Temple will look very different this season. That’s just fine for coach Diane Richardson.

After finishing last season with just eight players on the roster, Diane Richardson was ready for a change.

What she inherited in her first year as Temple’s women’s basketball coach was a talented corps that slowly began to fracture as the season progressed. Hers was an offseason of a major movement to develop a roster, one that now has a mixture of core returners, transfers from Power Five schools, and incoming freshmen.

“After that first year, I really had a good understanding of what our needs were,” Richardson said. “We definitely needed some depth in the post. We suffered in the post last season. Then we knew we needed to have somebody that could push the ball. [So I tried] to recruit kids that fit our culture and our needs.”

Before coming to the Owls, Richardson had an impressive stint at Towson, building the program from nine wins in her first season to 20 in her second, which included the Tigers’ only appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Coming into this season, Temple was picked to finish ninth in the preseason poll of the new 14-team American Athletic Conference. The Owls finished ninth out of 11 teams a season ago. Richardson will look to take a big step forward in 2023-24, finally having her team.

» READ MORE: Temple coach Diane Richardson’s basketball journey is a personal one

Guard Aleah Nelson returns to the Owls after averaging 15.4 points and 4.4 assists, leading the team last season. This will be Nelson’s fourth consecutive season being coached by Richardson after spending two years at Towson before they both came to North Broad. Nelson was named preseason second-team all-AAC.

Temple’s second- and third-leading scorers also return this season. Tiarra East averaged 12 points and led the team with nearly six rebounds a game. Tarriyonna Gary was third on the team in scoring, averaging nearly 10 points.

Last season, the scoring was heavily reliant on the three of them. However, Richardson plans to get back to an equal-opportunity offense to take some of the scoring pressure off those three players.

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Courtesy of the NCAA transfer portal, Temple added two players to the program. First is guard Demi Washington. Washington spent the previous four seasons at Vanderbilt where she averaged 4.0 points last season. Washington is an improved shooter, going 7-of-18 from three last season after going 0-for-4 from downtown in her first two seasons.

Also joining via the portal is guard Kendall Currence. Currence transferred to Temple after four seasons at Northeastern. In her last season in 2021-22, she was named first-team all-Colonial Athletic Association.

She did not play for the Owls last season due to injury, but Richardson’s plan when she took over at Temple was for the backcourt to be Nelson and Currence. The two have known each other since they were AAU opponents, but Nelson is happy that now they will share a backcourt.

“I think it’s good playing off of her,” Nelson said. “She’s a great player and a great scorer, too. She’s coming back from an injury, but she’s still the same player. She has the same moves. [I just tell her,] ‘Hey, like, you got it.’ I feel like that builds out on the court.”

Additionally, recruiting proved to be a positive for Richardson. After having just one freshman last season, the Owls now have five, which is tied with Memphis for the most in the AAC. Freshman guard Tristen Taylor has impressed in camp and Nelson has taken her under her wing.

When the Owls open the season against Delaware State at the Liacouras Center on Nov. 6 (4 p.m., ESPN+), they will be a team looking to learn from the mistakes of the past with a revamped roster that Richardson built — for future success.

College basketball’s opening day is Monday. Join us all day and night for live coverage as we celebrate the start of the season for the Big 5 programs plus the debut of fabulous freshmen from the Philly area.