Jake Forrester, Owls ready to tip off tonight
For Temple forward Jake Forrester, this season is about showing how much the Owls have improved and how much potential the team has.
It begins tonight when Temple hosts Maryland Eastern Shore at the Liacouras Center for a 7 p.m. tip-off. The game will be televised on ESPN+.
The Hawks will be playing their second game in as many days after opening their season Tuesday night in a 69-67 loss at Saint Jospeh's. It was the program's first game in 20 months since the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out their 2020-21 season.
After going 5-11 overall and 4-10 in American Athletic Conference play in a COVID-shortened season, the Owls continue to insist that the 2021-22 campaign will not be like last year.
At Friday’s media day availability at the Liacouras Center, Forrester pointed to many different areas where he’s seen improvement as the reason why.
“The most improvement is just team chemistry and maturity,” Forrester said.
Last season, the Owls had seven newcomers to the program. This year, they have three: freshmen Hysier Miller and Zach Hicks and Wake Forest transfer center Emmanuel Okpomo.
“Our chemistry is like I’ve never seen before,” Forrester said. “I think this is the most promising group we’ve had since I’ve been here.”
Okpomo and his 6-foot-10, 225-pound frame has pushed Forrester this offseason.
“He made me tougher than what I was,” Forrester said. “You see him out there and he’s just crashing into bodies and, you know, it makes me look every time a shot goes up.”
Forrester averaged 6.1 rebounds per game last season but said he still wants to focus and improve in that aspect of the game.
“If I just focus on rebounding the ball,” he said, “it will open up so much more for the team.”
Forrester sees his frontcourt group being important to the success of this year’s team and is looking to Hicks and 6-8 forward Sage Tolbert, the Southeast Missouri State transfer who missed every game but the Owls’ lone conference tournament against USF last season while recovering from a knee injury.
“Sage is a dog,” Forrester said. “He’s a player you can depend on. It’s good to have another big guy down there.”
Hicks, on the other hand, is a sharp-shooting wing Khalif Battle and third-year head coach Aaron McKie are very fond of.
“I’m hard on Zach because I see the potential,” Battle, the team’s leading scorer last season at 15 points per game, said. “If he keeps working, he can make his [NBA] dreams come true.”
McKie described Hicks in a similar fashion.
“It’s one thing to be able to try to score 20 points,” McKie said, “or try to get 20 shots up… Zach knows how to do both.”
Hicks, who is listed at 6-7 on Temple’s roster but said Friday he’s closer to 6-9, fits the mold of the modern “position-less” player. He played a lot of stretch-four just across the Delaware River at Camden Catholic High School and has seen a lot of time playing the perimeter this offseason for the Owls.
As Battle said, “you don’t see many of those.”