Not an ordinary summer

In the past, a typical summer for Kevin Lyde and Lynn Greer would include playing basketball and hanging out with family and friends.

But this past summer was not typical.

Lyde was griping with the decision of turning pro, while Greer was showcasing his talent in Beijing, China.

After declaring for the NBA draft and then changing his mind, Lyde has returned to school and will lead the Owls in the 2001-2002 season. The decision to return was extremely hard for Lyde.

“It was a tough decision on my part,” Lyde said. “I was really jumping into the water not knowing what to expect. I thought about it and talked to my friends and decided Temple was the place for me to finish my college-basketball career.”

Greer was making decisions of his own, but on the basketball court.

He was one of 12 college players to represent the United States in the World University Games in Beijing.

After falling to host China in the semifinals, the United States rebounded and claimed the bronze medal with an 80-78 victory over Germany.

“It was a great experience playing with all those guys,” Greer said. “I stayed with them for about a month. It was just a fun experience.”

While Greer was preparing to play for the United States, Lyde was preparing for the NBA draft.

One turning point for Lyde was his discussion with Greer about going pro.

“I was tossing and turning with the ideas,” Lyde said. “I talked to Lynn about it and Lynn was like, ‘We started together, we might as well finish together.’ I thought about that a great deal. I think that was the best decision for me.”

As far as Greer’s journey in China, it was filled with many different experiences.

“The food there is awful,” Greer exclaimed. “Everything was rice. Rice was for breakfast, and dinner. Also a lot of the meats, you didn’t know what they were. As we went on we found out there was a TGI Fridays there. We ate there every day from then on.”

Playing for Penn State Coach Jerry Dunn during the games, Greer ran all of Penn State’s plays.

Greer roomed with Juan Dixon from the University of Maryland.

“Me and him talked a lot,” Greer said. “We have a chance to play them in the Coaches vs. Cancer [tournmanet] so we wanted to discuss our games as much as possible.”

One thing that Greer stressed about his time in China was the new things he learned to improve his game.

“I learned some new moves,” Greer said. “I also learned how to play with different kind[s] of players, which is an attribute that will help me if I play at the next level.”