Temple has taken a big step forward this season. Rayne Tucker is a big part of that.

Rayne Tucker keeps a low profile. She rarely goes out with large groups of friends, and the native of Prince George’s County, Md., avoided big neighborhood pickup basketball games growing up.

Instead, the introverted forward focused on improving her basketball skills through relentless film sessions, workouts, and one-on-one work with her father, Anthony Tucker, whose pro basketball career included a season for the then-Washington Bullets in 1994-95.

When she arrived at Temple and had to forfeit the 2022-23 season to comply with NCAA transfer rules, her intense love for the sport made the time off challenging.

“That was a very hard time,” Tucker said. “But I got to kind of step into more of a player-coaching role and just being there for my teammates and helping them. I didn’t find many other hobbies.”

Tucker is finally back on the floor and made her much-anticipated Temple debut this season. Not only is Tucker playing, she’s thriving. Through 19 games, she’s among the top three on the team in points and blocked shots and leads the Owls (10-9, 4-3 American Athletic Conference) in rebounds with 7.6 per game.

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She started her college career at James Madison and was named third-team All-Colonial Athletic Association (now known as the Coastal Athletic Association) in her final year, but she suffered a torn ACL late that season. Tucker said differences with the coaching staff led her into the transfer portal, but she wasn’t sure if there was a coach willing to extend an offer to a player with a torn ACL. Then Diane Richardson, then the coach at Towson, reached out.

Now Temple’s head coach, Richardson started her coaching career at Tucker’s alma mater, Riverdale Baptist School, but the two didn’t overlap. Richardson assured Tucker that she could play for Towson as soon as she was cleared, while other schools wanted Tucker to sit out the entire year, she said.

“Who wants to pick up somebody that just tore their ACL?” Tucker said. “[Richardson also] recruited me out of high school, so for me to go to an in-conference school and she still wanted to recruit me after not committing to her the first time and also taking that risk on me even after tearing my ACL.”

The 6-foot-1 Tucker was a regular starter for the Tigers during the 2021-22 season, averaging 6.2 points and 5.4 rebounds, and the season ended in an NCAA Tournament berth. Richardson took the Temple job at the end of the season, and Tucker was at a crossroads.

A second transfer would mean sitting out the following season. One of the main reasons Tucker chose Towson after leaving JMU was to avoid missing time, and she found herself in that exact position a year later. This time, it was a risk Tucker was willing to take to follow Richardson to North Philadelphia, she said.

“I knew that staying loyal to Coach Rich was important to me because she had stayed loyal to me when I was in the portal and had torn my ACL,” Tucker said. “It was kind of like sacrificing myself having to sit out that year, even though [sitting out] wasn’t what I wanted to do.”

Tucker’s return and Temple’s much-improved season in Year 2 under Richardson are no coincidence. Richardson always knew the Owls had a game-changing player waiting to be unleashed.

“We didn’t have anybody that was a force in the paint last year, and Rayne certainly does that,” Richardson said. “She’s got a great basketball IQ, and we trust her wholeheartedly in the post to defend and help out and everything, too. So it’s been great having her on the court with us this year, and I think it makes a big difference in the way we play basketball.”

Tucker still made her presence known last season, even though she wasn’t on the floor. She regularly shared tips with her teammates on how they could fit into the system and earn more minutes, since she already was familiar with Richardson and her staff.

Tucker credits staying so involved with the team during her off year for making her return to action such a seamless transition. When she was cleared to play for the 2023-24 season, she had a better understanding of what the team needed from her, she said.

Temple has gone from one of the worst rebounding teams in the American Athletic Conference to one of the best, especially on the offensive glass. Guard Aleah Nelson, who transferred from Towson to Temple with Tucker before last season, attributes that directly to Tucker.

“What we were missing last year was rebounding and what she does great is rebounding,” Nelson said. “Her defensive presence, it’s not her just making shots or rebounding, it’s her literally talking to us. She’s so smart on the court and that’s why I like playing with her so much because we both have a very high IQ when it comes to the game.”

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Tucker’s all-work, no-play attitude extends beyond the court. She graduated in December, held a 4.0 GPA in the fall 2022 semester, and completed an internship with Temple’s sports marketing department last semester.

Although she has another year of eligibility after this season, Tucker’s main priority is putting herself in the best position to succeed after her basketball career ends. Neither of her parents graduated from college, and setting an example for her younger sister, Jayla, is crucial for Tucker.

“What really makes me who I am is my sister,” Tucker said. “Just being that role model and leader. I didn’t really have someone to look up to since I was the first person in my family to go to college so I would say being that role model is really what’s driving me.”