City of Basketball Love

Tyler Sandora (@tyler_sandora)
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Temple head coach Fran Dunphy will step down from his position following the end of next season, according to the Athletic’s Seth Davis and the Inquirer’s Marc Narducci.  Dunphy will coach the Owls next season, but then will step aside and be succeeded by assistant Aaron McKie, according to both Davis and Narducci.

Dunphy just completed his 12th season at the helm at Temple, which came after 17 years at nearby Penn. In his 12 years on North Broad Street, the 69-year-old Dunphy is 247-152. He has reached the NCAA Tournament seven times, and won three conference tournament championships.

After the Owls failed to make the tournament in Dunphy's first season at Temple in 2006-07, the program made the tournament six straight times from 2007-08 to 2012-13. Despite the seven NCAA Tournament appearances, Dunphy's Temple squads never advanced past the first weekend. The program's last NCAA win came against NC State in 2012-13.

This past season, Temple went 17-16 overall with an 8-10 record in American Athletic Conference play, and failed to make the NCAA Tournament for the second season in a row and third time in four years despite having a talented rotation that featured Quinton Rose, Obi Enechionyia, and Shizz Alston Jr..

McKie, a graduate of Philadelphia’s Simon Gratz High School, played at Temple for three years before spending 10 years in the NBA. He ranks sixth all-time on Temple’s scoring list. McKie was an assistant for the Philadelphia 76ers for six years, and then was hired as an assistant at his alma-mater in 2014, and has been on the staff ever since.

When he takes over the program, McKie will be just the third Temple head coach since 1982. Dunphy replaced legendary head coach John Chaney, who won more than 500 games during his 24 seasons as the program's head man.

Temple will return Alston, Rose, and Ernest Aflakpui next year in Dunphy’s last at the helm. The Owls will also have a promising sophomore class with Nate Pierre-Louis, De'Vondre Perry and J.P. Moorman, who all showed flashes this past season. Dunphy currently has one player signed to join the team next year; Phelps Schools’ 6-8 forward Arashma Parks.