City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Temple started its conference scheduling with an encouraging road win against a ranked opponent.

But that was all the way back in 2015.

Temple got outplayed in every area of the game, and suffered a 77-50 drubbing from Houston at a lifeless Liacouras Center on Saturday. The Owls couldn’t make a basket, didn’t play good defense and  looked nothing like a team that beat No. 22 Cincinnati by seven points on Tuesday.

“We did nothing right, to be honest with you,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy bluntly explained afterward.

The Owls fell back to .500 at 6-6 and back to a team that had a shaky first two months of the season. Temple tested itself in the non-conference, which resulted in a lot of opportunities for a marquee victory – all of which came up short.

But they got one immediately in conference play. The Owls shot 50 percent from the field and had four players in double figures against the Bearcats, as they led for pretty much the entire game. Temple rolled into Saturday’s game in the best position they’ve been in all season.

The Owls left it in one of the worst. As one fan kindly pointed out as the Cougars drained the clock on a lopsided road win: “This is rock bottom, Fran!”

“We thought we had some momentum building up,” Dunphy said. “We had a terrific win on the road, but it’s not good enough. Every day, you have to come out ready to go, we weren’t alert as we needed to be.”

At 12-2, Houston is no slouch, and the Cougars shot 54.4 percent and consistently got open and easy looks, while they also beat Temple on the glass, 41-30. Houston, though, was picked seventh in the preseason American Athletic Conference coaches poll, and Temple was a six-point favorite.

Dunphy said he did not see any indications during practice in the last few days that his team would come out flat after such a good win. He also did not predict that his team would shoot 3-for-23 on 3-pointers (including an 0-11 mark in the first half), shoot 34.5 percent from the field and have 13 turnovers to just six assists.

“I didn’t see this coming. I thought Houston was very good team coming in, they’re 11-2 for a reason. I thought they moved the ball well and their offense was very, very good, Dunphy said.

“I thought our assistant coaches had us prepared as well as we possibly could. I didn’t see anything that surprised me other than we didn’t make shots and we didn’t do a good enough job of taking care of the ball. …And every time we made a mistake, they capitalized.”

So where does this loss put Temple? Well, for as big a step forward the Owls took against Cincinnati, Saturday’s debacle was an equal, if not larger, step in the opposite direction. It leaves the team exactly where most people thought Temple was before AAC play: In the middle of the pack in a conference that has a handful of talented teams at the top.

Tuesday proved the Owls can beat anyone in the league, and even do so on the road. Saturday proved that team might not show up and those in cherry and red always have the chance to leave an arena disgruntled.

Temple is back on the court Tuesday, facing another road challenge at Connecticut. The Owls won’t be riding high going there, but they’re hoping the trip back to Philly has the same feelings as their one from Cincinnati.