Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Fran With a Plan?
Dunphy ‘lives for’ coaching challenge at Temple ... and beyond?
PHILADELPHIA >> Fran Dunphy has coached 892 games of college basketball, plenty ending with jubilant court-storms and torrents of streamers, some that ended like one did Sunday, all of them ending with one, sincere thought.
“This,” the Temple coach said even after a difficult, 72-68 loss to visiting Cincinnati, “is what we live for.”
He works for the victories, and there have been 572, including five of his last seven. He prepares for them, recruits for them and will enjoy many more. But as Dunphy nears the end of his 13-year career at Temple and prepares a peaceful transfer of power to his assistant, Aaron McKie, he realizes that it is not just the victories that leave him thankful. It is the competition. It is those two-plus-hours of coaching challenges. It is the exuberance that comes with watching a game plan work and inflating a useful lead. It is the exasperation that will come with every one of the five free throws that may be missed in the final three minutes, with every one of 16 missed defensive-rebounding opportunities, with every late open-floor turnover, with the pressure that comes with playing for first place in a rugged, thankless league.
That’s what happened Sunday at the Liacouras Center, when Temple tried its 5-1 American Conference record against the 6-1 Bearcats. The Owls would build a 14-point lead, and then would face the predictable counter-punch.
“We knew they were going to make a run,” Dunphy said. “They weren’t going to let us have a comfortable lead. They were going to come after us.”
The Bearcats did that, in about the way that they have often done in an 18-3 season. They rebounded with authority and collected 16 offensive boards to Temple’s three. They tightened a defense, not allowing the Owls to inflate that early-second-half double-figure cushion. And they made 25 of their 37 free throws while Temple shot 19-for-31 at the line.
It’s how four-point losses happen. It’s how college basketball happens. A couple of plays matter. And they make a couple of wins matter. Dunphy knows where the Owls stand as February nears. They have had a good season, having won at Missouri and defeated Georgia, and having knocked off Houston, which had been 15-1. As they faced Cincinnati, they were 15-4, their best start since 2010. And that was after being picked in the preseason to finish sixth in the AAC.
But the Owls have lost two of their last three and will hit Houston Thursday, where revenge will be in play. Then there is a road game at Tulane to begin a challenging February schedule.
“This was a huge game for us,” Dunphy said. “In our world, we have to win every game. Unless we are going to win the conference tournament. So this week will be critical, to go down to Houston and to go down to Tulane. We have to take care of our business.”
Even if there may be a chance for a loss or two and the Owls roll into Memphis for the conference tournament at a robust 24-7, Dunphy did not sound as if he were exaggerating. Every game? “Every,” he said, “game.”
So that’s where the Owls may be, depending on how the bracketologists interpret the American this season. And in so many ways, that’s where Dunphy wants to be, if not needs to be, at this point in the Temple portion of a coaching story that is not likely down to its last chapter. He wants that pressure. He wants that opportunity to push a team into the NCAA Tournament with a late surge of perfection.
“You live for the pressure to succeed,” he said. “You are coaching college basketball. You are coaching a bunch of kids and trying to make them better. So it’s been tremendous. We’re a pretty fortunate group.”
Dunphy shrugs off any discussion about his situation, an odd one. That will likely come later, when it is over. But that moment is growing near, with 11 more regularly scheduled games, the conference playoffs and then one of the two major postseason tournaments. For that, there will be the recognition of the situation, even if Dunphy seems to wish it would all go away. Sunday, Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin realized he may have coached against Dunphy for the final time. He understood the moment.
“People don’t know this, but we started together 13 years ago,” Cronin said. “He has been a tremendous asset to this city. And he has me in the grace department, too. He is a gracious, gracious man. My dad was a coach. And every time he sees me, he asks how my dad is doing. He is a wonderful person. And he has proved this year that he is an excellent coach. If he desires to coach again, someone would be extremely lucky to have him.”
Dunphy is 70 and has said he is a fan of the unknown. What’s next? Who knows? Most likely, he will coach somewhere next season. But he still has work in this one. More, he has an opportunity to finish his career the way most of it has unfolded: Successfully.
“I remember one year, we played them in that old place on the boardwalk in Atlantic City,” Cronin said. “I don’t even remember who won.”
That’s how it happens. It’s the thrill of the challenge that is remembered, while the results are permitted to fade. Even in the rough times, as Fran Dunphy long has realized, it’s what coaches live for.