Temple won’t fix its basketball problems simply by changing coaches

So another job search begins at Temple. An Owls icon is out as men’s basketball coach after four seasons that didn’t catch fire.

Have you ever talked to a single soul in this city who wasn’t rooting for Aaron McKie? The man is just about everything right about his sport, his school, his city. His words always exuded integrity.

They just weren’t enough.

McKie was paid a lot of money to win basketball games, and he did not win enough of them. If he was a terrific role model, his teams didn’t model him quite enough on the court. A big win at Houston and beating Villanova and head-scratching losses. Can’t lose at home to Wagner. And this season ended with his top scorer gone from the program completely.

» READ MORE: Temple moving on from Aaron McKIe

A promising season ended with a thud, the future hazy. Nobody connected to Temple is shocked by this move. At the same time, I haven’t talked to a soul who thinks Temple’s basketball problems can be reversed simply by changing coaches.

“This is the headline – Temple thought it was a Hall of Fame program,” said one committed Temple booster, inferring that John Chaney’s Hall of Fame accomplishments, for instance, weren’t the result of much of anything the school itself did.

Boasting about being one of the winningest programs of all-time doesn’t change the fact that Temple is in the wrong basketball league, closest league opponent in North Carolina, but with no right league in sight, or that Temple is offering players NIL dimes on the dollar, with few stepping up to change that.

“I don’t think any board members have given,” one sports booster said Monday of the NIL collective that has been formed. “The alums and fans have to give up more money, and they have to show up and put their [butts] in the seats.”

The job of basketball coach has changed and maybe McKie was too old-school (and too sane) to change with it.

The next coach? Good luck. I’d hire Matt Langel, but I also think Langel would be crazy to take it, and doubt Temple will offer it, even though former players such as Dionte Christmas swear by Langel.

Or let’s just put this out there: Wasn’t Bruiser Flint born for this job?

Maybe current Temple athletic director Arthur Johnson has the benefit of seeing it all as an outsider from a fresh lens. Since Johnson reached back to his University of Texas experience for a head football coach in Stan Drayton, he could go in that or any direction here.

The rumor wire will work overtime. “I hear [hot young Power 5 assistant].” ... “Heard he doesn’t want it.” Different people talking about the same coach.

So there’s the modern hoops world, and a school desperate to keep up. Temple might think it has nice facilities, but do they compare to Big Ten schools surrounding this territory? Does the TV package compare to the Big Ten Network?

Does say $5,000 a season from a little NIL collective keep current players from moving on? McKie found a gem of a two-way guard from Chicago and he transferred to Iowa State last year.

Understanding the NIL world and the transfer portal is vital, but a coach who can’t teach proper footwork is losing from the start. Those upper-deck seats will stay empty.

That will all play out in future days. This day here right now is a sad day in Philadelphia basketball, even if you saw it coming.

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