City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

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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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When Aaron McKie and his staff look around at the 2022-23 Temple Owls men’s basketball squad, McKie said he and his staff laugh about how this version of the Owls looks more like a “varsity team.”

That’s been a noticeably lacking feature on the last few Temple squads, who’ve been young and undersized for several seasons, and paid the price in an American Athletic Conference that’s got a decent bit of talent but even more physicality and experience.

“It’s a very physical (league), it’s an older league,” McKie said. “I thought we were physical [last year], but again, we were playing with freshmen and sophomores and they’re playing against fifth-year seniors, six-year guys who are 24, 25-year-old guys. It’s a different ballgame. I’m not making any excuses, because that’s the reality of what it is.

“As I said now and I look out, we look more physically imposing.”

McKie was reminded on Thursday during a media session that it’s a mere 18 days before the Owls’ season opener against Wagner on Nov. 7. In his third season, McKie led the Owls to a 17-12 overall record and 10-7 in the American Athletic Conference—a 12-game improvement over the Owls’ 5-11 COVID-19 truncated 2020 season.

McKie feels the program is ready to take another upturn in his fourth year as head coach at his alma mater. What he is looking for this season is a strong dose of how he played when he wore cherry and white. He played hard—and he played smart. Right now, the Owls’ coach sees one of those values being implemented, while his team is in search of the other.

“They fight,” McKie said about his returning squad. “They play hard, but we don’t always play smart. We have to get a little mix of both (this season) where we get to the point where we’re thinking throughout the game, throughout practice. And it’s part of it. It’s part of youth; just maturing. We’re still relatively young. We’ve added some experienced guys to help us that have played more collegiate games. But some of our young guys got extended minutes, meaningful minutes are still growing and trying to grow, and trying to figure this thing out.

“They’re trying to do it with me sitting on top of them all the time. But they’re coming along.”

The last two seasons have been marred by COVID. The team suffered from constant starts and stops and ruined any chance at continuity the team had on and off the court. For the first time since McKie has been head coach, the Owls have had a consistent weight-training program. McKie said he compared the video of a scrimmage last year to more recent footage this season as to how his team has physically matured in a year. He sees how 6-foot-7, 185-pound sophomore forward Zach Hicks has evolved; how 6-1 sophomore guard Hysier Miller has added muscle. There’s been a transformation.

It’s an area that should aid the Owls in withstanding the physical nature of the AAC.

Offensively in 2021-22, Temple was ranked 11th of the 12 teams in the AAC in scoring, averaging 66.8 points a game, only beat out by South Florida (57.5) as the worst offense in the AAC. The Owls also shot .395 percent, again, only beat out by South Florida (.374) as the worst-shooting team in the AAC.

“Just putting the basketball in the hole, that’s the most important part about it,” McKie said. “Efficiency is getting layups and getting to the free-throw line and trying to create as many easy baskets as possible. I thought defensively, we’ve been pretty good, but going on the other end and converting just wasn’t there.”

McKie said that the offense is a work in progress and that may come with getting an inside presence. Hopefully, a pair of transfers — 6-9 grad transfer Kur Jongkuch and 6-10 Central Florida transfer Jamille Reynolds — can remedy that problem. 

To find a recent Temple center of any impact, you may have to go back to Michael Eric who averaged 9.0 ppg and 8.8 rpg for the 2011-12 Owls. Since then, it’s been a dead zone. The Owls went through the experimental stages of Ernest Aflakpui and Damion Moore, or playing small-ball with Jake Forrester, and none of it worked the way they needed it to inside.

Reynolds, a physical 6-10 center from Lakewood (Fl.), averaged 3.4 ppg and 2.0 rpg over 25 games last season, and averaged 4.1 ppg and 2.4 rpg in 45 games over the last two years. Jongkuch comes in from Northern Colorado, after making 106 career starts and scoring 794 career points (6.7/game). They also have 6-10 Emmanuel Okpomo, who transferred in from Wake Forest last year and played in nine games for Temple, averaging 1.4 ppg and 0.8 rpg.

“I think this is a big step for me,” Reynolds said. As to why he transferred into Temple, “I saw they had some really good guards (in Khalif Battle and Damian Dunn), and they probably have the best guards in the conference. I thought this was the right spot for me. 

“My (adjustment) has been great. I can’t wait.”

Dunn called Reynolds a “generational talent” and Knights’ head coach Johnny Dawkins told McKie he feels Reynolds could be a future pro.

“That meant a lot,” said Reynolds, a back-to-the-basket center who toys with his shooting range during practice, knocking down a few triples during drills the media were permitted to watch on Thursday. “Kur is more like a big who isn’t a big scorer, but he’ll do a lot of things like set screens. 

“In practice, I’ll shoot (threes), but in a game, I’m always down low, but I’ll get in the work and show (the coaching staff) that I can shoot it.”

“Jamille is built a little differently than me,” said Jongkuch, a more lithe athlete at 6-9, who is a defensive and rebounding specialist. “There are some things he brings to the table that I don’t have, and some things I bring to the table that he doesn’t have. I think we mesh very well. So, when he gets exhausted, I can sub in. 

“It’s going to be really good for us to play off each other. Jamille is a big person, so playing against him every day builds confidence, because there are not too many that are bigger, stronger, faster than him. Competing with him every day during practice gives me confidence. Iron sharpens iron, so in practice, we try to get on opposite teams and play against each other as much as we can.”

Jongkuch, born in South Sudan and raised in Toronto, admitted he didn’t know too much about Temple prior to this year. A week after he entered the transfer portal, Temple contacted him.

“They thought I matched pretty well with them,” said Jongkuch, who played American football for much of his life, switching to basketball as his main sport midway through high school. “I think for the team we have to get easier shots. The shooters have to get the shots that they need and getting them shots will make it easier for me to get shots. 

“I did a little research (about Temple). I found it was a pretty historical team that had a really good coach, John Chaney. They told me that they need a presence down low. They gave me a lot of confidence when I came here.

“The team goal is to make it to March Madness. Competing every day (is his personal goal). Right now, I want to mostly refine what I do well.”

A strong inside presence can help the Owls.

In Reynolds and Jongkuch, Temple and McKie could find what’s been missing for about a decade.

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.