Charleston Choose

The Temple men’s basketball team will open the 2008-09 campaign by participating in a three-day tournament to be held at the College of Charleston’s new home arena, the Carolina First Center, according to sources. Clemson is the other headline participant in the eight-team event, which will be televised by the ESPN networks and is scheduled for Nov. 14-16.

This will be the second straight year that the Owls head to warmer territory for an early-season tournament sponsored by ESPN. Last year, they participated in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off in November.

Ironically, one of the teams that the Owls played in Puerto Rico was the College of Charleston. But that game was memorable for all the wrong reasons, as Coach Fran Dunphy’s squad blew a 25-point lead and lost on a buzzer-beating three-pointer.

Charleston is led by former Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins. Clemson is led by former Dayton Coach Oliver Purnell. None of the other participants in the eight-team field have been announced.

The tournament was organized only recently. In fact, Charleston announced in late April that South Carolina would be its first opponent at the Carolina First Center on Nov. 17. But the tournament will change that schedule.

Temple has already announced a home game versus Tennessee and a road game versus Kansas as two of the highlight games on its non-conference schedule, which will also include road games against Villanova, Penn, Long Beach State, and at least four games against MAC opponents. The Owls will reportedly host Delaware, too.