La Salle & Temple Clash in Big 5 Opener- Game Preview
- Adam Mack
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
The Temple Owls will host the La Salle Explorers in the opening game of the 2025 Big 5. Temple is coming off a 4th place finish in the 2024 B 5 Classic while La Salle is hoping to avenge last year's championship game defeat. Both teams will each play Villanova before the Big 5 Classic December 6th at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Scouting Temple
Temple is currently 1-0 this season after a 83-65 victory over Delaware State last week. Aidan Tobiason led the team with 23 points. Babatunde Durodola led the team with 8 rebounds, while Jordan Mason led the team with 6 assists. Temple has played great defense to start the season. They had 7 steals in last week's victory over Delaware State. An early in city rivalry will be a good test to see where the Owls are at. They were projected towards the bottom of the AAC this season. 3rd year Head Coach Adam Fisher saw significant improvement in year 2, can he take Temple to the next step this year?
Scouting La Salle
The Darris Nichols era at La Salle is off to a great start. La Salle is 2-0 with wins over Coppin State and Monmouth to open the 2025-26 season. Graduate Student Jaeden Marshall leads the team with 20 points per game to start the season. He is coming off a career high 26 point game against Monmouth. Temple will need to find a solution for La Salle's size. La Salle is one of the tallest teams in college basketball and has dominated the boards to start the season. Darris Nichols will get his 1st taste of Big 5 basketball tonight. With only one returner from last year's 2nd place team, can the team of new guys take the Big 5 crown?
Previewing the Big 5
The Big 5 Classic will return for its 3rd season on December 6th at Xfinity Mobile Arena with a triple header of games. This year 4 schools will feature new head coaches at their respective institutions. The 2x defending champs St. Joesph's are now led by Steve Donahue. The former Penn coach was hired as associate head coach this past spring and was named head coach in September when Billy Lange resigned to take a job with the New York Knicks. Donahue's old team the Penn Quakers are now led by former Iowa head coach and 1982 graduate Fran McCaffery. Villanova is now led by former Maryland head coach Kevin Willard.
With significant turnover from coaches and players, it begins a new era for Big 5 basketball. This will be the 1st time since 1989 that neither Jay Wright or Fran Dunphy will be coaching a Big 5 school.
Game information
The game is set to tip off at 7:00pm from the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.
Temple leads the all time series 34-9. La Salle won the last meeting 83-75 last season.
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