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Haverford School's Levan Alston stays home, commits to Temple

09/30/2014, 9:00am EDT

By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Temple has its backcourt of the future, and the makings of a very good incoming freshman class in 2015.

Haverford School senior guard Levan Alston, Jr. gave his verbal commitment to Fran Dunphy and the Owls in a press conference on Tuesday morning, joining AAU teammate and close friend Trey Lowe as Temple commitments for next fall.

Wearing a hoodie as he sat down at the podium, Alston stood up and unzipped his sweatshirt to reveal a Cherry & White jersey, worn by his father Levan Alston, Sr., the same number 10 the younger Alston wears at the Haverford School.

“I wanted to be close to home, so everybody could come support me and watch see me play,” Alston said at the press conference. “I’m from North Philly, so it doesn’t get any better than that.”

A 6-foot-4, 185-pound combo guard, Alston picked Temple over offers from Penn State and Virginia Commonwealth; Marquette, Notre Dame and Penn were also in his final six before he narrowed things down earlier this month.

His last official visit of the three was to Penn State this past weekend, but it wasn’t enough to convince Alston to leave Philadelphia. Instead, he’ll be playing at the same school his father played for his last two years of college after transferring from New Orleans back in 1993.

“I look up to him, he’s my favorite player, so to put on his number 10, it means a lot,” Alston said. “I’m from North Philly and Temple’s in North Philly, I always wanted to grow up and play in the Big 5, so it means a lot to play at Temple.”

A final meeting with Dunphy the day before his decision sealed the deal.

“I had a meeting with coach Dunphy after school, and last night I talked to my dad about it, and I was pretty sure probably about 5 o’clock last night,” Alston said. “Me and [Dunphy] have a great relationship, and he just put the icing on the cake yesterday when we were talking.”

The elder Alston, a Simon Gratz grad, played in high school and college with former Temple guard and current Owl coach Aaron McKie. His son isn’t the first offspring of a Temple player to consider following his father to school this offseason, but Jalen Brunson chose Villanova over offers from Illinois, Temple and others a few weeks ago.

Haverford School coach Henry Fairfax, a former Drexel Dragon, was there at the announcement Tuesday morning.

“I get to watch a kid that I grew with and he grew with me,” Fairfax said about Alston, who’s been at the school all four years of high school. “I would have followed him anywhere, he had a tough decision.

“I know he had a tough decision to make but I’m so proud of him. As good of a basketball player he is, he’s an even better kid.”

Along with Lowe, who joined the Team Final AAU program this summer, Alston has a chance to make a big impact from the get-go on North Broad. The consensus top-100 guard will arrive on a team who’s graduating seniors Will Cummings and Jesse Morgan out of the backcourt, with only wing Quenton DeCosey (currently a junior), guards Josh Brown (sophomore) and Devin Coleman (junior) back in 2015-16.

Since Lowe’s commitment last month, he’d been trying hard to get Alston to join him.

“He’s in my ear a lot, I talked to Trey a lot, and he was begging me to commit to Temple,” Alston said. “Finally got it done.”

Equally capable of playing either guard spot, Alston really established himself as a prospect to watch during his sophomore season, when he averaged 16.1 ppg and was named Inter-Ac Co-MVP for his efforts. He continued that strong play through the summer and right into his junior year, when he averaged 15.7 ppg on a team that added high-major 2016 wing Lamar Stevens to help ease some of the scoring burden.

With Alston and Lowe committed, Temple’s efforts now turn to securing a commitment from another local prospect, Archbishop Carroll center Ernest Aflakpui. He has TU in his final five along with Saint Joseph’s, Rhode Island, VCU and Saint Louis.

Alston is already working on his recruiting pitches to help bring more talent to North Broad, saying he his first call would be to “Big Ern,” referring to Aflakpui.

“My next two targets are [Roman Catholic guard] Tony Carr and [Haverford School teammate]Lamar Stevens,” Alston said of the 2016 duo. “I’m going to start working on that now.”