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The true measure of a head coach is how he takes his team and does against better talent, and Temple basketball coach Fran Dunphy has been very successful in that regard over the last eight seasons. In handing the last unbeaten team in major college basketball, SMU, their first loss of the season, 89-80, on Sunday afternoon, the Owls captured their seventh win over a top 10 team in the last eight seasons.
In none of those wins were the Owls the favored team nor the higher-ranked one, so Dunphy has been doing a lot of coaching up to the level of more talented teams. That was never more evident than on Sunday at the Liacouras Center when the Owls (12-7) used some long-distance shooting from Devin Coleman to more than make up for the inside domination of the Mustangs (18-1). Coleman’s 7-for-7 shooting from three-point range led to 23 points and kept the Mustangs at arm’s length for most of the second half.
More importantly, the win put the Owls squarely on the bubble in the NCAA tournament picture. Since SMU is on NCAA sanctions and ineligible for post-season play, how well the rest of the top teams in the AAC do the rest of the way will determine how many qualify for the tournament. The Owls now have three wins over top 25 teams, two on the road, at UConn and at Cincinnati. They lost in overtime at Memphis when reserve Daniel Dingle made a bonehead play, a foul with a second left, that led to free throws for the wins.
With that behind them, though, the Owls look like a prohibitive favorite to win the league tournament. Even if they do not, three wins over top 25 teams, including the first win over a SMU team that could run the rest of the regular-season table, has to bolster the resume on Selection Sunday.
Once there, Dunphy’s history of coaching his talent up to the level of marquee opponents should serve them well in the tourney.
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