Temple Owls Basketball: Fixing Obi Enechionyia

As we reach game three of conference play, the Temple Owls are reaching a crossroads in their season.

The Temple Owls have gotten good wins over West Virginia and Florida State while also playing the projected conference champions, Cincinnati, tough. But it could be how the Owls bounce back from a humiliating loss to UCF that could define their season.

The Knights are a much-improved team but that doesn’t explain why the Temple Owls went out and lost by 20 plus. Temple has the talent to compete with the top teams and has shown that they can hang. Tonight is a large matchup away at SMU and it’s a win that the Owls need to boost morale and avoid a three-game skid.

The biggest difference between Temple’s hot start and their performances currently has been the complete disappearance of Obi Enechionyia. Obi started off the season on a torrid pace averaging 21 points per game during the Temple Owl’s first seven games but he has only averaged 9.25 points in their last eight games. That drop in production is hard to make up across the board.

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When Obi isn’t scoring, the pressure is placed on Daniel Dingle to create scoring opportunities and while he’s good, he cannot carry the team on his own. It also doesn’t help that Obi has a one-dimensional game so when he isn’t scoring for the Temple Owls he becomes a major liability on the court.

It’s a tough problem to fix because coach Dunphy can’t sit Obi but with his issues draining shots, even when open, something has to change. The first idea is to build up Obi’s confidence by getting him going early in the game. He’s a streaky player but if Obi hits a few shots in the beginning of games for the Temple Owls, he can begin to play freer. The one drawback to this option is that it risks getting the Owls into early holes that they can’t climb out of but since this is already an issue that they’ve already been dealing with, it’s nothing new.

Next: Owls Lose in the Waning Moments to Cincinnati

Another option is designing more pick and roll plays in order to release Obi to shoot or drive to the hoop. He’s a guy who’s just as dangerous above the rim as he is behind the three point line so it could be a way to shake things up for the Temple Owls. It would fluster other teams because they’d need to begin preparing for a different look in their gameplans.

Regardless of what happens for the Owls, someone needs to step up to replace the production lost from Obi Enechionyia’s loss of a scoring touch.

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