It starts Friday against Auburn, when Temple plays the first of its 11 non-conference games -- none of which will be easy. They're never easy. John Chaney doesn't do easy.
Chaney is going to schedule the way he's going to schedule, and he doesn't care what you think. He doesn't care what the NCAA Tournament selection committee thinks. He doesn't even care what his athletics director thinks.
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| John Chaney and his Temple Owls failed to make the NCAA Tournament the last three seasons. (Getty Images) |
Chaney also schedules without regard to his legacy, refusing to pad his record with easy victories. College administrators call those kinds of contests "buy" games, because they come at a cost. Typically, a strong program will call a weak one and offer a five-figure guarantee, sometimes in the range of $50,000, to come lose, er, play one game.
Everyone does it. Everyone but Temple.
"We have no 'buy' games. They're all home-and-homes," says Temple AD Bill Bradshaw. "That's unique. If I went to Coach and said, 'This small Division I school will play us for $25,000,' he'll turn it down. I don't even ask him any more."
Chaney is fifth among active coaches with 708 career victories, behind Texas Tech's Bob Knight (832), New Mexico State's Lou Henson (775), Oklahoma State's Eddie Sutton (754) and Arizona's Lute Olson (713).
If Chaney scheduled like the four active coaches ahead of him, there wouldn't be four active coaches ahead of him. That's not an opinion but a fact.
According to research by SportsLine.com, Chaney is the only coach of that quintet whose record in non-conference games is worse than his record in conference games. And his record is a lot worse in non-conference games.
The winning percentages of Henson and Sutton are almost 15 points higher in non-conference games. Those of Knight and Olson are roughly five points higher.
Chaney? His winning percentage in non-conference games is almost 15 points lower. If the ratio between his winning percentages inside and outside conference play was similar to those of Knight and Olson, Chaney would have about 780 victories. If he was in the Henson-Sutton range, he'd be pushing 800.
Those are strong numbers, too strong to be dismissed by an argument about the Atlantic 10's relative weakness. No, the A-10 isn't as competitive as the Big Ten, Pac-10, SEC and Big 12 -- the leagues in which Knight, Henson, Sutton and Olson have won most of their games. But with a handful of notable exceptions, Temple hasn't been able to attract Big Ten- or SEC-caliber recruits. Chaney gets the players he can, and he wins with them.
