Confronting the past no easy task

By Josh Hirsch

Senior Staff Writer

jjhirsch@sas.upenn.edu

Fran Dunphy has been the head coach of 206 games at the Palestra. Number 207 will be a little different.

After 17 years as the head coach at Penn, Dunphy will make his first appearance as a visiting boss when his Temple squad visits the Quakers tonight.

Despite his new surroundings, Dunphy was still as low-key as ever when discussing tonight's game.

"I think tomorrow night will be interesting for me," Dunphy said.

But he said that it might be a little confusing sitting on the visitor's bench and going to the visiting locker room.

Yet, Dunphy said, "Once the ball goes up, it's going to be Temple against Penn."

When John Chaney retired last spring, Dunphy spent a few weeks deliberating whether he should leave the only collegiate head coaching job he had ever had to become the first man to ever lead two Big 5 programs.

Dunphy officially accepted the Temple job in mid-April and immediately said he dreaded tonight's game.

"I wish I could take a sabbatical for that game, to be honest with you," he said at his first Temple press conference.

He hasn't changed his mind much now.

"I don't think you ever look forward to playing against good friends, and that's what I feel about the Penn guys," Dunphy said.

For those good friends, which Dunphy recruited entirely, the reaction was mixed.

Penn senior Mark Zoller, who still talks to Dunphy and his staff - all of whom he brought over from Penn - was excited that his team has a little extra motivation tonight.

"We really want this one to almost prove that we can still play that high-caliber basketball with coach [Glen] Miller," he said.

One of Zoller's fellow seniors, guard Ibrahim Jaaber, said that while the game might be important for the program and the Penn community, "for the 15 guys on the court . we're focusing on beating Temple and not coach Dunphy."

Miller, who has faced Dunphy 14 times while coaching Brown, also said that tonight is no different for him, although he knows that there might be a little more emotion in the crowd.

"To me it is another basketball game," he said.

And as the participants expected, the surrounding cast for tonight's game is more charged up than usual.

Vince Curran, who played two seasons under Dunphy in the coach's earliest years, correctly predicted both coaches downplaying the event.

But, says the current color commentator for Quakers games, he and many in the Penn community will be torn. Many ex-players, Curran said, are still fiercely loyal to Dunphy and have not formed the same bond with Miller.

"Dunph was the guy they went through it with," Curran said, adding that Dunphy has formed strong bonds of friendship with him and many of his former teammates.

And just as he has trouble when calling Penn games against former assistants Fran O'Hanlon (now at Lafayette) and Steve Donahue (now at Cornell), Curran says he will have some difficulty behind the microphone tonight.

"I'm calling the game, and I'm still torn," Curran said.

Engineering junior Jason Ginsberg, who runs Penn's student section at the Palestra, is also conflicted.

"It is [fun] to go against someone who used to be on your side," Ginsberg said in an e-mail. "It should be a good one."

But, Ginsberg added, it's not all positive.

"I've seen his face on billboards and it's kinda a slap in the face the way our rival is rallying around our old coach," he added.

With all of the emotion involved, Dunphy is just trying to get through the game. Then he can go back to his good relationship with his former players.

"After it's over I'll give our guys a hug," Dunphy said of a team no longer his own.

But the Freudian slip is understandable tonight.

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