One to Forget: Temple Men’s Basketball 2025-26 Season Recap

What started as a promising season for Temple Men’s Basketball eventually ended up in shambles.

The Owls’ season was looking to be the best in years; they had a brand new roster, coming off one of their best seasons since 2018-19’s March Madness appearance, and being one of the top scoring and defensive teams in the American in 2025.

As of early February, the Owls were 15-8 and sitting near the top of the conference.

Then things came crumbling down.

The 2025-2026 season wound up being one to forget.

Non-Conference Play

The Owls kicked off the season at home against Delaware State.

Temple won the opener in a convincing fashion, beating the Hornets 83-65.

Sophomore guard Aiden Tobiason, coming off a year where he was an honorable mention for the AAC All-Freshman team, led the Owls with 23 points in the opener, setting a career best to open the season.

The second game of the season, and the first game of Big 5 pool play, is where Arkansas State transfer Derrian Ford made his first big impact of the season against La Salle. Ford scored 22 in the 90-63 blowout of La Salle.

The Owls followed with their first loss of the season, coming at the hands of Boston College, but rebounded right after, beating Hofstra to start off 3-1 heading into the ESPN Events Invitational.

The Owls went 1-2 in the Invitational, dropping games to UC San Diego and Rhode Island, but beating Princeton.

Once they returned to Philadelphia, it was time for more Big 5 action.

After a five-day break, the Owls went up the main line to Villanova for game two of pool play, and to determine who would go to the first-place game against UPenn.

It was a close game up until halfway through the second half, where Villanova started to pull away, and wound up winning by 18. This put the Owls in the third-place game against Saint Joseph’s University.

And that game ended in heartbreak, as the Hawks nailed a final-second three to seal the win, handing Temple fourth place in the Big 5.

The Owls took that personally, as they won the next four games to enter conference play sitting at 8-5.

Conference Play

The Owls kicked off conference play against Charlotte on the road and won a thriller behind another great game from Ford.

Ford proved to have been one of the best transfer portal pickups in the American, as he was nothing short of great for the Owls up to this point.

Temple started conference play hot, winning their first three games and sitting atop the conference.

But then they ran into Memphis, who were preseason American favorites, as the Owls dropped a defensive battle for their first conference loss.

Things didn’t get better the next game, as the Owls fell to FAU, giving Temple two losses in conference play already.

Temple picked up steam again, beating Rice and UTSA in two close games, before dropping a game to Charlotte in an overtime heartbreaker.

But the Owls didn’t let that hinder them, as they then beat USF, who sat atop the conference, in a thrilling whiteout game where Tobiason scored 22. After knocking off ECU on the road, the Owls had already surpassed their previous road win total from last season.

The Owls were now 15-8, 7-3 in conference play, and were sitting behind only Tulsa and USF for the conference lead. Things were looking hopeful, and the odds of getting a bye all the way to the quarter-finals were great.

Ford and Tobiason had been the team leaders up to this point, both averaging over 15 PPG and providing most of the team’s offense, but the Owls defense had been the highlight as one of the best in the American.

But this is where things took a turn for the worse.

The Owls went on to drop six straight games, totally flipping their season upside down, and the odds of even making the American tournament were at risk.

Temple finished the season’s last two games with a win and a loss, wrapping up their season at 16-15 and 8-9 in the conference, just managing to cling to the 10 seed in the American tournament.

Temple played FAU in round one, a team against whom they had trouble this season, and the struggles continued as they got bounced in round one and saw their season come to an end.

The Owls finished 16-16, a regression from last season.

Season in Review, and What’s Next?

From a hot start to a screeching halt, the season was nothing short of madness.

From mid-January and on, the Owls couldn’t find their footing.

“Obviously, it’s not just been a difficult 30 days, but has been difficult since January,” said head coach Adam Fisher. “My disappointment is for [the players] because I thought they fought all year long and gave us everything they could.”

Ford, who was the Owls’ leading scorer, is out of eligibility, along with a few other seniors. So the Owls will likely head into next season with another new core.

There are also questions about who is returning. Naturally, in the age of the transfer portal, it will be difficult to maintain all players, considering the Owls were only able to maintain four themselves from last season.

“Our league has been the most depleted the last two years. I expect the same this year. I wish I could sit here and tell you everybody’s coming back,” said Fisher.

Fisher emphasized the Owls are already starting to focus on next season, preparing for guys to leave, and bringing in new ones to replace them.

“We’re gonna try to retain, we know we gotta make improvements, we’re gonna try and replace guys….that’s something we’ll start as early as tomorrow.”

Could a guy like Tobiason, who had a career year, hit the portal and get big money from a power school? Nobody knows yet, so we’ll have to wait and see.

But the question, I’m sure many people have, is what went wrong?

Offense? Defense? Both?

For the most part, it was a lack of consistency offensively.

The Owls finished seventh in PPG, with 73.9, but were third in defensive PPG, allowing just under 71 PPG.

In their six-game losing streak, no game was a blowout, with the highest differential being 12 points.

So the main struggle wound up being offensive inconsistency, the opposite of last year, where the defense struggled.

But to put it shortly, it was one to forget for the Owls after coming in with high expectations.

Now we just wait and see how the offseason plays out.