Fran Dunphy

Temple basketball coach Fran Dunphy earned a bachelor's degree in marketing from La Salle and a master's in counseling and human relations from Villanova, and he has completed his course work toward a doctorate in counseling and student development at American University. He teaches a course at Temple's Fox School of Business. As "March Madness" kicks off and Temple enters the national championship tournament for the fifth time since Dunphy took over the program, in 2006, high school and college athletes would be wise to take a cue from him. About 1 percent of all the kids playing high school basketball in the United States will be good enough to get a college scholarship in the sport.

One player said Jekyll and Hyde would be an accurate way to describe his coach. A former player said that practices were like wars, with the coach as the enemy. A onetime colleague and longtime friend called him the most competitive man he has ever known. Bob Knight? Gary Williams? John Chaney? No. Nope. Negative. Fran Dunphy. Yeah, that Fran Dunphy - the universally liked, publicly genteel Temple coach. Three years ago, when he arrived from Penn to replace the legendary Chaney, Dunphy was seen by some as too nice to succeed on North Broad Street.

PHILADELPHIA - Temple men's basketball coach Fran Dunphy today signed a two-year contract extension that will keep him at the school through the end of the 2013-14 season. Dunphy led the Owls to a 21-13 record and an Atlantic 10 championship last season, giving Temple its first NCAA tournament berth in seven years. Dunphy has posted a 33-31 record in the two seasons since he replaced John Chaney. "We knew when we hired Fran Dunphy two years ago that he was the right man to lead Temple basketball," said Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw.

As Temple moves closer to naming a new basketball coach - with Penn coach Fran Dunphy the clear target - top Owls assistant Dan Leibovitz has been contacted by Northeastern University about its head coaching opening, according to a college basketball source. Leibovitz, reached in Indianapolis, declined to comment. The athletic director at Northeastern is former Temple AD Dave O'Brien, looking for a coach after Ron Everhart left the Colonial Athletic Association school last week to take over at Duquesne.

Penn basketball coach Fran Dunphy is expected to add a new pair of Quakers today to a team that went 25-7 last winter and stormed to a berth in the NCAA tournament. They are Patrick Haddan, a 6-foot-1 point guard from Woodbridge High in Irvine, Calif., and Friedrich Ebede, a 6-6 swingman from the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Northfield, Mass. In Haddan, Penn will have a possible successor to Andy Toole, the all-Ivy League guard, and David Klatsky, a backup, who will be seniors next season.

The ocean provided a serene backdrop to the Atlantic Ten Conference men's basketball media session at Boardwalk Hall yesterday, but mostly the event was noticeably sedate because of the absence of John Chaney for the first time in nearly a quarter century. Chaney, of course, was the loud and legendary Temple coach who retired after last season. Since his presence at this affair easily topped most nightclub acts, it seemed inappropriate that Chaney wasn't in this entertainment hot spot, where the A-Ten will play its tournament in March after moving out of Cincinnati.

The Penn men's basketball team returned to practice yesterday after opening the season in the CoSIDA Classic in Raleigh, N.C., where the Quakers put forth two good efforts only to wind up with a pair of losses over the weekend. "We did some good things, but there are some things we need to tighten up," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "We're playing some good teams, and we need to be better prepared. " North Carolina State, the host, defeated Penn on Friday, 77-64, in a contest that the Quakers led by a basket with less than 12 minutes remaining.

Penn basketball coach Fran Dunphy wasn't particularly happy at halftime last night. And he mentioned his dissatisfaction to his team, which was trailing lowly Brown by seven points. "We didn't come out in the first half with a lot of intensity, and the coach let us know at halftime," forward Jed Ryan said. Message delivered. Message received. The Quakers roared back onto the court and took off on an 18-3 tear that paved the way for a 59-53 victory in an Ivy League game at the Providence Civic Center.

A podium was set up at midcourt on the Palestra floor yesterday. From there, Penn athletic director Steve Bilsky introduced Glen Miller as the Quakers' new basketball coach. The 42-year-old Miller, appropriately wearing Penn colors with a blue suit and a red-and-blue tie, left Brown to take over the Ivy League's marquee program. Fran Dunphy, the Quakers' career leader in wins, was named to succeed John Chaney at Temple on April 10. During his 17-year tenure, Dunphy guided Penn to 10 Ivy League titles in the last 14 seasons.

Ninety minutes after three Temple players pulled back the curtains to the basement room at the Pepsi Center and, with eyes as wide as basketballs, warily took their podium seats, their Michigan State counterparts breezed in like the NCAA veterans they are. Those disparate entrances to yesterday's news conferences highlighted the different paths these two proud programs have traveled since March 25, 2001, when Tom Izzo's Spartans defeated John...

SOPHOMORE running back Kenny Harper scored two touchdowns - one for each team - as Cherry beat White, 17-10, in Temple's annual spring scrimmage before an announced crowd of 2,500 at Lincoln Financial Field. For White, Harper was the top rusher with 48 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. Junior quarterback Clinton "Juice" Granger went 14-for-20 for 125 yards. Redshirt freshman wideout Robbie Anderson was the receiving leader with three catches for 43 yards. For Cherry, sophomore Jalen Fitzpatrick had 40 yards on five carries.

Aaron Brown will leave both Temple and the Owls basketball program at the end of the spring semester. The sophomore shooting guard informed coach Fran Dunphy of his decision Saturday morning. The St. Benedict's Prep (N.J.) product was granted his release. "I felt like I haven't been given the opportunity," said Brown, who averaged 6.4 points and 14.6 minutes this past season. "And I think that it is just time to move on. You know I worked hard. . . . I did everything they asked, a hard worker.

Fran Dunphy was named the Big Five men's basketball coach of the year for the third straight season and fourth time in his six years at Temple, the Owls' Shey Peddy was named the women's player of the year for the second straight season, and Penn's Zack Rosen was named the men's player of the year. Villanova's Harry Perretta was named the women's coach of the year. The awards, announced Tuesday, were the result of voting by the Big Five head coaches and selected media.

NASHVILLE - A basketball never sounds more hollow than when it stops bouncing, and it was that sudden silence that found the Temple Owls after their opening game of the NCAA tournament late Friday night. Across the street from the Country Music Hall of Fame, the 58-44 loss to the University of South Florida told a sad story of heartbreak and betrayal. The rim was a liar, the ball was cheating and the stat sheet was drunk. Maybe someone would even get shot, but if it was by either of these teams, it would probably be a miss.

NASHVILLE - Temple's season of high promise ended with a game that provided low comedy and not much good basketball on Friday night in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Owls lost, 58-44, to a University of South Florida team that looked all but dead for much of the first half. By halftime, it was a game again - a very ugly one - and by midway through the second half USF took control with an unexpected display of offense. Every display of offense was unexpected in this game, however.

THE GREAT, WIDE, wonderful, unpredictable world that is the NCAA Tournament is opening again. It is a place, especially on the first couple of days, where rationality can take a holiday. Sometimes it is nerves and sometimes it is a funky, unfamiliar visual background in the arena, but these are the early hours of the tournament when tested, trusted shooters can become clankers and coaches begin searching for scoring alternatives. Sometimes, again, it is nerves and sometimes, again, it is a level of unfamiliarity with the teams, but these also are the games when officials - who are trying to impress people so that they can advance in the tournament, too - can blow the oddest, quickest, persnicketiest whistles, forcing coaches to juggle because of foul trouble.

Temple basketball coach Fran Dunphy earned a bachelor's degree in marketing from La Salle and a master's in counseling and human relations from Villanova, and he has completed his course work toward a doctorate in counseling and student development at American University. He teaches a course at Temple's Fox School of Business. As "March Madness" kicks off and Temple enters the national championship tournament for the fifth time since Dunphy took over the program, in 2006, high school and college athletes would be wise to take a cue from him. About 1 percent of all the kids playing high school basketball in the United States will be good enough to get a college scholarship in the sport.

Temple will look to advance beyond the second round of the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season. The fifth-seeded Owls might have their hands full against the defensive-minded, 12th-seeded South Florida. Here's a breakdown of the matchups:   Coaches Fran Dunphy (Temple): Dunphy, the Atlantic Ten Conference coach of the year, has brought pride back to the "Cherry and White" since taking over the program before the start of the 2006-07 season.

Who: No. 5 Temple (24-7) vs. No. 12 South Florida (21-13) What: NCAA second round (Midwest Region), Bridgestone Arena, Nashville. When: 9:50 p.m. TV/Radio: TNT/WPHT (1210-AM) History: This is the first meeting. How they got here: Temple (at-large from the Atlantic 10). USF (at-large from the Big East) beat California, 65-54, in its opener on Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio. Up next: Winner faces the winner of fourth-seeded Michigan (24-9) from the Big Ten or 13th-seeded Ohio (27-7)

PENN HADN'T played a postseason game in 5 years. The last time it hosted one was 1978, in an NCAA preliminary round against St. Bonaventure. And the last time the Quakers advanced was 1994, when Fran Dunphy's team with current coach Jerome Allen knocked off Nebraska in the four-letter tournament before losing to a third-seeded Florida bunch would reach the Final Four. Last night at the Palestra a Quaker squad that had somehow managed to win seven straight down the stretch, including a one-pointer at Harvard to almost force an Ivy League playoff, got a chance to extend the season.