There appear to be no indications that Penn men's basketball coach Fran Dunphy has been offered the head coaching position at Temple, despite reports to the contrary in the school's student newspaper.
An online update yesterday on The Temple News Web site reported that "multiple sources" -- none of who were named -- have said that Dunphy has officially been offered the Owls' head coaching position.
However, several members of both Penn's and Temple's basketball programs have disputed this report.
Through a spokesman in the Owls' athletics department, Temple athletics director Bill Bradshaw denied that any candidate has been offered the position.
"I will not comment on the specifics of the ongoing search for the next Temple head men's basketball coach, but I can state emphatically that no candidate has been offered the position at this time," Bradshaw said.
Theanonymous sources told The Temple News that they expect Dunphy to accept the offer and, that he will be introduced as Temple's coach sometime next week.
Some members of the Penn basketball team do not believe that this is the case.
When asked for their thoughts on whether the report is accurate, multiple Quakers players and managers independently stated that they had heard nothing from Dunphy about leaving for Temple.
They all asserted that if Dunphy had indeed made the decision to take the position at the North Philadelphia school, the players would already have been informed.
In the past several days, several other candidates have arisen for the position. Manhattan coach Bobby Gonzalez interviewed with Temple earlier this week, as did former USC coach Henry Bibby, currently an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers.
While it has been widely reported that Dunphy is still Bradshaw's first choice, there is no indication other than the News' anonymous sources that he has been offered the position.
Dunphy did not return calls for comment.
According to a Penn athletic department spokesman, the coach is currently in Indianapolis for the annual NCAA coaches' conference.
Because of the conference, should Dunphy indeed sign with Temple, it is likely that no announcement will come until Dunphy is back in Philadelphia next week.
