Commentary: Temple has to get tougher, but Owls not far off

By CHASE SENIOR

Philahoops Staff

@Chase_Senior

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In its home opener at The Palestra on November 9th, Temple led Penn by 12 points with 7:02 left in the game. It looked as if the game was over, until the Quakers stormed back to take a 73-71 advantage with 1:39 left.

The Owls went on a 7-0 run from there to escape with a 78-73 victory.

Two nights later, Temple held an 8-point cushion on Kent State with 7:51 remaining. The Owls faltered down the stretch, struggled to score late and fell 81-77 to the Golden Flashes, ending a streak of four straight years in which the Owls opened up the home schedule with a win.

On the road last Thursday at the trendy new SECU Arena against Towson, Temple was able to control the majority of the contest against an experienced team and held a 7-point lead over the Tigers with 8:14.

Again, the Owls could not generate points down the wire, committed some critical turnovers in key spots and Towson stormed back to come out on top, 75-69.

Do you notice a common theme?

The first 30 minutes and change go well. The last 10 minutes of tick? Not so much.

Temple hasn’t found its go-to man down the stretch, who is going to rise up and take the big shot. The Owls help defense has also been inconsistent and spotty.

“I would say we just go cold from the floor,” junior point guard Will Cummings said when asked about the late-game struggles. “Kind of get stagnant on offense and the game of basketball is just getting stops and putting the ball in the basket, so we have to get stops and but the ball in the basket.”

It was expected to play out like this. Seventy-four percent of the offense that filled the stat sheet from the five seniors in 2012-13 is long gone.

Cummings and junior forward Anthony Lee are the only returning starters. Temple has a ton of inexperience and a roster full of guys that have not played much together.

Are there questions surrounding the talent on the roster? Not at all.

Bottom line, though, is that it is going to take a while for this team to gel and display the full product on the floor. It may be a bridge year for the Owls, but they have one of the best coaches in college basketball in Fran Dunphy, so you cannot count this squad out just yet.

No matter the record this year, the future is bright on North Broad Street, but right now, the team is not there yet and only time will tell. Three games is an extremely small sample size.

So far, the Owls have failed to do some of the little things here and there that pay big dividends in the final box score.

“We’re not far off, but we still have to get tougher to win this kind of game,” Dunphy said after the Towson loss. “We got to get that rebound, we got to solidify a particular offensive possession, we got to take a better shot. We got to finish a play at the rim,” he added.

Senior Dalton Pepper, sophomore Quenton DeCosey and freshman Mark Williams are the three fresh faces in the starting five. Heading into the season Pepper and DeCosey combined for just 18.3 minutes per game a year ago, while Williams was in his senior year of high school at Montrose Christian.

Dunphy has been forced into playing eight players in the team’s first three games, which isn’t all that out of the ordinary, but even though the Owls took a trip to Europe and competed in four games against professional clubs, their time on the court together is sparse.

The starting five of Cummings, DeCosey, Pepper, Williams and Lee is averaging an impressive 68 points per game, but the bench rotation of sophomore guard/forward Daniel Dingle, freshman guard Josh Brown and sophomore forward/center Devontae Watson have combined for 6.6 points per night.

“We can’t really make excuses,” Lee said. “We are a young team, so I think that could be one of the reasons why we haven’t really closed anything out, but we still playing basketball and our coach teaches us how to manage the game at the end of the game, so if we make mistakes it’s because we’re not mentally paying attention to the little details, which is grabbing the ball, or boxing out and getting a rebound and things like that.

“That doesn’t really have anything to do with the youth, but just the mental focus that we were probably lacking at the end of games,” he added.

Every starter is averaging at least 27 minutes per contest and each player’s role is expanding that much more as time elapses, causing some pressure to mount, but for Cummings, he is embracing the opportunity and making the best of it.

After spurts of impressive play during his first two years of service, Cummings has broken onto the scene and has been electric in the early stages of the season.

Cummings is averaging 17.7 points, 5.3 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game.

“My role has changed 360 [degrees]. Last year we had a lot of seniors on the team to where I was out there with them and they kind of helped me along, but now I’m one of the older guys on the team,” Cummings said. “I have to be the leader out there and make sure everybody is in the right spot. I have to be aggressive, do everything for the team to win. Score, defend, right now I’m turning the ball over too much, so I know that’s something I have to make sure I’m more conscious of when I’m on the court,”

Cummings is averaging a team-high five turnovers per game and for this team to be successful, Cummings and the Owls have to play near perfect basketball in every phase of the game for a full 40 minutes.

It might take some time for Temple to find a steady relationship on the floor, but the Owls are a few plays away from being 3-0. That can’t be argued. A bridge year? Maybe, but win or lose, it will be entertaining to see this group grow over the course of 2013-14 campaign.

Temple has to find an identity and get tougher, but those things come with time and experience.

Dunphy is faced with arguably the toughest test of his coaching career, but with one of the best in the business roaming the sideline, don’t be quick to write off the Owls. Temple is close, just not there yet.

After all, the college basketball season is a marathon, not a sprint.

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Chase Senior covers Temple for Philahoops. Reach him at [email protected], @Chase_Senior on Twitter or leave a comment below