At some point this season, Temple coach Fran Dunphy hopes his freshmen guards can learn from Monday’s 57-52 loss to New Hampshire (see Instant Replay).
When he re-watches Monday’s loss, Quinton Rose might find a way from losing possession on a drive late in the second half. Alani Moore might think twice about pulling the trigger on a contested three-point attempt.
For now, Dunphy will have to wait as his talented freshmen figure out the Division I game.
“They’re learning on the fly,” Dunphy said. “A game like this will help them greatly watching the film. You’d like to have them be helped greatly in a winning situation … but I think they’re doing as good as they can. We have a long season ahead of us.”
Rose and Moore showed flashes of their abilities in Temple’s season-opening win over La Salle. Rose had 12 points, three rebounds and two blocks. Moore added eight points and an assist.
Things were a little bit more difficult on Monday. Rose ended with five points and seven rebounds. He also turned the ball over three times, bringing his season total to six. Moore went 1 of 6 from the field on Monday, finishing with three points. Hailed as a true point guard before the season, he failed to record an assist.
The freshmen struggles were coupled with a tough day for sophomore Shizz Alston Jr. Alston, who averaged two points per game in just more than 10 minutes of action last season, is the most experienced member of Temple’s backcourt with senior guard Josh Brown still sidelined with an Achilles injury. He shot 3 of 16 on Monday, including missing two shots that would have either tied the game or given Temple a lead in the last minute of play.
But at the end of the game, Dunphy showed trust in the youngsters. All three were on the court as Temple tried to squeak out the comeback win. Redshirt senior swingman Dan Dingle said his job is to support the mental psyche of the young guys. They’ll begin to make those clutch plays later in the year.
“Just staying positive, at the end-of-game situations, just having trust in my young guys,” Dingle said. “Shizz Alston, eventually he’s going to make that shot next time he shoots it. Quinton Rose, next time he gets to the basket, he’s not gonna get stripped. He’s going to finish that.”
As the underclassmen find their way, a lot of the burden has been put on Dingle and junior forward Obi Enechionyia.
After scoring 21 points and adding five assists and four rebounds against La Salle, Dingle finished with 13 points and six rebounds against New Hampshire. Enechionyia is averaging 20 points, 10.5 rebounds and three blocks per game in Temple’s 1-1 start.
Maybe the loss will give a spark to the rest of the team.
“I think now we know what it feels like to lose and what it feels like to win,” Enechionyia said. “So just going into next practice, I want everyone to just, we said it in the locker room after the game, we want everyone to remember what it feels like and just go into practice with a different type of energy so this doesn’t happen again.”