Good story by Bud Knapp on the North Carolina RB.

I attended the Haverford/Friends Central game on Saturday afternoon at Lower Merion High School. It was part of the Kobe Bryant Classic. Here is what I saw from players of interest to Owls fans:

1) Shizz - he played a solid game and was the MVP with 27 points (Haverford won by 4 in OT). He got to the basket with ease and as always, knocked down open shots. He (and the entire Haverford team) strugged at the point and had some unnecessary turnovers. Shizz is much better suited as the two rather than the point. This game was more of the same in that regard. He shoots bad shots at times also. But the kid has a big heart and led the comeback in the 4th Q. Very happy to have him coming next year.

2) LaMar Stevens - he is a man child and can easily score inside against most high school big kids. He seemed a little out of most of the game (Haverford had played the night before and lost to GA). He faced DeAndre Hunter in this game (see below) and was matched up with someone his own size. We would definitely love to have either kid. Some knowledgeable hoops people love Stevens and see him as a three in college. I don't see it unless he improves dramatically in terms of his handle and jumper. Seems more like a Bond or RHJ to me. Nova lean, but I don't think that will be the best place for him. Temple is a better fit given our experience with undersized bigs (don't take this the wrong way, he is super athletic and would do well here, we are not talking about Mark Williams).

3) DeAndre Hunter - big, athletic kid who missed all of last year with an injury. This was the first time seeing him play and I was expecting a little more. He has some unique skills - can shoot it mid range and has a decent handle for someone his size. The issue is his motor - plays passive and I was also expecting more of a point forward type skillset for him based on what I have heard. That being said, I would take him, he has major upside. Maybe even more upside than Stevens who is ranked ahead of him in the class of 2016.

4) Cameron Reddish - 6"6 freshman guard, incredibly skilled. Was also out of it mentally most of the game. Plays so fluid, it is hard to determine if he lacks the motor or if he is just so good the game comes easy to him. Has it all - great handle, smooth jumper and can get to the basket. Very long, could be an excellent defensive player. Plays third fiddle to Shizz and Stevens right now, but will emerge as a force next year. Good chance of being a McDonalds All American and has a shot at the league if he continues to progress and grow. No idea about his recruitment, but I doubt we have a shot here. Probably Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, Arizona type recruit.

In case you didn't see it on twitter, North Carolina athlete Jager Gardner and Ohio offensive lineman Jovahn Fair committed to Temple today.

Gardner, who could play a number of positions at Temple, had an offer from Virginia. He originally had an official visit with the Cavaliers lined up but cancelled when he verballed to Temple today.

Fair was committed to Ohio prior to flipping his commitment to Temple. The 6-foot-3 Fair had offers from Toledo, Ohio and Kent State. Despite his MAC-level offers, I hear that the Owls are very high on Fair.

Is it just a Head Coach problem or has it become and AD problem???

Just asking......

Not much talk about the game tonight on this board. I hope the two recent loses did not result in a loss of interest.

As you may have noticed, the commitment list is a little smaller on the front page. That's because, in addition to Korron Rozier's removal a few days ago, Raekwon Gray and Elorm Lumor are no longer on it. The pair didn't decommit, per se, but Temple won't be signing them.

That leaves Temple with, for now, 16 commitments for the Class of 2015. There will still be commitment turnover, like there is every year, before February 4. Players that are currently on the commitment list won't be there in a few weeks and I'd wager that a couple of players currently committed at other schools will end up at Temple. In the end, Temple will sign 21 kids and end up greyshirting/prep schooling a few.

The reason that the Owls won't sign the full allotment of 25 kids this year is because they took four blueshirts last season. A blueshirt is when a player shows up on campus during the summer and is put on scholarship. Temple took four of these players this year, including Florida transfer Colin Thompson and former PSU player Zayd Issah (now gone.)


This post was edited on 1/14 1:56 PM by Kyle Gauss

Hi, everyone.

Rivals has been doing some "stress testing" of the network to prepare for National Signing Day and will be
doing another test of the network tonight and into the early hours of tomorrow morning. As a result of that, every single
Rivals subscriber - even publishers and site staff - will be automatically logged out Saturday at 1 a.m. EST. Every single user will then be required to log back in with their username and password thatthey are registered with - as they would normally log in on any day. That should be the only issues users will experience. And some of you may have experienced that already.

So if you're typically logged in all the time, it would be best now to write down your password because you'll have to enter it again at some point over the next 24 hours. If you don't remember it and have problems logging in when this occurs, you can have a new one sent to you.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. Thank you!

This post was edited on 1/16 1:55 PM by John Di Carlo

Saw he was released by the Patriots before Sunday's game.

Bummer.

See the link for the Inquirer Article on President Theobald. This is not football related but some of the article talks about his decision to eliminate some sports.......

http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20150118_inqfrontpage_breaking_education_phila.html

I'm not one to rail on the Philly media as I think they do a fair job covering Temple under the shadow of the major sports. However, this one pissed me off. The headline on the main Philly.com web site is "Temple student dies in fall". When you click the link, the actual headline of the article is "Woman dies on fall, injures pedestrian." The story is about a girl who fell off a balcony from her center city apartment. The article calls it a "dorm", but to my knowledge the university has no dorm space in center city, and only on main campus. Perhaps the woman was a student but I'm not sure why that is the headline. If this was a Penn student would the headline have read "Penn student falls to death?" I think not. Yet I'd bet the author of the article is a Temple grad. It reminds me of a headline about 8 years ago which read "Temple student stabbed." You had to read the article to learn that the Temple student was stabbed on Penn's campus.

PS- Still pissed about Wed night and the loss to SMU. Lack of interior defense made us look like a high school team in the second half. This team lives and dies by the 3. When shooting is cold from Morgan and Q we have no shot to win. Disappointing as I was really starting to get excited for this season.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150116_Woman_falls_from_Center_City_apartment__injuring_pedestrian.html

Anyone know what the plan is this spring at quarterback? I know we are a ways away, but is it an open competition?

The 6-7, 330-pound OT from Barnegat, N.J., decommitted from Wisconsin Saturday.

Any chance for the Owls to get him? He has a lot of offers from Big 10, SEC, ACC, etc.

The next four games are all winnable (USF, UCF, Tulane and USF again). Hopefully, Cummings will be back 100 percent, and will win them, building some momentum going into the next two against Memphis and Cincy.

Second time Will miss rest of season

Bigger problems NCAA is investigating
This post was edited on 1/16 11:36 AM by patsox

Link.
This post was edited on 1/17 9:54 AM by John Di Carlo

SMU

How many dunks did unranked SMU have tonight?

Hi, everyone.

Rivals has been doing some "stress testing" of the network to prepare for National Signing Day and will be doing another test of the network tonight and into the early hours of tomorrow morning. As a result of that, every single
Rivals subscriber - even publishers and site staff - will be automatically logged out Saturday at 1 a.m. EST. Every single user will then be required to log back in with their username and password that
they are registered with - as they would normally log in on any day.
That should be the only issues users will experience. And some of you may have experienced that already.

So if you're typically logged in all the time, it would be best now to write down your password because you'll have to enter it again at some point over the next 24 hours. If you don't remember it and have problems logging in when this occurs, you can have a new one sent to you.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up. Thank you!

I was told by two sources tonight that former Timber Creek High School wide receiver Adonis Jennings is leaving Pitt and that Temple is a possibility. You can bet that Kareem Ali will put in some work to try to get him to North Broad Street.

Nm.

Does anyone know Cummings status for Wednesday and beyond?

I've been trying to find this video somewhere other than Facebook, not sure whether or not you need to have a Facebook account to view it, so apologies in advance if it doesn't work for everyone. Great video, can't wait for the 2015 season.

Play Like An Owl

Were VillanovaFan & I the only people who predicted this team would be good this year, in the midst of last year's debacle? Are we the only visionaries around here? Can Stnk actually predict anything in college basketball, or does he just post stats that have already happened? Does a 14 year old know more about basketball than he does? These are all questions we should ponder at night.

I remember getting ridiculed for writing a post around February of last year, in which I argued that we would finish in the top 3 in the AAC and be ranked in the AP Top 25 sometime this year. I also said our Defensive Efficiency would improve in a similar fashion to how SMU had improved from 2012-13 to 2013-14. They went from 151st to 19th, but they were around 35th when I wrote the post.

I've been tempted to unleash an "I Told You So" tantrum after how much crap I caught on this board last year, and now I did. I predicted we would make the tournament last year, and admittedly I was wrong. So I understand why folks ripped me for predicting success this year. BUT...,

All teasing aside, it has truly been awesome to see what this team is capable of since Jesse Morgan has joined the lineup. It's amazing his addition has been able to open up the floor for other players. He has such a quick release that teams have to stay close to him & show respect.

Right now, KenPom has us ranked as the 25th best defense & 166th best offense, but that does not truly reflect how good this team has been the past 3 weeks since Morgan joined the lineup. We were worse than 200th in Offensive Efficiency before Morgan joined the lineup. Even with some very ugly offensive performances since, we are now quickly climbing the Offensive Efficiency rankings. When you score the ball & can set your defense, the opposing team's FG% decreases compared to when they are playing off your missed shot. As a result, the addition of Jesse has made both our offense AND defense better.

And my goodness, can Jaylen Bond rebound or what? He's averaging almost 12 rebounds/game since Kansas. It's probably too late to make up for the slow start this year, but I would love to see him average 10+ rebounds per game next year. Not bad for a guy who, as many pointed out, averaged 2 points & 3 rebounds in his career at Texas.

There are three local game watches Saturday for the Cincinnati game.

Center City:
Fox and Hound
1501 Spruce Street

Bucks County:
Green Parrot
240 N. Sycamore St
Newtown, PA

Cherry Hill:
Millers Ale House
554 Fellowship Road
Mt. Laurel, NJ

Register Here

His substitution patterns at the end were horrible. Watson had one foul and he didn't put him back in...Obi with 4 sat. Going small lost the game
This post was edited on 1/14 7:07 PM by sah0770

I just became a Jets fan.