(02-24-2022 09:40 PM)pesik Wrote: in the long run, i truly believe losing battle (and short term, williams and dunn) was the best thing to happen to temple
early in the season it was get battle the ball and get out of the way... now theyve developed a lot of scoring options.. im not sure that happens if battle is healthy..
Very true, especially in battle's case, because it has forced a lot more players to get actively involved in the offense for most of this season. It also forced Coach McKie to experiment with 5 man units until he found one that gelled.
More recently, the injuries to Williams and Dunn gave Miller a chance to play major minutes, and that's made it possible for him to emerge as an impact player in the past few games.
Temple's roster is pretty banged-up physically at this point. Williams and White are playing shoulder injuries. Dunn's been playing on an injured ankle, which he re-injured @ Memphis. The team's leading Center and main front-court scoring threat - Forrester - has missed the past 15 games. Those health issues help to explain the team's second-half let-down @ UM.
When Battle returns, and when everyone has had a chance to recover from their injuries, Coach McKie will have a more and better player combination options, and Battle will be playing with a unit of players who have already gelled. So they could get off to a very strong start next season.
Battle has recently said that he's learned a lot by watching every game from the sidelines, and that it has caused him to become more aware of things that he can do to better help the team. It would be especially helpful if he distributes the ball more often, reduces turnovers, and puts more effort into defensive play.
The loss to Memphis underlines Temple's need to recruit a strong low-post player on both ends of the floor through the transfer portal according to a lot of Temple fans on their websites.
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