Temple leaving losses in past ahead of Saturday's matchup with Drexel
Temple (6-5) is set to play its fourth game against a City 6 opponent when Drexel (5-5) visits the Liacouras Center Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip-off.
The Owls are riding a two-game skid after losing to Saint Joseph’s last Saturday and UCF on Wednesday. The Dragons are coming off a win against Coppin State that ended a two-game skid of their own.
After Wednesday’s loss to UCF, third-year Temple head coach Aaron McKie dropped his box score into his seat out of frustration before taking questions from the media. Before that, junior center Jake Forrester told reporters that the Owls needed to do some “soul searching.”
Friday, however, the team and its coach were in better spirits.
Friday’s practice, as described by McKie, was filled with “a lot of mental stuff and just some feel good things,” as Dr. Stephany Coakley, Temple’s Senior Associate Athletic Director for Mental Health, Wellness, and Performance, was in attendance.
“It’s basketball,” McKie said. “[Reporters] catch the raw feelings right after a game from a coach or from a player.”
McKie’s Owls are now focusing on putting the last two games behind them and getting prepared for a Drexel team that made last season’s NCAA Tournament after winning the Colonial Athletic Association’s automatic bid.
“We have another older, experienced group that’s coming in that’s pretty good at basketball,” McKie said. "They do a really good job on the offensive end and they play well together.”
The Dragons are led by senior center James Butler, who’s averaging 14.5 points and 10.3 rebounds per game this season on 59.1 percent shooting.
For the previous two games, Forrester has been on the wrong side of size mismatches. Saturday, things go back to being even for him, something that McKie wants to capitalize on.
“We want to play inside out,” McKie said. “I didn't do a good job of making sure the guys understood.”
Redshirt sophomore guard Tai Strickland, who’s minutes have increased since the Owls lost Khalif Battle to a season-ending foot injury, sees Forrester as a big asset to himself and Temple’s offense.
“That’s a huge safety blanket,” Strickland said of Forrester. “We like his chances down there against anybody. We just gotta keep getting it to him.”
Temple needs not only Forrester’s production in the paint, but the whole team’s, as the Owls are 5 for their last 51 from three.
However, the team has not lost its confidence from range.
“We’re gonna keep shooting them,” second-year freshman forward Nick Jourdain said. “They’re gonna eventually start dropping.”
Jourdain replaced junior forward Sage Tolbert III in the starting lineup Wednesday, a move McKie said he made to provide a spark in the offense. Jourdain, however, thinks he and Tolbert do a lot of the same things.
“We both crash the offensive glass very well,” Jourdain said. “I think we can both knock down open threes… attack, playmaking. I think we can do all of that.”
Jourdain and Tolbert are shooting a combined average of 12.15 % from deep this season, contributing to Temple’s abysmal % percent mark as a team.