I wonder how much effect the rape investigation had on Temps.  In 2006, the Dispatch ran a story about the trouble some OU players had gotten into; it was very critical of Solich's team discipline.  It just happened to come out the morning of the BG game.  The team could not stink up Peden enough that day.  Maybe something similar is going on with Temps.  (Of course afterwards the Cats got the Bunker Mentality and won 7 in a row.)

I would say that Temple looked that bad because they quit.  Why did they quit?  Two missed opportunities to win a title and media types reminding them constantly of the the loss of their two "best" players.  As the Solich example illustrates, we're still dealing with young men and fragile egos here. 
The Cats are the best evidence that losing top players is not fatal.  The inability of the staff to make the players believe that might be.