Report: Temple Men's Basketball Played in 4 Games with Irregular Betting Patterns

The Temple men's basketball program has reportedly been involved in a total of four games this season that "generated irregular betting patterns," according to The Athletic's Joe Vardon and Chris Vannini.

One of those games, Thursday's 100-72 against Alabama-Birmingham, was flagged by the gambling watchdog U.S. Integrity, which made national news after Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated reported that the agency alerted casinos regarding "unusual wagering activity."

Forde added that U.S. Integrity has been monitoring Temple basketball for "a while" and betting behavior before Thursday's game shifted the line from UAB being 1.5-point favorites that morning to eight-point favorites by the afternoon and eventually settling as seven-point favorites before the game began.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board later confirmed the reports that U.S. Integrity flagged that contest.

"We are aware of the social media posts regarding last night's men's basketball game," Temple said in a statement on Friday. "We will review the reports thoroughly in accordance with university and NCAA policies. While we can't comment any further at this time, we take this matter very seriously."

The Athletic's reporting uncovered three more games involving unusual betting patterns.

The first came on Feb. 8 against Memphis, with the Tigers moving from 6.5-point favorites about four hours to tipoff to 10.5-point favorites at the start of the contest due to a flood of money being wagered against the Owls.

The second came on Feb. 28 against Rice, with the total points line being bet down from 145 to 140.5 ahead of tip. The first-half point total also went from 68 to 64 the day of the game.

Finally, total points for Temple's March 2 matchup against Tulsa went from 144 to 136.5 in a two-hour span before tipoff, and the line for first-half points dropped from 68.5 to 62.5.

The Athletic reported that none of those games included any injury or suspension news that might have understandably and drastically altered betting patterns.

Both Fanatics Sportsbook and FanDuel have said they would be removing Temple's Sunday matchup against UT-San Antonio from their books.

At this juncture, no players or coaches have been implicated in the irregular betting patterns.