Dunphy replaces a legend at Temple

Nearly twenty-five years ago when Temple’s president Peter Liacouras was looking for a coach to turn his school’s middling basketball program back into a big-time, perennial powerhouse, he decided to hire an up-and-coming, 50-year-old man to restore the glory.

A “best-kept-secret,” John Chaney was not exactly a household name beyond the insular world of Division II basketball, specifically, the small school PSAC, where Chaney guided little Cheyney State into one of those teams that just scared the living daylights out of people.

In fact, they still talk about Chaney, who was much more unbridled than during the later years at Temple, putting on shows on the sidelines while his teams took care of business at places like Millersville, Kutztown and Shippensburg. Certainly, no one back then thought Chaney was heading for the Hall of Fame. Count him in that bunch, too, since he has always maintained that he would have never left Cheyney had they offered him tenure.

But they didn’t and we all know how his story turned out.

So 25 years after Temple took a chance on 50-year old Wild John from Cheyney State, Temple announced that it will take a chance on a 56-year-old basketball lifer. This time, though, the choice to take Temple back to its basketball glory days is Fran Dunphy, who has spent the past decade-and-a-half nearby at Penn. It was there that Dunphy won title after title in the Ivy League in very much the same way Chaney did in the PSAC.

Obviously, there is a quite a difference between the Ivy League and the state schools of Pennsylvania. And certainly Dunphy is not quite the “unknown” that Chaney was when he arrived at Temple despite being tabbed with such a label.

“He’s one of America’s best-kept secrets,” Chaney said.

That in itself is quite a feat. Dunphy had taken Penn to 10 NCAA Tournaments, and compiled over 300 victories all without offering a single scholarship to any of his players. In the history of the city’s Big 5, Dunphy is one of just six coaches to win more than 300 games at the same school. Yet with four starters returning from last season’s team that cruised to the Ivy League championship before losing to Texas in the first-round of the NCAA Tournament, Dunphy could have very easily relaxed for the rest of his career, earning tournament bid after tournament bid while cultivating his legendary status at 33rd and Walnut.

But there is something kind of boring about that for Dunphy. Having spent his entire life with basketball programs that were almost big time, but not quite as an undergrad and assistant at La Salle before taking over at Penn, Dunphy, deep down, knows he will never get to the Final Four with the Quakers.

Yes, of course there are many challenges remaining at Penn for Dunphy. After all, it’s hard work to get to the top and stay there year after year. But if George Mason can go to a Final Four with Jim Larranaga as the coach, why can’t Dunphy do it?

Then again, Chaney never got to the Final Four at Temple, one of the winningest basketball programs in the country, though he came awfully close five times. Plus, recruiting kids to play for Temple is a lot different than at Penn. That’s not a knock on either school, it’s just the way it is.

So with his dreams and wanderlust, Dunphy will dig in on North Broad Street where his teams will play in a fancy new building complete with all of the modern amenities that coddled college basketball studs expect. Those things come with bigger expectations and more pressure, but it seems as if the unflappable Dunphy, seemingly rejuvenated by the switch, can handle it just fine.

He just seems like the man Temple was looking for.

“It’s as I once said, you want to stay your course,” Chaney said. “That means when you have made a decision on who you want to come into our high-profile program, you want to be sure you’re bringing in a great person.”

New Season begins with old streak

Part of the allure of baseball’s Opening Day is the idea of renewal. For at least one day every team is in first place and every team has a chance to win the World Series. It’s that baseball-as-a-metaphor-for-life wispiness that pervades public radio and Roger Angell’s dispatches from The New Yorker. All baseball fans get caught up in that saccharin sweet romanticism at one point or another.

It’s hard not to.

But this year’s Opening Day for the Phillies was marked by the notion of continuation or extension rather than rebirth. Actually, the baseball world had its eyes trained on the Phillies opener against the Cardinals to see if something that began last season could break the invisible force field of a new season in an idea that flies in the face that everything Opening Day represents.

We’re talking of the streak, of course.

Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins coolly carried his epic, 36-game hitting streak that was momentarily halted for five months only to pick up right where he started. With a flair for the dramatic, Rollins dramatically added on to his streak by lacing a double to right field on a 3-0 pitch in his very last at-bat of the day to make 2005 morph into 2006. In fact, the build up to that final pitch offered to Rollins was so mind numbingly exciting that it made nearly everyone in the park forget that the Phillies lost by eight runs.

Think of it: Rollins’ streak could have ended if the pitch was just mere inches away from home plate. Rollins could have drawn a walk – a very good thing for a leadoff hitter to do – but his chance at making a run for immortality would have vanished into thin air faster than the trot from home to first base. He could have done his job yet been penalized for it.

Of course, it didn’t happen that way, but Rollins, unselfishly, says he would have taken the walk.

“If he would have thrown one I couldn’t get, I would have taken it,” Rollins said earnestly. “I wasn’t going to give the at-bat away. Luckily, he gave me something to hit.”

Do you believe him?

No, me neither.

Yes, we believe Rollins’ goal is to help the Phillies win games so they can finally advance to the playoffs. And yes, we believe that he is sincere in this sentiment. But if reliever Brad Thompson kept the 3-0 offering anywhere in the vicinity of the 215 area code, Rollins was going to swing.

Believe that.

That’s not a knock on Rollins. Au contraire. The very idea that Rollins is just as excited about his streak as the fans are is quite refreshing. Want to talk about it? Just walk up to Jimmy and ask him about it, he won’t be hiding in the training room to dodge the questions and attention. This is a once-in-a-lifetime feat. Why shouldn’t it be fun?

“It’s fun to talk about it,” Rollins said. “It’s brought a lot of attention to the team, which is the best part. As far as the streak goes, I’m not any more excited about it now than I was. I was blessed to be in this position and you have to be willing to accept that if you are in this position. That’s one thing I think I’ve been doing. You have to be willing to talk about it.”

Better yet, Rollins said if the streak becomes the focal point of the game and helps brighten the looming dark cloud brought about by the Barry Bonds steroid controversy, then bring that on, too.

“Hopefully, I can be a major part of what's going on in baseball," Rollins said. “Barry Bonds is going through a situation. He's from the Bay Area, which is my hometown. Two stories are running together. Barry's trying to accomplish something. I'm trying to accomplish something. He's in a controversy. Right now, I'm on everybody's good side. Hopefully, I can keep that going and going, and everybody can concentrate on what's good about baseball.”

Certainly that can never get old.