Temple leans on recruiting incentives



BY DICK JERARDI

Daily News Staff Writer

TEMPLE BASKETBALL is caught in two worlds, one familiar and comforting, another challenging and potentially quite rewarding. As the basketball facility, three stories above McGonigle Hall and rising over North Broad Streets, gets some finishing touches in advance of Friday's dedication, the sparkling new "Donald and Nancy Resnick" practice court offers a panoramic western view of the city where Connie Mack Stadium once stood eight blocks or so to the northwest, Girard College stands to the southwest and several tall City Avenue buildings loom in the distance. Here coach Fran Dunphy sat down to talk about the Owls final season in the Atlantic 10 and their future in the Big East.

The coach, who can look out and see the practice court from his corner office, gave a mini-tour of the facility just after co-teaching, with Dr. Lynne Andersson, his Tuesday morning class in Management, Theory & Practice: From the Locker Room to the Board Room. The guest speaker? Former Gov. Ed Rendell.

Rendell is a Penn fan who will never forget what Dunphy did for his alma mater. Now, the coach has been replicating all that success across town at Temple. He quickly answered the Ivy to a scholarship school questions with three consecutive A-10 championships. Next up is the A-10 to the Big East, whatever it may look by next season.

"The recruiting process is always the same whether I would have Penn or I'm at Temple or I'm in the Atlantic 10 or the Big East," Dunphy said. "You're still looking at really good kids playing basketball and hoping that you can get the best kids to come to your school.

"The reality is for us we're probably getting in more homes [or schools as home visits are not as big a part of the process as they once were]," Dunphy said. "The reality is the kids are coming to you more than they ever have in the past. You're getting kids unofficially in their junior year.

"We're attracting more attention because people are thinking we're going into the Big East. Now, the next step in the progression is we have to get some of these guys here."

They are seeing a difference. The A-10 is a very good basketball league, but it simply does not have the cachet of the Big East.


Read more here: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/coll...z28Lcm4P2D
Watch sports videos you won't find anywhere else

That is one hell of a mural in that picture.

(10-04-2012 11:29 AM)cinbinsportsfan Wrote:  That is one hell of a mural in that picture.

I'm going to see if the wife will sign off for this in the living room!

(10-04-2012 11:29 AM)cinbinsportsfan Wrote:  That is one hell of a mural in that picture.

I like it. All the Big East BBall teams could use one of their own logo's.

(10-04-2012 11:29 AM)cinbinsportsfan Wrote:  That is one hell of a mural in that picture.

The entire facility is amazing. Very few programs nationally have the weightroom we have.