City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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This season has been an adjustment for Kendall Currence in multiple ways.

The Cape Code native spent her first four years of college basketball at Northeastern, where she became one of the CAA’s best guards by her senior year. She transferred to Temple with expectations of being a star once again, teaming with Aleah Nelson to be part of a new-look Owls backcourt under new head coach Diane Richardson.

Instead, an offseason ACL injury cost her the entire 2022-23 season. So Currence decided to extend her stay in college by another year, do a two-year Master’s in Sports Business program and play her final season this winter.

“I thought just why not get one more year of experience under my belt with such a great coaching staff,” she said, “and playing with great girls?”

Finally back on the court, Currence is not only adjusting to playing on a rebuilt knee, she’s adapting to a new role as well. The 5-foot-9 guard has come off the bench in Temple’s first three games, not quite the starring role she played before the injury. 

But there are signs that the old Currence is starting to re-emerge: she had her most productive outing of the young season on Saturday night, playing 16 minutes of a 77-53 win over Bucknell on Saturday evening. Contributing 10 points, seven rebounds and two assists, Currence shot 3-of-5 from the floor, making her only 3-pointer and all four of her foul shots. 

“Feeling great, still getting into it, but love playing with my team, they’re really supportive,” she said, adding later: “I’m starting to really feel like myself again.”

Through three games, she’s averaging 6.7 points and 3.3 rebounds in 14.7 minutes per outing. But she knows she’s capable of more. 

As a senior at Northeastern, Currence put together the best season of her college career, averaging 15.9 ppg and 3.9 rpg, earning All-CAA First Team honors as a result. 

“She was scary when we played against her,” Temple coach Diane Richardson said. “And we see that now, and she’s very efficient with her minutes. Even though she’s not playing the minutes that she’s used to, she’s been very efficient [...] that comes from her basketball IQ.”

The Owls had an up-and-down first week of the 2023-24 season, blowing out Delaware State in their opener Monday before a dud of a game on Thursday against Georgetown. They completed their season-opening homestand 2-1 with a thorough domination of an outclassed Bucknell squad.

Temple led the whole way through, though both teams had a slow start offensively; an 11-0 run across the first and second quarters put them up 15, and the rout was on. Six different players reached double figures, led by 13 from senior forward Ines Piper; the Owls dominated the glass (48-31) and held Bucknell to 31% from the floor (15-of-49) while going 31-of-70 (44%) themselves.

Currence had a similarly hot and cold first week: she played 18 minutes against Delaware State, scoring 10 points, but only saw the court for 10 scoreless minutes against Georgetown.

It’s the least amount of court time she’s seen in her career, even slightly less than her freshman season — when she averaged 5.7 ppg and 1.9 rpg in 15.9 mpg. But she’s not sweating it, knowing she’s part of a deep guard rotation that also includes Aleah Nelson, Tiarra East, Tarriyona ‘T-Mac’ Gary, Demi Washington and Tristen Taylor. As she continues to work her way back, not having to be the go-to player allows her to come back one step at a time. 

“I think it’s better,” she said. “I don’t have to do it all, I have a few teammates that I can count on. Also the bench, we can rotate in and out and try to stay consistent.”

Currence looked good against Bucknell, knocking down multiple pull-up jumpers, showing no hesitation to put some serious air between her feet and the ground, the brace on her left knee certainly not holding her down. 

The more productive she is, the harder it’ll be for Richardson to keep her off the court. The second-year coach acknowledged her role is going to expand as she gets healthier and healthier.

“She’s showing a lot more from the beginning of the season, where she was on minute restrictions,” Richardson said, “and she’s showing a lot more and she’s more confident in her knee as well.”

They Owls have a big stretch to test themselves with coming up, going to No. 12 Ole Miss on Wednesday and then visiting Villanova on Sunday for their Big 5 opener. Saint Joseph’s and Xavier await just beyond that. 

A healthy, productive Currence could give Richardson the backcourt she envisioned when she came to Temple, bringing Nelson and Gary with her from Towson and pairing them with Currence and East, a holdover from the previous regime. No matter what, she’s just happy to contribute, putting her five years of college experience to work.

“[I’m still] learning what everyone does, their weaknesses, their strengths, how to feed them the ball, how they can feed me the ball,” she said. “It’s a little bit less pressure but I know there’s an expectation for me to perform and be at the level I was before.”