Temple Basketball's Latest Loss Eliminates Possibility Of At-Large Bid

The numbers tell a bleak story for Temple basketball after an unfortunate loss at East Carolina on Wednesday night.

The Owls (11-8), who had moved from No. 94 to No. 65 in Rankings Percentage Index (RPI) after an 89-80 win over No. 8 SMU on Sunday, slipped back to No. 75 after the loss. RPI is one of many criteria the selection committee has to go on, but it is widely considered right at the top of the process.

That means the margin of error for the Owls getting into the NCAA tournament has evaporated and they will have to win the AAC tournament. Last year, a snubbed Temple team had a RPI of 34 and a 23-10 overall record going into Selection Sunday. That probably means the Owls would have to finish with single-digit losses, and to get there, they will have to sweep the rest of their regular-season games and lose in the title game of the tournament. That’s just not going to happen.

Since winning the tournament itself is more likely than running the regular-season table, the Owls know what they have to do now. A lot of it will be determined by how they fix the problems they have on the floor. Their leading rebounder, Jaylen Bond, has been unavailable the last two games due to lower back problems. They were able to overcome that loss because they were at home on Sunday and streak shooter Devin Coleman compensated by hitting all seven of his three-point attempts on the way to 23 points.

Against ECU the problem was as much on the defensive end as it was on offense. In a 78-60 win over ECU on Jan. 9, the Owls allowed no fast-break points; this time, they allowed 22, and that’s an astounding difference.

They cannot rely on Coleman’s outside shooting to mask those ills, because streak shooters have a nature of disappearing. That’s just what happened to Coleman against ECU, where he went 2-for-5 from three-point range and finished with just eight points. The Owls will have to get Bond back on the floor with strict orders not to shoot outside the paint — he has a nasty habit of putting up threes at inappropriate times — and the other Owls will have to play within their roles. Leading scorer Quenton DeCosey will have to be the go-to guy to break his man down and take the big shot the Owls will undoubtedly need against the big teams. DeCosey has shied away from those big spots too often in the past.

Those issues will need to be addressed in practice by tournament time, because the regular season has been rendered rather meaningless now.