City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Andy Backstrom (@FineAnd_dAndy)
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The next installment in our offseason Q&A series features Temple head coach Fran Dunphy. In his 10th season as the Owls’ head coach, Dunphy notched his seventh NCAA Tournament appearance after his team rallied from a 6-6 start to win the American Athletic Conference regular-season championship, winning 21 games and earning a No. 10 seed in the Big Dance. Despite a wildly entertaining opening game, the Owls suffered the wrong side of March Madness when Hawkeyes big man Adam Woodbury put back a tip-in at the buzzer for a 72-70 Iowa win in OT.

CoBL’s Josh Verlin and Andy Backstrom sat down with Dunphy to discuss the 2015-16 season, the health of one key freshman and quite a few other topics as the summer approaches:

CoBL: How much different is the feeling around the program this offseason having gotten to the tournament and hearing your name on Selection Sunday as opposed to if you’d hadn’t heard it?

FD: Obviously it’s always good to be in the tournament, it’s a culmination of a year that these guys put all this work into and they see the fruits of their labor. Now it’s obviously good if you can win games within the tournament, and we had our chance against Iowa, we just didn’t finish the game like we needed to, but I think the guys that are coming back are excited about the opportunity, we have some new guys coming in, and we’re just trying to think of how we can best help Trey Lowe make the transition from his freshman year to his sophomore year with him not in perfect health as he finished the season last year.

CoBL: Given that you hadn’t made the tournament for a few years--

FD: Two to be exact, and one where we felt we had done enough to get in. There’s nothing you can do about that.

CoBL: Right. So if you hadn’t been called on Selection Sunday, it would have been three. Do you feel like there would have been more tension?

FD: Oh yeah, sure. The expectations are around Temple’s basketball program that we’re going to be in the NCAA Tournament. And we made it six straight years and we had a year that we didn’t deserve to do anything other than end the season and prepare for the following year. And then the ‘14-’15 season we thought we had done enough and we obviously just didn’t. And so to get back to the tournament makes you feel, again, satisfied, and the feeling of accomplishment is what you want for these guys.

CoBL: For the returning players, does reaching the NCAA Tournament provide any extra motivation?

FD: I think it does. Our goal was to get there, and once you do your goal switches to try to win as many games as you can. And we were close in that Iowa game. One of the things we talk about is, there’s a banner out there that has all the years that Temple has reached the NCAA Tournament. There’s a lot of years up there. So that’s the goal. We have 2016 up there after a two-year break. So there’s motivation to add more.

CoBL: You mentioned Trey [Lowe, who missed the final month of the season with injuries sustained during a one-car crash February 28]  what’s his current status?

FD: He’s working every day to try to get better, and once we are able to work out with him in that June period, middle-to-late June period, then we’ll have a better sense of what next year is going to be like for him.

CoBL: How is it for you just to see him back around?

FD: It’s great, he was just here. It’s great anytime to see him, he’s almost got a better sense of humor now; he had a good sense of humor before but I think he’s really appreciative of life, he’s appreciative of what he has gone through, he’s appreciative of the fact that he’s a college basketball player and he just wants to be healthy and get back to playing basketball.”

CoBL: You had another freshman who’s coming off a stretch where he hasn’t played in a while, Ayan Nunez de Carvalho. How do you feel like his redshirt year went, what are your expectations?

FD: Ayan had a good year, I think he really got a sense of what life in America was all about. He did a really good job in the classroom, I think he’s got a great way about him from a social perspective. And he got better as the year went on, he improved in every aspect of the game and it’s a big year for him next year. But he sat out, I think it’s an easier transition for him to sit out and now to be a player, to get a sense of how hard the practices are, each practice is very competitive, so he’s got a good sense (of that). And he’ll be back in the June 20 area as well, as will Ernest, Ernest went home for a couple of weeks, as did Obi. We have some other guys that are here, they’re around shooting ‘em up all day long. We can’t work with them now, but they’re around and they’re trying to get better for our thrust for next year.

CoBL: Last year, you guys started off 6-6, finished 15-5 going into the tournament. How much does that stress the importance of a strong start, in terms of selection Sunday, when it comes down to your field of work, how important is it to get off to a strong start?

FD: I think we’re in a profession, and we know it, we have to win games. And that’s the most important thing right now, we have to win games, we have to figure out how to compete at the highest level. We’ll have a pretty-good early-season schedule again, we’re going to be in the Preseason NIT with the likes of West Virginia and Florida State and Illinois, we’re playing all of our Big 5 games early, it looks like. So we’ll be tested immediately, and we’ve got to weather the storm, as it were. And it’s important to get off to the best start we get off to, the fact that we finished like we did last year was really impressive to me because of how difficult the schedule was early.

CoBL Now that you’ve had a full season to adjust to the rule changes, what did you think of them, how they played out over the year?

FD: I think the 30-second clock was fine, I think we could even if somebody were asking me my opinion we could go to 24 seconds, I think the kids would make the adjustment, the coaches will make the adjustment, I think the referees will make the adjustment. Bu I think we’re probably in that time frame where we’re going to be staying with a 30-second shot clock and it’s okay. We always start off in many ways with these new emphasis on not putting two hands on a dribbler, driving to the basket and at some point the players adjust, the coaches adjust and the referees adjust to the game and I thought it was called well throughout last season although there were some games early on that took a little too long. I think everybody’s in the mode of making the adjustment and I think everything will be fine.’

CoBL: This is the fourth summer where we’ve had these offseason summer workouts, do you feel like you guys have gotten into a pretty good rhythm with what to do with them?

FD: I think the only thing, if I were running the show, I would probably say we shouldn’t be recruiting until Thursday [during the live recruiting period weekends] as opposed to 5 o’clock on Wednesday. What we do then, we have an hour workout and an hour workout on Tuesday and then we’re trying to, Wednesday we’re going to our next assignment recruiting-wise. I just would love to get these kids three days a week in the summertime versus two days a week, I think anytime you can see their faces one more day is important. And I think we have enough time to recruit Thursday, all day Friday, all day Saturday and half a day on Sunday, I would even adjust it back a little bit and make it done by 2 o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday. Everything done and over with so everybody can get home, to include the kids, I think the system makes them play probably too many basketball games in the middle of the summer.”

CoBL: You’ve got three freshmen coming in this summer. What are your expectations for this group and what excites you about them?

FD: I think we’re going to need all three of them to be ready to go as soon as they possibly can. Alani Moore, as a [5-foot-10] point guard, he gives us that opportunity to take Josh off the ball on occasion and have him be in more of a scoring mode. I think [6-5 wing] Quinton Rose also, he had a good year and a good spring in that he went over to Germany in the Schweitzer games and played pretty well from all accounts. He would be expected to give us basically what Trey Lowe gave us last year. And then [6-10 forward] Damion Moore is doing well, he’ll be here earlier than June 20 although we won’t be able to work out with him, but he can start to get adjusted to the college life, I think that’ll help him greatly. And he would be expected to contribute immediately as well. So all three guys have a chance to play right away, and that’s the hope, that they will be ready to go.”

CoBL: With three starters graduating, you’re going to have a lot of minutes to fill and need guys to step up. Are there any guys you’re focusing on this summer that can put the work in?

FD: Josh had such a good year assist-to-turnover wise, he was really a leader on the court. He and Jaylen were are two best leaders. He’s going to have a little bit different of a role next season. He’s going to have to score the ball a little more, he’ll have to work on his defense and again really be a leader for us. Obi is going to really have to step it up. Daniel Dingle is going to have to be as healthy as he can be and play a few different positions. Mark Williams is going to have to take a lot of minutes and do a good job for us. Ernest has a great chance to play a lot and play right away, his situation is a lot different than it was this past season. Mike Robbins is doing well. He’s a very, very good athlete and he has a great opportunity. All we’re asking him to do is act like he’s not a former walk-on. You are now a scholarship player so act like it. … Shawn Alston, he’s also going to have a great, great responsibility next season. Some of that will depend on where Trey is and what he’s able to do.”

CoBL: Is it still on the table to redshirt Trey (next season)?

FD: “We haven’t given it any thought. We just want him to get back and see how his progress is. It’s a team of trainers and doctors and we’ll and he will make the best decision for him.”

CoBL: Regarding Mike, how many walk-ons have you had the opportunity to give a scholarship to?

FD: I think he’s the second. Jake Godino was the other.

CoBL: What’s it like to give that out?

FD: It’s really cool. It was a great moment and the guys all rallied around him. It’s great to give it to someone who is here at practice every day and working as hard as everybody else is without [a scholarship].

CoBL: What, if anything, do you think Villanova’s National Title does to the Big 5? Can you spin it to help you in recruiting?

FD: It can only help. I really don’t think it can hurt. I think it brings a lot of great attention to Philadelphia college basketball. They had a fabulous year, and so did St. Joe’s, Villanova just had a year for the ages. There was a lot of great basketball, and there typically always is in the city. And we’re adding some new great coaches with Steve Donahue in his second year and now Zach Spiker at Drexel.

CoBL: What about you personally? What are you focused on in a big picture setting?

FD: Today we focused on recruiting. But as soon as the season was over, I was excited about getting these guys back in the gym the following week and focusing on what we can get better at. Roles are going to change, so let’s see what we can do to get a head start.