City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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Temple finally got its season underway with two games in the last two days, as the Owls picked up wins over Old Dominion and then Auburn to advance to the championship round of the Charleston Classic on Sunday night, where they’ll face either Hofstra or Clemson.

Some thoughts on the Owls over their opening two contests:

1. Alston getting better and better
The Owls are rightfully happy to have senior guard Josh Brown in the lineup after he missed last season with an Achilles injury.

But through two games, it’s several others who have stolen the spotlight -- including junior guard Shizz Alston Jr., who’s playing at as high a level as anybody on the team.

After barely playing as a freshman, Alston stepped up in Brown’s absence a year ago to average 13.9 ppg and 4.1 apg, earning Big 5 First Team and Most Improved Player honors. With Brown coming back, it was expected his numbers would be about the same, with more offensive options on the Owls. So far, that hasn’t been the case.

The Haverford School product busted out with a 23-point, six-rebound performance in Temple’s 76-65 win over Old Dominion on Friday, and then followed that up with an 18-point, 5-rebound, 4-assist, 0-turnover effort in 35 minutes. In the span of the two games, he made seven of his 11 3-point attempts and 13-of-22 (59 percent) overall.

Along with Obi Enechionyia and Quinton Rose, who both had 19 points on Friday after scoring 15 and 20 respectively on Thursday, Alston has been one of Temple’s go-to offensive options this season. The way he’s been trending, that might not change.

2. Rose needs to cut down on turnovers
One of the most promising young talents in the city is Temple sophomore Quinton Rose. The lanky 6-5 wing guard has the ability to be a star at the collegiate level and possibly beyond, but there’s still plenty of tightening up to do in his game.

Rose was arguably the hero of the win over Auburn, hitting three key triples in the game’s final eight minutes as part of a 19-point, six-rebound performance where he went 5-of-8 from 3-point range and 7-of-15 overall. And he’s shown his playmaking ability with eight assists -- but he also committed four turnovers, including two charges, a day after coughing it up five times; in total, he’s committed nine of his teams’ 24 giveaways through two games.

Temple coach Fran Dunphy knows that part of playing with Rose involves taking some of the bad with the good, but in nights where Rose’s shot isn’t falling, he needs to make sure he’s not then also costing his teammates from getting shots as well.

3. Brown quiet in first two games of return
After missing all but five games last season with an Achilles injury, redshirt-senior guard Josh Brown made his return to the court at the Charleston Classic. Brown averaged 6.5 points and three assists, shooting 30 percent from the floor in the two contests.

Don’t look for Brown to be a primary scorer this season. As a junior in 2015-16, he averaged 8.3 ppg and 4.9 apg. He was Temple’s fifth leading scorer on a team that went to the NCAA Tournament. With the emergence of Obi Enechionyia and Alston last season and Rose early this year, Brown will not be tasked with carrying the Owls offensively. Some games, Brown might be the fifth scoring option for the Owls after sophomore guard Alani Moore II, who tallied 12 points in Friday’s win.

As cliche as it sounds, look for Brown to contribute more in ways that don’t show up as much on the box score. Brown has always been considered a very good defender. On offense, he can reel the team in if some of the younger guys get out of control.

4. Big men show flashes, still developing
It usually takes big men a little bit more longer to develop at the college level because most are not used to playing against other players with their same size.

In their sophomore and junior seasons, respectively, Damion Moore and Ernest Aflakpui showed some good things in the Owls’ first two games. Aflakpui is averaging five points and three rebounds in two games, right near his averages from last season, despite playing in just 27 minutes. Moore scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds in Friday’s win against Auburn. It was the first time in his career with that many points and that many rebounds in the same game.

Still, the two have plenty of room to grow. Aflakpui had four fouls in 21 minutes against Old Dominion and three fouls in six minutes against Auburn. Moore, who is listed at 6-foot-11, 225 pounds, gets bumped around at times. In the Auburn game in which the Owls were thought to have the size advantage, it would have been nice to see either Moore or Aflakpui flash some dominance, particularly rebounding.

Aflakpui and Moore won’t be called on to do too much this season. At times, Dunphy will put Enechionyia at the five with four guards around him. Enechionyia is off to another hot start this season, averaging 17 points and 8.5 rebounds. He posted a double-double (19 points and 11 rebounds) on Friday.

5. Freshmen minutes hard to come by
Of Temple’s four freshmen, three seemed to be in the discussion to see some sort of role in the rotation: physical 6-6 wings DeVondre ‘Dre’ Perry (Poly, Md.) and J.P. Moorman II (Greensboro Day, N.C.) and guard Nate Pierre-Louis (Roselle Catholic, N.J.). But through two games, only Perry and Moorman have seen minutes, and haven’t yet gotten a chance to really get comfortable on the court.

It’s just not clear when that will change. Following the Charleston Classic, Temple has games against La Salle, South Carolina (at Madison Square Garden), George Washington, Wisconsin, and then St. Joe’s, Villanova, Drexel and Georgia before the start of American Athletic Conference play. That’s quite a gauntlet, with three Big 5 games, three others against high-major opponents and then Drexel and George Washington, who certainly won’t just roll over and give up.

Unless he wants to stick with a seven-man rotation for the entire season -- which is doable, but not preferable -- Dunphy needs to find time to get Perry and Moorman some more run, and perhaps even some minutes for Pierre-Louis. Their size and versatility could play well in the AAC, but they need to get the freshman jitters out of the way first.