There was an extra buzz at the Liacouras Center with the appearance of Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills during Temple’s 75-56 win over Central Florida on Sunday.
Mills not only sat courtside and was friendly to the many well-wishers, but helped sing the Eagles fight song during a timeout and more importantly, provided an inspirational pregame speech to the Temple players before the game.
Temple scored the game’s first 15 points and the Owls were never seriously threatened.
Maybe Mills can have a second career as a motivational speaker.
“There was good energy from Jalen and his message was a good one, ‘You deserve to be out there and deserve to be playing college basketball and take advantage of it,’ ” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said.