City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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If there was any question as to why Adam Fisher has been rising up the ranks at Division I programs ever since beginning as a Penn State manager nearly 20 years ago, it didn’t take long for the new Temple men’s coach to begin speaking to answer them.

The 38-year-old Fisher is no doubt energetic and passionate, two traits he displayed plenty of during his introductory press conference on Wednesday afternoon at Temple’s Liacouras Center.

“I just have to be who I am,” Fisher said. “I have to learn from the coaches that I’ve been under and I take little things from all of them, but now I’ve gotta do it my way. I’m excited to do it and that’s why I hired an amazing staff. I know we have the same vision.”

It’s the first head coaching role for Fisher, who becomes the 19th coach in Temple’s long hoops history and the third to try to restore the Owls to the glory days they had under Hall of Famer John Chaney, who had the Cherry & White as one of the most feared programs in the country in the 1980s and 1990s. 

That might be an impossible task: Temple’s football team has dragged the athletics department out of the Atlantic 10, where the Owls were a perfect fit on the court, and into the American Athletic Conference, a constantly-shifting geographical mess of a league that’s about to lose a couple of its top athletics brands — Cincinnati and Houston — and bring in the likes of Charlotte, North Texas and Rice. (True, they also add Florida Atlantic off a Final Four run, but it remains to be seen whether those Owls have staying power).

On top of those conference issues, Temple as an institution is struggling with a spate of violence on campus as well as leadership issues. The school’s president, Jason Wingard, resigned last month after the faculty union authorized a vote of no confidence in Wingard, who was also widely disliked by the student body.

He noted the program’s tradition as one of his early selling points for Temple.

“I want the best student-athletes that want to be at Temple,” Fisher said. “And I’m going to keep saying that. I need guys who want to be here. That’s more important than anything.

Fisher’s hiring is the second in as many years that Temple Athletic Director Arthur Johnson has made on the hoops side, replacing Tonya Cardoza with Diane Richardson as the women’s head coach last offseason. 

He takes over a program that went 52-56 and 30-37 in The American in McKie’s four seasons. McKie looked like he might have earned himself another year when the Temple men were 14-9 (8-2 AAC) on Jan. 28, having beaten top-ranked Houston on the road a week before. But the Owls crash-landed to end the season, losing seven of their last nine, including a 30-point blowout loss to Cincinnati in the AAC tournament. 

Fisher comes to Temple after two years as an assistant coach at Penn State, where he helped Micah Shrewsberry and the Nittany Lions make it to the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 last month, the program’s first March Madness win in 12 years. Prior to that, he spent six seasons as an assistant at Miami (Fl.) under Jim Larranaga, where he recruited — among others — Lonnie Walker IV (Reading) and Isaiah Wong (Bonner) down to the Sunshine State. 

“I think when you’re real with people and you’re honest, they might not like to hear what you have to say in the moment but that’s how you build trust,” Fisher said of his recruiting. “And I think that’s what I’ve done with a lot of our student-athletes through the years and I’m gonna continue to do that here.”

Fisher noted Shrewsberry’s NBA influence will show in how he wants his teams to play, which he will adapt to the type of players he brings in.

“We’re going to play open, we’re going to play free, and I want our guys to feel confident on game day,” Fisher said. “That’s the biggest thing for me. Go play with great confidence.”

Fisher’s staff is already coming together. His assistants include former Bowling Green head coach Michael Huger; former Drexel, Wagner and Albany assistant Bobby Jordan, a Roman Catholic product; and Chris Clark, a Temple grad and the only holdover from McKie’s coaching staff. It’s not a staff that’s been officially announced yet, but Fisher referred to them (as a group) during his opening speech, and wasn’t shy about referring to them when asked.

“I need great people because our student-athletes deserve the best experience, and I think the way to give them the best experience is to have the best staff possible,” Fisher said. “And that’s what I want. I know with those three guys, our student-athletes, whether we're 0-31 or 31-0 — which I hope we’re 31-0 — are gonna have a great experience and that's important to me.”

Fisher said he’s had ambitions of being a head coach since he was a ninth grader in the area at Central Bucks East. His route has been unique as someone who didn’t play high level hoops but he believes his varied roles and ambition have him where he is today ready to lead the Owls.

“I’ve had a path,” Fisher said. “You can ask my parents. They wrote me an amazing email the other night. I’m not an emotional guy, I teared up. But I knew in ninth grade I wanted to coach. And to have this opportunity to coach at Temple, I’m not sure I knew that was going to happen right then, but I’m thrilled to be here and it’s (because of) all the experiences I’ve had.”