Temple Basketball Should Fire Aaron Mckie

Aaron Mckie is on his fourth year with the Owls, with the first three years being limited due to covid and in the 2021-22 season, when Temple basketball only played conference games. Temple has not been to the tournament since 2019, when they lost in the first four under former head coach Fran Dunphy. Now, with another inconsistent season for Temple basketball, it’s time for the Owls to fire Aaron McKie.

Big Shoes to Fill

In McKie’s first four seasons as coach, he has led the Owls to a 41-44 record (.482). In Fran Dunphy’s first four seasons, Temple made the tournament 3 times, with a sweet 16 appearance in his 5th season and a Associated Press ranking at 12 in his 4th season in 2012. That’s not enough? John Chaney, the coach before Fran, in his first four seasons, led the Owls to 3 consecutive round of 32 appearances (1983-85) as a 8-9 seed, and received a Associated Press ranking at 20th.

On top of that, Chaney made Temple basketball a force in the A-10, only missing the NCAA Tournament 7 times from 1982-2005. So at what point do we say enough is enough for Aaron McKie? McKie is on pace to be the only coach since Don Casey did it in 1974-1978, to not make the NCAA Tournament in his first four years as head coach for Temple Basketball.

It is a trend that McKie does not want to be apart of, but we beg the question if McKie is on the hot seat and why? With a new athletic director, Temple sports might be looking for a change.

Comparing Talent

Is this talent weaker from past seasons a reason why this team can’t make the NCAA tournament? They have three players scoring double digits being led by Khalif Battle, averaging 20 points a game. Let’s compare this team to the 2019 NCAA tournament caliber team now. In 2019, they also had 3 double digit scorers in Shizz Alston, Quinton Rose, and Nate Pierre Louis.

The difference from that roster to the 2022 roster is the 2022 roster has more depth. In 2019 the next leading scorer after the top three was Ernest Aflakpui, averaging 5.9 points and 7.1 rebounds a game. Another comparison was in 2019, temple was 56th in the NET rankings, and at this point Temple is 133rd in the NET. This 2022 team ranks 139th in adjusted offensive efficiency and 128th in adjusted defensive efficiency via KenPom.

So the talent is there, it is up to the players and coach McKie to execute to get back into the tournament.

Looking Forward

But at this point, it is time for Temple basketball to fire Aaron McKie if he can not get Temple back to the NCAA tournament this year. If for whatever reason Temple basketball doesn’t fire Aaron McKie, he will be on the hottest seat in college basketball in 2023-24.

There’s no excuses this year, it’s all or nothing McKie.

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