Texas hoops preview: Temple Owls

Did you accidentally click on this link looking for something related to Texas football on game day? Wait! Don't go. I bet you didn't know that Texas basketball had a contest today. It's relatively important too. This afternoon, we'll get to see if Texas is capable of maintaining success on the road in its first true road game of the year. Considering the fact that Temple axed seven sports from the athletic program yesterday, it's safe to say that the Longhorns will probably have the mental upper hand.

What We Know About Temple

After an impressive outing in the NCAA tournament last season that included a victory over North Carolina State and a competitive game against Indiana, the Temple Owls will use 2013-2014 as a rebuilding season. The young Owls will need to establish a scoring threat if they are going to make any noise in the postseason. This 4-3 squad's most impressive win to date might be over UAB, who took down UNC at home earlier this year. Of the three losses on Temple's schedule, two look particularly bad on paper. Temple lost to two average mid-majors before losing to ACC bottom feeder Clemson last week. Since then, Temple has won three in a row.

The Owls most prolific scorer is junior guard Will Cummings. Cummings leads the entire team in scoring with 17 points per game. In his last four games, he hasn't scored less than 17 points. Behind Cummings, Temple's next best scoring threat is senior guard Dalton Pepper. Pepper started the season strong, but has been struggling in recent games. He has scored only 15 points in his last 69 minutes of playing time. If he continues to play poorly tomorrow, Temple will be a lot easier to guard. Down low, Anthony Lee will be the Longhorns biggest challenge. The 6-9 junior is leading the Owls in rebounding and scored 20 points in the team's contest against Clemson. He could be a challenge the Longhorns have yet to see.

Projected Starters

PG- Will Cummings

G- Dalton Pepper

G- Quenton Decosey

F- Anthony Lee

F/C- Jimmy McDonnell

Interesting Tidbits

Per Temple's athletic website:

Temple and Texas will be meeting for the sixth time, with the Longhorns winning the most recent meeting on their home court in 2011, 77-65. The last time the two teams met at a neutral site was at the Superdome in New Orleans in 2001 for the NCAA First Round. Temple won that contest, 79-65, and went on to advance to the Elite Eight.

It will also be an interesting afternoon for former Longhorn Jaylen Bond, who transferred to Temple at the end of last season. He will still be sitting on the bench during a Texas game, just a different one.

TV: ESPNU

Location: Philadelphia, PA

Time: 11 am CST.