Randall working with shooting coach

Scootie Randall is coming off his second-best shooting performance of the season.

The Temple swingman made 57.1 percent of his shots (4 of 7) to score 11 points in Saturday's 83-82 victory at Massachusetts. He was shooting just 36.5 percent before that game.

Randall confirmed to The Inquirer that he's been working with a shooting coach.

"It's just to get my shot [release] a little faster," he said, "and prevent all the bad habits that I developed over the years, in general, shooting. So it helps a lot."

Randall said he has been working with the instructor " for a while."

"He was a friend of a friend,"  Randall said. "He knows a lot. Probably like since the beginning of the season we were working together.

"But he does a lot of other stuff. So the timing for both of us is kind of hard, because he does his stuff. And with [Temple] sending us the [the team's weekly practice] schedule Sunday night, it's hard to [schedule frequent sessions.]"

The recent graduate's shooting slump has been more mental than anything else. He would think too much instead of just reacting. The 6-foot-6, 225-pounder admitted to losing confidence during the reason.

Randall said, after Saturday's victory, that his confidence is returning.

And that was a good thing for the Owls (17-8) against the Minutemen. He made perhaps their biggest basket of the game.

After UMass closed the gap to one point, the senior swingman caught a pass from Khalif Wyatt and drained a wide-open three-pointer. That gave Temple an 83-79 lead with 1minute, 25 seconds left.

"I have a great group of guys," Randall said. "They always tell me, 'Keep shooting no matter how many you miss.' So each and every time out, you just got to build your confidence back up. And I think this is the time to have it."

Follow Keith Pompey on Twitter @Pompeysgridlock