Q&A with Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon

We caught up preseason with the Leopards’ head coach, who in 1995 inherited a program coming off a 2-25 season and led Lafayette to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances in 1999 and 2000.

The Philadelphia native also served as Fran Dunphy’s assistant at Penn from 1989-95 before helming the Leopards and is now the longest-tenured coach in the Patriot League. He also played for the ABA’s Miami Floridians in 1970-71 after four years at Villanova, and he has a wealth of overseas coaching experience.

The Daily Pennsylvanian: When did you first get a sense of what Big 5 basketball was all about?

Fran O’Hanlon: When I was in grade school. Just being around [the Big 5]. Also, when I got to high school. We’d go to the Palestra, listen to games on the radio. You kind of grew up with it.

DP: What are your memories of Villanova vs. Penn from your time at Nova?

FO: I used to always hang down at Penn because a lot of my friends were going to Penn or around Penn, so I knew all those guys – Dave Wohl, Steve Bilsky. The one year (1969) we played, they held the ball, and it was the first time I’ve ever been involved in something like that. We were top 10 in the country, and Penn beat us, 32-30. Steve Bilsky had the game-winning shot. I’d never seen that before, so it was interesting to say the least. I remember those games, I remember playing against Dave Wohl. We lost [to Penn] my senior year as well, in a really tough game. But Penn was really building up at that time.

That was the heyday when they were starting to do a great job recruiting wise with Jim Wolf, Dave Wohl, Corky Calhoun, all those guys – Bob Morse. In the Big 5 you always played against guys who were hanging around Philly, so there was an added incentive to try to beat your friends.

DP: Is there anything else you remember about the 32-30 game you brought up? That was obviously a memorable game.

FO: It was memorable because I had never seen it before. We didn’t know how to react to it. We played a zone, we played a matchup zone, so they just kind of held the ball and worked it around, and they took all good shots. It was just interesting when you’re playing and you’ve never seen it before you don’t know what to do.

DP: You were drafted by the Sixers. How did you end up in Miami in that situation?

FO: At the time the Sixers had three guards – Wali Jones, Hal Greer, and Archie Clark. So I didn’t think there was much room there. I knew the coach [at Miami], so I thought my chances were better of going to Miami.

DP: And who was the Floridians coach at the time?

FO: Harold Blitman, who was at Cheyney State for many years. Harold Blitman was huge.

DP: How did you get the assistant coaching job at Penn?

FO: Because I was a terrific coach … only kidding. I grew up with Fran Dunphy. Fran Dunphy’s one of my best friends. I had credentials – I was a coach overseas. I coached in Israel, coached in Venezuela, coached in Sweden. I coached high school but at the end of the day, having one of my best friends as the head coach gave me the opportunity. I’m very thankful of Fran for giving me the chance to get into college basketball.

DP: How did you first meet coach Dunphy?

FO: When I moved out of the city to the suburbs, going into my senior year, Dunph was one of the guys in the neighborhood and we just hit it off. We played ball against each other a lot. We were friends from the start, and playing basketball against each other all the time in the schoolyard, and then playing in college – he was at La Salle. I also played in the Eastern League with Dunph. We played in the semi-professional league. But it goes way back with us, you know, to being 15-16 years old.

DP: How did you go about installing the motion offense at Penn?

FO: When we sat down and decided what we wanted to do as far as our philosophy as a staff, Dunph liked some of the concepts I had done in high school and overseas, and he was good enough to let me put in some of those concepts. So that was how it got started. My philosophy kind of has been plagiarized. I guess if you steal from one it plagiarism, and if you steal from many its research. Dunph liked what I was doing in previous years, and put some of those concepts in.

DP: How has coaching in Sweden and Israel influenced how you’ve coached? Do you think that your international past has inspired some of your players to play overseas as well?

FO: I think it’s a great opportunity. I think it’s a great experience. It’s invaluable. And the other part of that was just watching different people develop their games. In Europe, the big guys are more skilled, and work on the perimeter a lot more, and that has helped in my development as a coach, with working with the big guys to expand their games, so to speak.

DP: Is there any player that stands out to you as the best that you coached during your time at Penn?

FO: Jerome, I would say. I don’t know who would be higher than him.

DP: What made him stand out?

FO: He was a tremendous young man. He was easy to coach, very coachable, had all the intangibles, the work ethic, the team leader – he had all those things. He had a strong desire to win. And he was terrifically skilled. He was a very skilled basketball player.

DP: What was your plan to turn around that 2-25 Lafayette program? At the time, the turnaround was a huge one and a fairly quick one.

FO: First of all, one of the first guys we got was Stefan Ciosici from Romania. One of my contacts over there helped me recruit him. So that helped. And then doing some of the things that Dunph taught me, as far as starting a program. I was around when Dunph was starting up the [Penn] program. Just building up a foundation. Fran Dunphy, who was one of the best coaches in America, taught me a great deal. And I tried to implement a lot of those things into our program.

DP: I’m curious as to what your perspective was in 2006, when Glen Miller succeeded coach Dunphy at Penn. I know that a lot of people found that to be a curious hire at the time, because Mr. Miller didn’t have any obvious ties to Penn at the time. What was your perspective on how that process went?

FO: Steve Bilsky knew Glen Miller from having watched him in the Ivy League, so he had a different perspective than me. I didn’t know Glen, but it was curious for someone outside of the Big 5 family. But I guess I just trusted Steve Bilsky that he must have seen something in Glen Miller that he really liked and admired.

DP: Last year was the first time that Lafayette ever beat Penn at the Palestra. Was that a special victory for you, or did you not really think about it?

FO: I was hoping that streak would be broken at some point in my life. I always have mixed feelings when I have to play my friends. It was nice for our team. Obviously I wanted to win the game. Coaching against – whether it’s Dunph or Jerome, coach Allen, or Stevie Donahue, I have mixed emotions. You’re happy when you win, but you know on the other side that they’re hurt. But it was good for our program. We had to get off that snide at some point.

DP: When we spoke in March, you mentioned you still follow Penn basketball very closely.

FO: I’m a huge supporter of Penn basketball. I love Penn basketball. Obviously having coached Jerome … Whether it’s myself or coach Donahue, the success we had at Penn has helped us get jobs at other places. If you don’t win, you don’t get a job.

DP: Have you ever longed to come back to Penn in any capacity?

FO: As I said, I love Penn. It certainly at times has been a temptation. But when you recruit players to a program, you feel guilty to just up and leave them. As much as I support and love Penn, my family liked it here and they grew up here. And I’m not so far away from Philly that I can’t see my family and friends there. In fact, I was with coach Donahue and Coach Dunphy this weekend down in South Jersey, so I still get to see all those guys.

DP: What do you think of how Penn’s program is doing now?

FO: I like their young guys, I like what Jerome has done with their young guys. I think they’re on the uptake right now. I think they’ll be back in the thick of things in no time. I like where they’re going.

DP: What can we expect from your team this year?

FO: We lose our best player Tony Johnson, and one of our best players in Levi Giese. We have four returning players that have started before. I think we’re going to be a real solid team. It’s going to depend on how we replace Tony Johnson and Levi Giese. But I think we’re going to be very competitive.

DP: In the game last year against Penn there was a lot of offense. What do you think was behind that? Do you think that was an aberration?

FO: We got off to a good start, but at the end of the game Penn came storming back. It was good the game ended at 40 minutes instead of 41 because we might have lost by 10. But I think we know each other so well and both teams great offense in that game. We made shots, but we didn’t stop them from making shots either.

DP: That’s all I have. I really appreciate you taking time out.

FO: Like I’ve said, I’m a huge Penn supporter and I’m in this spot because of what Penn has done for me. I learned a lot of basketball from playing at Penn, and sneaking into the gyms at Penn my whole life.

SEE ALSO

Top 5 Penn-Lafayette basketball games of all time

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