End of an Era
Fran Dunphy was an extremely nice guy and was awesome for the Temple/Philly community. In fact, without him, I’m not sure I end up at Temple. On one of those accepted students days we ran into him at the intramural court where he was running a charity tournament. We said hello, we introduced ourselves, and without hesitation he asked if we would like to tour the basketball facilities with him. Just him, me, and my parents. He took me and my family on a whim to the new practice facility and showed us around. I wasn’t a recruit, I didn’t play basketball, he just did it out of kindness. Some family he met randomly and he treated them as if their son was going to be his next point guard. That’s just who he was.
Unfortunately, Dunphy chose one of the few professions where being nice gets you nowhere. Last night’s swan song perfectly embodied the whole reason this era of Temple basketball is coming to an end. You win (at all costs) or you lose (your job).
In the cruel world that is college basketball, you’re only as good as your bag man’s ability to not get caught. Customer service, if you will, does not play a huge role in the business that is major college sports.
Now, I’m not saying you have to do a bunch of illegal stuff and pay your players to survive. Jay Wright seems to be doing things the right way and is thriving. But, whatever way you choose to do things, you better win doing it. The 3-17 record in the NCAA tournament will forever haunt Dunphy and his Big 5 lure. No matter how many “living legend” graphics they throw up during a national broadcast, there was no escaping his failure to reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
In a way, the finale was fitting. A solid 20+ win season comes to an end in a one and done tournament exit. The team to knock them out? Oh, just Belmont, who had never won an NCAA Tourney game and their coach, Rick Byrd, needed 30+ years of coaching and 805 wins to get his first tournament win. Seems pretty on brand for Temple to be the victim of the first.
Speaking of finales or lack thereof, Phil Martelli is also gone from the Big 5 scene. Fired in fact. 24 years on Hawk Hill as the head coach and then poof, the run is over. St Joe’s is a school that doesn’t even bother with a football program. It’s basketball or bust. Therefore, its basketball coach is basically the mayor of that campus. Whether you followed sports at that University or not, you knew who Martelli was and you knew how important he was. For a 3 paragraph spiel full of political correctness to be the way he went out is bull shit. I’m assuming he had the option between getting fired and getting the Dunphy farewell tour. Even so, you hold a press conference, you make a tribute video, you do everything short of a parade. Martelli, like Dunphy, didn’t win enough in the later stages of his tenure to keep his job, but it was still a job well done. He gave that University more memories than 3 paragraphs worth.
So it’s the “end of an era”. Although, that narrative is boring. It’s just time for two new guys to step in, look at the poster for Villanova on the outside of the Wells Fargo Center, and realize they better start winning. Fast.