Fran Dunphy

Who: No. 7 Temple vs. No. 2 San Diego State What: NCAA Third Round (West Region), McKale Center, Tucson, Ariz. When: 6:10 p.m. TV/Radio: TNT/WPHT (1210-AM) History: San Diego State won the only meeting, 75-64, on Dec. 30, 1981, in the Carbillo Classic at the San Diego Sports Arena. How they got here: Temple (at large from Atlantic 10) beat Penn State, 66-64, in second round. San Diego State (Mountain West champion) beat Northern Colorado, 68-50, in second round.

Temple's basketball program has received an oral commitment for its 2010 recruiting class from Aaron Brown, a 6-4 senior wing guard from St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, N.J. Last season, he averaged a little more than 12 points and seven rebounds for a team loaded with big-time prospects, while shooting more than 40 percent from three-point range. "We kind of felt like he was a Big East player," Gray Bees coach Dan Hurley said. "I think [Temple coach] Fran Dunphy got a steal . . . "It's a great fit. He had a bunch of [interest from Ivy League programs]

Holding a disposable razor, about to clear the hairy space between his mouth and nose for the first time in four decades, Temple basketball coach Fran Dunphy explained Thursday how it got to this: "Sometimes, you talk too much. My M.O. is not to say too much. " But every time Dunphy saw former Owls player Dionte Christmas in recent years, the coach got on him for not graduating despite needing only one more course. Dunphy finally told Christmas he'd shave his mustache if he got it done.

Temple and St. Joseph's are scheduled to host the AAU Quaker City Shootout high school boys' basketball tournament this weekend to benefit the Philadelphia Coaches vs. Cancer School Initiative Program. The event features 600 boys' basketball players - on teams of players 17 years old and under and 16 and under - from New York to Maryland competing in a three-day tournament to support the fight against cancer. More than 30 NCAA Division I basketball coaches, including Philadelphia Coaches vs. Cancer co-chairs Fran Dunphy of Temple and Phil Martelli of St. Joseph's, are also scheduled to attend and watch players they may recruit for the 2009-2010 season.

AMHERST, Mass. - Teams with Temple's resumé generally have a slim-to-zero chance of getting an at-large bid in the NCAA basketball tournament. But the Owls are holding out hope after Saturday's 83-82 victory at the Mullins Center. That game provided a much-needed bounce-back victory for Temple (17-8, 6-5 Atlantic Ten), which suffered a disappointing home loss to lowly Duquesne on Thursday. "It's really important," coach Fran Dunphy said of the victory over the Minutemen.

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.

DAYTON, Ohio - There is almost no chance Fran Dunphy will ever storm into another coach's postgame press 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.

It was a first for Luis Guzman and his teammates on the Temple men's basketball team. After the Owls went down to host Charlotte on Wednesday, 74-64, 49ers fans stormed the court at Halton Arena. Entering the contest, Temple was the only team in the Atlantic Ten that was undefeated in league play. The loss dropped the Owls into a three-way tie for first place with Charlotte and Xavier. "Like coach said, it means we're doing something good," Guzman said in repeating what Owls coach Fran Dunphy told his players about the celebration at Charlotte.

The wonder is that it took some school this long to call Fran Dunphy. All he's done in seven years as Penn's basketball coach is win 123 games and lose just 65, go unbeaten three consecutive seasons in the Ivy League, win an Ivy-record 48 consecutive games and, somehow, manage to take a team that lost five senior starters and tie Princeton for the regular-season title last season. Incredibly, not one school had ever called Dunphy to talk about a job until officials at the embattled University of California program called him Labor Day weekend to talk about their recently vacated position.

During his first 10 minutes on the court against Lehigh earlier this season, University of Pennsylvania center Geoff Owens contributed 12 points, five rebounds, two blocks and a couple of monster dunks. His inspired play helped his team to a 16-point first-half bulge that led to an easy 73-56 victory on a night when the Quakers could have easily taken the lesser opponent lightly. When coach Fran Dunphy pulled Owens for a breather, his run to the bench was as quick and energetic as his moves to the basket.