Thursday’s win, an 88-81 victory over No. 18 Memphis, was obviously a big one for Temple

Sunday’s game is just as important, as the Owls are playing for a share of first place in the American Athletic Conference when they host Tulane at 1 p.m.

The Green Wave, 10-8 overall and 4-1 in conference play, sits a half-game ahead of Temple, which improved to 3-1 in the league and 11-6 overall by beating Memphis. Although they come into the game unranked, head coach Ron Hunter’s Tulane squad will still pose some matchup challenges for the Owls.

Kaleb Banks, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound junior forward, leads the Green Wave in scoring at 18.5 points per game and in rebounding at 7.7 boards per contest. The former 4-star, top-150 recruit from the 2022 class played sparingly in two seasons at Indiana before breaking out this season at Tulsa. He posted monster numbers of 33 points and 16 rebounds in Tulane’s Dec. 14 loss to Florida State and is coming off a 25-point performance in the Green Wave’s 80-65 win over FAU Wednesday.

Beyond Banks, sophomore point guard Rowan Brumbaugh paces Tulane’s offense with a team- and conference-best 4.8 assists per game to go with 14.3 points per contest. Brumbaugh, like Banks, was a former 4-star recruit. Ranked 74th in the 2022 class by Rivals, he redshirted at Texas as a true freshman, played last season at Georgetown and then transferred to Tulane prior to this season. Miami recruited and offered Brumbaugh when Fisher was part of the Hurricanes’ staff as an assistant.

A player to watch and a potential matchup problem for the Owls is 6-8, 190-pound freshman guard Kam Williams. He leads the Green Wave with 33 steals and ranks fourth in the conference with 1.89 steals per game. He collected six points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals in Wednesday’s win.

The Owls, who got 21 points from Jamal Mashburn Jr., a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds from Shane Dezonie in the win over Memphis, are likely to be without forward Elijah Gray Sunday against Tulane after he left Thursday’s game with an apparent hamstring injury. He is not participating in pregame warmups, per OwlScoop’s Colin Schofield.

Gray’s absence could potentially mean more minutes for 7-1 Tulsa transfer Mohammed Keita and 6-8 freshman forward Dillon Battie. Keita played a season-high 11 minutes Thursday and scored the first three points of his Temple career in Thursday’s win. Battie, the son of former Temple forward Derrick Battie, did not play Thursday but has averaged 3.8 points and 1.8 rebounds in 12 games this season.