The Owls finished strong on their trip to Europe.
After going on an 18-0 run at the end of the first quarter, Temple went on to dominate the Liomatic Perugia in Foligno, Italy yesterday by a score of 78-43.
Junior Anthony Lee led the Owls with 19 points, his best scoring total on the trip. Lee also led the team with 11 rebounds.
Junior guard Will Cummings and Sophomore Daniel Dingle also posted double-digits, scoring 13 and 11 points respectively.
Coach Fran Dunphy and the men’s basketball team continue on their European trip this week, having played in two more games since their initial loss to Evreux.
The Owls took on Boulogne, a team from the French Pro B Division, on Saturday and lost in a close matchup that went to overtime. The final score was 91-82, as sophomore guard Quenton DeCosey led the team in scoring with 24 points.
Then yesterday, the Owls headed towards Montava, Italy where they competed in a scrimmage with the Montava Sting. No final score was kept since it was a scrimmage, but Temple did win the first three quarters of play. DeCosy led in this matchup as well, with 18 points.
The Owls face the Liomatic Perugia in Foligno, Italy tomorrow in what will be the final game of the team’s European tour.
The men’s basketball team kicked off their European tour with an 82-52 loss to Evreux, a French Pro B team.
The Owls were led by junior forward Anthony Lee, who put up 14 points and four rebounds. Sophomore guard Quenton DeCosey added 11 points and five boards.
Temple was hamstrung by a lackluster second quarter in which they were outscored 17-4. The Owls shot 31 percent from the field and went three for 15 from beyond the arc.
Evreux was paced by former Drexel forward Samme Givens. Givens, who attended Academy of the New Church in Philadelphia, led his team with 18 points and six rebounds.
Temple’s next matchup is against a league rival of Evreux – Boulogne. That game tips off Sat. August 14 at 11:30 EST.
This week marked the announcement of two Temple men’s basketball games that will be nationally televised on ESPN this season.
The Owls will host Kent State at 7:00 p.m. on Nov. 11, a matchup that will be a part of the 2013 ESPN Tip-Off Marathon. Last year featured an identical matchup against the Golden Flashes in the network’s season-opening event, when Temple won 80-66.
Later in the season, The Palestra will host a Temple game against La Salle on Jan. 18. The game is set to be covered by ESPN College GameDay, the popular weekly show that is entering its 10th year in production. GameDay will be followed by an airing of the actual game.
The basketball team is currently on a 10-day trip to Europe, where it will play four games while touring Paris, Nice, Florence and Rome.
Jesse Morgan, the former Massachusetts guard, was denied eligibility to play for Temple in the 2013-14 season, making it unlikely that Morgan will ever suit up for the Owls.
The news was first reported by Matt Vautour of the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
There are a few possible reasons Morgan’s appeal was denied. He did not take classes in the spring 2013 semester because UMass denied him the ability to do so for disciplinary reasons. NCAA rules require that to be eligible, a student-athlete must make continual academic progress. Another possible reason is that Morgan has already used four years of eligibility, and this year (which he would have had to sit out) would have counted as his fifth, rendering him unable to play.
The Olney High graduate tore his ACL in January and was later expelled from UMass for disciplinary reasons, which is why he did not take classes in the spring. He was averaging 13.4 points per game in 14 games before the injury.
Former Massachusetts guard and current Temple student Jesse Morgan will meet with the NCAA on Monday to determine his eligibility for the 2013-14 season.
This story was first reported by Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports. Morgan, a native Philadelphian who attended Olney High School, tore his ACL in January and was later expelled from UMass for disciplinary reasons.
Morgan has just one year of eligibility left, and the meeting will potentially decide if he can use it at all, and if so, whether he can use it for the 2013-14 season. He is enrolled at Temple as a continuing studies student.
He was in the midst of his best collegiate season last year before the injury, averaging 13.4 points per game in 14 games.
Temple’s first round opponent in the 2013 Charleston Classic will be Clemson.
The tournament bracket was first released by ESPN and confirmed by Temple’s athletic department. Along with seven other schools, the Owls will travel to Charleston, S.C. to play in a double elimination tournament from Nov. 21 to 24.
Temple will have played three regular season games before the tournament. No other American teams will be in it, but Massachusetts, a former Atlantic 10 rival, will be. Temple and UMass will not square off until the final day of the tournament, if at all.
The winner of the Temple-Clemson game will play the winner of the Georgia-Davidson game in the semifinals, while the losers of those games will compete in the consolation bracket against each other. The other half of the first round pits UMass against Nebraska, and UAB versus New Mexico.
ESPN will broadcast all games on various networks.
For the first time in the program’s history, the men’s basketball team is going on a European tour.
The team will leave on Aug. 14, visiting four cities along the way: two in France (Paris and Nice) and two in Italy (Milan and Rome). The Owls will play four games on the trip (the press release didn’t specify where the games would be played, but there will likely be one in each city) and return on Aug. 23.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” coach Fran Dunphy said in the release. “Academically, we plan to educate our student-athletes on the different cultures as well as the history of the cities we are visiting. Basketball-wise, it will give our young squad a chance to form its own chemistry before we begin our first season of competition in the American Athletic Conference. So it is a win-win scenario.”
The trip also allows Temple to get additional practice hours. Normally, teams can only practice for two hours a week in the offseason due to NCAA rules. However, since the Owls will be competing overseas, the team will be granted 10 additional full practices before the trip.
Jaylen Bond, a 6 foot 7 forward, has officially signed a scholarship agreement with Temple and will play basketball for the Owls.
Bond will not get on the court for Temple in this upcoming season. He will sit out the 2013-14 season due to NCAA eligibility rules. He has two remaining years of eligibility starting with the 2014-15 season. There were rumors that Bond could be granted a hardship waiver, allowing him to play this season, but they turned out to be unfounded.
“Jaylen is an excellent addition to the Temple Basketball program,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said in a press release. “He is a fine young man from a good family. We are looking forward to tremendous things from him during his Temple career.”
Bond, a former star at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., attended the University of Texas for two years before transferring to Temple. In 13.8 minutes per game as a Longhorn, he averaged 3.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.
At Plymouth-Whitemarsh, he finished his career as the second-leading scorer in the Colonials’ history, with 1,608 career points. Bond averaged 19.0 points and 11.2 rebounds per game as a senior.
The Temple News has confirmed an OwlScoop.com report that former Massachusetts guard Jesse Morgan has enrolled in summer classes at Temple.
Morgan has one remaining season of eligibility. If he is cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse, he could use it to join the Owls.
Morgan, an Olney High School graduate, just finished up his junior year of college, in which he averaged 13.4 points in 28.7 minutes per game. He was the Minutemen’s second-leading scorer behind junior guard Chaz Williams..
Morgan has not played since January, when he suffered a torn ACL in a loss to Saint Louis. It is unclear if he will be fully healed in time for the 2013-14 season. He reportedly left UMass for disciplinary reasons.
