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Temple Owls

NCAAB – AMERICAN

Arena: Liacouras Center
Coach: Aaron McKie, Fran Dunphy

TEAM LEADERS

Temple Owls

Team Summary

The Temple Owls’ men’s basketball team is part of Temple University. Wearing “cherry red” and white, the team plays in the NCAA Division I, with home games at the Liacouras Center. That court is on the school’s main campus in Philadelphia, PA.

With 1903 wins, Temple is the fifth most successful NCAA Division I men’s college basketball team. The team is currently led by head coach Aaron McKie, who’s in his third season.

In 1938, the Temple Owls were the first National Invitation Tournament champions (NIT), one year before the creation of the NCAA Tournament. The Premo-Porretta Power Poll, as well as the Helms Athletic Foundation, retroactively named the Owls the national champion for 1937-38. Temple won the NIT title in 1969.

Under the leadership of Harry Litwack, the Temple basketball team reached the NCAA Final Four in 1956 and 1958. Litwack was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame following a 21-year coaching career with 373 wins.

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Team History

The Temple Owls announced in March 2012 that they would rejoin the Big East Conference after being part of the Atlantic 10 Conference for 31 years. The conference was split along football lines in 2012 before Temple was made an all-sports member.

That led to a number of changes across the league. A year later, Temple’s sports programs became part of a conference that became the American Athletic Conference, while non-FBS football schools moved to form the Big East.

John Chaney was also a Hall of Famer. He won 741 games in his career (312 losses) and took Temple into the NCAA tournament 17 times over 24 seasons. His teams won the Atlantic 10 championship eight times, while he won the A-10 Tournament six.

Chaney’s 1987-88 Owls team ranked first but couldn’t advance past the Elite Eight. The coach took the school to the Elite Eight on five occasions, and was the National Coach Of The Year 1988. Chaney resigned as a coach in March 2006.

2022 Key Stats

The Owls are at the middle of the pack in terms of wins this season. They’re 10-6, with four home court wins and six on the road. In the American Athletic Conference, they’re 3-2, enough to put them in fifth place in the standings.

Overall on the season, the Owls are averaging 67.8 points per game. This is from a 48.7% success rate from inside the lanes and 29.5% from outside the arc. In free throws, the Owls are 69.8%. Points per game for their opponents average 66.2%

In offensive rebounds, the Owls average 10.1 per game; defensive rebounds are 23.9. Blocks per game are low, at just 4.9.

Jahill White leads the team in scoring percentage, at 70%. However, his shooting percentage is lower than most others. He’s made 31 of the 44 shots attempted. Khalif Battle has made 29 of 50, giving him a 58% success rate. Jeremiah Williams has done well, also. He has attempted 96 shots and made 47 of those, for a scoring percentage of 49%.

Championships Won by the Team

The Owls have had significant tournament success over the years, dating back to 1938. That year, they were the Pre-tournament Premo-Porretta and the Pre-tournament Helms Champions.

The team has taken ten conference tournaments. The first was in 1979, and they have had five since 2000. Three of those five were consecutive wins from 2008 to 2010.

The Owls also have numerous conference regular-season championships; the first was in 1937. In total, they have collected 19 since then, including in 2010, 2012, and 2016.

Temple has gone to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) 18 times since its inception. During that time, it only won twice, in 1938 and 1969. However, the first win was also the first time the tournament was held. It came a year before the NCAA Tournament was created.

Despite numerous runs in NCAA Tournaments, the Owls have never been able to secure a title. Their most recent appearance was in 2019 when they made it to the Final Four.

Important Team Events

Winning the first-ever NIT tournament still ranks as one of the team’s better accomplishments. Additionally, the Owls were retroactively recognized by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll and the Helms Athletic Foundation as the national champion for the 1937–38 season. The Premo-Porretta Power Poll was a retroactive end-of-year ranking system used for American college basketball teams competing from 1895–96 through 1947–48.

Switching from the Atlantic 10 Conference to the Big East in 2013 is one of the team’s more recent big events. It would have been a significant shift for the team; however, plans subsequently changed. A shift in school alignments led to Temple becoming one of the first teams of the newly-created American Athletic Conference.

The Owls, despite never winning an NCAA title, have made it to the Final Four several times. In 1956 and 1958, after losing in the round, they subsequently took the National Third Place Game championship.

Top Players

Temple has four players who stand out among the rest in the school’s history. The first is Guy Rodgers, still the Owls’ third-leading scorer. Rodgers left the school and entered the NBA, where he played from 1958 until his retirement in 1970. He was inducted into the Temple Athletic Hall of Fame in 1971.

Hal Lear also had a leading position with the Owls. He became the NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1956 and, that same year was drafted in the first round of the NBA.

Mark Macon is not one of Temple’s best-ever players; he’s also a coach there now. He played for the Owls from 1987 to 1991 and was picked eighth overall in the NBA Draft that year. He returned to the school in 2003 as a coach.

Bill Mlkvy makes the list of top players, as well. He is one of only a small handful of players to average more than 60 points a game, coming in third overall among all Division I schools with 73 points.

Top Coaches

Harry Litwack coached the Owls from 1952 to 1973, taking the team to two NCAA Final Fours in 1956 and 1958. In 1973, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame after concluding a 21-year coaching career that included 373 wins.

John Chaney coached the team from 1982 to 2006, racking up 741 wins. Under his guidance, the team went to the NCAA Tournament 17 times. Chaney is the only Owls coach to lead his team to become top-ranked, heading into an NCAA Tournament.

Chaney was chosen five times as the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year. He was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001.

Fran Dunphy followed Chaney, coaching the Owls from 2006 to 2019. During that time, he led the team to an Atlantic 10 championship two years later and subsequently added two more. In 2011, Dunphy secured the Owls’ first NCAA tournament victory after defeating Penn State in the second round.

The Owls won the 2015–16 regular season AAC title, and Dunphy retired two years later. In 2020, he became the interim athletic director at the school.