Wasn’t expecting a tournament run but I was expecting to see improvement and if Aaron deserves one more year….it’s gonna be tough to see either with no Battle

Womp Womp

(12-02-2021 05:42 PM)Wingdestroyer Wrote:  Wasn’t expecting a tournament run but I was expecting to see improvement and if Aaron deserves one more year….it’s gonna be tough to see either with no Battle

From the way you put that, it appears that you may have rather high standards for a first-time Head Coach who is working to rebuild a program that, as you yourself mentioned, hasn't won a NCAA game in a decade.

There is not, and there never has been any question within Temple's administration about whether Aaron "deserves another year." He's just 7 games into his third season of a five-year contract. First-time head coaches typically get five years to prove themselves.

1. 2021-22 was and is a player-development and team-development year.

In terms of games played and years of eligibility remaining, the team currently has 8 freshmen and 3 sophomores.

That hasn't changed. In fact, for the 12 guys on the team without the initials "KB," the emphasis on player development will become that much stronger.


2. The younger guards and wings on the team will acquire a lot more D1 playing experience by playing a lot more minutes than they would have if KB hadn't been injured.

---That will make them better players later this season, and next season.


3. Given that the guys on this team really get along well and have good chemistry, the entire team could return next season. At least 10 players - including most of the key players on the team - are likely to return.


4. When it comes to improvement, a lot of Temple's players, including Khalif Battle, have shown evidence of improvement this season.

• Tai Strickland's shooting has improved tremendously. He has hit 50% of his 2 pt and 43% of his 3 pt shots thus far this season. In addition, his mpg have increased (from 10.3 to 17.8 mpg), his rebounding is up 60%, and his assists have nearly quadrupled.
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• Damian Dunn's shooting and defensive play has improved considerably. He has made more than twice as many steals/game, and his assist:turnover ratio has improved substantially.
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• Nick Jourdain has become the team's leading rebounder and shot blocker.
  He's playing nearly twice as many mpg as he did last season, and he has the best defensive statistics (DRtg, DBPM) on the team.
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• Jahlil White, a RS freshman who missed his first season with a knee injury, has played so well in the early going that he currently ranks 7th on the team in minutes played. He's among the top 3 defenders on the team with respect to DRtg and DBPM, he is tied for 3rd in total assists, and he's #3 on the team in steals per minute.
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• Emmanuel Okpomo has only played 25 minutes in 4 games, thus far, but he leads the team with 4.8 blocked shots per 40 minutes, is #3 in rebounds per 40 minutes, and his hit 50% of his FG attempts, .
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• True Freshman Hysier Miller has hit 50% of his 3 pt shots in his first 26 minutes of D1 BB, and he's ranked 4th on the team as a defender (DRtg, DBPM).
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• True Freshmen Zach Hicks played brilliantly in his first three games, and showed the potential to become a major impact player. Currently, he is #2 on the team in assists/minute and 5th in rebounds/minute.
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There are other indications of player development, as well. Overall, this is a picture of a team full of players who have been working hard to develop their skill sets and to learn how to play together as a unit.

This is also a team that has done a lot of character-building, with more than 1/3 of the players having missed a year, due to injuries that required surgery. A team that has just lost one of its top players needs players with that kind of character development to help sustain them the rest of the way this season.

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One other thing: Both of Temple's former Head Coaches, one of whom was declared the national Coach of the Year and is in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame have spoken strongly in support of Coach McKie as Temple's Head Coach. The other finished his career with 580 all-time wins and a 64.1% win pct., and both were inducted into the Big Five and Philadelphia Sports Halls of Fame.

That's some pretty strong artillery to go up against.

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Temple will have a breakthrough year in Coach McKie's fourth or fifth year as Head Coach.

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Why does everything necessitate a long post, epperman?

(12-03-2021 09:08 AM)JHG722 Wrote:  Why does everything necessitate a long post, epperman?

1. Everything doesn't.

2. You're criticizing someone for writing positive things about a team that you supposedly cheer for.

3. You're continuing to harass Temple supporters when you just got banned from a popular Temple message board for doing so over there.

Not a good look, JHG. You used to be savvy. Now you're embarrassing yourself.

(12-03-2021 09:32 AM)Milwaukee Wrote:  

(12-03-2021 09:08 AM)JHG722 Wrote:  Why does everything necessitate a long post, epperman?

1. Everything doesn't.

2. You're criticizing someone for writing positive things about a team that you supposedly cheer for.

3. You're continuing to harass Temple supporters when you just got banned from a popular Temple message board for doing so over there.

Not a good look, JHG. You used to be savvy. Now you're embarrassing yourself.

The guy who has created a double digit number of sock puppet accounts would know a thing or two about embarrassing oneself.

I miss the multiple colored fonts.

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Another Temple player who has improved is the team's starting PG, Jeremiah Williams.

At first glance, the improvements in his game aren't very noticeable, because he is playing 5.9 fewer mpg this season, because (unlike last season) there are two other healthy point guards on the squad who need to get more playing time.

However, a deeper look reveals that Williams has:

--Made 28% more assists per 40 minutes than he made last yr. (6.4 vs. 5.0).

--Grabbed 11.4% more rebounds per 40 minutes.

--Made 13.3% more steals per 40 minutes.

--Scored 8% more points per 40 minutes.

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Most of the improvement has become evident in the team's last 3 games:

vs. Elon: 22 pts, 8 rb, 8 ast, 1 steal in 35 minutes.

vs. Delaware: 11 pts, 3 rb, 4 ast, 3 steals in 29 minutes.

vs. LaSalle: 7 pts, 5 rb, 6 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk in 26 minutes.

Average: 13.3 pts, 5.3 rb, 4.7 assists, 2 steals, 0.3 blks per game (30 mpg).


That's pretty good productivity from a young player who has only played in 23 D1 BB games, to date, and who was a relatively unheralded recruit (#505, 2 stars)* (and a shooting guard who had to adjust to play the PG position) coming out of HS.

* https://247sports.com/college/temple/Sea...l/Commits/

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like i noted in the game thread, i think this i blessing in disguise..

you guys werent going to be good this year, with or without battle...and there wasnt an sign for major change next year... if you watched temple they were insanely reliant on battle to score, that wasnt going to change if he stayed healthy..

this just forced the development of everyone else...2-3 temple players have to step up and develop their offense for the rest of the year.. atleast 1 new star offensive player will emerge by seasons end for temple by force (maybe more)..

now in 2022 you will have battle and newly developed players on offense , this makes you 2022 season that much better

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Khalif has posted a couple of uplifting twitter messages for Temple fans. One of them shows him practicing his shot from a scooter, and in the other one to the Temple fans, Khalif says that he'll be back next season.

https://twitter.com/khalifbattle24/statu...als.com%2F

https://twitter.com/samdcohn/status/1466...05156?s=20

Sounds like he's still planning on being part of the team, assisting in any way that he can and encouraging his teammates. Very inspiring!

(12-03-2021 11:42 AM)pesik Wrote:  like i noted in the game thread, i think this i blessing in disguise..

you guys werent going to be good this year, with or without battle...and there wasnt an sign for major change next year... if you watched temple they were insanely reliant on battle to score, that wasnt going to change if he stayed healthy..

this just forced the development of everyone else...2-3 temple players have to step up and develop their offense for the rest of the year.. atleast 1 new star offensive player will emerge by seasons end for temple by force (maybe more)..

now in 2022 you will have battle and newly developed players on offense , this makes you 2022 season that much better

Agree.

That's a very important point for Temple fans to remember this season, and the fact that this is a young, rebuilding program will continue to make it interesting to still follow the players development through this season.

It's going to be interesting to see which guys step up to fill the scoring void, which ones excel defensively, etc. We will also see a lot of interesting player combinations that we wouldn't have seen very often, otherwise.

A lot will change, but some of the positive improvements (such as rebounding, steals, and shot-blocking) that have been seen early on this season may continue to be evident.

In 2020-21, Temple only averaged 36.3 rebounds (34.9 in the AAC), 4.2 steals, and 2.4 blocks per game. Thus far this season, the team has averaged 39.1 rebounds, 6.9 steals, and 4.4 blocks per game. Since Battle isn't a team leader in any of these categories, and because it will be more important than ever to rebound the ball well without him, it's possible that the Owls will continue to be a good rebounding team this season.

Other areas, such as FT% and playmaking are in need of improvement. The team's FT% has started to improve recently, and the team had a season-high 17 assists in their last game, because some of the younger players are making more of an effort to pass the ball to an open man. Working on these and the other basketball fundamentals could pay dividends next season.

Stop trying to feed me logic you dummies

No one cares, epperman

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It's going to be important to accentuate the positive as much as possible through the rest of the season, since there is reason to think that it could be a challenge for the team to finish at or above .500.

The more negative reactions there are from Temple's fans, the more likely it will be that specific players will become disenchanted and consider transferring out.

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No one cares epperman.