i say temple, you say owls

Sadness but no surprise at hearing that Temple men's basketball coach John Chaney has decided to retire. He's 74 years old and has coached with such intensity for so long, he looks worn down. I went to Temple for undergrad, and Chaney has been Temple basketball for a long, long time. It'll be hard to imagine anyone else on the sidelines.

I didn't like how he sometimes overplayed the race card, especially in response to the NCAA trying to raise academic standards, but I admired his efforts to find guys who needed college for a leg up on the social mobility ladder, and then instill into them discipline and work ethic via 6am practices and staying on them about school. He helped lots of guys who likely would have not othewise have had a shot to go to a decent college (or might have gone to a place like Cincinnati and get used by Bob Huggins), and lots of these students earned a degree.