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Temple Basketball: Biggest takeaways for Owls from 2019 Orlando Invitational

By Ben Andreatta

DAYTON, OHIO - MARCH 19: Quinton Rose #1 of the Temple Owls drives to the basket during the second half against the Belmont Bruins in the First Four of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at UD Arena on March 19, 2019 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
DAYTON, OHIO - MARCH 19: Quinton Rose #1 of the Temple Owls drives to the basket during the second half against the Belmont Bruins in the First Four of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at UD Arena on March 19, 2019 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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DAYTON, OHIO – MARCH 19: Nate Pierre-Louis #15 of the Temple Owls handles the ball during the second half against the Belmont Bruins in the First Four of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at UD Arena on March 19, 2019 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
DAYTON, OHIO – MARCH 19: Nate Pierre-Louis #15 of the Temple Owls handles the ball during the second half against the Belmont Bruins in the First Four of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at UD Arena on March 19, 2019 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Temple is one of the best defensive teams in the AAC

Temple defensively has been really solid all season long giving up right around 60 points per game and they showed their defensive prowess in this tournament by only surrendering 42 points to Texas A&M, and Davidson to 53 while also holding Maryland to five points under their season average. Maryland has one of the most explosive offenses in the country and yet Temple was able to bang bodies and force up several bad shots, especially in the first half.

Temple doesn’t have a lot of shot-blocking prowess but is still able to defend the interior with the likes of Moorman. We’ve seen a lot of small ball lineups which at times played a big factor when trying to deal with the size of Maryland. McKie has his guys relying a lot on quick rotations and compacting the paint to force teams to shoot from outside.

Part of Temple’s success has come from getting out in transition and guys like Moore and Pierre-Louis have really helped with that, each averaging over two steals a game to start the season. The ability to get out and make stops has been huge for Temple, a crucial 11-0 run midway in the second half against Davidson saw the Owls get in control of a game where they had struggled to get things going offensively.

They held Davidson to just 53 points and 20 in the second half and there was a period where Davidson didn’t score for over five minutes shortly after that 11-0 run. The defense helped to bail out what was a poor shooting day for the Owls.