“One For The Money Two For The Show” – 2 Game Recap of TUMBB

As we sit and reflect on the first two games of  thirty one, on Temple basketball’s regular season schedule, there a few things that we can find with this young team. The first being, the Owls miss Khalif Wyatt badly. The Cherry and White have had to engineer offense by committee in the first eighty minutes of the season. Juniors, Will Cummings and Anthony Lee have shown bright spots, reaching double digits in points for both contests the Owls have participated in this November.   However Temple has gone silent on the offensive side of the ball in crucial points of the Penn and Kent State games. The Owls led the Quakers by fifteen with eight minutes to play and proceeded to endure a 18-2 Penn run. The Owls still managed to escape the Palestra with a win but lightning struck the Cherry and White twice in the first week of the season. The second time, Fran Dunphy’s ball club was not as fortunate. In Temple’s home opener against the Golden Flashes of Kent State, they led by double digits in the second half. With less then ten minutes to play the Golden Flashes delivered a 13-2 run, which served to be the knockout blow with the Owls being unable to climb back in the game. There are too many pockets of time where Temple’s scorers fall absent. If they want to make their AAC inaugural season a one to remember they must find someone who can get them a big bucket in crunch time. It will break the opposition’s momentum, prevent game changing runs for  their opponents, but most importantly it will give a team with only one senior the confidence it needs for the future.

Kieran McCauley (@k_mac_14 )