I need to get out tonight, thats for sure. After tonight, I am locking myself in my room for the next six days and hitting the books as hard as I've ever hit them. I have accounting, macroeconomic and computer information sciences exams next week, all within about 30 hours of one another. I think, as friend John Tannenwald suggested, I will go for that walk this afternoon downtown. Perhaps Rittenhouse Square or down to South Street.
After being embarassed beyond embarassed last night by St. Joes (who played an amazingly solid game---dont tell anyone I said that), I was perhaps more upset at my fellow fans in the student section than anything else. I sat maybe six rows deep in the student section last night, and I had the pleasure of sitting in front of the three stooges. What really got under my skin was their supposed knowledge of basketball, especially Temple basketball. The first stooge was calling for Dunphy's letter of resignation, and was insisiting that we should have hired Rick Brunson, Dan Lebovitz, or some high school coach from the area instead of Dunphy.
No way in Gods green earth should we have hired any of the aforementioned candidates. First of all, Rick Brunson. Are you kidding me? Hire someone who has no previous coaching experience? Not even intramural coaching experience? Let alone little or no experience in the recruiting process. I understand he is a part of the "Temple community," but honestly how are you going to replace a Hall of Fame coach with a no-namer? Next, Danny Lebo. He was a good assisstant under Chaney, but again, little experience as a head coach. He later took the head coaching job at Manhattan (maybe? I'm not entirely sure on this one, correct me if I'm wrong). Finally, a high school coach? I didnt catch his name. Apparently, he is a city coach, and has the ties to the kids he can bring to Temple, I get that part. What I dont get is how youre going to (honestly) call for Dunph's resignation and even think that a high school coach could do any better.
After one of the stooges spouted this outta his mouth, I turned around and promptly and politely (yeah, right) asked him if they were crazy (I used other words). What I tried to tell these clowns was that Dunph is playing HIS game with CHANEYS players. Chaney's boys havent seen an offense since they were in high school. Dunph is trying to institute a structured offense at a school where offense was a secondary concern for the last few decades. And have they not seen the success Dunph has had the past 17+ years? Or the fact that he is a true Philadelphia- basketball guy, and a basketball guy in general. He played at La Salle, coached under Speedy Morris at La Salle, coached at the USMA, coached with Gary Williams at American University, came back to La Salle to coach more, and then took the position of head coach at Penn, where he won 310 games. Hmm. That resume really speaks for itself. Like any other first year coach, Dunph needs time to get his system in there and get his players here at Temple. Before you even think of harassing Dunph, you really should brush up on your basketball knowledge.
Sorry for that little rant, but I guess for the three stooges, ignorance is bliss.
In Dunphy I trust.