Feb 25 - Not In This Temple

When the Celtics and Lakers were locked in their NBA Championship death struggles in the Mid-80's, I always wondered why Boston didn't resort to thuggery to tilt the playing field. The Lakers, quite frankly, were the better team and I always thought that coach KC Jones should have used some his bank benchers to stir things up on the court. For instance, why didn't Jones send in super-stiff Greg Kite to simply take a punch at Kareem or Magic. So what if Kite got tossed? If he took Jabbar or Worthy or even Rambis with him for a couple games, it would have been worth it.

Well, it seems like me and Temple coach John Cheney think along the same lines. In case you haven't heard, the other night, Cheney's Temple Owls were playing cross-town rival Saint Joeseph's. The game was fairly close, but Cheney apparently felt his team was getting short shrift from the officials. In particular, Cheney was arguing that St. Joes was getting away with setting illegal screens. After receiving a technical, the frustrated Cheney had seen enough so he inserted a seldom-used thug to "send a message." The "goon," Nehemia Ingram, ended up fouling out in four minutes of action, but not before he broke the arm of St. Joe's John Bryant. It should be noted that Ingram, who weighs in at 250 pounds, rarely plays and when he does see the floor, its usually during garbage time. Cheney would have put in the Hanson Brothers but two of them had fouled out and one was serving a one game suspension.

Cheney revealed his strategy to the media after Tuesday's game and then announced that he would sit out Saturday's game against UMASS as punishment for his actions. Subsequent to this announcement, there has been a fair amount of debate in the media on the subject, but there has not been a real consensus formed on the matter. Some ladies think what Cheney did is reprehensible and they are particularly gauled to see that neither Temple or the Atlantic-10 Conference has stepped in with stiffer penalties (Temple finally did). Others have been more dismissive, noting that this goes on all the time and Cheney's self-imposed suspension is more then adequate penance.

I don't feel too strongly one way or the other, but I do think this episode provides us with a long-overdue opportunity to examine one of the more overrated coaching resumes in college basketball today. In my eyes, John Cheney has been getting a free pass for far too long. He is older then hell and for one reason or another, the press has never felt comfortable laying a glove on this guy. Well, I turned in my press pass in 1998 and so here comes my critique.

The only thing more inflated then Cheney's record as a coach is his record as a "educator." But with that said, lets start with his coaching record. His supporters, like Vitale and Raftery, will point to the fact that Temple is hardly a basketball powerhouse, yet Cheney has taken his team to five NCAA regional finals. Five is a heady number, but Cheney has also lost each and every one of these games - Duke in 88, UNC in 91, Michigan in 93, Duke in 99 and Michigan State in 01. Now listen, he came up against a couple of real big teams, including the Fab Five in 1993 and a monstrous Elton Brand-led Duke team in 1999, but he still lost every one of those games. And another crucial point worth noting - without exception, Cheney's teams were helped along to those finals when higher seeded teams were knocked off unexpectedly and Temple got to play soft opponents in the second and third rounds. You don't believe me? How about 1991, when Temple got to play Richmond in the second round after the Spiders knocked off number two seeded Syracuse. The same thing happened in 1993 when Temple got Santa Clara and not Arizona. In 2001, Temple caught a break and only had to beat a woeful Penn State to advance to the regional final. The same thing happened in 1988 when 13th seeded Richmond was the foe in the Sweet Sixteen. Cheney certainly doesn't have a bad tourney record but lets be honest. There are no final fours and he has amassed much of his record against lesser teams who were coming off big upsets. Oh and another thing, Cheney hasn't even been to a tourney since losing to Michigan State in a 2001 Regional Final.

My problems with Cheney go well beyond simple numbers. I don't like his style and I cringe when people applaud his integrity and his commitment to his kids. This is a guy who will let just about any kid, regardless of his past, walk onto the Temple campus so long as the kid can board and play defense. He has never had a problem taking prop 48s or kids with rap sheets. I am not necessarily against all Prop 48s, but I think a good deal of them don't belong on college campuses. Cheney obviously feels differently and that is why he tends to sign questionable kids, many of whom never sniff graduation. I am not so naive to think others don't do this as well, but Cheney is held to a much different standard. When Tark went after these kids, he was called a mercenary. When Cheney does it, he is called a father figure. The fact of the matter is Cheney has brought some bad kids to Temple. Other coaches do the same thing at their schools but the difference is we rarely celebrate their legacies like we do with Cheney.

The last point I would like to make concerns Cheney's arrogance. I have always felt this guy conducts his affairs with a giant chip on his shoulder. Its always Cheney against the world even though the world has never once shouted back. And is it me, or does Cheney always appear angry? If he's not screaming at officials, he is threatening former adversary John Calipari. In a nutshell, I think Cheney is just an ordinary coach whose best years are long gone. He has had some success and I will not deny him that. But he has not had as much success as his supporters claim and he has achieved much of it via means that are far from exemplary. To me, Cheney is a lot closer to Harrick then the Hall of Fame.

Who is Nick O'Hearn and what is he doing beating Tiger Woods in match play? And what about super senior Jay Haas taking out Vijay Singh? Those are a couple of body blows for ABC which is televising this weekend's WGC - Accenture Match Play Championships, but shed no tears. There are still plenty of interesting matchups on the horizon, including a possible final eight showdown between Sergio and Phil. Given their Ryder Cup records, Sergio should be a healthy favorite in that match, but Phil is playing a lot better then he was last year at Oakland Hills and I think he can take out the Spaniard. And how about Kirk Tripplett? First he takes out Mike Weir and then he goes through Kenny "Bourbon Boy" Perry. I can see his run taking him past Robert Allenby, but I don't see Trips taking out The Goose. San Diego wasn't kind to Goose in Top Gun, but I am betting his namesake will fare much better at neighboring La Costa.

If you were an NBA GM, would you trade your starting five for the following: Gilbert Arenas Michael Redd, Manu Ginobli, Rashard Lewis and Carlos Boozer, with Van Exel, Voshon Lenard, Stephen Jackson, and Malik Rose off the bench. I think there are very few GM's who wouldn't gladly offer up their teams for this group and the thing is, it theoretically was available to every team in the league. Why is that? Because the team listed above consists entirely of second round draft picks who were selected over the past ten years. The NBA Draft is a bit of a crap shoot, especially outside the lottery, but the list above shows that there are some nuggets available when TNT turns off the lights.

The Sportsaholic was hard on Isiah Thomas yesterday and the rest of the world followed with guns ablaze today. In case you weren't watching, Thomas orchestrated two very peculiar trades yesterday. In sum, Thomas shipped out a serviceable and affordable center in Nazr Muhammed and his backup in exchange for two marginal power forwards, some questionable picks and a ton of salary. New York's tabloids simply crushed the moves in today's morning editions. The Post's Peter Vecsey was particularly critical, pointing out "once again the Knicks have exchanged two bad players with undesirable contracts - plus their one and only pro center - for a pair of fringe starters with longer and higher salaries." On ESPN, some of the commentary was even more harsh and one columnist even suggested that Thomas be considered the worst GM ever. WOW! That seems a bit strong given Elgin Baylor's track record, but the fact of the matter is that Isiah Thomas has been an unmitigated disaster. His moves are disjointed and reactionary. Worse yet, he has no strategy. One minute he wants to build with veterans and the next he is trading for future draft slots. Thomas has become a joke around the league and there are some in New York who are beginning to use the F word (fire) when discussing Zeke. And what does this say about Jim Dolan, the owner of the Knicks and the guy who hired Zeke? He now has the distinction of running both the Knicks and the Rangers into the ground. I am not sure Thomas is the worst GM in sports, but Dolan is right up as the worst owner.

We have a bounty of big games on tap this weekend and for once we will start out West where Arizona plays in a huge game up in Seattle. If the Cats can win that game, they will lock up the Pac-10 and put themselves in prime position to be the number one seed out west. Also on Saturday, the best of the SEC goes at it when Alabama faces off with Kentucky. Alabama has flown under the radar this year and Saturday's game will give the Tide a chance to show their colors. A couple of other games worth noting on Saturday include Georgia Tech at Miami and Texas Tech at A&M. The first game is basically an elimination game as far as I am concerned. Neither GT of Miami have any real shot at the tourney without a win so this one should be heated. Meanwhile, A&M is on the bubble, but with a terrible non-conference schedule, they need another quality win to get in. A win over the Red Raiders would help the cause.

Sunday's big game will take at place Kansas where the Jayhawks will square off with Ok State. Both of these Big-12 powers are coming off losses and this should make for an interesting game. Kansas is hoping to avoid its fourth straight loss, something that hasn't happened in Jayhawk country for a very long time. With a win, OK State gets itself back in the race for a number one seed and I still expect Eddie Sutton's team to be a factor next month. The other game worth mentioning on Sunday has UNC traveling to Maryland. As I have been saying for a couple weeks, the Terps have some work to do and a loss to UNC will put them in a do-or-die spot next week at Virginia Tech. Its probably too much to ask for this Maryland team to beat UNC, but they are at home and College Park has not been friendly to the Heels in recent years.