Less thinking, more playing fuels Derrian Ford's hot start
Temple will certainly play in closer games and against tougher opponents this season, but Derrian Ford’s performance through the Owls’ first two games has been a promising sign.
In Temple’s 90-63 rout of La Salle Tuesday night in the Big 5 opener for both teams, the Arkansas State transfer lit up the floor with a 22-point performance, one shy of a career high. One of Ford’s longer threes came when hit from the Philadelphia Credit Union logo following a Temple offensive rebound.
Ford filled the stat sheet beyond his scoring output, collecting five rebounds, four assists and a steal. And he got to 22 points efficiently, shooting 8-for-14 from the field and 4-for-6 from behind the arc.
There was a time when a lot was expected of Ford, who was rated as a 4-star recruit and the No. 88 overall player by Rivals in the 2022 class. He fielded offers from programs like Kansas, Alabama, Auburn and Houston before winding up at Arkansas.
But in 21 games with the Razorbacks as a freshman, Ford averaged just 0.7 points and 3.8 minutes per game and transferred to Arkansas State prior to his sophomore season. He averaged 10.4 and 8.0 points with the Red Wolves over the last two seasons before transferring again, this time to Temple.
If head coach Adam Fisher and his staff find that sophomore Aiden Tobiason is ready to step into the primary scoring role this season, then Ford has done his best so far to show he’s ready to be one of the notable supporting cast members.
But the theme coming out of Tuesday night’s press conference had Fisher, Tobiason and Ford talking about the importance of sharing the ball and worrying less about who might wind up as the leading scorer each night.
“We just play the game. We don’t play the score,” Ford said. “We just stick with each other. We preach, the coaches preach it to us, and we tell each other we’re gonna have ups and downs, it’s a game of runs. So we just stick together through the good and bad.”
Ford shot a combined 35.1% (108-for-307) from three-point range over the last two seasons, so starting 6-for-11 from three in Temple’s first game shows some growth in that area, albeit in a very small sample size.
Ford credited the hot start to his time spent in the offseason building his confidence with his new teammates.
“I feel like this has been my best preseason,” Ford said after Tuesday night’s win. “I had my best summer ever.”
Ford was asked if he had tweaked anything about his shot or simply just spent more time in the gym to get off to a good start.
Ford said instead that it’s been just as much about his mental approach.
“Just playing, not thinking as much anymore,” Ford said. “The coaching staff gives us a lot of leeway and freedom, and I’m just very thankful for that. We’re not robotic and stuff.”
Ford came out firing early in the second half Tuesday night, scoring Temple’s first six points on a pair of threes. He picked things up again later around the 14:12 mark when he put back his own miss to give the Owls a 56-36 lead. He scored Temple’s next bucket before assisting on a Masiah Gilyard three that put the Owls ahead by 25.
Just 17 seconds later, Ford stole the ball from La Salle’s Rob Dockery and fed AJ Smith for a layup six seconds later.
