Here’s how Temple basketball coach Adam Fisher has fun with the madness that is college athletics

Fisher has taken to his page on X, formerly known as Twitter, to announce new signings through GIFs and memes that have said as much — without needing to write a single word.

Temple coach Adam Fisher (center) has had a strong offseason bolstering a roster that made it to the American Athletic Conference championship this past season.Read moreCharles Fox / Staff Photographer

by Kerith Gabriel

Published May 8, 2024, 8:00 a.m. ET

If you can’t beat it, then at least have fun with it.

The revolving door of the NCAA transfer portal has forced college programs to come to grips with the reality that there undoubtedly will be an exodus of talent (and for some schools, en masse) every year. But the flip side of that coin finds thousands of players eager to find a new home. That side of the coin is certainly heads up for Temple men’s basketball coach Adam Fisher.

Fisher not only landed a pair of notable names in former New Mexico guard Jamal Mashburn Jr. and St. Joseph’s guard Lynn Greer III but took to his page on X, formerly known as Twitter, to announce the new signings through GIFs and memes that said so much — without needing to write a single word.

Greer’s father is Lynn Greer Jr., the Temple hoops legend and current men’s basketball chief of staff. Fisher teased the news with a video of the father-son relationship from the popular HBO series Succession.

The move resonated with other members of the Owls coaching staff like assistant and former Owls guard Chris Clark, who posted a scene from the 1998 Spike Lee hoops flick He Got Game.

“It’s something we do to get our fan base excited,” Fisher said during a recent interview with The Inquirer. “Even the recruits like, they’ll ask us, ‘Hey Coach, what GIF are you going to use?’ So we’ll show them, and it gets them all excited, too. At the end of the day, it’s just something to kind of engage our fan base and get them excited that we’re welcoming a new member to the family. Call it our bat signal, if you will.”

That signal also has attracted former Penn State guard Jameel Brown, the 6-foot-4 Westtown School grad who transferred to North Broad in late April. That’s three good gets with more to come through recruiting. (Temple notably could use some help with its frontcourt.)

Regarding recruiting: Many believe that because of the vast pool of college talent that funnels into the transfer portal every year, less effort will be put into securing a top recruit out of high school.

Fisher said that’s not going to be the case at Temple.

“We still want to recruit high school. We want to go after really good high school players,” he said. “We want them to come into our program and develop. You have to have a good, blended combination of younger guys, older guys with some experience, and have guys grow with your program.”

In this new realm of college athletics, money talks, and schools with a lack of NIL backing find their best players walk. The idea of bringing in a top talent to “develop” essentially means colleges like Temple often expend resources on a player, only for him to enter the portal in search of a fresh start — and, for some, a lucrative payday.

So how does a coach like Fisher deal with that realization? Apparently, the same as everybody else.

“You know, I think it’s just the new norm, and I’d just say nothing surprises you at this point,” Fisher said. “I think every college program in the country, is trying to get to [the end of the transfer portal window on] May 1. Because then you know who’s staying, and then from there you keep trying to piece your team together. It’s just one of the changes that you have to adapt to, just like with NIL. You can hate it, and, yeah, it certainly doesn’t make the job easy by any means, but I think it’s just being able to adapt to this new normal in college athletics.”

Temple is still in the early stages of capitalizing on NIL and growing its coffers to attract top talent. Its largest collective, the TUFF Fund, arguably is the biggest support network for the cause, and the school also has an NIL store dedicated to fueling the endeavors of the athletes already on campus.

But there’s no overflowing pot that Fisher or Temple athletics can use to draw athletes in. However, Fisher has gotten creative with how he has gone about improving the program — and keeping athletes on campus.

The NIL wallet might be small, but the work on building, establishing, and maintaining relationships is massive. You can see it in moves made earlier this season, like when Fisher invited the Owls’ 1999 Elite Eight team to practice and to sit courtside at a game. It was apparent after Temple’s run to the American Athletic Conference title game, one step away from qualifying for March Madness — a run that brought in a “much-appreciated infusion” of donations to the school’s NIL coffers, a source told The Inquirer.

The most recent example? The number of solid additions to the roster this offseason.

“Jamal Mashburn Jr. is a guy I’ve watched since high school,” said Fisher. “[Owls associate head] coach [Michael] Huger has known his father for a long time growing up in New York. We couldn’t be more excited to have him come to Philly for his last season. Same with Lynn Greer III. [Assistant coaches] Chris Clark [and] Bobby Jordan have all known him for such a long time. And [laughs], obviously, he knows our chief of staff. … These guys have pride in this program and know the tradition and the history. We want kids like that, who want to play here and can be ambassadors for the university as well.”

And like the coaching staff, have a little fun with it along the way.