Temple's Dunphy knows a great run starts one step at a time
THE LAST TIME Temple and Penn State played in the NCAA Tournament, it was in the Sweet 16 round in 2001. The Nittany Lions were strangled by John Chaney's zone, as so many tournament teams had been strangled in the past. As it turned out, it was the old man's last great run.
THE LAST TIME Temple and Penn State played in the NCAA Tournament, it was in the Sweet 16 round in 2001. The Nittany Lions were strangled by John Chaney's zone, as so many tournament teams had been strangled in the past. As it turned out, it was the old man's last great run.
It is a magical concept, that of the great run in the NCAA Tournament. The Owls were a No. 11 seed that year, one of those no-business-beating-anybody kinds of teams. Then it started. You see it every year, somewhere, when the flawed rule the bracket (at least for a while).
They ride a wave comprised of equal parts adrenaline, attitude and are-you-kidding-me? Somewhere along the way, without explanation, the question morphs from How? to Why not? To be in the middle of it is to experience the best part of sports in this country, the perfect combination of big-time and wide-eyed.
It is the one experience Fran Dunphy has missed in a great college coaching career.
"Make a run?" Dunphy was saying yesterday, minutes after it was announced that Temple and Penn State would be meeting again, this time in Tucson, Ariz., on Thursday. "We need to win a game.
"We haven't done that in the last 3 years. In order for us to win a game, we have to play great defense, make great decisions on offense, and we have to make our share of shots. Probably the other 67 teams, when they're asked that same question, are responding in the same way."
The man has won 419 college basketball games in 22 years as a head coach (17 at Penn, 5 at Temple). It is a resume that speaks for itself. The man wins, and he plays a pleasing style, and his players get better, and he is so highly regarded personally that his buddy Phil Martelli from Saint Joseph's incessantly feels the need to remind people that the good-guy reputation should not supersede the good-coach part.
But the NCAA Tournament has not been kind. He hasn't won a game in the tournament since the mid-'90s. It should be noted, and probably underlined, that he never had the favored team, not once, not until last year when the Owls lost to Cornell in a 5-12 matchup.
Because the tournament is great, wins and losses in the tournament are the great public measuring stick. There is no sense denying it, and Dunphy does not.
"It's the way the game has evolved," he said. "You may agree with it or disagree with it . . . The NCAA Tournament is in many ways how you're measured. Like an NFL quarterback, he's measured by whether or not he can get to the Super Bowl . . . You're measured by how you do in the tournament. That's the life that we lead."
Is it measured the same way within the profession?
"I think not," Dunphy said. "I think we all sit back, you can talk about a coach, you can talk about a program, you say, 'You know what? They have a great program and the guy really does a good job. Top to bottom, he does it the right way.' Whether or not you are winning championships like [Duke's] Mike Krzyzewski or being there every year like some of these guys, that's one thing. But I think we all measure it in different ways."
Last year, the Owls had real hopes and a 29-win resume. They thought they were going to get better than a No. 5 seed and nobody thought Cornell was going to be as low as a No. 12. It was a really hard game being played against a really good coaching friend of Dunphy's, Steve Donahue - and it turned out to be a thorough beating. Even knowing that Cornell smoked Wisconsin in the next round doesn't ease that sting.
"Last year, at the end of the Cornell game, when we knew we weren't going to win, that's as bad as you can feel," Dunphy said. "And you feel bad for a long period of time. Then you get over it. Now you have a season like we had - in all honesty, a terrific, terrific year. I'm really proud of our guys . . .
"This is a great honor and a great opportunity to be in this tournament, and we'll take it just that way."
One game at a time - because, in the NCAA Tournament, you really do need to walk before you can have a great run.
Send e-mail to
or read his blog, The Idle Rich, at
For recent columns go to