Report: Temple Men’s Basketball Flagged For Unusual Wagering Activity
U.S. Integrity flagged unusual wagering activity on the Temple Men’s Basketball team for their matchup against UAB on Thursday night at the Liacouras Center, according to Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated.
The Owls lost a late-season laugher 100-72 on North Broad. UAB dominated with a 41-19 advantage in rebounds. Temple recently broke a 10-game losing streak, but they’ve stumbled to an 11-19 overall record (4-13 conference) with one game remaining in the regular season.
Unusual Wagering Activity
The point spread for the Temple-UAB game moved significantly during the hours leading up to the game. The Sports Illustrated report pointed to an unnamed casino that moved UAB from favorites at -1.5 to favorites at -8 for the AAC matchup.
The line moved back down to -7 before tip-off, but UAB led from start to finish. The 28-point margin far-exceeded the point spread of any trusted sports book.
U.S. Integrity has worked with the American Athletic Conference and other NCAA conferences in response to the expanding popularity and legalization of sports gambling.
Temple Men’s Basketball
Sports Illustrated also cited a source in the gambling space saying that U.S. Integrity has monitored the wagering on Temple Men’s Basketball games for a while. Temple University did not respond to requests from SI or The Philadelphia Inquirer for further comments.
The program has struggled throughout the first season under new head coach Adam Fisher. They appeared in the NCAA Tournament six consecutive times from 2008-2013, but they have only made two appearances in the past nine tournaments. They will enter the AAC Tournament as a longshot to earn a tournament berth.
This is a developing story. 97.5 The Fanatic will continue to add updates as more information arises.