This time last year, Temple was projected to finish ninth in the conference, something that lit a fire under the Owls before they earned a share of the AAC regular-season title.

While Temple fell short in a 60-57 loss to Rice in the AAC tournament semifinals, last season gave the program hope for the future.

Conventional wisdom would suggest a share of a regular-season title would garner Temple more respect in this year’s preseason poll.

Not so.

Temple was picked to finish just one spot higher in the bottom half of the conference at eighth, something that could once again provide some fodder to a determined team.

“There’s no way you look at our roster, who we brought in and who returned and thought, ‘Oh, this is the eighth-best team in the league,’” assistant coach Myles Jackson said. “So we’re taking that personal, but we’re gonna take one game at a time and when the time comes, we’ll show that we won’t be at the bottom of the standings.”

Despite an overhauling of the roster, head coach Diane Richardson enters her third year at the helm with a lot of expectations for a program looking for its first NCAA tournament berth since 2017.

Rolling with the changes

When the buzzer sounded in Fort Worth, it marked the end of several players' careers in Cherry and White. Guards Aleah Nelson, Kendall Currence and Demi Washington, alongside center Denise Solis, exhausted their final year of eligibility with the Owls.

Despite her struggles late in the season, Nelson was a staple of Richardson’s tenure, averaging 12 points per game and orchestrating the offense. Washington's time at Temple was short but impactful, averaging 10 points per game and ending the season with eight straight games scoring 10 or more points.

Forwards Ines Piper and Rayne Tucker transferred within the conference to USF and UAB, respectively. Piper was solid on the boards and on the defensive end for the Owls, averaging five rebounds a game and totaling 30 blocks.

Tucker played a crucial role for the Owls as a rebounder, averaging eight rebounds a game, the seventh-best mark in the AAC, to go with 35 blocked shots.

The returning core

It’s easy to forget with all the roster movement that Temple still retained a couple of key players from last season to build around.

Guard Tiarra East averaged 13 points and five rebounds per game last season as a second-team all-conference selection. The senior became the go-to player in late-game scenarios, something that earned her the moniker “Lebron” by the coaching staff. East’s buzzer-beater three-pointer helped erase a nine-point, second-half deficit in a Jan. 31 win over Wichita State, and the shot made ESPN SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays of the Day.

“I think she’s taken this year really seriously and more personal,” Jackson said. “I think she’s taking the Alpha role and she knows that because it’s her last year and that she has WNBA or overseas aspirations, she’s taking this year as if it’s now or never.”

Fellow guard Tarriyonna Gary returns for another year after averaging nine points per game as the Owls' primary three-point shooter, hitting 34% from deep last season. Dallas native Tristen Taylor was a spark plug for the Owls off the bench last year with six points and three assists a game. She saw increased minutes as the season went on as the successor to Nelson as the primary lead guard on the squad.

Forward Jaleesa Molina also returns after playing in 27 games for the Owls last season and drew praise from the coaches as someone who gained confidence after playing for her home country Netherlands this summer.

Someone who could play an important role for Temple this season is guard Drew Alexander, who redshirted last season and impressed the team during practices with her shooting ability.

“[Alexander] has been great,” Richardson said. “That extra year for her, she learned how to be bigger, faster and stronger in the college game and to perfect her shot, not only as a catch-and-shoot three, but also to put the ball on the floor as well.”

Portal additions

With the departures of four of their five starters, Temple looked to the transfer portal to help address the various holes in the roster.

Richardson and her staff first hit the portal in search of some size and landed Towson transfer Anissa “Peanut” Rivera and Loyola Marymount transfer Amaya Oliver.

Rivera, who played her first two college seasons at North Carolina Central, also played for Richardson at Towson and averaged 7.1 points and 4.7 rebounds per game during the 2022-23 season. She took a gap year to focus on her academics last year but could provide some immediate help to Temple’s frontcourt this season.

Oliver provides more depth for the Owls at the forward position as another 6-1 big, who can play with her back against the basket.

“I think we can play nine to 11 players every night and be really good,” Jackson said. “I think we have more shooters. Last year it was really T-Mac or Aleah shooting the three ball and I don’t think we got a lot of perimeter shooting from our four and five position. Between Anissa, Amaya and even Jaleesa adding to her game, we have more fours and fives who are going to stretch the floor.”

The Owls also addressed their backcourt in the transfer portal, adding sophomore guard Kaylah Turner from Alabama A&M. The 2024 SWAC Freshman of the Year averaged 11 points per game and has earned recognition from the coaching staff as an “Aleah Nelson-Tristen Taylor 2.0.”

The big haul for Temple was its 2024 recruiting class, which features three guards and a forward.

Savannah Curry, BlueStar's 37th-best player in the 2024 class, recorded more than 1,000 points during her Westtown School career, and the 5-11 guard garnered second team all-state and first team all-conference honors.

“What I love about her game is she’s fearless,” Richardson said of Curry. “She will get to the rim, she will rebound, she’ll do all those things. I love what we’re seeing in her. She’s gonna have to match the physicality, but she’s headed in the right direction."

The rest of the class features guards Adena Webster and Kelian Cedano, as well as forward Felicia Jacobs. Webster, a Bahamas native, came to the States during COVID to continue her basketball career and averaged 34 points and nearly 13 rebounds in 13 games for Archbishop Carroll (FL) during the 2022-2023 season. Cedano averaged 16 points and five assists as a senior at Putnam Science and Jacobs put up 11 points and 11 rebounds per game while playing CoLa Southwark Pride in London, England.

It all starts Monday

The objective for the Owls is very clear: Reach the NCAA tournament.

Richardson has been very clear that while she is proud of her team for achieving an AAC regular season title last season, her expectations are putting this team on a national stage.

“We are trying to build on last year’s regular season conference, but we want to go further this year,” Richardson said. “We want to outright win the tournament. Not only do we want to win the regular season, but we want to win the tournament to assure us that we can get to the NCAA tournament."

To achieve that goal, Richardson has made an effort to test her squad with a difficult nonconference schedule including matchups against No. 16 West Virginia, Princeton and Georgetown, which dominated Temple in a 68-45 rout last season.

It all starts Monday in the second game of a men’s/women’s doubleheader at the Liacouras Center when Richardson’s Owls open the season against Richmond, which went 29-6 last season and won the Atlantic 10 tournament before falling to No. 7 seed in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Spiders had the best offense in the A-10 and they’ll benefit from the return of 6-foot-2 forward Maggie Doogan, who played her high school basketball at nearby Cardinal O’Hara. She averaged 15 points and six rebounds per game last season and enters this season as a preseason first-team all-conference selection.

Richmond was great at finding high-percentage shots, shooting 47% from the field and averaged nine makes per game from beyond the arc and shot 38% from three-point range. On the defensive end, the Spiders were just as strong, holding their opponents to just 36% from the field, the lowest mark in the conference.

“It was purpose-driven because I knew we needed to be challenged in the nonconference so that we’re ready for our conference play,” Richardson said. “We do have some very tough games against West Virginia, Princeton, Richmond that played in the tournament last year and it’s a true testament to us if we can get through these games. I think that’ll make us prepared for the conference"

Monday night’s opener will be televised on ESPN+.