Mentzinger wrote:

Also, straight-up GW killer. Did we ever beat John Chaney? Once?

If I remember correctly, Jarvis ended up splitting with him for a couple of years after taking a few spankings to get the knack of it.

EDIT:  Yep.  MJ went 5-6 vs Chaney after losing the first four games.  I think we lost home games (and returned the favor) for a few years so it seemed like we took a beating all the time.  Penders went 0-5 and Hobbs (surprisingly?) 4-3, winning a few in Chaney's last couple of years. 

Last edited by BM (1/29/2021 3:43 pm)

Remember when he tried to strangle Gimelstob at half court? Classic 80s. What a towering figure.

I don´t think there is any doubt that he is, by far, the greatest coach in A10 history and deserves to be compared with Rupp and Dean Smith, although he overcame a certain (skin deep) challenge neither of them did. A good motivator, always quick with a quote that would be both insightful and funny at the same time, and the example I would always point to when my parents tried to tell me I was "not dressing to be successful".
And I still have nightmares about his teams pulverizing GW every time they played.

Last edited by GW Alum Abroad (1/29/2021 5:24 pm)

GW Alum Abroad wrote:

I don´t think there is any doubt that he is, by far, the greatest coach in A10 history and deserves to be compared with Rupp and Dean Smith, although he overcame a certain (skin deep) challenge neither of them did. A good motivator, always quick with a quote that would be both insightful and funny at the same time, and the example I would always point to when my parents tried to tell me I was "not dressing to be successful".
And I still have nightmares about his teams pulverizing GW every time they played.

Well said.

BM wrote:

GW Alum Abroad wrote:

I don´t think there is any doubt that he is, by far, the greatest coach in A10 history and deserves to be compared with Rupp and Dean Smith, although he overcame a certain (skin deep) challenge neither of them did. A good motivator, always quick with a quote that would be both insightful and funny at the same time, and the example I would always point to when my parents tried to tell me I was "not dressing to be successful".
And I still have nightmares about his teams pulverizing GW every time they played.

Well said.

Agree

Mark Macon played for Temple between 1987-1991. One game at The Smith Center, my son was a ball boy. During Temples warm up he asked Macon for an autograph. He was told that players were not allowed to do this prior to the game. Chaney over heard the conversation. When the game was over, my son was cleaning up. A lone Temple player returned to the floor. It was Macon who graciously provided the autograph.

Mentzinger wrote:

When Temple beat you, you were just glad it was finally over.

Losing was one thing, but losing to Temple was never anything less than a whupping that left one emotionally scarred. Ramon Rivas, Mark Macon, Aaron McKie, Lean-in Greer. His teams were always loaded and taking no prisoners.

Last edited by GW Alum Abroad (2/01/2021 9:10 am)

I have wanted to say something about the passing of Coach Chaney.

I always felt John Chaney was one of the best coaches in America and the best coach in the A-10 with ease, and much better than Calipari.  I don't know if Calipari put many into the NBA during his time as an A-10 coach, but I would think that Chaney placed many more.  I can think of at least a dozen of them and there are probably a lot more. And, Chaney loved his players.  it seems also to me that he made the NCAA tourney almost ever year until toward the end of his coaching career.  He also recruited locally with great success against a lot of crazy competition.  And lastly, maybe other than Coach Thompson, I feel Chaney was the greatest black basketball coach in NCAA history.  RIP Coach Chaney. I hope you will never be forgotten.

My sense is that some of you may be just a hair too young to remember how Chaney's teams dominated nationally.  In John's 2nd-6th seasons at Temple, his teams combined to go 140-23.  Not a misprint.  That averages out to a record of 28 wins and 4.6 losses per season.  His A10 record over this stretch was 83-7 which included two undefeated conference seasons.  Mark Macon is the instantly recognizable player of the Chaney era but Mark was only a freshman (albeit a very heralded one) on just the 5th of those five seasons.

John had a star in Terence Stansbury who would go on to play in the NBA.  Stansbury's partner in crime was Granger Hall who was an amazingly dominant player.  Since Temple changed conference after Hall's sophomore year, he is just one of three players to be named their conference player of the year for two different conferences (Sedric Webber did it at the College of Charleston and most recently, Doug McDermott became the third while at Creighton).  Chaney would go on to recruit NBA talent in Nate Blackwell, Tim Perry and Ramon Rivas during those early years at Temple.  Stansbury, Hall, Blackwell, Perry and Macon would all go on to become the conference's player of the year during John's early years at Temple.