Temple, a team that made a late-season run for an NCAA berth that just fell short last year, has continued the strong play this season. Temple (14-8, 6-3) looks to stay within reach of the contenders when they visit South Florida (11-11, 4-5) in Thursday’s American Athletic Conference matchup in Tampa.
Last season, despite finishing with a 16-20 record, Temple, as a No. 11 seed, advanced to the AAC tournament championship game before seeing their season end with a loss to UAB. This year, the Owls have shown they can hang with the top teams in the AAC, with an earlier 88-81 home win over Memphis.
Temple has won two home nail-biters in a row. A 90-89 double overtime win over Charlotte was followed by Temple’s most recent game, a 98-94 OT win over East Carolina.
Graduate guard Jamal Mashburn Jr. scored 32 points in the win over East Carolina, his second straight game scoring at least 30 points. Mashburn, son of the former NBA player by the same name, entered Wednesday leading the AAC in scoring with a 22.1 average. He is the most recent AAC Player of the Week. In the win over Charlotte, he scored a career-high 34 points.
Mashburn, who is shooting .446 from three-point range, began his career at Minnesota and spent the past three seasons at New Mexico.
South Florida has done well in light of tragedy following the passing of coach Amir Abdur-Rahim on Oct. 24. Ben Fletcher has been serving this season as interim head coach.
USF has lost three of its last four following Sunday’s 94-72 loss at Florida Atlantic. The winners shot 32 for 57 from the field (.561) while USF shot 20 for 62 (.323).
New Customer Offers at BetMGM
Bonus Bets Expire in 7 Days. One New Customer Offer Only. Add’l Terms
Temple at South Florida Odds
South Florida is a 1.5-point college basketball betting favorite on BetMGM with the Over/Under at 149.5 points.
The moneyline for South Florida is -110 while it is also -110 for Temple.
Temple at South Florida On TV
The game between Temple and South Florida will be televised on ESPN2.
Tipoff is shortly after 7 p.m. ET.
Temple at South Florida Prediction
I like Temple getting the points.
According to Teamrankings.com, South Florida is the worst AAC team against the spread (6-15). Temple is 10-11.
Plus, Temple is among the contenders in the AAC and needs to win to keep in the race.
Behind Mashburn, Temple’s other leading scorers are sophomore guard Zion Stanford (11.7 PPG), 6-10 senior Steve Settle III (11.2), and 6-4 redshirt sophomore Quante Berry (11.0). Berry is in his second year at Temple after redshirting during his first collegiate season at Providence.
USF’s leading scorer is 5-10 sophomore Jayden Reid, who is averaging 12.4 points. Reid, however, has been in a shooting slump. During his last five games, he shot 14 for 55 (.255) from the field and 7 for 25 from three (.280). Jamille Reynolds, a 6-11 senior, averages 11.7 points and leads the team in rebounding (7.4) and blocked shots (1.3).
Temple is 2-5 on the road while South Florida is 8-2 at home.
The teams are relatively close in scoring margin. Temple entered Wednesday seventh in the AAC (+3.32) while USF was eighth (+2.05). Temple is third in the AAC in scoring (80.23) while USF is seventh (75.59). South Florida is seventh in scoring defense (73.55) while Temple is 11th (76.91).
Even though Temple is the higher-scoring team, South Florida is much better in transition. The Bulls entered Wednesday 22nd nationally in fast break points (14.86 per game) while Temple was 209th at 9.27. Temple will need to do better in transition to be competitive in this game.
The teams are almost even at the foul line, with USF shooting .735 and Temple shooting .732.
Temple is the better three-point shooting team (.368) to .334 for USF.
