What is Temple these days?
Since joining the American Athletic Conference five years ago, the Owls have hovered just north of .500 overall and in the league that was a refuge for football after the (original) Big East crumbled. Two decades ago, the John Chaney-led program lorded over the Atlantic 10. Its matchup zone defense was on par with the 2-3 concocted by Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim. Mark Macon, Eddie Jones, Aaron McKie, Marc Jackson, Pepe Sanchez, and Lynn Greer headlined a program that made four Elite Eight trips between 1991 and 2001.
Thirteen years ago, Fran Dunphy ambled up from Penn to take the helm, and there was a reason to think he could restore some luster to a program that suffered slippage late in Chaney’s tenure.