The Future of Temple Basketball (Coach Aaron McKie)

Aaron McKie Picture courtesy of Temple Basketball Twitter @TUMBBHoops

Lately, Temple Basketball has not been Temple Basketball. It's crazy because whenever I mention this, I know there is somebody out there squinting at these words. Temple Basketball was known for his long stint with John Chaney, Hall of Fame coach, who is known for his great career in Philadelphia and stern noted ability to coach boys to men. Chaney is one of the all time winning coaches ever in college basketball. He was able to do so much for the Philadelphia area that people love him when his name is brought up. He started his coaching career in the area in 1966 with Simon Gratz High School.

Simon Gratz is a Philadelphia based High School that is known as the best basketball school in the area. This school is known for one of the greatest high school players ever in Rasheed Wallace, who went undefeated in 1993 and was the National High School Player of the Year. Adding to the pot of great players from Simon Gratz is Aaron McKie. McKie was a 6'4" guard at Gratz who was known for his ability to lock down and defend and come up clutch for any team he played on. McKie went on to play for Temple University and lead a new direction of recruits to the hometown large university.

So now this Philadelphia based university has been having a serious problem lately where they have not been able to get the recruits to commit out of high school. During an extensive period of time, Temple was able to get players such as Aaron McKie, Lynard Stewart, Lynn Greer, Scootie Randall, Ramone Moore, Michael Blackshear, Mardy Collins, Dionte Christmas, Mark Tyndale and etc. After Chaney left Temple, it seems like the nature of Temple University has changed. They were able to bring in Fran Dunphy, who won many championships under the Ivy League for University of Penn.

Dunphy has done a great job finding ways to get his underrated team in to the final bracket for the NCAA tournament. Even though they have been reaching that point of success, it seems like the alum is not happy with the idea of a first round exit. For the biggest school in the 5th largest city in America to have struggling points with reaching a high level of success with the tournament, things just don't seem right. LaSalle University lately has been the biggest nudge in pressure on Temple because of their recent trip to the NCAA Sweet 16.

There seemed to be some changes that needed to happen because they have missed on many different players that Temple Alum seem to definitely want for their success. The team has not looked like the Philadelphia team that people are use to because there hasn't been many city recruits with big names on the team. Sure... There has been some players that are from the local area but what about the Rysheed Jordan, Brandon Austin, Savon Goodman, Maurice Watson and all the other recruits that seem to get away from Temple University.

This is where Aaron McKie might come in. He has been named an assistant coach for the Temple University Men's Basketball program, taking him away from his post as an analyst for the Sixers. McKie has also been coaching around the league for different NBA teams, getting the experience of being around some of the greatest talent in the world. McKie brings his NBA success and his ability to relate to the stories of the youth basketball players in the city that are looking for the opportunity to reach their dreams. McKie is the perfect fit...come to think about....He might be too perfect.

Last season was depressing for Temple with only winning 9 games. Alum talked about the options of bringing in some really good alum veteran leadership that can show a program how to change. There was another option, in a coach that has had some experience with coaching high level talent, but that didn't go so well (rather not mention it...I have too much respect for this man). It doesn't matter how things were to turn out, McKie is an assistant coach and in my opinion won't be going anywhere. This might the beginning of a change for Temple to set him up 1 day to be the Head Coach. There's no telling, but this is definitely the direction that Temple was looking for and to bring him aboard from his recent post, is amazing.