Temple vs Florida Atlantic Odds, Pick
| Temple Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
+19.5 -110 | 148.5 -115o / -105u | +1400 |
| Florida Atlantic Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
-19.5 -110 | 148.5 -115o / -105u | -5000 |
Thursday has slowly become a weird night in college basketball as most power conferences have skewed toward Tuesday or Wednesday as their mid-week night for games, leaving Thursday as a ghost town.
Well, this Thursday's meeting between the Florida Atlantic Owls and the Temple Owls certainly qualifies as weird. It's strange that these teams are both in the American Athletic Conference. Florida Atlantic started playing basketball in 1993 and has just two NCAA Tournament appearances in school history. Temple, on the other hand, dates its basketball roots back to the 19th century as it played an 11-game season in 1894. Those Owls have over 1,600 more wins all-time than their southern cousins.
Yet in 2024, it's FAU that's ranked in the AP Poll and eager to earn a repeat trip to the Final Four, while Temple has lost nine straight and is in the AAC's basement.
Temple Owls
Nine straight losses and a 1-10 record in conference play are signs of dark times for Temple. This once proud fixture of the NCAA Tournament has no business struggling this much, especially not in a league with schools like Rice, UTSA and East Carolina.
If you squint at the numbers and recent results, there's maybe a case that the Owls have played better than this losing streak suggests. Four of the nine losses came by a single possession or in overtime. Temple has shot just 28.6% from 3 in that span, though that is less of a cold streak and more indicative of the team's overall shooting prowess. The Owls have hit just 29.6% of their 3s this season and are shooting an AAC-worst 28.8% from 3 in conference play.
Making matters worse, Temple takes a ton of 3s and ranks in the top 30 nationally in 3-point rate. The Owls also don't augment that deficiency elsewhere in the offensive gameplan. Temple is a bad offensive rebounding team (11th in the AAC), doesn't earn free throws (11th in the AAC), is inefficient inside the arc (13th in 2-point percentage in the conference) and doesn't aggressively attack the rim (199th nationally in rim rate).
The result is an offense that's sluggish and inefficient. Temple's leading scorer, Hysier Miller, is the only player in college hoops taking more than 15 field goals and scoring under 16 points per game. There's no player in the country shooting as often as Miller at a lower percentage — either from the entire court or from beyond the arc, where he has the most attempts in the country, but is making under 26%.
Florida Atlantic Owls
Expectations were sky high for Florida Atlantic after last year's Final Four run. Typically, when a mid-major makes a run like that, its coach gets poached and its players flock to the pros or transfer portal. Florida Atlantic's situation was remarkably rare. The Owls brought back the highest percentage of minutes from last season of any team in the country, per KenPom. That's unheard of in the NIL and transfer portal era.
However, experience and chemistry only get a team so far and FAU has shown some flaws. Four of the Owls' five losses came to teams ranked 100th or worse by KenPom. FAU's defense, ranked 34th last year, has struggled as the Owls stepped up from Conference USA to the AAC. That defense has dropped to 75th in the nation.
If you're looking for positive signs, Johnell Davis has risen from a contributor to one of the most unappreciated players in college hoops. Last season, he scored 13 points per game, but only started 16 of FAU's 37 games. This season, Davis has emerged as the team's alpha and is scoring 18.6 points per game.
FAU can survive it's overall slip on the defensive end because Davis has elevated the Owls into one of the elite offenses in college basketball.
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Temple vs. Florida Atlantic
Betting Pick & Prediction
FAU's defense is in need of a confidence boost and Temple is the perfect opponent for that situation. Temple operates out of isolation far too often and FAU has the athletes and scheme to force Temple to continue its trend of bad shot selection and ugly shooting.
Of Temple's 24 games this season, just eight have had over 147.5 points and two of those eight games went to overtime. Temple has topped 70 points in regulation just once (against frantic-paced Memphis) since December 10. A motivated FAU should put the clamps on Temple and keep them under 60. Florida Atlantic could extend this game to a blowout and tip over the total, but coming off two straight overtime games, there's a chance Dusty May may use some fresh legs in the second half and call off the dogs.
