After 24 years and 516 wins as the head basketball coach at Temple, John Chaney announced his retirement at a press conference yesterday.
Sources, including Andy Katz of ESPN and Gregg Doyel of CBS, have pointed to Penn coach Fran Dunphy as one of Temple's top choices to be Chaney's replacement.
This is the second time in two years that Dunphy has been rumored to be up for another head coaching job in the Big 5. When LaSalle coach Billy Hahn resigned after the program's rape scandal, Dunphy turned down an offer from his alma mater to remain at Penn.
Others on the list are said to include Drexel coach Bruiser Flint, former Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins and Owls assistant coach Dan Leibovitz.
Dunphy and Flint were both at Chaney's press conference at the Liacouras Center. Dunphy was at Penn's practice yesterday but was not made available for comment at the time.
Chaney's retirement signals the close of a career that has been known as much for humanitarianism as winning and as much for controversy as for either of those.
Chaney's impact in this city was felt far beyond the basketball court. Inspired in part by his own rough childhood in South Philadelphia, he often recruited the poorest of the poor -- players who were given little chance anywhere else.
And at Temple, where his name will define this generation, he was a major booster for some of the fundraising that turned what was essentially a commuter school into the community that Temple is today.
On the court, he produced win after win following his arrival in 1982. He went 14-15 that year, but had a winning season every year for the next 23, including 17 NCAA Tournament appearances.
He reached the Elite Eight five times, and in 1988 he was named Consensus National Coach of the Year in one of those seasons.
But his success on the court has dissipated since, as the South Regional final loss in 2001 was his last game in the tournament.
And his reputation took a severe hit last year when he sent little-used forward Nehemiah Ingram, whom Chaney later called a "goon," into the game against Saint Joseph's to combat what he considered to be illegal screens that went uncalled. Ingram would foul out quickly and in the process broke the arm of the Hawks' Jon Bryant.
That has always been Chaney's way -- if he doesn't like something, he'll let somebody know about it.
And that won't end with his retirement.
"I will continue to look at it," Chaney said of his future involvement in Temple's program. "I will continue to criticize."
But before he starts criticizing, Chaney has one important piece of business: helping to find a replacement.
Chaney will submit a few names for consideration, one of whom may be Leibovitz.
"You've got to have a Temple person who knows this university," Chaney said of his successor.
Leibovitz, a 1996 Penn graduate, took over during Chaney's suspension for the St. Joe's incident and said yesterday that he would be interested in taking over if asked.
