The Owls on Friday landed a commitment from Anthony Lee, a 6-9 power forward from Orlando, Fla., according to the Daily News. Lee is a high school senior this year. “Several recruiting sources,” the newspaper went on to say, “believe that Lee is the best big man the Owls have landed since Pennsbury’s Lavoy Allen came to North Broad Street 3 years ago.” He does, however, weigh just 185 pounds, according to Rivals.com, so he’ll likely have to bulk up in the future.

Link: Lee to Temple [Daily News]
Who is Anthony Lee? [Rivals.com]

School is back in session, which means college backetball season is right around the corner — it’s a little more than two weeks until Oct. 16, the first day of practice for the 2009-10 season, in fact. And while the offseason is winding down, there are still some happenings around the city involving the Big 5. Here’s a quick roundup:

* Former Saint Joe’s star Jameer Nelson was named to the Sporting News‘ first-team all-decade team. It’s a pretty heady group, as you can imagine, with Jason Williams (Duke), Kevin Durant (Texas), Joakim Noah (Florida) and Tyler Hansborough (North Carolina) rounding out the first team. [Saint Joseph's University]

* Another former Saint Joe’s star, Delonte West, had been arrested two weeks ago on gun charges, but he reported to training camp with the Cleveland Cavaliers Monday and acknowledged he hadn’t been taking his bipolar disorder medication. [BIG FIVE POST/Associated Press/ESPN.com]

UPDATE: On second thought, West was a no-show at Cavs camp on Tuesday, the first official day of practice (Monday was media day), according to The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. He then didn’t show for Wednesday morning’s practice, either, and the absences are unexcused. Uh oh. [Plain Dealer]

* Villanova director of media relations Mike Sheridan has recently been taking a look at all of the new Wildcats in his ‘Nova Notebook. He talks to Dominic Cheek here, to Mouphtaou Yarou here, to Maalik Wayns here, and to Taylor King here. [Villanova University]

* Looks like former ‘Nova forward Dwayne Anderson is going to play professionally in Germany, and that Curtis Sumpter is still playing in France. [VUhoops.com]

* VUhoops.com took a poll to gauge which team Villanova fans consider to be their biggest rival. Connecticut, Georgetown, Pitt, Saint Joe’s and Syracuse were all among those under consideration, and the results are here. [VUhoops.com]

* Former Temple guard Mark Tyndale, the 2008 Co-Most Outstanding Player in the Big 5, has been invited to training camp with the Milwaukee Bucks. And Semaj Inge, a guard who played for the Owls last season, has signed a contract to play in Iceland, according to the same statement from the school. [Temple University]

With training camp set to start next week, new Philadelphia 76ers coach Eddie Jordan said former Temple star Dionte Christmas (pictured) has “a real, legitimate shot at making our team,” according to The Inquirer. Then again, according to Tom Moore of phillyBurbs, the Sixers already have 13 guaranteed contracts and would only be able to keep Christmas if they planned to have a 14-man roster. Guess we’ll see. But we knew that already, didn’t we?

Links: Jordan likes Christmas … right now, anyway [Inquirer]
Can Dionte make it? Tough to say [phillyBurbs.com]

The NCAA announced today that the Big Dance would be returning to South Philly in 2013, with first- and second-round games at the Wacho Center on March 22 and 24. And Your Temple Owls will be the host school. The NCAAs were just at Broad and Pattison this past spring, when Saint Joe’s was the host and Villanova defeated American and UCLA en route to the Final Four. The 2013 NCAA tournament will mark the 75th anniversary of the event, and the venues the NCAA selected were all picked because of some tie to the tourney’s most historic moments. The last time Temple was a host, for example, was when when Duke beat Kentucky at the Spectrum in the 1992 East Regional Final. See how that works?

Links: Temple to host NCAAs [Temple University]

Former Saint Joe’s star Delonte West is in a wee bit of trouble after he cut off a cop and was then found to be possessing three loaded guns while driving on Thursday in Maryland. The Washington Post has a detailed story here, which includes this bizarre quote from Delonte’s father, Dmitri: “All I can say is Delonte was looking behind his back and protecting himself.” Yikes. We kind of have a feeling this story is going to get really interesting in the weeks ahead.

Hat tip to The House That Glanville Built, which posted this item about this bizarre story on Friday.

Links: Delonte did what? [Washington Post]
tsk tsk, Delonte [The House That Glanville Built]

Let’s see if we have this straight: John Calipari has twice taken teams to the Final Four, only to have both achievements officially “vacated” (ahem) because he is a scumbag if the highest order had players later declared to be ineligible. Yet, in the end, the NCAA said nothing when Kentucky came calling with a $31.65 million contract for him. But La Salle forward Vernon Goodridge (pictured) cannot play his senior season for the Explorers this winter because he appeared in one all-star game at the age of 21 back in 2005, according to this story in today’s Inquirer.
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For the second straight year, ESPN will stage a 24-hour marathon of games to celebrate the start of the season, and this year both Temple and Drexel are part of the mix. The games will begin at midnight on Tuesday, Nov. 17, and literally run all day until midnight the next night, classes be damned. Drexel, of course, had done this last year, when it played Penn at the DAC in a game that began at 10 a.m. This time, the Dragons will again be part of a morning affair, but they’ll tip off at the ungodly hour of 8 a.m. … and they’ll be on the road against Niagara. Guess it could be worse, though: Monmouth and St. Peter’s are playing a game that tips at 6 in the morning. Temple, meanwhile, will travel to D.C. to take on Georgetown in an intriguing game that tips at 4 p.m. Both the Owls and the Dragons will appear on ESPN. The network’s complete 24-hour slate is after the jump.
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The Dragons landed their first recruit from the Class of 2010 when Frantz Massenat, a 6-3 point guard from just across the river at Trenton Catholic, gave them a verbal. According to ESPNU, Massenat chose Drexel over Boston U., Rider, Princeton and Niagara. The word on him, according to ESPNU, is that he’s a “pure point guard” who does pretty much everything offensively except for shoot. And defensively, he’s reported to have potential. Northstar Basketball Blog interviewed Massenat back when he was a sophomore, and in it Massenat says he had received letters from schools including Indiana and Florida. You can check out that interview here. Rivals.com also has a short video interview with Massenat here.

Links: One take on Frantz Massenat [ESPNU]
Q&A with Frantz Massenat [Northstar Basketball Blog]
Frantz Massenat video interview [Rivals.com]

The ‘Cats have set the dates and matchups for what promises to be an exciting season. By all indications, ‘Nova will open the year ranked in the Top 5 nationally.

Some interesting notes: ‘Nova plays Penn at the Ski Lodge Nov. 16, La Salle at the Ski Lodge Nov. 28, Drexel at the Ski Lodge Dec. 2, Saint Joe’s at the P Dec. 9, and Temple at the Liacouras Dec. 13. Other non-conference games within driving distance are at Maryland (at Washington, D.C.) on Dec. 6 and at Fordham (at East Rutherford, N.J.) on Dec. 19.

The Big East games include two games each against Marquette, Georgetown and West Virginia — and WVU figures to be a Top 10 team, too. And five Big East games — Georgetown, Notre Dame, Providence, Connecticut, West Virginia — will be in South Philly at the Wacho Center.

Some times are set, some aren’t. The entire schedule is after the jump.
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One of the drug charges against Villanova’s Reggie Redding was dropped during his preliminary hearing today, according to Philly.com. Redding still faces a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia. The rising senior has already been suspended from the team for the fall semester.

Link: Charge dropped against Redding, charge remains against Redding [Philly.com]
Redding suspended [BIG FIVE POST]