I Am Available To Coach Temple

Gosh- John Chaney...

Look, he’s deservedly a no doubt about it, first ballot, pass go right now, Hall of Fame basketball coach. Chaney took over a program that was the weakest of the Big Five, played in a so-so league, featured a bland 4000 seat arena (yo!- listen up- Tulane fans), recruited to a horrid campus (until lately- Temple’s really spruced itself up physically)- and yet won a bunch of games.

Be honest- would you ever want to play your ball at a place like Temple? No one does- but he managed to convince enough 18 year old public high school kids, or rather their mothers, from Philly every year to forego the glamour programs, stay home, go to school, and wake up at 5AM to practice. He sold “I’ll keep your kid out of trouble” to a lot of parents- and largely delivered.

The Temple Owls won gritty and literally played everyone. To be fair, Saturday November basketball in this country on ESPN ought to be retitled “Temple’s game of the week”. His kids were citizens (did any ever get in off-court trouble?)- and he personally did every charity event in Philadelphia he could get his hands on. Oh, and he coached his first game Division I game at 50- so he got a late start toward that multiple of records and wins and five Elite Eights.

And, agree or disagree with him, he was the most articulate public defender of the anti-Prop 48 movement. He took a pounding- but pointed out he took Prop 48 kids all the time and graduated them. And if Temple could do it- shame on the LSU’s and Cincinnati’s who couldn’t or didn't care too. He had little use for the Dale Brown's as people of the world- but a lot for the Speedy Morris'- and that is to his credit. Race and sports are touchy subjects in America- and Chaney made intelligent, rational and fair contributions again and again: on players, on coaching, on this particular issue of “who is ‘smart’ enough to go to college?” And eventually, he largely won- there are no more Prop 48s- and mortified a lot of programs and the NCAA into real reforms. Clearly the system now is better than the one that existed- and Chaney led that. Sometimes the best proof of something being stupid is to demonstrate it- and Chaney crushed his opponents here by taking Philly kids who couldn't make a test score and turning them into legit Temple grads.

But, you know, he had the temper and a tremendous sense of self-righteousness- which coupled with, shall we say, a certain latitude the Temple administration gave him- led to trouble. Just like Bobby Knight. The “Goongate” incident is the most serious of these- the rest are pretty inconsequential really. But ordering one of your kids to hurt another is disgusting- and Chaney is no longer hugely popular in Philly. Certainly among the St. Joe's contingent. After floundering for a bit, ultimately Temple came up with the right solution: some immediate suspensions- and a probable understanding he would leave "on his own accord" after the next season. But Chaney will always be the great coach who had a baaad fink moment. If I had a vote, and we were voting today, I would still vote for him to the Hall- but you could justifiably use that incident to keep him out.