[PAmedic]

SCAR may like this choice: from what I've heard, a pretty stand-up guy

Penn coach Dunphy takes Temple job

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Fran Dunphy, who turned Penn into an NCAA tournament regular, will take over at Temple to replace Hall of Fame coach John Chaney, a school official told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made. The school had a news conference scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday.
Dunphy, who has deep basketball ties to Philadelphia, won 10 Ivy League championships and led the Quakers to nine NCAA tournaments, including a first-round loss to Texas this season. He went 310-163 record in 17 seasons at Penn and won three coveted Big 5 city series titles.

Now he will try to win one with scholarship players.

The 57-year-old Dunphy takes over for the 74-year-old Chaney, who retired last month after guiding Temple to 17 NCAA tournament appearances in 24 seasons. Dunphy inherits a program that went 17-15 this season and has dipped this decade, playing in five straight NITs.

The Owls have only had four other coaches since 1942 and two are in the Hall of Fame.

Dunphy's connection to Philadelphia basketball stretches back more than 35 years. He started at La Salle where he was a co-captain and helped the Explorers to a 23-1 record in 1969 under coach Tom Gola. Dunphy considered returning to La Salle two years ago after the program was rocked by a rape scandal before deciding to stay at Penn.

Penn is one of only two schools that won its conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament nine times since the 1992-93 season, the most in college basketball. Kentucky in the SEC is the other.

The Quakers advanced to the second round in the tournament once under Dunphy, when 11th-seeded Penn beat sixth-seeded Nebraska in 1994.

Named coach in 1989 after one season as an assistant under Tom Schneider, Dunphy had losing seasons his first two years at Penn before leading it to a 16-10 mark in 1991-92. That started a run of Ivy League dominance that included the last two conference titles, four of the last five, six of the last eight and 10 of the last 14.

Dunphy will become the first person to coach two Big 5 teams.

[TIMSCAR20]

Happy for coach Dunphy but I wanted that job and I was going to hire Lionel L Train Simmons, Jerome Pooh Richardson and Greg Bo Kimble to my staff! Seriously, Temple sounds like it is in good hands.