Archive: January, 2013
INDIANAPOLIS -- Temple center Anthony Lee Jr. has 20 members from the Fresh Start Faith Center in Davenport, Iowa at Saturday's Atlantic Ten game against Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse. His father, Anthony Lee Sr., is the church's reverend. The group drove here Saturday morning.
Twenty-one members of Fresh Start attended the Owls 69-62 setback at Kansas on Jan. 6. The church will take a busload of members to Temple's game at Dayton on Feb. 9.
Lee, a 6-foot-9 redshirt sophomore, is the team's top rebounder (7.4 per game) and second-leading scorer (11.8 points per game).
INDIANAPOLIS -- A high-ranking Temple official denied a Tennessean report that the Owls have offered to play a two-game, home-and-home series with Vanderbilt beginning in 2014.
The newspapers said Temple was one of 15 schools that have expressed interest in facing the Southeastern Conference squad. Vanderbilt athletic director David Williams said in the article that, back when Al Golden was the coach, Temple backed out of a scheduled 2014 game to pursue a game with Notre Dame.
The Temple official said the Owls contacted Vandy back in April about the 2013 schedule - not 2014. The person added that was the last time Temple spoke to Vanderbilt and that the Owls' 2014 schedule is full.
INDIANAPOLIS – Butler, like most solid basketball teams, is built around a balanced attack. That means Temple could have a tough time Saturday evening at Hinkle Fieldhouse, especially if the Owls (13-5, 2-2) bring the same defense they displayed the last two games.
Temple (13-5, 2-2) had a tough time defending the perimeter against St. Bonaventure and Penn. As a result, the Owls turned role players into superstars.
In the ninth-ranked Bulldogs (16-3, 3-1), Temple will face a quality shooting team with five double-digit scorers.
Andrew Ford, a junior quarterback at Cedar Cliff High School, received a scholarship offer to play football at Temple on Thursday.
"Just got off the phone with Coach Rhule. I now have an offer from Temple University!" Ford tweeted after speaking to Owls coach Matt Rhule.
The 6-foot-3, 181-pound pocket passer is also receiving interest from Maryland, Michigan, Penn State, Rutgers, Connecticut, Tennessee, Northwestern and Michigan State among others.
My look at some of the best and worst performances and happenings from Temple’s 76-69 victory over Penn on Wednesday at the Liacouras Center:
Best performance: How could I not give this to Khalif Wyatt? The Temple guard scored 21 of his game-high 26 points after intermission. Wyatt scored 16 of the Owls' 18 points during one stretch. Then he went on a personal 5-0 run after his team trailed by 64-63 with 5 minutes, 46 seconds left. He hit a three-pointer to put the Owls ahead for good. His pair of foul shots gave them a 68-64 cushion with 5:05 left. If there was one flaw, it was his game-worst six turnovers.
Worst performance: I had to give this award to Tony Hicks. The Penn reserve guard missed all seven of his field-goal attempts en route en being held scoreless. The Illinois native also had more turnovers (two) than assists (one) in 16 minutes of actions. Hicks, a freshman, came into the contest as the Quakers' second-active leading scorer at 7.2 points per game.
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Demetri McGill, a senior defensive tackle at Ocean Lakes High School (Va.), is scheduled to make an official visit to Temple on Feb. 1.
The 6-foot-2, 295-pounder backed out of a verbal commitment to Maryland. He has already visited East Carolina and will visit North Carolina this weekend. McGill will make his decision after his trip to North Broad Street.
John E. Hoover, a sports columnist at the Tulsa World, believes moving to the Big East is the logical choice for Tulsa.
He points out that the Golden Hurricane doesn't want to remain in Conference USA. And since the Mountain West isn't interested in adding Tulsa, the university needs to join the Big East.
The move would allow the Golden Hurricane to reunite with former C-USA regional rivals Memphis, SMU, Houston and Tulane, who are headed to the Big East.
Temple has offered a scholarship to Noah Beh, a junior defensive end at Scranton Preparatory School.
The 6-foot-7, 245-pounder recorded 70 tackles and 10 sacks this past season.
Beh also has scholarship offers from Pitt and Connecticut. Schools expressing interest are: Notre Dame, Penn State, Syracuse, Boston College, Cincinnati, Rutgers, Maryland, West Virginia and North Carolina State.
Fran Dunphy wants folks to realize that facing Penn won't be a breather.
The Temple coach knows the Quakers (3-14, 0-3 Big 5) have lost nine of their last 10 games. He’s also aware that Wednesday's Big 5 game at the Liacouras Center is considered, on paper, a break from what has been a brutal Atlantic-Ten stretch for the Owls (12-5, 1-0). Temple is a 20-point favorite over the program Dunphy coached before coming to North Broad Street in 2006.
“But a Big 5, Philly game is the same,” Dunphy said of comparing the intensity surrounding City Series games to A-10 tilts. “So it’s certainly not stepping out of character on any stretch.”
John Mitchell is in his first year covering Temple after two seasons covering the 76ers for the Inquirer, after joining the paper in November 2011. He covered the Washington Wizards for the Washington Times from 1998 to 2008. He's also worked at the Philadelphia Tribune, the Wilmington News Journal, Courier-Post, Trenton Times and Elmira Star-Gazette. He graduated from Overbrook High School in 1983, and he's a graduate of Howard University in Washington DC. Follow him on Twitter @jmitchinquirer or reach him at jmitchell@philly.com.
