With no coach, and no players, Temple hoops is a complete mess right now

The Owls have six top players in the transfer portal while athletic director Arthur Johnson deals with the small matter of trying to find a new coach.

Zach Hicks (left) and Damian Dunn (middle) were the last pair of holdouts of Temple players who have entered the NCAA's transfer portal, many since Aaron McKie was let go.Read moreCharles Fox / Staff Photographer

by Mike Jensen | Columnist

Published Mar. 23, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

What a mess.

We’re talking about Temple men’s basketball. The NCAA transfer portal is setting up an outpost on North Broad Street outside the Liacouras Center. Or at least providing limousine service. C’mon in, Owls. That all of you?

Just about, by now.

In the olden times, say, two years ago — before NIL inducements and instant transfer eligibility — a coaching change would have meant players looking at transferring but keeping the option open to return depending on the new coach.

Now, that’s still possible, just not as plausible. NIL changes the whole landscape. A player leaving one school finds out their NIL value on the open market. That’s happening now for Temple players testing the waters after Aaron McKie was not retained after a disappointing 16-16 season. (Yes, he’s officially a special assistant to the athletic director. In reality, Temple will be paying for a new coach and the old coach next season.)

At latest count, six Owls players are reportedly in the portal — leaving no one remaining who averaged as much as six points per game. On the portal list: Damian Dunn, Jamille Reynolds, Hysier Miller, Zach Hicks, Nick Jourdain, plus Khalif Battle, who was off Temple’s team by the end of the season but still has real NIL value.

Mandated by court decisions against the NCAA, name, image, likeness was originally meant to allow players to be compensated for exactly that — their name, image, and likeness. But it immediately morphed into something else — collectives being set up by alumni of colleges to pay players. Not surprisingly, NIL follows the rest of the college landscape, with more money available at the big-time programs.

Meanwhile, 10 days into a search for a new Temple coach, we wait. Maybe athletic director Arthur Johnson has a target in mind and has to wait. Hopefully, it wasn’t George Mason coach Kim English, since he’s heading for Providence. Could it be Rodney Terry, interim coach at Texas, where Johnson came from?

The NIL market isn’t waiting. According to someone paying very close attention to Temple NIL values, as many as four of the six Owls in the portal have six-figure values on the NIL market. All have quite a bit more value than the $5,000 they got from Temple’s NIL collective this past season.

What this means is any new coach better come in prepared to find a whole new roster of players. So the degree of difficulty for Johnson: highest level.

“Aaron shouldn’t have been fired at this time,” texted one longtime Philadelphia travel team honcho. “Too much negativity already surrounding Temple. Coach not gonna matter at this point.”

I’ll put it down as a no-win situation. Given McKie didn’t make the NCAA Tournament for four years, empty seats made change a natural thought in a normal situation. But each of the six players in the portal has two seasons of eligibility remaining. The cupboard wasn’t supposed to be empty.

“Rodney Terry would be a disaster at Temple,” the travel team honcho said.

Not because of the man himself, he said. No ties to Philadelphia.

“Can’t hire a guy just cause he knows the AD at Temple,” this man texted. “Gotta know the lay of the land in America’s most territorial city.”

Yes, he said, Temple always has found top players away from Philly. Temple fans will take to good players wherever they come from, historically. (Mark Macon from Michigan, Eddie Jones from Florida, Mark Karcher from Baltimore … etc., etc., etc.) But there’s always been a local base, too. I’m more neutral on where this next coach must arrive from, as long as they know what they’re getting into here and get the staffing right.

If it’s Hofstra coach and former Sixer Speedy Claxton, sure, I’d get that. I’ve already said I get the value of Colgate’s Matt Langel and Kentucky assistant and former Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint. Is Langel viable? Penn State assistant Adam Fisher, whose boss, Micah Shrewsberry, just took the Notre Dame job — is Fisher viable at Temple? Let’s assume yes. Kimani Young, now a Connecticut assistant? He’s going to be a head coach somewhere soon.

Sixers assistant Sam Cassell? That would be weird from both ends, since Cassell seems ready to be an NBA head coach. Maybe waiting for Imhotep Charter’s season to end? (Hey, there have been way worse decisions made by colleges than putting Andre Noble in charge of a basketball program.) Does Johnson have his own wild card in mind? Maybe. Temple’s AD is on the clock now, in more ways than one.