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Key pieces of Temple's 2023-24 basketball schedule announced – 247Sports
Coach Adam Fisher’s first schedule as Temple men’s basketball coach is coming together following four press releases on Wednesday and Thursday that fill in many of the blanks for the 2023-24 campaign. At first glance, the schedule is notable for a lack of marquee home games.
On Wednesday, Temple announced that it will face Navy in the nightcap of the Veterans Classic in Annapolis, Md., on Nov. 10. The opening game of the doubleheader matches Duquesne and Charleston.
On Thursday, the Big 5 announced the schedule for this year’s new tournament format that includes Drexel. Temple, La Salle and Drexel are grouped in one round-robin pod, while Villanova, Saint Joseph’s and Penn comprise the other threesome. The Owls will visit Drexel on Nov. 14 and will host La Salle on Nov. 29. All six teams will participate in the Big 5 Tripleheader at the Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 2, with the top finishers in each pod battling for the Big 5 Championship.
Also on Thursday, the American Conference announced the home-and-away pairings for its 18-game league schedule. With 14 members, each AAC team will play home-and-home against five opponents (10 games) and will play the other eight teams just once – either home or away. Most notable from Thursday’s announcement – 2023 Final Four participant Florida Atlantic will not visit The Liacouras Center.
The Owls drew home-and-home matchups with East Carolina, Rice, South Florida, UTSA, and Wichita State. The home schedule also includes Charlotte, Memphis, Tulsa, and UAB. Temple will play the following teams on the road: Florida Atlantic, North Texas, SMU, and Tulane.
Aside from 18 AAC games and the four games mentioned above, Temple will play three games in the Diamond Head Classic hosted by the University of Hawaii from Dec. 21-24. The eight-team field also includes Georgia Tech, Nevada, Old Dominion, Portland, TCU, and UMass.
The Owls are also slated to play return games for their home-and-home series with VCU and Mississippi. Temple hosted VCU and visited Mississippi last year. VCU announced its non-conference schedule on Thursday, revealing that the Owls will visit the Rams on Dec. 16.
With those 27 games in place, Temple has four other games on the 2023-24 schedule that have yet to be announced, including its first contest. Opening night on the NCAA regular season calendar this year is Nov. 6.
Among the dates and sites that have been announced so far, Temple will play just one home game against a team that played in the 2023 NCAA Tournament – Memphis. The only other 20-win teams on the home schedule are NIT runner-up UAB and Charlotte. Otherwise, the most prominent names that will visit The Liacouras Center are Wichita State and Mississippi, which is now headed by Coach Chris Beard, who guided Texas Tech to the 2019 NCAA title game, then moved on to Texas, his alma mater, where he was fired in January following domestic violence allegations.
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