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Owls hope Lowe's commitment draws others

If Temple's basketball program has its way, Thursday night was merely the first domino to fall in what could be a special two months.

Trey Lowe. (Photo courtesy of Nike Eybl)
Trey Lowe. (Photo courtesy of Nike Eybl)Read more

If Temple's basketball program has its way, Thursday night was merely the first domino to fall in what could be a special two months.

New Jersey shooting guard Trey Lowe's oral committment is what the Owls hope can help lure the program's other top targets: Jalen Brunson and Levan Alston.

Alston and Lowe played together the last two summers with Philadelphia-based AAU program Team Final and talked about attending the same college.

Alston's father, Levan, played for the Owls in the 1990s alongside Brunson's father, Rick. The sons played together as kids when the Brunsons lived in South Jersey.

The degrees of separation appear to be few for Temple's dream 2015 recruiting class.

Lowe, a 6-foot-6 guard from Mercer County's Ewing High, chose Temple over St. Joseph's, Southern Methodist, and Virginia Commonwealth. Temple and VCU were the only common schools that Alston and Lowe listed when they announced their options last week.

Alston, a 6-4 guard from the Haverford School, is also considering Penn, Penn State, Marquette, Notre Dame, and VCU. He called Temple the city's best basketball school. Jerome Allen, Penn's head coach, is his godfather.

Alston plans to visit each school and make his decision in the second half of September.

Brunson told the Chicago Sun-Times that he will visit Temple on Sept. 11, a week after he visits Villanova. The 6-1 point guard from suburban Chicago will also visit Illinois and Purdue.

If everything stays on schedule, Alston and Brunson will both be choosing their colleges toward the end of September. For Temple, September has a chance to be special.

Young to Temple. It is the first clip in Dawayne Young's highlight reel, the video he uploaded to the Internet for college coaches to view.

The defensive tackle breaks through the offensive line, grabs the quarterback, and strips the ball from his grasp en route to sprinting toward the end zone.

In the second clip, Young tackles a running back by simply running into him with his 6-foot-2, 290-pound frame.

So it appears Temple landed another solid, local talent. Young orally committed to the Owls on Wednesday night, a day after the PIAA ruled him eligible to play his senior season at West Oak Lane's Martin Luther King.

"I feel good, real good," said Young, who played the last three seasons at George Washington in the Far Northeast. "It's a good system, a perfect fit."

He said he knew for a while that he wanted to go to Temple but first wanted to take care of his PIAA hearing. He phoned Temple coach Matt Rhule on Wednesday night.

"He wasn't surprised, but it was a good reaction," said Young. "I've been telling them that I was going to commit. I was just waiting for everything to get situated."