John Chaney To Retire

[Cujo]

Source: Longtime Temple coach Chaney to retire

Longtime Temple coach John Chaney will announce his retirement at an 11 a.m. ET press conference.

Unfortunately, all I will remember Chaney for is "The Goon" incident.

[Korkie]

Chaney is by all accounts a nice guy and a good influence on all the kids he coached over the years. However, over the last decade or so his temper and intensity have gotten him into trouble and tarnished a career that included five trips to the final 8. Between the incident with Calipari and The Goon and all his rediculous rants after games people forget how damn good he was and how hard his players play for him (even this season). But with each year his legacy was slipping further and further the best thing he could do is walk away and allow Temple basketball to take on a new face. I hope he hangs around doing TV or whatever, because without him around the Philly sports scene just got much quieter and boring.

[HatCityEnforcer]

Always had a lot of respect for Chaney as a coach, even despite trying to strangle Calipari at a press conference up in Amherst and the whole "sending in the goons" thing last year. I'll echo what jkorkie said...he was a great influence on the kids that came through the Temple program and did some wonderful things (5 trips to the Elite 8). Another thing is, you knew if you had the Owls on the sched, it wasn't gonna be an easy game, no matter what their record was.

To me, he'll go down as probably the best coach never to get to a Final Four.

[Jigga]

Source: Longtime Temple coach Chaney to retire

Longtime Temple coach John Chaney will announce his retirement at an 11 a.m. ET press conference.

Unfortunately, all I will remember Chaney for is "The Goon" incident.

Then you must not know much about college basketball.

In a way, it's nice to see that he is going out on his "own terms" (but I think this was part of some deal he made with the school after the so-called goon incident), but I really do think that his legacy, while recently tarnished, is solid, hurt more by his team's lack of success than his stupidity at the end of last season.

He took chances on kids no one else ever thought of. He fought more for the athlete-student than any other coach I can remember. Though he did not achieve the successes of some of his hall-of-fame contemporaries...no final fours or national titles...he greatly impacted the overall game of college basketball. Not just the way it is played, but the way kids are recruited, and which kids are recruited. He has been, for the most part, a role model and father figure to his kids and the loyalty he has shown them and they have shown him speaks more about this man's character than sending in a goon to exact some revenge.

He should have been fired last year, honestly, but this is a good way for him to go out.

[Cujo]

Unfortunately, all I will remember Chaney for is "The Goon" incident.

Then you must not know much about college basketball.

I know enough about the sport to know Chaney was a tremendous coach, probably the best ever to never make a Final Four. I was simply stating that when I think "John Chaney", I think of him sending out a scrub player to intentionally foul and injure opposing players. He was very lucky to have not lost his job over that.

Chaney will always go down as a great coach, no doubt ... but at the same time, it is very hard to erase the memory of that extremely idiotic decision.

[WJMorris3]

Will he play out the tournament? After all, he got a 7 seed in the tournament.

[Korkie]

Temple isn't in the tourny, they are in the NIT. And no, he won't be coaching. One of his assistants will take over.

[VitaminD]

John Chaney was a far better coach than most people will ever realize.

He was one of the first coaches to get Prop 48 kids into and through college despite questionable academics. Recruiting kids to an urban commuter campus in North Philadelphia (not exactly the nicest part of town for those not from the area) is as impossible a task as there could be for a college coach. He coached before the sun rose most winter mornings. He ran a no-nonsense program. Yet despite all this, he annually fielded a tough, competitive program. And a clean one - the only times Temple came up in an incident was after he did or said (which was as much the result of his passion overriding his common sense as anything). His kids went to class, they graduated, they went on to be successful men both on and off the court. When was the last time Temple guys got involved with illegal boosters, or recruiting violations? How about the last time a former player got arrested by the cops or beat up his wife or was using drugs? Rarely, if at all.

As much as people are talking about getting someone from inside the Temple family, who's available and viable? Brunson doesn't have the pedigree yet, the assistants aren't big enough names at this point, and there isn't a coaching tree like Krzyzewski or Dean Smith had. On the radio they're saying it could be Bob Huggins. Interesting, but not exactly a paragon of inegrity.

[leopard88]

Recruiting kids to an urban commuter campus in North Philadelphia (not exactly the nicest part of town for those not from the area) is as impossible a task as there could be for a college coach.

When was the last time Temple guys got involved with illegal boosters, or recruiting violations? How about the last time a former player got arrested by the cops or beat up his wife or was using drugs? Rarely, if at all.

Agreed on the Temple neighborhood. I attended a journalism seminar there in when I was in high school and parked in a lot across the street from a burned out car on blocks. From what I've heard, things haven't changed all that much since then.

As for his players getting into trouble, I will agree that was rare. As for the exception, however, didn't Mark Karcher get into some kind of hot water a few years back? I don't remember the particulars, but I know he was accused of doing something bad.

[brinkeguthrie]

He may have won a lot of games, but he will also be remembered for threatening to kill another coach, and for trying to get an opponent hurt on purpose.

intensity? i don't buy that as an excuse. Knight is a bully, sure. Huggins? he can get out of his mind upset. But they never did those things.

what a nut job.

[NJTank]

I think this was overdue hes looked like worn out for a few years now and Temple is not that good anymore.

Ps is it me or does he look like the Temple mascot.

[VitaminD]

Recruiting kids to an urban commuter campus in North Philadelphia (not exactly the nicest part of town for those not from the area) is as impossible a task as there could be for a college coach.

When was the last time Temple guys got involved with illegal boosters, or recruiting violations?  How about the last time a former player got arrested by the cops or beat up his wife or was using drugs?  Rarely, if at all.

Agreed on the Temple neighborhood. I attended a journalism seminar there in when I was in high school and parked in a lot across the street from a burned out car on blocks. From what I've heard, things haven't changed all that much since then.

As for his players getting into trouble, I will agree that was rare. As for the exception, however, didn't Mark Karcher get into some kind of hot water a few years back? I don't remember the particulars, but I know he was accused of doing something bad.

IIRC, Mark Karcher stole textbooks. If that was true, if you have to steal something, at least it's something useful.

But this illustrates what I meant. In nearly a quarter century at Temple, recruiting and playing kids from horribly disadvantaged upbringings and questionable academic backgrounds, far fewer of his players got in trouble both while at Temple and after than players at many "elite" schools, where they could recruit more easily.

Sadly, the person who tarnished Chaney's reputation was Chaney himself, and that's what too many people outside Philadelphia will focus on.

[Cujo]

Chaney's career over as Temple falls in NIT first round

John Chaney missed a scary ending to his Hall of Fame career.

The Hall of Fame coach skipped Temple's 80-73 overtime loss to Akron in the opening round of the National Invitation Tournament on Tuesday night because of his wife's health issues and missed star guard Mardy Collins leaving the game on a stretcher with an apparent neck injury.

Chaney retired Monday after 24 seasons at Temple, ending a 34-year coaching career that reached 741 wins but never the Final Four. Chaney was not on the bench because his wife underwent a procedure for an undisclosed health problem. Assistant Dan Leibovitz took his place.

[VandyDelphia Mike]

I think this was overdue hes looked like worn out for a few years now and Temple is not that good anymore.

Ps is it me or does he look like the Temple mascot.

The Atlantic Ten owes Chaney tremendously. His Temple squads put the conference on the map. Perhaps they can immortalize the man by naming the league championship trophy in his honor. Chaney himself would probably want no part of it. It's part of the reason why he did not want a "farewell tour" type of situation in his final year coaching. It's very plausible that after "Goongate" he wanted to hang it up, and that 05-06 would be his last year, but he wasn't going to announce that to the world, to avoid the obligatory painted basketballs and rocking chairs that would have accompanied his last trip to (insert A-10 venue here).

[HedleyLamarr]

I hear Calipari was choked at Chaney's decision.....