been nearly as good. Getting more consistent minutes out of guys like Adams, Bouknight and Gafney will make our team much more formidable.

Obviously getting Vital and Gilbert to actually take and make good shots would be huge for us as well.

If we can do all of these things, we have a chance to beat Nova and have a nice run through conference play, which should make us an at large bid. Do none of them, and we'll be staring at an NIT bid.

It is true. UConn's assist to turnover ratio is 0.9. https://uconnhuskies.com/sports/mens-bas...s/2019/pdf

Jarron has a kenpom offensive rating of 89.1 despite a usage rate of 29.6%. That's pretty awful. If he was playing closer to the 109.6 ortg he had last year UC becomes a conference contender overnight.

(12-19-2019 10:35 AM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  The Tigers need to continue to gel and integrate Wiseman and Quinones upon their availability. Also, Memphis - per Penny - requires work on "getting rid of the ball when people come double team us." Penny added: “We’ve really got to be smart on how we share the ball. We only had five assists today (against Tenn.) and that’s not nearly enough.”

Fortunately, the issue with passing is not due to selfishness. Rather, I think players revert to their high school days when stressed.

This is going to be very important when Wiseman returns.

Feeding the post and interior passing are going to be key because the lane is going to be packed with both Precious and Wiseman garnering so much attention down low and likely not being guarded outside the paint.

Precious has been terrible with passing so far this year...Hopefully he improves when Wiseman returns because there will likely be many opportunities for both of them to pass to each other for easy baskets and trips to the FT line.

I think UCF has mostly gotten by thanks to a weak schedule. We have one bad loss and one loss to a decent opponent (that we should have won). Dawkins has got to find a settled rotation; every night it's different guys that we rely on. While that suggests that it's a deep bench (I think it is), there also seems to be a lot of inconsistency from night-to-night. Collin Smith is the only guy that seems to be dependable every game, and that's only if he doesn't get into foul trouble, which he often does.

I am going to throw out East Carolina. -Not really 'throwing out' but the need for playing better ball.

i forgot uconn was still in this conference

Dooley needs to pick a top 7 and actually stick with them so we'd have some defined roles so our team can actually build some chemistry. We are basically runnng 10 or 11 players in and out playing inconsistent all over the place minutes for everyone but Gardner. You can't make adjustments when you don't even have a baseline from game to game.

(12-19-2019 11:30 AM)TripleA Wrote:  

(12-19-2019 11:20 AM)DrBox Wrote:  

(12-19-2019 10:35 AM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  The Tigers need to continue to gel and integrate Wiseman

When is Wiseman returning?

Jan 12 vs. USF. His last game missed will be at Wichita.

It was just announced that he isn't coming back at all now. At least Memphis has proven they can win without him.

(12-19-2019 10:56 AM)panicstricken Wrote:  tulsa needs to not suck and recruit people that can shoot

Sub in ECU and this statement is also accurate.

This isn’t your personal Temple message board. Go talk to Miggy on the one you took over.

We good. Houston's on the perfect trajectory. Don't want to peak too early. We're on track to be a Final Four team. :)