City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The biggest “freshman moment” of Zion Stanford’s Temple debut didn’t happen on the court.

It came several hours before the Owls’ season began on Monday night at home against Maryland-Eastern Shore. With the team gathered in the Liacouras Center to go over film before a pre-game shootaround, Stanford was missing. Well..kind of.

“He was over in the practice facility next door and we’re getting ready to start over here — he thought shootaround was in the practice facility,” Temple coach Adam Fisher explained afterwards, a smile on his face.

No worries — a staffer had noticed, gotten someone to run over to the practice facility just next door at Pearson-McGonigle and grab Stanford, who sprinted over just in time to get to the start of the team’s film session, a minute late at most. Fisher wasn’t going to punish his only rookie for making what was most certainly a rookie mistake. 

“You want to build his confidence,” the first-year head coach said. “The worst thing I could do is yell and scream at him: ‘how could you not know where we are?!’ Instead we laughed about it, told him to ‘take a deep breath, tie your shoes, and let’s watch film.’

“Did him being there at 1:32 [pm] affect us winning tonight? No. But I bet he’s not going to be in the wrong gym ever again.”

Stanford certainly shook off the mistake to play a major role in his first collegiate game, coming off the bench to score 14 points as Temple cruised to an 85-65 win over Maryland-Eastern Shore at the Liacouras Center. 

The 6-foot-4 wing and Philly native was the first player off the bench for Fisher, taking advantage of the minutes left available due to the absence of Georgetown transfer Jordan Riley, who’s out with a hamstring injury. He immediately brought to the floor his aggressive playing style that he honed at West Catholic, playing downhill through contact to get to the rim, where he got most of his production. 

“I actually had a talk with Lynn Greer before the game, he told me to watch, while you’re on the bench, watch what’s open or what your team might need when you get it,” Stanford said. “I saw where open spots (were) on the bench and I made it [happen] in the game.”

In a Temple offense that did well in transition and getting to the line but sometimes struggled to create in the half-court, he provided a terrific spark in the second half, getting all but two of his points after the break, scoring eight of Temple’s 10 points during a stretch that turned an 18-point advantage into a 26-point lead with 12:40 remaining.

The only freshman on the roster certainly didn’t play like it. Stanford was 7-of-10 from the floor, grabbing two rebounds and two steals, committing only one turnover without committing a foul in 20 minutes.

“You can’t do nothing but enjoy it, because that’s everyday Zion,” said junior wing Jahlil White, who led the Owls with a 15-point, 14-rebound double-double, the sixth of his career. “ He’s going to go at you every single day at practice, its not a surprise to me, I see it every day, I know what he can do, what he’s capable of, he’s a great player, has a very bright future.”

West Catholic coach Miguel Bocachica, walking out afterwards, was a happy man, able to watch one of his former players in a Division I game in person for the first time. 

“Caught myself coaching a couple possessions, but it was just, I mean, it was a joy to watch,” Bocachica said. “He spent four years with me so I (thought he was) ready, but seeing him actually do it is surreal.”

It’s a moment Stanford had been preparing for for some while. He originally committed to the Owls under former head coach Aaron McKie, then stayed aboard through the coaching change this spring, re-affirming his commitment to Fisher.

“Me and my family, we’re not the jumping around type, we like to stay solid and see how things go, even if times get rough,” Stanford said. “Me and my dad, my mom, we felt like Coach Fish was a good guy, we felt like he was going to put me in the right situation. And I wanted to stay here [...] to put on for the city.”

Another Philly guard, Neumann-Goretti product Hysier Miller, led Temple with 17 points as the Owls (1-0) got some revenge on UMES (0-1) for a loss last year, even though most of the players on both rosters are new. That includes Temple shooting guard Matteo Picarelli, the UMBC transfer contributing nine points in his first Temple game; two other transfers in the starting lineup, Steve Settle III (Howard) and Sam Hofman (Houston Christian) both contributed 7 points, Settle adding nine rebounds. 

It was far from perfect: Temple shot 43.3% overall (26-of-60) and 31.6% from 3-point range (6-of-19), gave up 16 offensive rebounds, had fewer assists (11) than turnovers (12). There were a number of missed layups, a few defensive mix-ups, though no shortage of energy.

But it earned Fisher a surprise shower at the end, the coach needing a few extra minutes to dry off, get changed and get to the press conference. 

“We have a high expectation, so I think the competing and the way we did that, that’s something we were really proud of, it’s something we’ve really harped on since we’ve been here,” Fisher said. “It was great, a good experience, happy to get the first one out of the way.”

A road trip to Navy for the Veterans Classic comes on Friday, followed by a much shorter trip to Drexel for a Big 5 contest on Tuesday.