City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Fran Dunphy, who led Temple to the outright regular season conference title, was named the Coach of the Year in the American Athletic Conference on Thursday for the second straight season.

Dunphy and the Owls finished 14-4 in the regular season to finish atop the AAC after being picked sixth in the preseason poll. Dunphy was also previously named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year twice, as well as taking that honor in the Big 5 on four occasions.

"I am honored and humbled to be selected by my peers as the Coach of the Year in the American Athletic Conference," Dunphy said in a release. "This is really a programmatic award in that our coaching staff has worked hard all year long and, as it is a players' game, they deserve much of the credit as well. This truly is a team honor."

Temple finished the regular season at 20-10 after going 6-6 in the non-conference. It’s the eighth 20-win season Dunphy has had in his 10 years with the Owls.

Dunphy’s team, which was led by unanimous first-team All-AAC selection Quenton DeCosey, beat three ranked opponents – all in conference play – and went a perfect 5-0 against SMU, Cincinnati and Connecticut.

Temple is the No. 1 seed in the AAC Tournament and will open play in Orlando on Friday afternoon against either eighth-seeded East Carolina or No. 9 seed South Florida.