What are the odds that the game on Sept. 5 takes place? I'm assuming there will be no fans if they play, but I'll further speculate that there will be TV coverage.

Solid read if you have The Athletic:

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Just wanted to pass this along since Team Brotherly Love includes several former Temple players. Here's the official release I received today via email.

BOSTON, June 16, 2020 – The Basketball Tournament (TBT) – the $1 million, winner-take-all summer basketball event broadcast live on ESPN networks – today revealed that Philadelphia-based Team Brotherly Love has been admitted into TBT’s 24-team field. All TBT games this summer will be played under quarantine at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, from July 4-14.

This year’s TBT will be Team Brotherly Love’s second time competing in the event. The team once is organized by former Penn student manager Danny Holdsman. Team Brotherly Love will be coached by Kyle Sample, head basketball coach at Harriton High School. Team Brotherly Love’s current roster includes:

• Khalif Wyatt (Temple)
  
  
• Ramone Moore (Temple)
  
  
• Wayne Marshall (Temple)
  
  
• Semaj Inge (Temple)
  
  
• Novar Gadson (Rider)
  
  
• Mike Ringgold (Rider)
  
  
• Maurice Watson Jr. (Creighton)
  
  
• Samme Givens (Drexel)
  
  
• Shannon Givens (West Chester)
  
  
• Makal Stibbins (Millersville)
  
  
• Marlon Johnson (New Mexico Highlands)
  

As the #12 seed, Team Brotherly Love will face #21 seed Stillwater Stars (Oklahoma State alumni) on July 4. If Team Brotherly Love advances, they will face #5 seed Eberlein Drive on July 6. The game times and TV broadcast information will be announced soon.

TBT’s opening round will take place from July 4-5. The quarterfinals will be held on July 10 and July 11 with the semifinals on July 12. The 2020 TBT Championship Game will be played on July 14, when one player will hit a shot to win his team $1 million.

For more information on Team Brotherly Love and this year’s TBT, visit TheTournament.com.

He unexpectedly passed away today. Was the head of security for Temple Football. Real great guy.

https://owlsports.com/news/2017/10/6/football-officer-james-jones-one-of-us.aspx

https://news.temple.edu/news/2016-12-15/meet-officer-james-jones-football-team-liaison

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As of right now, all of Temple's Class of 2020 is enrolled in the Cherry and White directory except for JUCO safety Jalen Ware and NIU grad transfer CJ Perez. Perez only committed to Temple on Friday so it make sense that he's not in there yet. As for Ware, a source I spoke with today stated that Ware is still expected to enroll. I'll pass along anything I hear on that end.

Assuming Ware and Perez enroll, Temple is currently at 89 scholarship commitments for the fall. Temple has to get down to 85 scholarships by the time preseason camp starts. A program usually oversigns expecting to get down to the 85 scholarship threshold via one of two things:

1. Attrition on the existing roster.

This could be medical retirements, players transferring under their own volition (Ex. An upperclassman transferring to get playing time as a senior or underclassmen transferring after realizing Temple isn't the best fit for them) or Temple's coaching staff having a frank conversation with a player about their role in the future.

2. Signees not qualifying or going to prep school/JUCO for a year.

Since everybody in Temple's 2020 class is expected to qualify and enroll, the difference in scholarships is going to have to come via attrition and that needs to happen in the next few weeks. As for names, I think there are a number of obvious candidates for a change of scenery but I think it would be in poor taste to speculate on those names. Instead, we'll report them as they break.

With all that in mind, I still think that Temple is actively involved with a couple more transfers. Perez, who spoke with OwlScoop.com over the weekend, mentioned to our Sam Neumann that NIU defensive tackle Jack Heflin, who was Perez's roommate in college, has been in contact with his former coaches. Heflin was a 3-year starter at DT for NIU and garnered Third Team All-MAC honors as a sophomore and Second Team All-MAC honors as a junior in 2019. Pro Football Focus also named Heflin an Honorable Mention All-American. For his career, Heflin had 17.5 TFL and nine sacks for NIU.

I'm far from definitively stating that Heflin will end up at Temple. I think Rod Carey and his staff will have a lot of competition for Heflin's services. But I do think it's telling that Temple is still staying active in the portal despite being over the scholarship limit.

As always, stay tuned to OwlScoop.com for any updates.

I assume you all know about how we will be on the opposite side of the field if there is a football season and fans are permitted to attend games. Was anyone dissatisfied about their seat assignments? How do you feel about going from the sunny to the shady side, especially late in the season?

I received this from my friend former St. Joe’s Hawk Langston Galloway who is currently with the Detroit Pistons today and thought you might want to share this with your family, friends and teams too.

https://www.thegreychallenge.com/

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I received this from my friend former St. Joe’s Hawk Langston Galloway who is currently with the Detroit Pistons today and thought you might want to share this with your family, friends and teams too.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

https://www.thegreychallenge.com/

The article mentions a top 90 or 100 breaking away (and specifically mentions a source close to the AAC saying the conference has been adamant they would go as well). Let’s hope this is true if this ever happens.
https://mobile.twitter.com/dennisdoddcbs/status/1265703474265817089
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Here’s what Nebraska is doing to help its student-athletes maximIze the new rules that allow them to make $ from their likeness and social media posts.

The cliff notes version? Every SINGLE athlete will have a dedicated team helping them maximize their opportunities.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/feature...nd-one-college-program-is-helping-them-do-it/

An excerpt:

“But unlike other student-athletes around the country, each and every Husker — from the senior starting point guard to the redshirt javelin thrower — will have an entire team dedicated to helping them build and maximize their personal brands.“

He passed away today after being sick for a while. He was the PA voice of both football and basketball for many years.

For one.................and one.

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Today we lost another key member of the Temple family with the passing of Merv Jones. I've known Merv for 25 years. Before he was the PA announcer, he worked in Sports Information. He was the lead for women's basketball. I covered women's basketball at that time (for the this very publication).

Merv was the easiest person ever to hang with. Quick with a story, even quicker with a smile. Every encounter with Merv always needed the same way. With laughter.

Merv was the toughest person I knew. At least three rounds of metastatic cancer. He refused to yield to any of it. I used to joke with that I would give him my non cancerous, but equally as dangerous, pancreatic tumor, in exchange for one of his. All in the hopes, that it would help boost of survive our endless chronic diseases.

Most of you know him as the PA announcer for Football and basketball (men's and women's). He was so much more.

We've lost so many off the Temple family in the last few years. And they all bring so much pain.

I am honored to have known Merv. I am honored to be in his presence. I am honored to have been wrapped up in scored of laughter.

Rest well, Merv. I will say, see you later. Because, one again, it is just to painful to say goodbye.

Got to say, the interviews with both Isaiah (both BLM and football related) and Carlos (reminiscing with so much appreciation of who Merv was and what he brought to the table, along with some great Dawn Staley & John Chaney story telling) were outstanding.

Great listening editions of The Scoop . . . they just keep on coming. Kudos, Staff!

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Temple linebacker Isaiah Graham-Mobley will be with us on The Scoop this week. If you have mailbag questions for him or for us as a staff, please feel free to post them here and we'll answer as many as we can on the show. We'll take questions up until 11 a.m. tomorrow.

Graham-Mobley, as you all know, is set to be a starter and team leader this season, and he also collaborated with fellow student athlete Jackie Terpak from the women's gymnastics team to help organize and lead a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest. He's also returning from a season-ending injury he sustained in the UCF loss last season, so we'll have a lot to cover.

Also, I want to extend a shameless plug to Sam Cohn, our fellow OwlScoop.com staff member who is also the podcast director at WHIP, Temple's student-run radio station. Sam does a terrific job with his Cherry Tribune podcast, and he talked to IGM and Terpak on his latest episode, which you can listen to here.

Temple is in the process of updating its official roster and a number of the incoming players have been added. Not all of them are up there yet but here are some of the notable position changes so far.

Kwantel Raines - The West Virginia transfer is switching from safety, which he played for the Mountaineers, to the hybrid LB/S BUBO position that Sam Franklin played last year. Raines is still in the process of appealing to the NCAA for immediate eligibility.

Chevy Trask - Shifted from DL to OL. He's only 250 pounds right now so a redshirt year is likely inevitable.

Garrett Williams - Switched from safety to CB

DJ Woodbury - LB to BUBO. Small distinction here but Woodbury will also start off in the BUBO role. Woodbury played WR and DB for Burlington City so he has the athleticism for the position.

I hope you'll all enjoy this week's podcast. Isaiah Graham-Mobley was terrific, and Carlos Bates did a great job in paying tribute to the late Merv Jones, Temple's longtime public address announcer who passed away last week at the age of 54 after battling cancer. Carlos has worked as an athletics consultant in a number of different roles at Temple over the last 20-plus years, and he's handling a lot of Temple's PA announcing now. He also shared some great stories about working with Dawn Staley and John Chaney.

Hope you're all safe, happy and healthy wherever you are.

You need a subscription to ESPN+ to read this article. However, you can see what each tier means and the top 4 schools (UCF, Houston, Cincy and Boise) in the start of the article below.

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In case you're interested, I just collaborated with Bleeding Green Nation's Brandon Lee Gowton for a quick profile of Shaun Bradley.

Per a source, Temple is set to receive the verbal commitment of Jaden Coffen, a wide receiver from St. Alban’s in DC. Coffen hasn’t announced yet so please keep this here until he does.

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Coffen chose Temple over offers from Memphis, Navy, Army, Air Force and a number of MAC/Sun Belt/FCS level schools. He reports a 4.5 40-yard dash.

My knee-jerk reaction: Coffen might actually be a legit 6 feet, which is rare for receivers that claim they’re 6 feet. I also think he does a good job of coming down with contested balls for somebody his size.

Today we lost another key member of the Temple family with the passing of Merv Jones. I've known Merv for 25 years. Before he was the PA announcer, he worked in Sports Information. He was the lead for women's basketball. I covered women's basketball at that time (for the this very publication).

Merv was the easiest person ever to hang with. Quick with a story, even quicker with a smile. Every encounter with Merv always needed the same way. With laughter.

Merv was the toughest person I knew. At least three rounds of metastatic cancer. He refused to yield to any of it. I used to joke with that I would give him my non cancerous, but equally as dangerous, pancreatic tumor, in exchange for one of his. All in the hopes, that it would help boost of survive our endless chronic diseases.

Most of you know him as the PA announcer for Football and basketball (men's and women's). He was so much more.

We've lost so many off the Temple family in the last few years. And they all bring so much pain.

I am honored to have known Merv. I am honored to be in his presence. I am honored to have been wrapped up in scored of laughter.

Rest well, Merv. I will say, see you later. Because, one again, it is just to painful to say goodbye.

Does anyone know how Temple campus is doing through the protests and rioting? I haven't heard any news about destruction there. Hope it stays that way.

Sam Neumann's story mentions that potential recruit Ikenna Ugbaja and our DL coach Walter Stewart discussed brisket.

They got me to thinking about the preparation of this beloved main course, in addition to thinking it would be pleasing if the young man chooses to play for Temple. The key to brisket is pretty basic but must be carried out with exquisite devotion and unwavering attention -- blast the brisket with heat just so long before slow cooking over many hours.

Some say the rub is nonessential, but I'll pick a bone with that contention. I make an exotic rub that adds to the meat. It's the sauce that is not so important, you can and probably should forego it or if used an off the shelf will do.

Q is an answer to the pandemic, too, for it is summer and it's easy to social distance outside, masks are not really necessary in the open air, and there is a ready made excuse to drink beer. The long time cooking gives time to get to know people, for example, I'd ask how a recruit from Massachusetts and coach from Ohio know so much about Q.

Or is this post a clue one has too much time in lockdown and quarantine?

GO Owls

After a lot of thought , I am not going to renew my subscription after 18 years . Lots and lots of great memories and we all talked about some great sports events . I am really disheartened by my country and some of the negative comments are just too much to take anymore including from the editors of this subscription . GO OWLS and God Help our Country .