City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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This has been an excellent five days for Fran Dunphy and the Temple recruiting staff.

Last week, the Owls received their second and third commitments for 2017 in Greensboro Day (N.C.) wing forward J.P. Moorman and Poly Tech (Md.) wing De'Vondre "Dre" Perry, adding to a class that began last month with Roselle Catholic guard Nathaniel Pierre-Louis. 

Monday night, they got what's likely their final verbal pledge of the class, with Independence (N.C.) big man Justyn Hamilton announcing his decision on Twitter.

"All my life my family has believed in me and told me I could do big things in life and here I am!" his announcement read in part. "With that being said, I am committing to Temple University."

A 6-10, 200-pound center, Hamilton picked up numerous mid-to-high-major offers while playing with Team United on the AAU circuit. Temple was one of the final schools to offer, doing so in late July, as did DePaul; fellow American Athletic Conference schools Central Florida and East Carolina had offered earlier in the offseason.

Hamilton's commitment means that Temple doesn't currently have any more scholarships available for the 2017 class.

But it's a well-rounded group, with a proven scorer in Pierre-Louis, two wing prospects with a lot of upside in Perry and Mooreman plus now a shot-blocking, athletic center in Hamilton, which will join with current freshmen Alani Moore, Damien Moore and Quinton Rose next year to form a versatile young core for the Owls.

CoBL will have more on this story shortly