Temple Basketball

The Temple men's basketball program has reportedly been involved in a total of four games this season that "generated irregular betting patterns," according to The Athletic's Joe Vardon and Chris Vannini.

One of those games, Thursday's 100-72 against Alabama-Birmingham, was flagged by the gambling watchdog U.S. Integrity, which made national news after Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated reported that the agency alerted casinos regarding "unusual wagering activity."

Forde added that U.S. Integrity has been monitoring Temple basketball for "a while" and betting behavior before Thursday's game shifted the line from UAB being 1.5-point favorites that morning to eight-point favorites by the afternoon and eventually settling as seven-point favorites before the game began.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board later confirmed the reports that U.S. Integrity flagged that contest.

"We are aware of the social media posts regarding last night's men's basketball game," Temple said in a statement on Friday. "We will review the reports thoroughly in accordance with university and NCAA policies. While we can't comment any further at this time, we take this matter very seriously."

The Athletic's reporting uncovered three more games involving unusual betting patterns.

The first came on Feb. 8 against Memphis, with the Tigers moving from 6.5-point favorites about four hours to tipoff to 10.5-point favorites at the start of the contest due to a flood of money being wagered against the Owls.

The second came on Feb. 28 against Rice, with the total points line being bet down from 145 to 140.5 ahead of tip. The first-half point total also went from 68 to 64 the day of the game.

Finally, total points for Temple's March 2 matchup against Tulsa went from 144 to 136.5 in a two-hour span before tipoff, and the line for first-half points dropped from 68.5 to 62.5.

The Athletic reported that none of those games included any injury or suspension news that might have understandably and drastically altered betting patterns.

Both Fanatics Sportsbook and FanDuel have said they would be removing Temple's Sunday matchup against UT-San Antonio from their books.

At this juncture, no players or coaches have been implicated in the irregular betting patterns.

Dawn Staley appears to be in the process of building a dynasty with the South Carolina women's basketball team and has no interest in abandoning that to coach on the men's side of the sport.

"No thoughts," she told reporters when asked about the suggestion she should coach Temple's men's team. "I don't want to coach in the men's game."

That some would connect her to the Temple job doesn't come as a huge surprise since she was born and raised in Philadelphia and led the Owls' women's program to plenty of success from 2000-01 to 2007-08.

Seth Davis of CBS Sports was surely thinking that when he suggested Staley for the job after Aaron McKie stepped down:

If Temple really wants to win basketball games it should turn the keys over to a Philly native who is a proven winner.

Her name is Dawn Staley.

Easy choice.

— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) March 23, 2023

While Staley made her feelings clear, Temple announced that it hired Adam Fisher for the position on Wednesday.

Frankly, the Temple men's coach would be a step down for Staley. The Owls haven't been past the First Four of the NCAA tournament since 2013 and were just 16-16 this past season.

By contrast, the South Carolina women's team is two wins away from completing a perfect season and winning back-to-back national championships.

Staley has been with the Gamecocks since the 2008-09 campaign, and they have been to the NCAA tournament 11 times and the Final Four five times, including the last three seasons. They won the national title in 2017 and again last season and are in position to do so again this season.

Throw in seven SEC regular-season and tournament championships, and she is already an icon in South Carolina.

Maybe she will take another coaching job somewhere else in the future, but for now she is dominating the college basketball world and collecting championships. She isn't about to stop doing that, even if there are some connections with the Temple job.

Basketball Hall of Famer John Chaney has died at the age of 89, according to a statement from Temple University (h/t Jonathan Poet of the Associated Press). 

Chaney is best known for his 24-year run as men's basketball coach at Temple from 1982-2006. The Owls had made just one NCAA tournament appearance in 10 seasons from 1972-81, but after a 14-15 record in Chaney's first year, Temple had winning records in each of the next 23 seasons.

He led the program to a school-record 32 wins twice (1986-87, 1987-88). The '88 team is the only one time the Philadelphia school has earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. That season saw Chaney honored with the NABC Coach of the Year, Associated Press Coach of the Year and UPI Coach of the Year awards after leading Temple to a 32-2 record. 

The Owls advanced to the Elite Eight five times, won the Atlantic 10 regular-season title eight times and the A-10 tournament title six times with Chaney at the helm. He is the program's all-time leader in games coached (769), wins (516) and was named A-10 Coach of the Year five times.  

Prior to being hired at Temple, the Florida native spent 10 seasons as head coach at Cheyney State in Pennsylvania. He had a 225-59 record with the HBCU program and won the 1978 Division II tournament. 

Chaney was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001. He was part of the inaugural class enshrined in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. 

Temple men's basketball head coach Fran Dunphy will reportedly step down following the 2018-19 season.

According to Seth Davis of The Fieldhouse, Dunphy will be replaced by current Temple assistant coach and former NBA guard Aaron McKie.

The 69-year-old Dunphy has been Temple's head coach since the 2006-07 season after a 17-year run at Penn.

Dunphy owns a 247-152 record at Temple, and he has led the Owls to the NCAA tournament on seven occasions.

Since going to the tourney in six straight seasons from 2007-08 through 2012-13, however, Temple has only made it once in the past five campaigns.

That drop-off in success coincided with a move from the Atlantic-10 Conference to the American Athletic Conference.

After going 16-16 in 2016-17, the Owls went 17-16 this season and fell in the first round of the NIT to Penn State.

During his 29-year college head coaching career, Dunphy is 557-315 overall with 16 trips to the NCAA tournament. He has never advanced past the Round of 32 in March Madness, however.

The 45-year-old McKie has been an assistant under Dunphy at Temple since 2014 after serving as an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers from 2007 through 2013.

McKie, who had a standout playing career at Temple collegiately, spent 13 seasons in the NBA as a player with the Portland Trail Blazers, Detroit Pistons, 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers.

Temple freshman guard Trey Lowe suffered injuries while involved in a single-car accident on Sunday morning. 

Continue for updates.

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Lowe Likely Done for Season

Tuesday, March 1

The team announced on Tuesday that Lowe is expected to miss the remainder of the season but did not disclose the severity of the injuries he suffered in the wreck.   

"I visited Trey and his family on both Sunday and Monday at the hospital," Temple head coach Fran Dunphy told the school's website. "Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time and we are hopeful that he will make a full recovery."

The 6'6" shooting guard appeared in all of Temple's first 28 games this season and averaged 12.2 points per game. Lowe came off of the bench behind the likes of Quenton DeCosey and Daniel Dingle while posting 4.8 points and 1.6 boards per night. 

His best game of the season came on Feb. 17 against No. 1 Villanova when he scored 21 points by going 5-of-8 from three-point range, but Lowe hasn't been a big scorer much this year. Lowe recorded 10 or more points on just three occasions this season.

With Lowe out, Temple will put its deep backcourt to the test. Fellow freshman Levan Shawn Alston could see a bump in minutes as a third option at shooting guard behind DeCosey and Dingle. 

At 18-10 (12-4 AAC), Temple is in first place in the American Athletic Conference with two games to go in the regular season against Tulane and Memphis. Those last two games will give the Owls an opportunity to find another contributor off of the bench in place of Lowe before the postseason begins.

If Temple doesn't win the conference, it's unlikely it will make the NCAA tournament. ESPN's Joe Lunardi doesn't have the Owls in his latest bracket, so it's vital the team irons out any possible rough edges created with the loss of Lowe.

Stats courtesy of Sports-Reference.com.

Old Dominion, Stanford and Miami already punched their ticket for the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden but one spot remained for the winner of the Temple and Louisiana Tech game.

Temple jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, earning their ticket to New York City with a 77-59 victory over Louisiana Tech at the Liacouras Center.

The Bulldogs relied heavily on star Speedy Smith to help guide Louisiana Tech’s uptempo offense, but the senior point guard's night ended early due to an ankle injury in the second half. Fellow guard Alex Hamilton contributed a game-high 25 points in the No. 3 seed’s second-round win but could only muster four points against the Owls' stingy defense.

Temple halted Louisiana Tech's tournament run collecting their second win of the year over the Bulldogs. The Owls defeated Louisiana Tech 82-75 back in November.

Temple was soaring after an impressive offensive performance against George Washington in the second round of the NIT. Senior guard Will Cummings scored 51 points through the first two rounds, including 21 points in a 90-77 win over the Colonials. 

Cummings continued to produce, but his backcourt counterparts also came up big in the quarterfinal bout. Quenton DeCosey and Jesse Morgan scored 21 and 17 points respectively.

The Owl's ability to convert shots slowed down Louisiana Tech's high-speed offense as they could not get out in transition for easy buckets. Temple shot nearly 50 percent from the field primarily due to their stellar guards ability to create quality looks in isolation sets.

The No. 1 Temple Owls deservedly move on to the semifinals to face No. 2 seed Miami following their quarterfinal victory over Richmond.

The Temple Owls led for most of the way in the first game of ESPN's tip-off marathon. Unfortunately they were not on top at the end, as Kent State put together a late rally to knock the Owls off with an 81-77 victory on Monday night.

Regardless of the loss for Temple, it was a great battle between two good programs, and both teams played very well. Here is a look at the lessons learned from Kent State and Temple's Monday night showdown.

1) Balanced Attack: The Owls showed Monday night that they will have a very balanced offensive attack this season. All five starters scored in double figures from the team, which is a much different picture then the offense that was led star guard Khalif Wyatt. This balanced attack will be difficult for other teams to stop, because at any time any player can kill you offensively. Conversely, with such a balanced attack that means every player needs to show up on the offensive end for the Owls to win games.

2) Owls Need Bench Support: Twenty-two of Kent State's 81 points on Monday night came from its bench, which was a huge factor in helping it win the game. On the other side, Temple only managed to have two points off its bench. This simply will not get it done if the Owls want to win games on a consistent basis this season. When three guys off your bench come in and take seven shots over a span of 34 minutes of court time, you need to do more then just get two points. Ultimately, the lack of bench production was a major difference in such a closely contested ballgame.

3) Remember the Name Quenton DeCosey: Obviously, Temple fans are not going to forget the name Quenton DeCosey since he starts for them, but this is more for the rest of the country. DeCosey struggled at times tonight like all players do, but he carried the Owls for a large part of the second half offensively. At 6'5'' he showed the size to score inside and keep possessions alive by crashing the offensive glass, and he showed a sweet stroke and ability to knock down the three-point shot from the perimeter. DeCosey is only a sophomore and looks to have a bright future with the Owls.

4) Both These Teams Could Play in March: Both Kent State and Temple put on an impressive performance on Monday night. Kent State placed fourth in the MAC conference last year and showed it could be good enough this year to challenge the powers in its conference and maybe seize a ticket to the NCAA tournament. As for Temple, the Owls were in the tournament last year, and although they do not have Wyatt on the team anymore they showed with their young balanced attack they may just be good enough to make another run into the tournament once again.

Hello, college basketball fans!

Maybe after this week's results, maybe the Big East divorce isn't such a bad thing.

But next season and the following season, things will look quite different in college basketball.

Syracuse and Pittsburgh will be heading to the ACC next season with Louisville and Notre Dame to follow in 2014-15.

Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's, Seton Hall, Providence, Marquette and DePaul left the "old" Big East to form the "new" Big East. Xavier, Butler and Creighton will join them.

Rutgers will join the Big Ten in 2014-15 but that is irrelevant for basketball except that all of the Big Ten RPI's will sink as Rutgers' last NCAA appearance was 1991.

That leaves Connecticut, Cincinnati, and South Florida. Temple joined the Big East in football this season.

I have always said Temple belonged in Big East basketball ever since the John Chaney days. I was hoping that Temple would be playing Georgetown and Villanova but now they are gone. I feel like Temple is like the unwanted kid who finally gets invited to a party only to find once he or she gets there all the cool kids left.

Temple's new conference opponents in 2014-15 are at the time of this writing: Connecticut, Cincinnati, South Florida, Central Florida, Memphis, Houston, SMU, and Tulane. East Carolina is scheduled to be a football only member but that could change. In addition, Tulsa may be coming as well.

Of these schools, only Connecticut and Cincinnati are within 1000 miles of Philadelphia. Ironically, East Carolina would be relatively close if they get an invite to college basketball. Houston and SMU are west of the Mississippi River. Tulsa, if they join, would also be. Tulane is right along the Mississippi in New Orleans. 

In addition, of the other five new members only Memphis made the NCAA tournament this year and the only one that has any significant basketball history whatsoever.

Central Florida has never won an NCAA tournament game. They made four trips to the Big Dance with the most recent being in 2005.

South Florida made the Round of 32 last season (ironically, at Temple's expense). But they have only made the tournament three times and last year's visit was their first since 1992. Not counting last year's First Four game, they've won just one NCAA tournament game.

Tulane last made the NCAA tournament in 1995. 

SMU's last NCAA appearance was 1993. They last won in 1988.

While Houston is well known for Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler (Phi Slamma Jamma), they are 0-4 in the NCAA tournament since 1985 and have made just one NCAA tournament since 1992 (2010).

Should East Carolina join, they've never won an NCAA tournament game and they've made just two appearances (1972 and 1993).

This is bad news not only for Temple, but Connecticut and Cincinnati as well. No wonder UConn and Cincinnati wanted to get in the ACC so badly.

Honestly, I think the Atlantic 10 would be better for the three schools. Assuming Dayton and St. Louis join the Big East eventually, they may not be much better than the rest of their new conference (VCU will probably be the only strong basketball member left). But teams will be much closer to the Northeast schools. Even the MAC would be better.

But if UConn, Cincinnati and Temple are stuck in this league, is there a way to make things better? Yes.

If the Big East is at nine or 10 schools, the most obvious choice would be a full double round robin schedule. But that means the Northeastern schools have to make two trips to Texas (assuming the league doesn't schedule them back-to-back).

On the other hand, do the Texas schools really want to play at Temple and UConn? Not only are they far away, but they're cold in the winter.

My alternative would be for neighboring geographic schools to play more often. 

Let's assume East Carolina joins the league for men's basketball. I will divide the 10 teams into four groups:

• Northeast: Cincinnati, Connecticut, Temple
• Southeast: Central Florida, East Carolina, South Florida

• Southwest: Houston, SMU, Tulane
• Memphis: Memphis 

All teams other than Memphis will play the other two teams in their group four times (two home and two away), Memphis twice (home and away), and all other teams once.

Meanwhile, Memphis will play everyone twice (since Memphis is actually a good basketball program, I don't have a problem with the Northeast schools playing a home and home with them).

So, Temple would only play Central Florida, East Carolina, South Florida, Houston, SMU, and Tulane once a year, Memphis twice, and UConn and Cincinnati four times for a total of 18 games.

This allows more regional games and less travel for everyone involved. The better teams will play more often while the lesser teams play a much less challenging schedule.

I'm sure no conference has ever had this setup. On the other hand, not many conferences have teams along the East Coast and teams in Texas.

This conference really was set up for football. Temple and UConn probably don't want to play SMU, Houston and Tulane in basketball and other sports and vice versa. So unless the Northeast three escape this league, maybe this setup will be the best for everyone

The Temple Owls basketball team got off to a huge lead early and was able to hold on just long enough to beat the North Carolina State Wolfpack in Round 2 of the 2013 NCAA Tournament on Friday.

Senior guard Khalif Wyatt scored 31 points to lift the Owls to a 76-72 victory. Fellow senior Jake O'Brien contributed 18 points as well, including four three-pointers.

The Owls, the No. 9 seed in the East region, got it going early and led for all but the first three minutes of the game. Though the team did not match the size of N.C. State, they made up for it by hitting from outside and getting to the foul line often.

Despite a courageous second-half comeback by the eighth-seeded Wolfpack, Wyatt was able to hit all six of his free-throw attempts in the final 33 seconds to secure the upset.

At halftime Fran Dunphy's squad held an impressive 16-point lead over the Wolfpack after O'Brien hit a clutch three-pointer with 21 seconds remaining in the half.

Surprisingly the Wolfpack actually shot better (58 percent) than the Owls (48 percent) in the game. However, the big difference in this one was the turnover margin, as TU was able to force 13 turnovers while losing the ball only five times.

The win was yet another victory by an Atlantic 10 team. All five members of the conference in this year's tournament won in the round of 64.

The Wolfpack had their way down low and held a strong advantage in the rebounding department grabbing 12 more boards than the Owls.

C.J. Leslie scored 20 points, and Richard Howell contributed 14 points and 15 rebounds for Mark Gottfried's crew. Lorenzo Brown also added 22 points and nine assists for the Wolfpack.

The Owls did their best to control a slow pace in the game by getting to the free-throw line frequently, garnering a whopping 33 attempts. Though the team struggled from the line (64 percent), Wyatt hit 12 of his 14 free-throw attempts.

Wyatt, the Atlantic 10 leading scorer during the regular season, played very well despite dealing with a finger injury. Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson also chipped in 12 points and 2 blocks for the cherry and white.

The win was the second tournament victory for Dunphy's Owls in the past three seasons. The Owls move on to play the top-seeded Indiana Hoosiers on Sunday, March 24.