City of Basketball Love

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2023-24 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 6. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season click here.)

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The quips at practice would often be followed by the looks. Eye contact between each other would then morph into a shrug, as if their coach was speaking in a foreign tongue beyond the international language of basketball. To them, he was. 

La Salle’s legendary coach Fran Dunphy carries an understated charisma and a dry sense of humor. He can deliver a punchline in a monotone way that usually has any gathering he is holding court over in hysterics. It stems from his Drexel Hill, Delaware County roots, with a touch of Southwest Philly mixed in.

The all-time winningest coach in Philadelphia Big 5 history is tasked with getting his alma mater La Salle back to respectability, which the Big 5 Hall of Famer has gradually been doing these last two years. He has been the cornerstone in raising funds for the renovation of La Salle’s Tom Gola Arena, which he has successfully been doing, too. He successfully brought in a class with its greatest international flair in the history of the program — seven different players from seven different countries with the promise to make the Explorers competitive this season in the Atlantic 10.

There has been, so far, just one glaring area where Dunphy has been unsuccessful when it comes to his United Nation’s team: None of his international players get their coach’s jokes yet.

La Salle will be counting on 6-10 sophomore forward Rokas Jocius (Lithuania), 6-5 redshirt-sophomore guard Andrés Marrero (Venezuela), 6-2 sophomore guard Jorge Sanchez-Ramos (Spain), 6-8 freshman forward Efe Tahmaz (Turkey), 6-6 sophomore guard/forward Lucas Mercandino (Argentina), 6-9 junior forward Milos Kovacevic (Serbia) and 6-8 freshman guard/forward Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi (Sweden) to bolster the Explorers in 2023-24, after a 15-19 overall finish and 7-11 in the A-10 during Dunphy’s first year. It was the most overall victories since 2019-20 (15-15) and most conference wins since 2018-19 (8-10), following 9-16 and 11-19 finishes, respectively, the previous two years.

La Salle has not had a team over .500 since the 2014-15 season. The Explorers have not been over .500 in the A-10 since going 11-5 in the magical 2012-13 Elite Eight “Southwest Philly Floater” season under Dr. John Giannini.

This septet understands what’s ahead.

They just sometimes do not understand their coach’s jokes.

“Coach Dunphy has a lot of jokes that we don’t understand sometimes and we’ll ask him, ‘Can you explain the joke again?’ so the next time he says it, it will be really, really funny,” said Marrero, who found La Salle through the Upper Room Christian School in Long Island, N.Y., by way of Ensueño Hoops. “We’re getting used to it. He is getting used to us. Coach is actually speaking Spanish right now. We just hope he doesn’t sing (laughs).”

Then Marrero relayed a tale from last season. Mercandino, who is from Argentina, was not having a great week of practice. Out of nowhere, Dunphy broke into “Don’t cry for me Lucas Mercandino,” which was a play on the song, “Don't cry for me Argentina,” from the 1976 concept album "Evita," popularized more recently by Madonna's 1996 cover version hit — both long before anyone on La Salle’s current roster was born.

“We couldn’t understand what coach Dunphy was saying, and Lucas was laughing. None of the rest of us got the joke,” said Marrero, trying to contain himself from laughing at the recollection. “We were all looking at each other. Coach Dunphy explained to us it was from the famous song ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.’ We have four or five different languages on the team, but everyone speaks English. With a lot of us international players our English was not well, so, to the credit of the American players on the team, they had to adjust. I think that bond has really brought us together.”

On A-10 Media Day on October 17, Dayton was picked No. 1 for the second-straight year, while La Salle was predicted to finish No. 15—dead last in the A-10.

“We know, we were together when they came out,” said Marrero, who started five games and averaged 2.8 points a game appearing in 27 games last season. “We like the challenge. It’s something coach Dunphy puts in our minds. They said we were a young, small team that would not be very good. That has pushed us through a lot of things (this fall). Everyone has a role and everyone knows their role. The seven of us do not have a nickname yet, but Dunphy calls us ‘the international crew.’ I’m really excited about this year.”

Jocius may be counted on to make the largest impact this season. He appeared in 28 games his freshman year, starting in two, while averaging 4.5 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. Here’s an interesting point, however: Despite limited minutes, he was second on the Explorers in blocked shots with 24 last season. Though listed at 260 pounds, Jocius is quick to point out that he’s actually 242 pounds, up from his playing weight of 235 last year.

“I don’t look like 260 at all, to be honest, and I would describe my game as someone who will do anything the coaches want me to do,” he said. “I do not mind getting physical. The physicality is all good underneath the basket. We are working very hard in practice. I want this team to succeed. I will do whatever it takes to do that. There is no language barrier; we all speak English very well. I like playing here. I think my game is more physical, and I do feel more comfortable playing in the paint.”

Dunphy will be counting on Jocius to take a leap this season.

“No question, we need Rokas to play well,” he said. “He's going to get high-20 minutes, if not 30, if he can stay healthy and stay out of foul trouble. Those would be important things. But he knows how to play. He's improved. I think he's understanding that his role will be much different this year. (La Salle has) seven guys that have international experience playing basketball, coming from other countries. We had to change our shooting drill from ‘USA’ to ‘UN.’ That's how many international guys we have."

Dunphy has 31 seasons of head coaching experience dating back to 1989. He debuted in the A-10 at Temple in 2006, during a 13-season stretch that included coaxing Juan Fernandez to Temple from Argentina back in 2008. 

"What's changed (from 16, 17 years ago)?," Dunphy said. "Just the world of recruiting and the world of NIL and the world of the transfer portal and all of those things, we just have more opportunities now for a lot of these guys, and we've become more global in our search. The kids that we’ve looked at and we've asked the question of, we're interested in you, they've given us great feedback. It’s been really helpful to us, we’ve had some really good conversations with these young guys, and they've decided to come to La Salle, and we're grateful to have them.”

Jocius chafed at the idea La Salle was predicted to finish at the bottom of the A-10.

“I think we have a great chance to be a good team; the rankings are only predictions,” he said. “We have a really good team and we can achieve something, in my mind. People will see that through the season. Back home, we don’t do small talk at all. We are direct. I will work hard to absolute start.”

And as for Dunphy’s jokes, Jocius snickered playfully, “no comment.”

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Joseph Santoliquito is a hall of fame, award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.