City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2022-23 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 9. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season click here)

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Expectations are climbing on the third floor of the Pearson-McGonigle complex on Temple University’s campus, the home to both the Owls’ men’s and women’s programs. That might not be obvious from the results of the American Athletic Conference preseason polls, but internally, there’s a lot of confidence in those halls and practice gyms.

“I’m not big on what things look like on paper, you actually have to go play the games and compete, and that’s the environment we try to create around here, everything we do, we want to compete at doing it,” men’s coach Aaron McKie but added: “I think the future is bright.”

The Temple men were picked fifth and the women seventh in their respective preseason polls, both of which were released Wednesday morning ahead of the league’s virtual media day.

Both McKie and Diane Richardson as well as a couple of their student-athletes spoke with the media via Zoom on Wednesday morning, and it’s clear from all parties that they feel the tide is rising on North Broad Street.

Richardson, who was named Temple’s head coach in April, comes to North Philadelphia after spending five seasons at Towson, where she led the Tigers to an overall record of 80-66 (.548) and a berth in the 2019 NCAA Tournament and the 2022 NIT. 

She inherits an Owls squad that went 13-15 overall last year, with an 8-8 mark in the American Athletic Conference, not good enough to extend Tonya Cardoza’s 14-year run on the Temple sidelines. Back in the mix are a few key holdovers, including sophomore guards Aniya Gourdine (7.7 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 4.5 apg), Jasha Clinton (6.4 ppg) and Tiarra East (3.6 ppg, 2.7 rpg), plus grad student Jalynn Holmes (2.2 ppg, 1.8 rpg), who started nine games last year.

On top of that, they two All-CAA First Team guards in Aleah Nelson, who averaged 16.6 ppg and 4.6 rpg last year at Towson, and Kendall Currence, who averaged 15.9 ppg at Northeastern, plus former Towson starters Tarriyonna Gary (8.2 ppg) and Rayne Tucker (6.2 ppg), who along with Nelson were major parts of a team that went 24-8 and lost by a point in the CAA semifinals this spring.

“The expectations are high,” Nelson said. “We came from a 24-win season last season so the expectations are to have a winning season and to win the championship. That’s the only expectation that we have, is to win. So it’s really high but it’s something that’s very achievable and we’re capable of doing that.”

Richardson wasn’t quite as willing to make any such bold predictions, the veteran coach with more than two decades under her belt as a high school head coach, Division I assistant and D-I head coach focused on the little things.

“The very first thing that I look at is our skill development piece, and getting our players to be better than they were,” Richardson said. “Rather than putting a goal on the board without having any fluff to it, we’d like to have tangible things, and that’s the skill development piece, the piece where the players are getting better: better positioning, better footwork, all those sorts of things, and the wins will come when we’ve got all those things handled.”

While the Owls’ women work in all their new faces, the men have more continuity than they’ve had in some time. Four out of five starters return for McKie, who’s got his alma mater in a good spot as he aims to lead it back into the limelight and competing on a national stage. 

Coming off a 17-12 (10-7 AAC) season that was the a 12-win improvement from the year before, McKie has an experienced backcourt to lean on in Khalif Battle and Damian Dunn, both fourth-year redshirt sophomores thanks to injuries and a COVID year, plus true sophomores Zach Hicks and Hysier Miller, a couple local products who got more than a taste of Division I experience a year ago. Jahlil White, a third-year sophomore, averaged 7.4 ppg and 6.0 rpg and has three years of eligibility remaining.
Having a healthy Battle, who was off to a tear to start the 2021-22 season — averaging 21.4 ppg and making 48.8% from deep through seven games before breaking his foot — should be a major difference-maker come January and February.

“I feel like I have something to prove,” he said, “I feel like I haven’t proven anything yet, I feel like our team haven’t proven anything yet. I’m really just hungry.”

It was clear from Wednesday’s press conference that the Owls are expecting significant steps forward as a program but also from Hicks, a 6-7 wing from Camden Catholic (N.J.) and Miller, a 6-2 guard from Neumann-Goretti.

Hicks averaged 8.3 ppg and 4.1 rpg as a freshman, topping out with a 35-point outing against Delaware State which included a school-record 10 3-pointers. Miller, who emerged as one of the best guards in Philly during his high school years, started the last eight games last year, averaging 9.5 ppg, 3.4 rpg and 3.4 apg, scoring a season-high 21 points in the AAC tournament loss to Tulane.

“They’re cornerstones, they’re future cornerstones for this program,” McKie said. “They responded last year when they got significant minutes and meaningful minutes, and they responded in that time that they got…I think the game is really slowing down for those guys and it’s going to help them continue to grow as the elite players I think they can be.”

“We think their growth has been real evident, just from the summer, and we think it’s really due to all the experiences that they were able to grab towards the end of the year,” added Dunn, who averaged 14.9 ppg and 4.2 rpg a year ago. “With those two being as young as they are, they’re not going to be the ones who get the most recognition, but we know their value.”

The Owls men do have a few new pieces to work into the mix, including grad transfer Kur Jongkuch (Northern Colorado), a 6-9 forward with 106 career starts and 794 career points (6.7/game), and 6-10 center Jamille Reynolds (Central Florida), who averaged 4.1 ppg and 2.4 rpg in 45 games the last two years. Shane Dezonie, a 6-5 wing, also comes in from Vanderbilt, and 6-7 wing forward Taj Thweatt from Wildwood Catholic, while freshman Deuce Roberts is a 6-6 wing with upside.

If those sophomores progress as expected, the team stays healthy and some of the newcomers are able to contribute up front, the Owls have the pieces to make a serious run at an AAC title for the first time in program history. Preseason top-five squad Houston and the rest of the league will make it difficult, but this doesn’t have to be an underdog story anymore.

“There’s so many things that we want,” Battle said. “November 7th is the time where we get to show everybody…you can’t hide when the season comes. The work is going to show.”

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2022-23 American Athletic Conference MBB Preseason Poll
1. Houston (10 first-place votes, 100 points)
2. Memphis (1, 87)
3. Cinci (82)
4. Tulane (74)
5. Temple (66)
6. UCF (51)
7. SMU (43)
8. Wichita State (35)
9. South Florida (33)
10. Tulsa (21)
11. East Carolina (13)

Preseason Player of the Year
Marcus Sasser, Sr., G, Houston 

Preseason Rookie of the Year
Jarace Walker, F, Houston* 

Preseason All-Conference First Team
Marcus Sasser, Sr., G, Houston*
Kendric Davis, R-Sr., G, Memphis*
DeAndre Williams, R-Sr., F, Memphis
Damian Dunn, R-So., G, Temple
Jalen Cook, So., G, Tulane* 

Preseason All-Conference Second Team
David DeJulius, Gr., G, Cincinnati
Jamal Shead, Jr., G, Houston
Khalif Battle, R-So., G, Temple
Kevin Cross, Jr., F, Tulane
Jaylen Forbes, Jr., G, Tulane

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2022-23 American Athletic Conference WBB Preseason Poll
1. South Florida (99 points, 9 first-place votes)
2. Houston (89, 2)
3. SMU (73)
4. Tulsa (66)
t-5. Tulane (56)
t-5. Memphis (56)
7. Temple (43)
8. UCF (38)
9. Cincinnati (34)
10. Wichita State (32)
11. East Carolina (19)

Preseason Player of the Year
Elena Tsineke, Sr., G, South Florida

Preseason All-Conference First Team
Laila Blair, Jr., G, Houston*
Elena Tsineke, Sr., G, South Florida
Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu, Sr., F, South Florida
Savannah Wilkinson, Sr., F, SMU*
Temira Poindexter, So., F, Tulsa

Preseason All-Conference Second Team
Jillian Hayes, Jr, G, Cincinnati
Jamirah Shutes, 5th, G, Memphis
Dynah Jones, Gr., G, Tulane
Maddie Bittle, Sr., G, Tulsa
Maya Mayberry, Sr., G, Tulsa