Can Temple Win the A-10 Tournament?
By Brad Diamond Sports
This has been a breakout season for the proud Temple program, one that had the greatest college coach in its lore retiring years back, Mr. John Chaney. Chaney did more for the kids that matriculated at Temple than any other coach in the storied Big-5. John took on the student athlete ' s development as a personal issue and branded his program with raised seniors who led the daily tasks of reminding the under classmen that they were very lucky to be at Temple, while learning under the courageous warrior John Chaney. I did not forget the Owl himself, the departed former head coaching legend Harry Litwack, but Chaney is #1. Remember, Temple has had only 6 coaches in their history. Stability for sure.
The Chaney retirement brought a new beam of light at the head of the program, Mr. Fran Dunphy. Dunphy, a LaSalle graduate, who played on the greatest team in the history of Philadelphia College Basketball (1968-69), a 23-1 Explorers unit that suffered NCAA violations because guard Larry Cannon worked a $6.00 an hour job. LaSalle was disqualified from playing in the NCAA Tournament. The Explorers had 4 NBA, ABA players who started for the program with a super sixth man in Fran Dunphy, who could bury the outside shot with consistency. Years later Dunphy went onto coach the University of Pennsylvania (310 wins) experiencing many NCAA tourney invites and broke Chuck Daly ' s records to boot.
Now Dunphy has been charged with developing his own brand of Temple basketball, but make no mistake, peering over his shoulder is the legendary Chaney (usually at most games) supporting the veteran coach and his once proud Owls. The people that worry that Temple has a major task of getting to the A-10 Championship game, can ' t imagine how much pressure there is following the legend. One final note and I will move onto the tournament. Another school that suffered from NCAA violations almost 50 years ago, St. Joseph ' s, was lead by Dr. Jack Ramsay (my #2 rated CBB coach in Philly history) was an incredible X and O guy. Ramsay is still a legend at SJU. The Phil Martelli, Jamieer Nelson and Delionte West club that virtually wrote a perfect season, finally put the Ramsay mystique to rest (for awhile at least). It ' s sure a tough deal trying to climb on top of the mountain when someone else created that unforgettable experience.
On Tuesday, March 9th the A-10 Tournament starts-up in, of all places, Atlantic City. The state of New Jersey is currently forging on with a lawsuit to effectively change the old federal law which allows sports-betting in only four states, Las Vegas, Delaware, Montana and Oregon. The NCAA went to battle last summer trying to shutdown single wager betting in the state of Delaware. It worked as the courts agreed on the former decision noting parlay-betting only. However, is not ironic that the NCAA allows the A-10 to have their conference tournament in Atlantic City where sharks, I said sharks, not sharps do turnover the night consistently?
Well the team I have on record of taking the Big Ticket in Atlantic City is the Temple Owls.
Here are the top-ten reasons:
1). HC advantage to Fran Dunphy.
2). Location of Tournament favors the Philadelphia club who can gain fan support via an 80 minute automobile ride from campus.
3). The Owls do not play until Friday. The rest issue is huge for this club as they play tenacious defense.
4). Scheduling. Temple ' s first game will be against the Duquesne- St. Bonaventure winner. In addition, all of Temple ' s games will be in day action, meaning there is no change from night to day, etc.
5). Defense:
Temple has the ability to play all aspects of the game from the defensive end. The Dunphy man-to-man, or the stifling match-up zone that made Chaney famous.
6). Offense:
Multi-faceted, from the 3-Balling efforts of Fernandez and Brooks to the inside game of Lavoy Allen. Plus, the Owls have a game tested PG in Juan Fernandez who is 6-4 and can see the whole floor. The kid has flourished in the motion offense and draws out the defense when shooting numbers are up.
7). Bench
8). Tradition
9). The Village
10). Philly
Las Vegas Insight
No matter my feelings for the Temple program, I still would not lay double digits with the Owls. Recall, other teams will be playing into their final basketball experience for 2010, but Temple has already locked in an at-large berth for the NCAA. Owls winning yes, covering?