Temple releases its men’s basketball schedule for the 2021-22 season

Temple announced its 31-game men’s basketball schedule for 2021-22 on Thursday, featuring 13 nonconference games.

Third-year Owls coach Aaron McKie has a youthful roster with 11 underclassmen. Coming off a 5-11 season during the pandemic, Temple added two freshmen (Hysier Miller and Zach Hicks) and a transfer big man (Emmanuel Okpomo) to the fold.

The Owls will open their season with a two-game homestand against Maryland-Eastern Shore on Nov. 10 and Southern Cal on Nov. 13. The Trojans made the NCAA’s Elite Eight last season before losing to Gonzaga.

Temple will play in the Charleston Classic starting Nov. 18 against Clemson. The Owls will play at least two more games in South Carolina before hosting Delaware on Nov. 27.

The Owls will play their City 6 schedule in December with matchups against La Salle, Penn, Drexel, Villanova, and St. Joseph’s. They’ll also visit Vanderbilt on Dec. 7.

In American Athletic Conference play, the Owls’ schedule will feature a road game at Memphis, a home game against Wichita State and a home-and-away series against each of the other eight teams. Their first AAC matchup will be on Dec. 15 against Central Florida.

The AAC is headlined this year by Houston, a team coming off a trip to the Final Four. Kelvin Sampson’s team, however, will be without Justin Gorham, one of the nation’s top rebounders last season, and Quentin Grimes, formerly one of the nation’s most prominent scorers. Both are playing professionally.

Memphis will be the talk of the conference with the most highly-anticipated recruiting class in the country. Tigers coach Penny Hardaway brought in two top-10 recruits from the 2021 class in Jalen Duren and Emoni Bates. Temple travels down to Memphis on Feb. 24.

Cincinnati, Southern Methodist, and Wichita State round out what should be the top of the conference this season.