Monday, March 13, 2006

JOHN CHANEY, TEACHER: Today's Temple retirement of Temple coach John Chaney is a day we've all expected for some time, but still may have come too soon.

Twenty-four years. Other than Flyers owner Ed Snider and some of the local announcers, I don't think there was anyone active in Philadelphia professional sports for as long as he's been. And what years they've been for this hall of fame coach:

  • Five trips to the Elite Eight, including trips as a #1 seed (1988, the Macon-Billy King game, with Tim Perry and Mike Vreeswyk), #6 (1999 - Pepe Sanchez and Mark Karcher), #7 (1993, McKie-Jones-Brunson), #10 (1991, Macon's senior year with Hodge/Kilgore) and #11 seed (2001 - Greer/Wadley), losing to four #1's and a #2 in the process.
  • Seventeen NCAA appearances in the 18 years from 1984-2001.
  • A slew of NBAers, from the aforementioned Mark Macon, Rick Brunson, Aaron McKie and Eddie Jones to Marc Jackson and Duane Causwell.
  • An absolute crusader for ensuring that schools like Temple could give second chances to worthy minority student-athletes. Chaney once wrote: "What's America afraid of? Education isn't a privilege for the privileged, it's a necessity for all - athlete and nonathlete alike. It's easy to educate the bright kids, but even a deficient student should have the opportunity to get an education. I say don't discard a youngster because he doesn't have good grades or test scores. Educate him."

Practice? Let's talk about his legendary 5:30 am practices:

At Temple, players drag their ass out of bed every morning so Chaney can holler at them in the gym, 5:30 a.m. sharp. Temple players don't showboat, not even when they grow up to become an NBA All-Star like Eddie Jones. They don't miss study hall sessions, don't get arrested for committing felonies. Chaney's players do two things: they listen when the coach speaks and they reject losing.

"Winning is an attitude. Stupid is forever."

We also need to talk about the 2-3 matchup zone he pioneered. Seth Davis writes:
Chaney may not have invented the idea of combining man-to-man principles inside a 2-3 zone, but he was certainly the first one to enjoy so much success playing that alignment exclusively. That zone also defines Chaney's career because it reflected his personality so well. He stuck with it no matter what was happening on the scoreboard. Chaney would rather lose sticking by something he believes in than win by compromising those beliefs.

And the man does not keep quiet. Can you imagine Mike Krzyzewski saying "Our boys are dying because somebody lied to us, because the president of the United States lied to us, and you all know it and nobody says anything."?

(Did you know, by the way, that growing up in South Philadelphia, John Chaney was the Public League's basketball MVP in 1951, and briefly played for the Harlem Globetrotters after college?)

John Chaney earned the right to retire when he saw fit, and to go out on his own terms. I hope that's what happened here, and that this sweaty, oft-disheveled man can finally, for once, not be so belovedly intense, and not have to put on his necktie in the first place.

So, who's next? SportsProf has some lengthy speculation, and while I'd predict it'll be former Chaney assistant Dean Demopolous, I want to advance a name not among those listed. When they hired Chaney in 1982, Temple was the first Big Five school to hire a black coach (and at the age of 50 for his first D-I job). So let them be ballsy again, because they've already got a fantastic, gutsy coach on campus -- a role model and a winner who embodies so many of the positive principles that Chaney exemplified for his long tenure. Her name is Dawn Staley.

No comments:

Post a Comment