Last year, Temple made an improbable late-season charge, only to fall one game short of earning an NCAA berth.
The Owls, despite finishing the season 16-20, advanced to the final of the American Athletic Conference Tournament as a No. 11 seed before losing to UAB, 85-69.
Temple now faces the biggest challenge of this season when the Owls host No. 18 Memphis in an AAC matchup in Philadelphia on Thursday.
Temple (10-6, 2-1) is coming off a 73-70 AAC win at Rice on Saturday as 6-foot-2 graduate Jamal Mashburn Jr. scored 24 points, and 6-foot-2 senior Shane Dezonie had 10 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Now in his third season at Temple after beginning his career at Vanderbilt, Dezonie earned his third double-double in his Temple career.
The win over Rice came after Temple had suffered its first AAC loss, 80-79 at East Carolina University.
Memphis (13-3, 3-0) has played a difficult schedule. According to KenPom.com, the Tigers are fifth nationally in strength of schedule. Temple is 164th. The Tigers have prestige wins over UConn, Michigan State, Clemson, and Ole Miss and two of their losses came against Auburn and Mississippi State. Memphis has won four in a row since a 79-66 home loss to Mississippi State.
The Tigers are coming off Saturday’s 74-70 home win over East Carolina. PJ Haggerty, a 6-foot-3 redshirt sophomore and transfer from Tulsa, scored 25 points, hitting all 10 of his free throws.
Memphis is the highest-ranked AAC team in the Kenpom.com rankings, having been 34th entering Wednesday’s action. Temple was No. 121.
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Memphis at Temple Betting Odds
Memphis is an 8.5-point college basketball betting favorite on BetMGM against Temple with the Over/Under 156.5.
The moneyline for Memphis is -350 while it is +260 for Temple.
Memphis at Temple On TV
The game between Memphis at Temple will be televised by ESPN2.
Tonight’s tipoff is shortly after 7 p.m. ET at the Liacouras Center.
Memphis at Temple Prediction
I like Memphis laying the points. The Tigers’ rough schedule should prepare them for playing a good Temple team on the road.
What’s interesting is that Memphis has played better on the road, where the Tigers are 5-0. Temple is 6-0 at home.
Something will have to give.
This might not be a total track meet, but both teams like to play a transition game. Entering Wednesday, Memphis had an adjusted tempo of 70.9, according to Kenpom.com, which was 52nd nationally. Adjusted tempo is possessions per 40 minutes.
Temple is at 70.5, which was 65th nationally.
According to NCAA stats, Memphis averages 13.62 fast break points per game, which was tied for 57th, while Temple averages 9.88, which was 200th.
Memphis is the only team in the AAC that is among the top six in the conference in scoring and scoring defense. The Tigers are sixth in both, averaging 78.8 points per game while allowing 73.6.
Temple is fourth in scoring (78.9 PPG) but ninth in scoring defense (74.2).
The key will be which team will get better play from their star guard. Mashburn, a transfer from New Mexico and son of the former NBA player by the same name, is Temple’s leading scorer, averaging 20.7 points. He is also the Owls’ leading three-point shooter (.444). Steve Settle III, a 6-foot-10 redshirt senior, who is in his second year at Temple after beginning his career at Howard, averages 11.1 points and a team-high 6.7 rebounds.
On the other hand, Haggerty is Memphis’ leading scorer, averaging 22.4 points. He is shooting .423 from three-point range and .833 from the foul line. Haggerty leads the AAC in scoring, while Mashburn is third.
Tyrese Hunter, a 6-foot-0 senior and transfer from Texas, where he started 33 games last year, is second on Memphis in scoring, averaging 15.1 points, while shooting .437 from three-point range.
Memphis leads the AAC in three-point percentage (.400). while Temple is third (.357), so expect plenty of threes. The reason both teams don’t have even more fast break points is that they like to pull up and attempt threes in transition.
