Temple’s improbable run through the American Athletic Conference men’s basketball tournament left the Owls a game short of an NCAA Tournament berth in head coach Adam Fisher’s first season on North Broad Street.

It included injuries, a 10-game losing streak, and word in early March of an investigation into unusual gambling activity on Temple games that had been going back “for a while.”

But after that news broke, the Owls put their ‘stay together’ mantra to the test and won their next five to get to the conference tournament title game, where they lost to a deeper and more athletic UAB team, the program picked to win the conference again in a preseason poll conducted by the league’s head coaches.

It was impressive finish for a Temple roster that had its holes and flaws.

This second edition of Fisher’s Owls, a group set to open the 2024-25 season Monday evening against Sacred Heart at the Liacouras Center at 5:30 p.m. in the opener of a men’s and women’s doubleheader, is better, deeper and more versatile on paper thanks to some smart and impactful transfer-portal and recruiting additions.

Even with the nine-game suspensions to point guard Lynn Greer III and assistant coach Chris Clark due to NCAA rules infractions announced last week, there’s no reason why this Temple team can duplicate its March run from a year ago and take it one step farther.

The backcourt

When OwlScoop.com interviewed Jamal Mashburn Jr. for The Scoop, the New Mexico transfer and preseason first-team all-conference guard said he would have the ball in his hands more often and play more as a point guard rather than a combo guard to start the season.

Now we know why.

Greer III, the son of the former Temple star and Fisher’s current chief of staff Lynn Greer, averaged 10.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists for a St. Joe’s team that beat the Owls last December to win the inaugural Big 5 Classic and fell two games short of its own pursuit of an NCAA Tournament berth. After transferring to Temple last spring, Greer III would have opened the season as the Owls’ starting point guard had it not been for the nine-game suspension from the NCAA rules infractions that occurred while he was a player with the Hawks. Both he and Clark will return prior to Temple’s Dec. 15 road nonconference game at Hofstra.

Are Greer’s and Clark’s nine-game suspensions a less-than-ideal loss for the Owls to start the season? Of course. Would Mashburn had seen plenty of possessions on the ball had Greer not been suspended. Yes.

Can Temple survive playing nearly 70% of its nonconference schedule without them and still have aspirations of an NCAA Tournament berth? Yes to that one as well.

Mashburn Jr., the son of former NBA All-Star Jamal Mashburn, weathered a thumb injury earlier in the season and helped lead New Mexico to a Mountain West Conference championship and NCAA Tournament berth last March. Mashburn told OwlScoop he sustained a Jones fracture (a break to the bone that connects the pinkie toe to the base of the foot) during a pickup game after the season and later underwent surgery to repair it. He rehabbed in Florida over the summer, is healthy now and gives Temple an experienced, three-level scorer who can galvanize Temple’s backcourt during Greer’s absence and move back off the ball when he returns.

Even with Greer out, Mashburn knows he has help.

Sophomore guard Zion Stanford had the benefit of a full college offseason conditioning program and is looking to capitalize upon a freshman campaign in which he averaged 6.6 points per game and shot better than 50% from the floor. The 6-foot-6, 205-pound West Catholic High School product scored a game-high 19 points off the bench to help Temple beat UTSA in the opening round of the conference tournament and showed a blend of crafty, shot-fake moves that got better as the season went on, along with his defense. Penn State transfer portal addition Jameel Brown, a player Fisher recruited to the Nittany Lions program, is also healthy after battling a foot injury last season and figures to give the Owls immediate shooting help off the bench after knocking down 29 threes a year ago. And graduate guard Matteo Picarelli, who knocked down a team-high 63 three-pointers last season, could get more open looks this season with better talent around him.

And instead of falling into the background with players like Mashburn, Greer, Brown and promising freshman Aiden Tobiason joining the program, it seems redshirt-sophomore point guard Quante Berry has answered the call with a solid offseason that could land him more minutes – or maybe even a starting role with Greer out. Both Fisher and Mashburn have noted his improvement over the last month.

“We’ve got so much versatility,” Mashburn told OwlScoop. “We’ve got me, Lynn, Quante, Zion, who can handle the ball and make decisions. I can even throw Aiden, our freshman, in there. He’s been making leaps and bounds. We have a lot of versatility when it comes to that guard position. … We’re still building that chemistry, building that trust. Because in the beginning, even in the nonconference (portion of the schedule), there's gonna be some growing pains, just because everybody's new, everybody's still trying to figure out their game.”

Although Greer is permitted to practice with the team during his suspension, Temple will still be losing out on nine games where it could have otherwise been building that aforementioned chemistry and trust.

That’s where Fisher and his staff will have to lean on Mashburn, a veteran college guard with NCAA Tournament experience who’s 23 years old but speaks with the perspective of someone in his mid-30s.

“It’s just been a family-oriented deal over here,” Mashburn said. “All the players, they love me for who I truly am and who I authentically am. We’re able to have those tough conversations early, which is what a good team needs in order to succeed in January and February. So this group is, is great. I think we're going to do some special things. We just got to go out there and continue to stack days.”

The frontcourt

Temple’s frontcourt deficiencies were evident, if not glaring, at times last season. The Owls’ top two rebounders, guards Jordan Riley (6.0 rebounds per game) and Jahlil White (5.5 rpg.), have left via the transfer portal, and Temple finished 11th and ninth, respectively, last season in the American in defensive and offensive rebounds. In the 100-72 blowout loss to UAB back on March 7 prior to its conference tournament run, Temple got bullied on the boards and outrebounded, 41-19. And when the Blazers beat the Owls in the AAC title game 10 days later by 14 points, they did so with the help of 15 second-chance points and nine offensive boards.

Fisher’s offensive concepts will still give his team the freedom to take threes and open looks early in the shot clock as opposed to working inside-out, but he has more help this season with the additions of 6-8 Fordham transfer Elijah Gray, a pair of 6-8 freshman forwards in Dillon Battie and Babatunde Durodola, and 7-1 Tulsa transfer Mohammed Keita. They will all look to complement 6-10 redshirt senior Steve Settle, who led the Owls with 30 blocks, averaged 8.6 points and 5.0 rebounds per game and was named to the AAC all-tournament team in Fort Worth last March.

Gray averaged 8.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game at Fordham last season. Like Settle, he has some pick-and-pop ability. He hit 24 threes last season, 19 more than he did as a freshman. Battie, the son of former Temple forward Derrick Battie and the nephew of former NBA forward Tony Battie, became the Owls’ most athletic player the moment he arrived on North Broad Street after leading Lancaster High School to a state championship as the Texas 5A state player of the year. Battie, who chose Temple over offers from programs like Oklahoma, Washington and Washington State, could help as a rim protector and has shown the ability to step out and hit midrange and three-point jumpers.

Keita, who started his college career at St. John’s, still needs work on his hands and footwork, and his stats from last season – 26 points and 35 rebounds in 24 games – won’t jump off the page. But at 7-1 and 225 pounds, the Conkary, Guinea native did block 12 shots for Tulsa last season and could be an option to score in the paint on lobs and putbacks.

Durodola, who reclassified from the 2025 class to commit to and sign with Temple back in mid-August, could prove to be one of the most important additions to the Owls’ roster and might see some significant minutes early on. After playing a national schedule at Florida’s DME Academy and with the Canada Elite Under Armour Association AAU program, Durodola has come in as a ready and willing defender and rebounder who also understands the flow of the game, according to Mashburn.

“Baba, he's super skilled for a big fella,” Mashburn told OwlScoop about Durodola. “He's very light on his feet. He knows footwork, he knows angles. He knows how to seal. A lot of bigs coming to college, they don't even know what a seal is and really how to seal a guard and let the guard get a wide-open layup. He picked that up right away from the first day I played with him.”

Starting five?

We know the old adage by now: it’s not who starts, it’s who finishes.

With Greer out for the first nine games, trying to predict a starting five for Monday’s opener becomes an interesting exercise.

Mashburn is the closest thing to a lock to start, followed by Settle and Stanford.

His footspeed on defense might be a step or two behind that of some of his teammates, but don’t be surprised if Fisher gives Picarelli a chance to be out there for the opening tip, considering he logged 29 starts last season. Again, he’s the best pure shooter on the team, and his ability to can a couple of threes before the first TV timeout is always intriguing. Or Berry, who has put together a great stretch of practices and two scrimmages against Delaware and St. Peter’s, could start in the backcourt alongside Mashburn.

And while there are merits to starting players like Gray and Battie in the frontcourt, keep an eye on Durodola.

“Funny story about Baba, in terms of what made me really like him,” Mashburn shared in his conversation with OwlScoop last month. “I don't play one-on-one with a lot of dudes. I keep that very, very short box of dudes I play one-on-one with. But he called me out. He was like, ‘Man, let's get some one-on-ones, and in the post.’

“I'm already at a disadvantage in the post. He's already 6-9. I'm 6-1. I'm not gonna say the score, but he really impressed me. He can really play, man. He can shoot. He's got skill. He listens. He's got the right mindset, and he knows how to communicate the game as well. He's very smart. Got good passes, and I think if he continues to get better, get more athletic, sky's the limit for him.”