Temple’s late collapse erased its promising start. What adjustments will Adam Fisher make?

It wasn’t a surprise that Temple looked different this season.

The Owls added 11 new players to fill the gaps from a team that fell in the second round of the American Conference men’s basketball tournament last year.

While there was uncertainty about how this group would mesh, the Owls held a top three spot in the conference in early February.

However, Temple lost eight of its last nine games of the regular season to finish 10th and limp into the conference tournament. The Owls (16-16) were eliminated in a 63-59 loss to Florida Atlantic in the first round, putting a disheartening end to coach Adam Fisher’s third season.

“My disappointment is for these guys because I thought they fought all year long,” Fisher said. “I thought they gave us everything they could, and we had a lot of guys step up in roles that they haven’t been in and I thought that was a great testament to them.”

» READ MORE: Temple’s Derrian Ford is named third-team all-conference

Temple’s defense allowed 70.8 points per game, which ranked third in the American. Sophomore guard Aiden Tobiason developed from a defensive presence to an all-around player, and the transfers adjusted to their roles around him.

The Owls won seven straight in December after a 4-5 start. Temple beat eventual conference champion South Florida on Jan. 31 and eventually rose to second in the conference at 7-3. But then a six-game losing streak kept Temple out of the win column for nearly a month and the Owls staggered into the American tourney.

While the end of the season left a sour taste, Temple improved its defense and had a stronger paint presence behind guard Gavin Griffiths and forward Jamai Felt, who led the team with 54 and 22 blocks, respectively.

“We didn’t really change much, because I think Fish just worked on getting guys that want to play defense and that’s something you can’t really teach,” Tobiason said. “So when you get guys that want to play defense, all you have to do is just install what we already know.”

» READ MORE: Temple comes up short against Florida Atlantic, gets eliminated from American tournament

Tobiason was second on the team in scoring at 15.3 points per game. Guard Derrian Ford, who transferred from Arkansas State, became the team’s offensive engine, averaging 18.1 points, which ranked fourth in the conference.

Ford, Tobiason, and point guard Jordan Mason all finished in the top 10 in the conference in average minutes. When they came off the floor or were having an off game, Fisher struggled to find reliable replacements.

Guards AJ Smith and CJ Hines were brought in to boost scoring, but Smith played in only eight games before having shoulder surgery in December. Hines never played a game. He was suspended and eventually dismissed from the team for his alleged role in a point-shaving scheme while at Alabama State.

That left guard Masiah Gilyard and forward Babatunde Durodola, who scored a combined 11.3 points per game during conference play.

The Owls allowed 38.7 second-half points in conference play, while they gave up 31.2 points in the first half. Failure to finish games nearly cost them a conference tournament berth.

“It’s not so much the second half,” Fisher said after an 80-74 loss to Rice on March 1. “I think there’s things in the first half that you have to clean up and then it gets magnified in the second half.”

Temple heads into the offseason looking to keep the players with eligibility. Ford, Mason, and Gilyard will graduate, while Tobiason, Felt, Durodola, and Griffiths could return or enter the transfer portal.

“There’s going to be a lot of new guys on the roster, but we want to try to retain,” Fisher said. “We know we’ve got to make improvements. We’ve got to replace guys. We need to make sure that we are competitive in all aspects.”