Temple coach Adam Fisher addresses reporters at the Big 5 Classic on Dec. 2, 2023. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
By AARON BRACY
December 15, 2023
Big5Hoops.com
The smile. The enthusiasm.
Those are two things that strike you when talking to Adam Fisher.
Temple’s first-year men’s basketball coach tells you how much he loves his job. How much he loves the Owls. How much this all means to him.
On his face, you can see it.
In your heart, you can feel it.
“Being here at this great university with great tradition, basketball history, it’s awesome,” Fisher told Big5Hoops.com. “You drive down North Broad Street going to work and you’re like, ‘Man, I get to be the head coach of this place.’ Growing up in Bucks County, getting to watch all of the great teams and Coach Chaney, Coach Dunphy, Coach McKie, and then all of the amazing players. It’s really something special to be able to do this in this city. It really means a lot to me and my family.”
It is your second time talking to Fisher, the first coming after the Owls lost to St. Joe’s in the Big 5 Classic title game. He smiled when you introduced yourself then, seemingly completely present. Now, on Zoom, his personality radiates in a way that the 2-D computer box usually deflects.
But not with Fisher. You can feel his passion through the screen.
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So, who is Adam Fisher?
He is someone who always wanted to coach basketball, beginning as an undergraduate at Penn State, from where he graduated in 2006. He then joined Jay Wright’s staff at Villanova as a graduate manager. Watching. Listening. Learning. Filling up looseleaf paper with note after note after note.
“He does everything the right way,” Fisher said of Wright. “Everybody in his program, he gets the best out of.”
After a few years on the Main Line, Fisher departed with those notebooks under his arm and lessons in his brain. There were stops at Boston University, Miami and then back at Penn State. More mentors. More lessons.
From Pat Chambers at BU, he learned how to start a program. From Micah Shrewsberry at PSU, he fined-tuned X’s and O’s. And from Jim Larrañaga at Miami, he absorbed the importance of building relationships.
There were others, including many assistants and staff members, who helped mold Fisher. Fisher also mentions the guidance of former Nittany Lions coach Ed DeChellis.
“Each one has taught me so much, and then I have to put my own spin on it,” Fisher said. “I know my personality. I like to work really hard. I’m a little bit animated. It’s who I am.”
Fisher has put an emphasis on quality people. High character, both on his staff and on the court.
“I hired a great staff,” he said. “They’re all great husbands, great fathers. That’s really important.”
He wants players who are role models to anyone with whom they interact.
“I believe in great people,” Fisher said. “If you have great people, you can do great things.”
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So, can Temple do great things? The Owls are one of college basketball’s all-time winningest programs. But they haven’t been in the conversation very much of late, making the NCAA tournament just twice since 2013 when they capped their sixth straight trip to the Big Dance.
Can Fisher change that? Perhaps. Right now, though, he’s concentrating on baby steps.
“We don’t really talk about winning right now,” he said. “We talk about getting better from day to day. And then you got to stack good days. That’s our progress. That’s how we determine how we are. And if you do the right things enough, I think the score takes care of itself.”
You’ve seen signs of promise, none more than Temple’s loss to the Hawks. It looked like St. Joe’s was going to romp past the Owls, but Fisher’s squad kept fighting – like the mantra of their opponent that day – and made it closer than you thought.
“I’ve been really impressed with our resiliency,” Fisher said.
In Hysier Miller (18.4 points per game), Fisher has a natural scorer. Zion Stanford (12.1 ppg) and Jordan Riley (11.8) also can fill up a stat sheet. Fisher has been impressed by trio’s leadership and their promise.
The Owls are 6-3, but it hasn’t exactly been a John Chaney-like schedule, which is understandable in the first year of a new coach’s tenure. They are among the worst shooting teams in Division I, coming in at 331st of 351 teams in field-goal percentage (39.6%) and 276th in 3-point percentage (30.4%) in games played through Dec. 12.
There is work to do. Fisher knows this. He has liked how the Owls are driving to the basket, how they have a team-first mentality, how they get to the foul line. He knows they need to shore up on defense and find the range from the outside.
They will be back on the court on Saturday at VCU, a notoriously unfriendly place for opponents, before a trip to Hawaii for three games that begins against very good Nevada squad on Dec. 21.
Fisher said this four-game road trip is about having a great experience, bonding and coming even more together as a team. And learning. Learning how to play on the road. If the Owls are going to return to prominence, that will be a barometer of success.
“That’s how teams separate themselves in college basketball,” Fisher said. “You handle your business at home, and you have to go on the road in tough environments and go steal games.”
Fisher wants to steal games.
Wants to get the Owls back to the forefront of the conversation.
Can he do it? Time will tell.
Two things are for sure:
He has a great smile.
And the enthusiasm to do it.
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Former Drexel coach Flint at home with Calipari, Kentucky
Kentucky assistant coach and former Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint poses with No. 1 Dragons fan Calvin prior to the Wildcats’ game against Penn on Dec. 9 at the Wells Fargo Center. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
Former Drexel coach Bruiser Flint was back in Philadelphia last Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center against Penn in a familiar place, both in his native city and as an assistant coach on the bench of Kentucky coach John Calipari.
Flint helped Calipari transform UMass from a school with 11 straight losing seasons into a national power that reached the 1996 Final Four as a Minutemen assistant to Calipari from 1989-96.
He took over for Calipari at UMass before a successful tenure at Drexel from 2002-16, where he won 245 games that included a 29-win season in 2011-12. Flint also led the Dragons to road victories over Syracuse, Villanova and Creighton during his tenure. The 1987 St. Joe’s graduate always was one of our favorite interviews during our time covering Philadelphia college basketball in version 1.0 of this site.
We caught up with Flint before the Wildcats’ 81-66 victory over Penn and spoke informally about his current role at Kentucky and his time in Philadelphia, sensing how at peace he is with his current situation.
He joined Calipari’s staff in 2020 after three years as an assistant at Indiana. Calipari was grateful to reunite with Flint.
“He was a brother, and the stuff we did together at UMass, it was together,” Calipari told Big5Hoops.com.
Atop the list of what Flint brings to the Wildcats program, Calipari said, is the relationships he builds with players, staff and school personnel.
“First of all, everybody loves him,” Calipari said. “Everybody in the school, everybody on the team. All that. He has unbelievable relationships. I’m the principal. (Players) come in (Calipari’s office) but they’re not…I’ll walk by and he always has two or three guys in his office. But he was that way as head coach, too. He had strong relationships.”
Calipari said having an assistant coach whom players trust is crucial for any head coach.
“You better have guys like that around you,” he said.
While Flint is in a great situation on Calipari’s bench, the Kentucky head man knows he could be somewhere else.
“He could be a head coach right now if he chose to be or if someone was smart enough to say, especially in an area like this,” Calipari said. “I don’t know why you wouldn’t.”
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Dunphy, La Salle look to build on hot start
La Salle players celebrate with Khalil Brantley after Brantley’s half-court shot defeated Penn in overtime in the Big 5 Classic third-place game on Dec. 2 at the Wells Fargo Center. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
They are off to their best start in a decade. Their coach recently won his 600th career victory. They had one of the highlights of the college basketball season.
They are La Salle. And they are 8-2. At the moment, there’s a lot of feel-good on Olney Avenue.
“We’re finding a way to win some games,” Explorers coach Fran Dunphy told Big5Hoops.com. “We’ve had a number of close games, and we’ve been pretty fortunate.”
The biggest example of Lady Luck, of course, is Khalil Brantley’s 40-foot heave at the buzzer in La Salle’s Big 5 Classic victory over Penn. That unbelievable shot landed the Explorers on SportsCenter. More importantly, it rocketed their confidence.
La Salle followed that victory with a late comeback win against Loyola on Dec. 6 before a rout at Lafayette last Saturday. Andrés Marrero hit a late, game-winning 3-pointer against Loyola before netting a career-high 20 points against Lafayette.
“He knows how to make shots,” Dunphy said.
Against Lafayette, Jhamir Brickus put up 14 points, eight assists, seven rebounds, three steals and one turnover in 36 minutes. Talk about filling up a stat sheet.
“His IQ is off the charts,” Dunphy said of La Salle’s senior point guard. “He really knows the game. He feels the game. He knows how to react to the game. He’s a very good basketball player.”
In Brickus (15.6 points per game), Brantley (16.1 ppg) and Anwar Gill (12.3), La Salle has three talented, veteran guards who can score the basketball.
“All three of them have similar abilities to make plays, similar abilities to score points,” Dunphy said. “So if somebody needs a break, you still have two pretty good decision-makers and ball-handlers in the game. It absolutely helps.”
Dunphy will need his guards to be at their very best for La Salle to have any chance of an upset at No. 24 Miami at noon on Saturday. As good as the trio is, they will be at size disadvantage. Brickus is 5-foot-11, Brantly is 6-1 and Gill is 6-4.
The Hurricanes’ backcourt features 6-5 Wooga Poplar, the Philly native from Math, Civics and Science Charter and Miami’s leading scoring at 15.9 points per contest, and 6-7 Matthew Cleveland, who is third at 15.0. Dunphy knows that in this game and all others the Explorers will need to rely on brains and brawn.
“We’re going to have our hands full,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of margin for error. We’re not the biggest, we’re not the deepest, but we need to be the smartest and the toughest. And that’s what I’m hoping for.”
The Explorers also get a Miami team that likely is smarting after a 90-63 dusting by Colorado the last time out.
“You’d rather have them coming off a great victory than a difficult loss,” Dunphy said. “They’re going to be a great challenge for us. We’re looking forward to it. There’s no doubt about it that we love the opportunity to play against that quality of program.”
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TIP-INS: Drexel, St. Joe’s also back in action this weekend
Drexel will try to snap a two-game skid at 2 p.m. on Saturday when the Dragons host Albany at the DAC. Since beating Villanova on Dec. 2, the Dragons have lost at Princeton and at West Virginia last Saturday. … St. Joe’s, riding high after Sunday’s home win over Princeton, plays Iona at 7 p.m. on Saturday at UBS Arena on Long Island. … After losing to Kentucky last Saturday before beating Howard on Monday behind 20 points from Clark Slajchert, Penn has 11 days off before returning to the court at Rider on Dec. 23. … Villanova also is in the midst of a final exams layoff. After defeating UCLA 65-56 last Saturday at the WFC, the Wildcats are off until traveling to No. 8 Creighton on Wednesday, Dec. 20. … Finally, our planned analysis/explanation of why the Palestra should be the home court choice for St. Joe’s, Drexel and La Salle in Big 5 games did not materialize for this column. We are aiming to include that in our Dec. 22 column.
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Penn’s Slajchert tops Big 5 scoring leaders
Big 5 Scoring Leaders (Through Games 12/11)
1. Clark Slajchert, Penn, 19.2
2. Hysier Miller, Temple, 18.4
3. Erik Reynolds II, St. Joe’s, 16.7
4. Khalil Brantley, La Salle, 16.1
5. Jhamir Brickus, La Salle, 15.6
6. Tyler Perkins, Penn, 15.4
7. Jahlil White, Temple, 14.0
8. Eric Dixon, Villanova, 13.6
9. Justin Moore, Villanova, 13.3
10. Anwar Gill, La Salle, 12.3
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Drexel’s Williams tops Big 5 rebounding leaders
Big 5 Rebounding Leaders (Through Games 12/11)
1. Amari Williams, Drexel, 8.1
2. Jahlil White, Temple, 8.0
3. Tyler Burton, Villanova, 7.6
4. Nick Spinoso, Penn, 7.2
5. Sam Hofman, Temple, 7.1
6. Eric Dixon, Villanova, 7.0
7. Rasheer Fleming, St. Joe’s, 6.8
8. Christ Essandoko, St. Joe’s, 6.6
9. Rokas Jocius, La Salle, 6.4
10. Steve Settle III, Temple, 6.3
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Saint Joseph’s tops Big 5 rankings
Big 5 Rankings (Through Games 12/11)
1. Saint Joseph’s (8-2)
2. Temple (6-3)
3. La Salle (8-2)
4. Penn (7-5)
5. Villanova (7-4)
6. Drexel (5-5)
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Last Week’s Results
Saturday, Dec. 9
Kentucky 81, Penn 66
La Salle 67, Lafayette 51
West Virginia 66, Drexel 60
Villanova 65, UCLA 56
Sunday, Dec. 10
Saint Joseph’s 74, Princeton 70
Temple 78, Albany 73
Monday, Dec. 11
Penn 78, Howard 68
Upcoming Schedule
Saturday, Dec. 16
12 pm, La Salle at Miami
2 pm, Temple at VCU
2 pm, Albany at Drexel
7 pm, Saint Joseph’s at Iona
Monday, Dec. 18
11 am, Penn State (Greater Allegheny) at Drexel
Wednesday, Dec. 20
9 pm, Villanova at Creighton
Thursday, Dec. 21
2:30 pm, Rosemont at La Salle
3 pm, Temple vs. Nevada, Honolulu, HI
7 pm, Saint Joseph’s at Charleston
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Aaron Bracy has been covering Philadelphia sports since 1996. His byline regularly appears on Associated Press stories. Big5Hoops.com is his second website dedicated to Philadelphia college basketball. Follow Bracy on X: @Aaron_Bracy and like his Facebook and Instagram pages.