Temple Basketball: Dunphy’s distribution of playing time remains questionable

Temple basketball rolled to an easy victory against Tulane on Sunday, but the distribution of minutes played by Owls players continues to be a big question mark

Temple basketball got the result it expected on Sunday afternoon, topping a Tulane team winless in conference play 80-69 at Liacouras Center. The Owls took the lead for good at the 16:05 mark in the first half, leading by as many as 21 in the second half. The win moves Temple to 21-8 with two games remaining before the American Conference tournament.

Sunday’s win doesn’t move the needle for Temple. The win doesn’t get them any closer to a tournament appearance, and, thankfully, didn’t negatively affect their position on that tournament bubble. And there were a few positives to pull from Temple’s performance on Sunday; they shot over 47% from the field, and Quinton Rose might be finding his form at just the right time. He dropped a career-high 29 points on 13-21 shooting, and often made getting to the basket look easy. He’s starting to look like the player that was garnering attention from NBA scouts a season ago.

But what caught my attention the most on Sunday was the continuation of an odd trend in Fran Dunphy’s distribution of playing time. There were two primary things that left me questioning what Fran was trying to accomplish with his rotation on Sunday: the first was the low number of minutes Damion Moore saw in this game, and the second was the seemingly unnecessarily high number of minutes played by the other starters in a game that was never really close.

Damion Moore, the 6’11” junior, has always had consistency issues. His largely ineffective play this season had landed him with a mostly regular spot on the bench, as had been the case during his first few seasons on North Broad. But with Ernest Aflakpui’s injury shrinking a lineup already rebound-deficient, Dunphy has given Damion Moore a few starts to try to bring a more assertive presence to the Owls‘ frontcourt.

While Justyn Hamilton has shown the ability to put ball in the basket and alter shots on the defensive side on the court, he’s still a developing player (thanks perhaps largely in part to Dunphy’s mismanagement introducing him into the rotation over his first 40+ career college games), and isn’t enough of a factor on the glass to shoulder the brunt of the responsibility inside for Temple.

And since Moore has been inserted into the starting lineup, he’s been mostly effective in the areas Temple has needed him to help make a difference in. Against Tulsa on February 23rd, he grabbed a team-leading six rebounds in only 12 minutes of play; against Memphis last week, he scored a bucket, grabbed an offensive rebound, and had a big block before being yanked after five minutes. On Sunday against Tulane, Moore was 5-6 from the floor, had four rebounds, two blocks, two steals, and an assist, playing 14 minutes.

Damion Moore has looked confident, is hitting the shots he’s gotten the opportunity to take, and is a difference maker in Temple’s perhaps weakest statistical category. And if you don’t trust the eye test, go take a look at Damion’s advanced statistics; just about every category is up for him over last season, but his usage remains significantly down.

Dunphy has a long history of mismanaging players, keeping guys on the bench for extended stretches – sometimes games at a time – when they’ve struggled. On this roster alone, it has had a clear negative affect on guys like Damion Moore, Alani Moore, and Justyn Hamilton. But right now, Fran doesn’t have to be convinced to give Damion more time to allow him to develop or get into a rythm so he can become a contributor; he’s been a clear difference maker when he’s been on the court for Temple in recent games, and unless that changes, he needs to see more time on the floor.

Another problem with Fran’s minutes allocation is leaving other starters in the game way, way too long. It was particularly questionable Sunday in a game that wasn’t close, pretty much from tip, but it has been a pattern all year. Even in blowout games when Dunphy does decide to play deeper bench guys and walk-ons, it’s generally not until there’s about a minute left in the game.

Today, Shizz Alston and Quinton Rose played 37 minutes, and J.P. Moorman and Nate Pierre-Louis played 32. Alston, Rose, and Pierre-Louis rank first, third, and fourth, respectively, in minutes played in AAC play this season. Heading down the stretch, fatigue could absolutely become a factor for Temple, if it hasn’t already.

Even Fran’s most hardened opponents will miss some things about the Dunphy era when he is replaced by Aaron McKie after the season; the integrity with which he ran the program, his graciousness, humility. Players rarely leave this program for a reason. But some of these things are why so many Temple fans, even in the heat of a tournament push, are still loudly expressing their excitement about Aaron McKie taking the reigns for next season.

If Temple gets out-rebounded by a large margin with Damion Moore on the bench, or if Rose or Alston run out of steam in a big game in March, fans will have many more questions than well-wishes for the out-going coach when this season is over.