Fran Dunphy

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.

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.

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.

DAYTON, Ohio - On Sunday, Fran Dunphy set the tone for his team's foray into the NCAA tournament. Moments after a roomful of fans and supporters roared approval at Temple's selection, Dunphy walked in and apologized. The coach was talking specifically about the team's quarterfinal loss to Massachusetts in the Atlantic Ten tournament. But the theme has carried all the way to Dayton, where the Owls prepared for Friday's game against North Carolina State. "I can't sit here today and tell you we have a fabulous NCAA record," Dunphy said.

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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.

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.

DAYTON, Ohio - Sometimes, it falls to a single player to heal a program's reputation. In Temple's case, it fell to, of all people, Khalif Wyatt. Temple entered this NCAA Tournament everyone's favorite loser, an annual disappointment just waiting to happen. The Owls made it to the Dance each of the last 5 years, but they won just one game. Twice, they lost their opener as a No. 5 seed, to a 12 seed. This time, propelled by Wyatt, of all people, they beat eighth-seeded North Carolina State on Friday in the East Regional, and they led top-seeded Indiana here Sunday until the final 79 seconds.

DAYTON, Ohio - There is almost no chance Fran Dunphy will ever storm into another coach's postgame news conference and threaten to beat him up. And it is impossible to picture Tom Crean losing his mind and throwing a folding chair across the court. These are good things, to be sure. And yet . . . The last time Temple and Indiana played each other in the NCAA tournament, John Chaney and Bob Knight were at the height of their turbulent Hall of Fame careers. They had never faced each other until that second-round game in 1994 in the old USAir Arena in Landover, Md. It was like having a couple of fictional characters walking around.

DAYTON, Ohio - Fran Dunphy couldn't quite figure it out. His Temple basketball team had just hung on for a program-energizing NCAA tournament win over North Carolina State, and many of the questions seemed to be about Khalif Wyatt's thumb. The senior guard jammed his left thumb during the second half and had to come out for a couple of minutes. The athletic training staff wrapped the thumb and Wyatt returned to the floor. Was Dunphy worried? Did he think Temple could have withstood the Wolfpack's frenetic comeback charge without Wyatt?

DAYTON, Ohio - On Sunday, Fran Dunphy set the tone for his team's foray into the NCAA tournament. Moments after a roomful of fans and supporters roared approval at Temple's selection, Dunphy walked in and apologized. The coach was talking specifically about the team's quarterfinal loss to Massachusetts in the Atlantic Ten tournament. But the theme has carried all the way to Dayton, where the Owls prepared for Friday's game against North Carolina State. "I can't sit here today and tell you we have a fabulous NCAA record," Dunphy said.

DAYTON, Ohio - If great players are defined by their performances on the biggest stage, Friday night is the biggest night of Khalif Wyatt's basketball life. Yes, Wyatt played in NCAA Tournament games each of his first three seasons. But he has never been Temple's best player, with 19.8 points and 4.1 assists per game. He has never been the Big 5 and Atlantic 10 Player of the Year. He never has been the face of frustration. Before this season, Wyatt was just a part of the fabric of failure, an ever larger piece of the Owls' 1-5 tournament record since Fran Dunphy took over the program seven seasons ago. That includes two losses as a No. 5 seed in their tournament opener; in 2010 to Cornell, and, last year, to South Florida.

Time and TV money will tell whether the great college basketball conference shuffle leaves Temple better or worse off than they have been in the Atlantic Ten Conference. Once again, on Sunday, the Owls' A-10 membership helped deliver a berth in the NCAA tournament. Not only did Fran Dunphy's team get in for the sixth consecutive year, Temple was awarded a surprisingly high No. 9 seed. For all the tears shed over the end of the Big East as we've known it, the A-10 is changing every bit as much.

Temple was scared. The Owls were told they might have blown an NCAA tournament berth after an Atlantic Ten tournament quarterfinal loss on Friday. "Coach [Fran Dunphy] was talking about NIT and CBI and stuff like that," Khalif Wyatt said Sunday. "I had a feeling that we were in. But Coach did a good job of making it suspenseful. " Of course, Dunphy wasn't serious. The Owls were a lock to reach their sixth consecutive tourney with an RPI of 42 and victories over 16th-ranked St. Louis, No. 19 Syracuse, and No. 25 Virginia Commonwealth.

Temple was scared. The Owls were told they might have blown an NCAA tournament berth after an Atlantic Ten tournament quarterfinal loss on Friday. "Coach [Fran Dunphy] was talking about NIT and CBI and stuff like that," Khalif Wyatt said Sunday. "I had a feeling that we were in. But Coach did a good job of making it suspenseful. " Of course, Dunphy wasn't serious. The Owls were a lock to reach their sixth consecutive tourney with an RPI of 42 and victories over 16th-ranked St. Louis, No. 19 Syracuse, and No. 25 Virginia Commonwealth.