Ad Disclosure
Temple Basketball Loses Eight of Last 10 Games to Finish .500 Overall
Published:
That’ll do it for the Temple Owls’ basketball season:
It’s three losses to Florida Atlantic this year. They lost to them on the road, at home, and on a neutral floor as well. They also lost to Rice, so Temple went 0-4 against other Owl teams in 2026. (EDIT – I stand corrected, they SPLIT with Rice, so they went 1-4 against Owl teams)
It’ll go into the history books as a 16-16 campaign for Adam Fisher’s squad, which started 11-5 and 3-0 in conference play. They lost close games to St. Joe’s and Memphis and were competitive in most of their conference losses, but once again the late-season skid is what did them in. They finished 2-8 in February and March and barely got into the conference tournament as the 10 seed, only to crash out in the first round.
I’m seeing “fire Adam Fisher” tweets on the timeline. He’s 49-51 in three Temple seasons and 22-32 in conference play. They had the improbable run to the conference tournament final back in 2024, which was the high point of his tenure.
Looking through the list now, it’s seven full seasons since the Owls made the NCAA tournament, which was a First Four exit in Fran Dunphy’s final year. They haven’t won a March Madness game since 2013 (NC State) and have only won 20 games once in the last decade.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it feels like Temple has to pick between basketball and football. Put the NIL money into one program and prioritize it. Get into the ideal conference to maximize your ability to compete in the portal and on the surface of play. Am I wrong? Tell me I’m wrong.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com