March 19, 2000. Buffalo, New York. Temple vs. Seton Hall in the NCAA tournament’s round of 32. Overtime.
#2 seed Temple is down by two following a late three pointer by Seton Hall point guard Ty Shine. There are 18.9 seconds, potentially, remaining in the Owls’ season. Starting point guard Pepe Sanchez has fouled out, meaning sophomore Lynn Greer will have the ball in his hands.
Greer brings the ball past half court. He drives the lane and manages to draw two defenders. He leaves his feet to put up a shot, only he notices a wide-open Lamont Barnes waiting underneath the basket. Greer hurls the ball in Barnes’ direction, just as the Temple bigman turns his attention to the backboard. The ball then goes whizzing past Barnes’ head and out of bounds.
Seton Hall wins.
Never end the game on a pass. Former Temple coach, John Chaney’s words still hang in the head of Lynn Greer.
“(The loss to Seton Hall) was a huge disappointment. That lingers all through the summer into the next school year while you’re training and that’s all you remember,” said Greer. “So, for the rest of that Summer, coach Chaney said, ‘Never end the game on a pass.’”
This is how Chaney coached. He would harp on his players and break them down so that he might build them back up in his own image, and they loved him for it.
“For me, playing under coach was an experience that I wouldn’t change for anything,” said former Temple basketball player Quincey Wadley. “I’ve always had my father in my life who was my idol, but coach Chaney was the closest to anything like that.”
Chaney, a man dripping in wisdom with an immovable conviction, always demanded the absolute most of his players; he’s famous for his grueling 5:30 a.m. practices.
“I remember when I first got to Temple, I came (into practice once) and I’m looking for all the players, but all the players were in the training room. I went in and there was one guy in there who said he had a headache. I got angry because I’m trying to teach that winning spirit to a team of losers,” Chaney said. “I said every living ass get out of this training room and I put them out on the floor. They were on their knees if they couldn’t walk, but they were more than ready to run. You have to teach a city of problems, whether it be injuries because the game is not just physical, the game is mental as well.”
He made his players want to win for him.
“There was never a game where he just sat there and coached. It was whether he was getting on the referee, sometimes he would call time out just to curse the referees out,” said Greer. “He would call a timeout, he’d be like, sit down, so we’d all sit down, he would run out cursing at the refs, getting the crowd into it and that was all part of his entertainment. That’s something you sort of see for the first time and you’re like, wow I’ve never seen a coach like this. Him fighting for us made us want to fight for him even more.
Chaney was less a coach and more so a director of sorts. He would create a script for his players and roles for each to follow. Under John Chaney, you had to know your lines and play your part well.
“All of our teams that were successful were successful because of discipline,” Chaney said. “And because they followed the script as well as I could teach it.”
Following the team’s unceremonious exit from the NCAA tournament in 2000, massive changes were coming to Temple’s roster. The team was losing leaders like Sanchez and Barnes to graduation, while leading scorer Mark Karcher was planning his NBA future. Chaney’s 2000-2001 squad was one of the more unique teams he coached in his 24 seasons at Temple. The more seasoned players were stepping up into roles that were somewhat foreign to them, while younger guys were just trying to find their way. The entire team was a learning process.
“(In 2000) everyone was coming in like, there’s a lot of minutes to be had, a lot of shots to be taken. I can be that guy and we all competed for that, which made us a good team,” said Greer. “But it may have been unique because we had a lot of guys who weren’t used to being in major roles now playing major roles.”
It was clear in this sense that the 2000-2001 season was going to be more difficult than normal for Temple. But then again, these were things that never really concerned Chaney.
“Each one (of our teams) was somewhat different and of course, we didn’t have a lot of depth on that ball club, or any of our five teams that reached (the elite eight),” said Chaney. “But that team was one where we had a couple bench players that played quite a lot for us and of course, not that they were big scorers, but they did things that comprised a team.”
The season started off successfully like so many other Chaney teams, but storm clouds were looming over head. Following a victory over Indiana at Madison Square Garden, Temple rattled off seven consecutive loses, the longest losing streak of Chaney’s career.
Those seven games were the toughest stretch of schedule the Owls faced that season. Coupled with injuries to players like Wadley and frustrations from players over their role with the team, it was quickly looking like the season was over before it ever really started.
“Temple always had these weird records early on, so you never completely counted them out, but that year you had to count them out,” Jensen said.
“It was tough because it could come down to a last second shot or it’ll come down to a key possession or turnover and it was frustrating because we know that we gave our all, but we just weren’t able to get those wins,” said Greer, “The mentality always has to be just look to the next game, but when the next game is a loss, it builds up. It’s pretty tough. But I think coach Chaney did a great job of keeping the guys together. a great job of watching film and figuring out just what we’re doing wrong so we can correct it the next time.”
Still, Chaney wasn’t concerned.
“There are two words you have to remember,” Chaney said. “And you have to understand, and you have to convince your kids, or you family, or anyone, losing or loser? Which one are you? Are you losing? Or are you a loser? A loser is a noun. A loser represents a person. Or are you losing? Losing, figuratively speaking, is actually a score. A score of a game. A score that happens to infer or happens to imply some action, but it doesn’t make you a loser. Losing does not make you a loser.”
He believed in his players, he believed in his team, and he believed in his philosophy. He just needed his players to stay committed through “a city of problems.” First, he needed to deal with the personal frustrations on the team.
“We had some practices early in the season where guys were complaining about taking so many shots and there would be rumblings amongst other players,” said Greer. “So, I remember a few times, Coach Chaney stopped the practice and he had to be like, ‘Listen here, this is how it’s gonna go. Lynn is gonna get the most shots, Quincy’s gonna get the second, the rest of yall get in where you fit in. I don’t want to hear nothing no more.’ And I think by him doing that he set roles and it kind of set the tone for the other guys who listened.”
Next, he needed to remind his players that, “Winning is an attitude.”
“With us going on a losing streak, every game we had to prepare like we won those games. Instead of holding your head down and contemplating or worrying about what you did in the last game, it was always looking forward,” said Greer, “He did a great job, if we had a week to practice, I’d say the first three days he was pounding us, telling us what we did wrong, telling us, you aint gone be this, you aint gone be that, like he would really beat us down. Then preparing for the game, when we started really going through the team that we were going to play, he started building us up. He did a good job of managing the players and letting us know that we weren’t that good, but also pushing us to be better and be great.”
With egos now in check and players healthy and committed, it was time to get back to doing what Chaney did best, win. After their seven-game losing streak, Temple went 14-5 over the course of its remaining 19 games. Thinks slowly started to click and this team started playing as they always believed it could.
“I believe for the most part, a lot of people didn’t expect it from us to go that deep, but it was something we pretty much always expected from ourselves,” said Wadley, “Going into like the third quarter of the season, right before we’re coming up on the conference tournament. We started to break into a groove, where we played in the conference tournament.”
Thanks to the team’s slow start, the postseason was still very much in the air. Going into the Atlantic 10 tournament, the Owls were looking at a conference title as their best shot at getting into the big dance.
“They were not an at-large consideration at that point, so it was all on the line in the Atlantic 10 tournament. It wasn’t one of those well they lost to a tough team and still had a shot,” said Jensen. “They really did not have a shot and the players knew it. The players talked about it. Players individually were playing well in the beginning of the year, but they didn’t figure it out.”
After a 13-point victory over Dayton in the opening round of the A10 tournament, Temple’s season was on life support late against George Washington with just seconds remainging. In a situation eerily similar to the year prior, Lynn Greer found himself with the ball. Greer wound up being guarded one-on-one with a center, he knew he was going to shoot. He wasn’t passing this time around.
With the paint packed, Greer thought he could draw a foul. He drove hard, stepped back, pump faked, and prayed that his man would leave his feet. It was slight, but the refs saw enough from the defender to send Greer to the line. Three foul shots later, Temple was on their way to the A10 championship and, after a victory over Massachusetts, the NCAA tournament.
“I believe his pump fake got Chaney into the hall of fame that year. Chaney probably gets in at a later date, but he probably doesn’t get in that year if Lynn Greer doesn’t throw his arms in a GW defender in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament because there is no postseason run, no final 87, there is just an NIT appearance,” Jensen said.
This marked the first time all season the Owls felt they truly played like a team. Things seemed to officially click for them after this game.
“We struggled all season with guys finding their and taking their role and really just kind of going full steam ahead with that role. Once we got to the A10 tournament and we beat George Washington, we were really as a team like, yo we can do this, I’m gonna do this, you do that,” said Greer. “It wasn’t really any bickering back and forth or us at the end of games not being happy we won or mad we lost, everybody really came together that game. It was late as hell, but that game really put us in a different mindset.”
Of course, Chaney felt differently than his players. He couldn’t point to one single game as where the team finally came together because he believed that the team was the sum of their own hardships.
“I always attributed to the foundation we made early in the year when we first started because one of my statements that we lived off of was, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” said Chaney. “When you’re doing something over and over and over, you should not measure progress based on one game or multiple games, you can look at yourself six months ago or three or four months ago or a month ago and say to yourself I’m a lot different than when I was when I started, I’m learning a lot more.”
After an upset victory over a Texas team that Greer said, “looked like everyone one was on steroids,” and impressive wins over Florida and Penn State, Temple saw its run come to an end at the hands of Michigan State, 69-62.
For as much as Chaney loved winning, he thinks back on the Elite Eight loss fondly, 17 years later. His pride in his players’ accomplishments can’t be contained. He even thinks back fondly of the mistakes made in the game.
“Greg Jefferson, he was out of California and what they did was, they often taught that when you rebound the ball you’re forced to face the opposite direction of your basket, you should kick the ball out and if you’re facing a person. What happened was, he rebounded the ball, which we needed desperately because we were in a close match with Michigan State at that time and the best shooter on the ball club should’ve gotten the ball right there at the top of the circle for a three. And of course, he turned around and tried to negotiate the basket himself and I think Zac Randolf or somebody almost put the ball back in his mouth,” Chaney said, laughing his way through the story.
“I have never ever been disappointed with the accomplishments, building the character, and the spirit of winning and getting to the final 8 with your players is something you should be very very proud of,” said Chaney. “The teams we played had all Americans, had highly recruited kids on their rosters, I don’t think we had any more than three all Americans on any of my teams. And of course, when you look at the numbers of our players, we had 22 or more who ended up in the NBA and that’s something to be proud of.”
Snowballs & Batteries 