With 11 new players this season, Temple wants to ‘play faster,’ coach Adam Fisher says

Heading into Adam Fisher’s third season at the helm for Temple, the biggest question mark surrounding the team is chemistry. The Owls added 11 new players to the roster with guard Aiden Tobiason and center Babatunde Durodola as the only returning starters from last season.

The Owls’ 2024-25 season ended in a loss to Tulsa in the American Conference tournament’s first round. The team lost leading scorers Jamal Mashburn Jr., Steve Settle III, and Zion Stanford, as well as guard Quante Berry.

Despite the changes, the optimism is soaring high before Temple’s season-opener at home against Delaware State on Nov. 5 (7 p.m., ESPN+).

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“We start in a week and a half and we’re excited to be back at the Liacouras Center,” Fisher said. “Eleven new faces to the roster. So there were a lot of things this summer that we had, team-building-wise, to connect us. Putting together a team, we try to do it like a puzzle. ‘Here’s what we’re trying to look for. How do these pieces come together?’ So we were really excited about the guys we brought in the transfer portal.”

Durodola and Tobiason were comfortable in the starting lineup last season as freshmen and have taken it upon themselves to improve their leadership.

While the Owls lost five players to the transfer portal, including forward Dillon Battie, who joined the pair in the Owls’ 2024 recruiting class and is now at Wichita State, Tobiason and Durodola never considered leaving.

“[Aiden and I] kind of talked about it. It made no sense to leave after one year,” Durodola said. “There’s no way after a game with a new team, you’re going to leave. So it was kind of like, ‘Why are you going to leave based on the first year, based on the first year’s performance?’ You always have a next year and years to come.”

Tobiason started 22 games for the Owls last season. He gave the team a lift on the offensive end of the floor, scoring 4.8 points per game, while using his length to help on defense.

The Wilmington native is expected to step into the leading scorer role, a mantle that Mashburn left behind when he graduated. Tobiason scored in double figures five times last season.

“He can’t put pressure on himself,” Fisher said. “I think that sometimes you get that pressure, ‘I got to do this, from this to this.’ You don’t, [you] just have to be who you are. … Rather than taking two, three shots like he did in some games last year, right? That could triple, quadruple this year.”

With Temple losing a chunk of its core last season, the Owls are changing their philosophy approaching the transfer portal, from a more offensive focus to primarily honing in on defense.

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Temple gave up 77.7 points per game last season, ranking 321st in the country. The additions of guards CJ Hines, AJ Smith, Derrian Ford, and forward Jamai Felt are expected to improve the defense.

“I think we want to play faster,” Fisher said. “I think we’re going to be more aggressive on defense. We want to create more turnovers. It’s a huge thing. Our defense has to get better than it was last year. We’re going to be a little bit more aggressive.”

Hines joins the teams after two seasons at Alabama State. Last season, he helped the Hornets to an NCAA Tournament appearance and averaged 14.1 points with 1.1 steals.

Felt has the chance to be plugged in next to Durodola in the frontcourt after transferring from Bowling Green. The Boston, Mass., native spent his first two seasons on the shelf due to injuries. When he played last year, he averaged 5.7 points and 6.2 rebounds. He also blocked 1.4 shots per game and was named to the Mid-American Conference All-Freshman team.

Fisher says he has a sense of the team’s potential lineup, but won’t be sure until the team begins game prep on Sunday.

“All we have to do is stay together,” Fisher said. “Anytime you have team success, individual success will come.”