Temple is coming off of one of its more disappointing losses of the season. With aspirations of playing in their second Big 5 Classic championship game, the Owls fell short at La Salle, 83-75, on Saturday and will instead play in this weekend’s third-place game against Villanova.
While Temple head coach Adam Fisher is disappointed about not playing in the championship, he still sees the matchup against the Wildcats as one they can take advantage of.
“They’re not consolation games to us,” Fisher said during his weekly media availability. “They’re big time. You get to play a Big East opponent in nonconference [play] to help you prepare for league play. That’s awesome."
You can listen to the entire press conference audio here:
Rebounding was once again the Achilles’ heel for the Owls in their loss at La Salle. The Explores outrebounded the Owls 45-42 by the Explorers, with the big difference coming in offensive rebounds.
The Owls allowed La Salle to get 17 offensive rebounds, seven more than they did, leading to 20 second-chance points for the Explorers. It’s the main thing that ate at Fisher when he watched the game film from Saturday.
“It's the rebounding,” Fisher said. “(On) our first-shot defense, we give up .79 points per possession. We always talk about keeping guys under one. But our second-shot defense is like 1.1. They were doing a good job on the first initial (shot), but it’s the rebounds.
“We need guys that are going to go out there and sacrifice their bodies. It’s not enough at this level to just (say) ‘I boxed out my man.’ We also need the guards to come back in. If our bigs are pushing you out under the basket or boxing you out, our guards have to come back and do that. You can’t give a team like that that many more opportunities and more shot attempts than we have to compete at the level we want to be at.”
Freshman forwards Babatunde Durodola and Dillon Battie have been pleasant surprises to start this season for a frontcourt that was somewhat uncertain heading into the year.
The two have brought energy and strength in the paint when the Owls need it, but they have had problems when it comes to staying out of foul trouble. Battie fouled out against the Explorers and Durodola picked up his third foul less than a minute into the second half, finishing with four.
“It’s hard as a big guy. You gotta do your work early,” Fisher said. “We thought the last couple games on the post-ups, [Durodola] responds a little late to the positioning. Refs make their calls, but you try to tell them, ‘You gotta play hard, you can’t worry about the fouls. You gotta compete.’ I’m trying to figure out what is a foul call and what isn’t based on the film and get some feedback so we can coach our guys properly on what that is.”
Shutting down the stars
Jamal Mashburn Jr. has been one of the best guards in the country, sitting at 12th in the country averaging 22.1 points per game, but he had just five first-half points at La Salle.
The Explorers made him a focal point in their scouting, but Fisher also believes that it just wasn’t Mashburn’s night in the first half.
“We grade shots, like is it good or is it bad?” Fisher said. “I think he just had three or four in the first half that he normally makes. I just thought he missed a couple of ones early. The other guys gotta know that we gotta do a better job of trying to get him open, then making sure we make the right reads when we do get it to him. I thought they did a nice job defending him, but I also think he missed some shots that he normally makes, that we trust him to make and we know he’ll make them Saturday.”
Mashburn finished with 15 points, his first sub-20-point game of the season, and shot just 6 of 18 from the floor and 0-for-3 from three-point range.
Zion Stanford, like Mashburn, had a rough day at La Salle, scoring just four points in 13 minutes. Prior to the La Salle loss, the West Catholic product had scored in double figures in three of his last four games, including a career-high 23 in the Nov. 12 win over Drexel.
Stanford has mentioned how much playing in the city of Philadelphia means to him and what playing against teams in the Big 5 Classic means for him. Last year in the championship game against Saint Joe’s, he exploded for 19 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
This week, Stanford is focused on bouncing back from the loss against La Salle and getting back on track with a win over Villanova.
“Just focusing on getting better from the loss,” Stanford said. “Improving on things that we didn’t do good in [against La Salle], preparing for the next team scouts, preparing to stop what they do well. We’re just focusing on getting a win.”
The 4-4 Wildcats have been paced by 6-foot-8 senior forward Eric Dixon, who is averaging 25.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.