City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2023-24 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 6. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season click here.)

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There’s no doubt that Aleah Nelson is the most important part of Temple women’s basketball this season. The Owls’ leader last year in points, assists and minutes played, she’s one of their off-court leaders, their on-court engine, sure to play a major role yet again on North Broad Street.

What’s less obvious is that she might also be the key to her team’s future, too.

Nelson's got an additional task this season, one she’s taking just as seriously as putting the ball through the hoop: mentoring her replacement, freshman guard Tristen Taylor, a Texas native who’s already garnering plenty of attention from within the program.

“I take her under my wing a lot of times, she’s always asking me questions,” Nelson said earlier in October at the Owls’ media day. “It’s cool to have somebody younger just to be a role model for her, making sure I’m always doing the right things.”

The Owls’ affable, energetic lead guard is in her fifth year of college hoops, her second at Temple, coming up with head coach Diane Richardson from Towson last offseason. She began her college career at Cincinnati, playing 27 games off the bench, a freshman from Baltimore just trying to fit in.

It was there, she said, that she was in a similar situation as Taylor, with a senior point guard ahead of her — but while she was willing to learn, to be a sponge, she said the experience left her a little wanting, the amount of direct instruction and counseling “not as much as I would have wanted.”

She’s intent on making sure that Taylor doesn’t feel the same way about her rookie season. 

“I’m really trying to be a good mentor because it’s something I wish I had when I was there,” she said. “I know what it’s like to be a freshman, playing behind [someone] — so my job with Tristen is [...] to pass the torch, everything I know, I’m trying to tell her.”

Nelson, who stands all of 5-foot-6, said she was excited when the Owls landed a commitment from the 5-5 point guard from Duncanville (Tex.), one of the Lone Star State powerhouses, not needing the coaching staff to tell her it was her heir apparent: Temple doesn’t have a sophomore on the roster, Nelson and fellow fifth year Kendall Currence (who’s coming off a torn ACL) the only point guards on the team. 

It’s become clear that Taylor’s also the most advanced of Temple’s five freshmen, three different Owl veterans saying her name in unison when asked at media day which of the quintet was most college-ready.

“She’s really good, she’s really good,” Nelson said. “Sometimes I don’t even have to tell her what to do, she’s already doing it. Her IQ is off the charts, she’s only 17 but she plays a lot older. 

“I don’t have to always be in her ear constantly, but I’m always trying to give her little tips here and there. She picks up on things very well and very fast, so that’s easier on me to just let her go out there.

“The connection is good, and it’s only building every day.”

The Owls’ coaching staff can only hope that Taylor will replace Nelson, who averaged 15.4 ppg, 4.4 apg and 3.4 rpg a year ago for the Owls, playing more than 37 mpg for a shorthanded group that went 11-18 (6-10 AAC a year ago). For now, they’ll take a good boost off the bench who can play either guard position, adding depth to a backcourt that already includes vets Nelson, Currence, Tiarra East and Tarriyonna Gary.

“She’s shown us some really good stuff in practice, you all will see her on the floor,” Richardson told the assembled media. “I’d like to have her and Aleah [share the court] sometimes, too, so Aleah can be off the ball. 

“I think she’ll be the spark plug that replaces Aleah.”

Working with Taylor has helped Nelson confirm the idea that when she’s done with her playing career — which will extend beyond this season, likely in an overseas professional league — she’d like to be a college coach.

“Seeing her really listen and be like ‘okay, I got you’ and then she does it, and it works, I’m like ‘okayyy,’” Nelson said, a huge smile breaking across her face. “Now I know how the coaches feel.

“I feel like it’s in my cards to be a coach,” she added. “I haven’t talked to Coach Rich about it, but I want to be a coach. [...] I don’t know when, but I’m going to do it.”

Nelson’s primary goal for the upcoming season is to get Temple much higher up in the pecking order in the new-look AAC, taking solace in the fact that Richardson took Towson from nine wins to a conference championship in her first two seasons at her last stop. She’s been around enough to know that wins in November through March don’t come without time spent together in between, that the work she’s putting in with Taylor will pay off in so many ways down the road.

This season and beyond.

“When we hang out off the court, that just builds so much camaraderie, it really does,” she said. “People don’t understand that the good teams are good friends to each other, too.”