By Harry Allison
Temple opens the season at the Air Force Reserve Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament against Virginia Tech on Nov. 28 at 8 pm (ESPNews), and will then play Rhode Island the next day (Nov. 29/5:30 pm/ESPN2) to close out the weekend tournament held at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT.
Although not officially announced, the Owls were scheduled to open the season on Nov. 25 at the Liacouras Center against NJIT, but due to COVID-related issues that contest will be rescheduled to later.
Following the Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off, Temple will play three Big 5 games – Dec. 3 at Villanova (7 pm/FS1), Dec. 6 – La Salle (7 pm/ESPN+) and Dec. 12 at Saint Joseph’s (3 pm/NBCSN) – to close out the non-conference portion of its schedule.
Following a 10-day break for final exams, the Owls travel to Houston on Dec. 22 to open AAC play. SMU then comes to the Liacouras Center on Dec. 30 to close out the calendar year.
The New Year begins with Temple hosting Memphis on Jan. 2 before embarking on a two-game road swing to Tulane (Jan. 6) and SMU (Jan. 9). The remainder of the month includes home games with UCF (Jan. 13), Cincinnati (Jan. 20) and Tulane (Jan. 31) and road contests at ECU (Jan. 16) and USF (Jan. 27).
Temple opens the month of February with a two-game trip to Cincinnati (Feb. 4) and Wichita State (Feb 7). Back-to-back home games follow with Houston (Feb. 10) and ECU (Feb. 13) visiting the Liacouras Center. Three of the final games of the month find the Owls on the road with stops at Tulsa (Feb. 16), Memphis (Feb. 21) and UCF (Feb. 27) while hosting USF on the 24th.
Two home games in March close out the season with Tulsa (March 2) and Wichita State (March 6) completing the regular season slate.
The 2021 AAC Men’s Basketball Championship will be held at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas from March 11-14.
Due to limited indoor capacity numbers mandated by City officials, spectators will not be permitted to start the season.
All Owls home games will be televised on either ESPN+ or an ESPN network channel. The conference will announce its TV schedule at a later date. Temple games will also be broadcast on 1210 AM WPHT.
