Sad news from the college basketball world Friday as hall of fame coach John Chaney died at the age of 89.
Chaney coached Temple University from 1982 through the 2005-06 season, winning 516 games and making the NCAA Tournament 17 times in that stretch.
Chaney was never able to get his Temple Owls over the hump and make a Final Four but did reach the Elite Eight on four different occasions.
For most though, it wasn’t a particular moment on the playing floor that Chaney gets remembered for.
Instead, it was an up-and-coming head coach that Chaney got into a screaming match with moments after dropping a thrilling Atlantic-10 contest in 1994 that is remembered vividly all these years later.
Massachusetts had just beaten Temple by one in a game that came down to a missed last-second shot by the Owls, and Chaney was none too pleased to hear future national championship head coach John Calipari complaining about officiating afterward.
So unpleased in fact that he went after him during a postgame press conference:
Future Lakers star but then a Temple Owl, Eddie Jones for jumping in and keeping that from getting perhaps even uglier.
For what it’s worth, Chaney only coached two games in his career against Notre Dame as the two split a home-and-home series in 1989 and 1991 with the home team winning both games.
RIP to a legend, John Chaney.