The Owls are 14-4 (4-1 AAC) and coming off a home Big 5 loss to the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, with the Quakers pulling out a 77-70 victory. It was Temple's first home loss in eight games this season.
"They played very, very well," Temple head coach Fran Dunphy said of Penn. "They did everything they needed to do. They made shots in a timely fashion, something that I think we have been good at throughout the first part of the season and we weren't good at it on Saturday."
Temple's senior big man Ernest Aflakpui was magnificent in defeat against Penn, finishing with career highs of 21 points on 9 of 13 shooting and 15 rebounds.
Despite the loss to the Quakers, the Owls are in the midst of a fine season. They currently are just one game out of first in the AAC. Dunphy talks about the focus for his team these days as it is all conference play from here on out.
"Always defense," he said. "That's the number one priority always. Our defensive numbers can certainly improve and that's what we've talked about so far."
This game with Memphis has the makings of a good one. The Tigers are tied with the Owls in the AAC at 4-1 and overall the Tigers are 12-6, with wins in 9 of their last 11 games. That Temple defense will get challenged against Memphis as the Tigers average 84 points per game.
"They are pushing the basketball," Dunphy said. "There's a lot of stuff that's happening in transition. They have a very veteran team that won 20 games last year. So they've got a terrific team that's coming back and (head coach) Penny Hardaway's doing a terrific job with them. They can defend it, they do a lot of different things on the defensive end, some pressure in the half-court that you have to be ready to face and then they are looking to push the basketball. They play at a very high pace as well."
The Tigers have three players averaging at least 13 points a game in senior forward Kyvon Davenport (15.2), senior guard Jeremiah Martin (14.7) and freshman guard Tyler Harris (13.1).
Thursday night's game will get underway at 7.00 p.m.
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