Super Bowl week had about as much flavor as a Saltine cracker.
If you take too much media coverage, add too many great, respectful players and throw in two “genius” but aloof coaches, what do you get?
Really, really mind-numbingly drab quotes and a lack of juicy subplots.
That development made me happy to stare across the room at Temple coach John Chaney Saturday afternoon. He can be loud, crass and disagreeable. But he’s honest and, unlike most coaches nowadays, he’s interesting to listen to. Twenty-two years and 17 NCAA trips later, he has the right to say whatever he wants.
As a kid, I knew him as the guy who threatened to kick then-Massachusetts coach John Calipari’s butt. And to be honest, after GW whooped his Owls, I half expected him to threaten to kick my butt.
But he was subdued. Maybe exasperated is more like it.
This is not to say he wasn’t on his game. The best Chaney nugget of the day probably came when he spoke of his team’s health. Apparently, a few players have come down with colds, or fevers, or both. Center Keith Butler was one he cited as being hampered the most.
“None of these kids ended up with flu shots this year,” he said. “They’re only for old people like me.” Then, when asked if he got vaccinated, he scoffed and said:
“Yeah, I had to bribe Bush to get it.”
Not a big Dubya fan. In fact, a reporter who has covered Temple over the years told me there are two roads to avoid sending Chaney down: our 43rd president, and why his team does not play more man-to-man defense.
Yeah, I won’t touch those two with a 40-foot pole. It makes sense if you think about it. Coaches have ultra-specific philosophies. With Chaney, it’s his vaunted “match-up zone” D. If a skinny, un-athletic reporter who got cut from his ninth grade basketball team (me) decides to question a Hall of Fame coach about his day-to-day strategy, he better get ready for a loud, angry response.
Coach Karl Hobbs could be considered a Chaney disciple himself. He does not seem to enjoy lines of questioning involving the Colonials’ half-court offense. Saturday, GW was excellent in that department – but at times this year, they have looked sluggish when not operating off fast breaks. Of course he gets angry when someone asks him why his team does not succeed in its half-court set. He sees it a personal insult to him and his players, who have put in the practice time and followed their coaches’ intricate plans.
But that’s the college coach/reporter relationship. A reporter is always going to be resented for being too “negative,” for questioning tactics, for being the Devil’s advocate. A college coach is always going to be resented for not being forthright enough, for being too protective of his players, and for being stringently anti-media.
That’s life, I suppose. But who gets lost in this entire argument are the athletes. Sometimes they’re the ones who get the brunt of hurricane Chaney, Hobbs, Jim Calhoun or (class-five) Bobby Knight.
Three years ago, Temple played the Colonials on a Saturday afternoon on ESPN. It wasn’t a very memorable day for GW. Hobbs’ first year was not going very well, and the Owls did not make it any easier. The game’s outcome was never in doubt, and at halftime, Temple had built a 20-plus point lead.
Chaney, however, did not see the cakewalk game as a time to be happy-go-lucky. A fellow Hatchet reporter who was covering the game said he could hear the coach bellowing at his players during intermission – from outside the locker room.
Three years later, it doesn’t really appear Chaney has mellowed. But in that time, the GW program has grown up a bit. There haven’t been any major lapses on ESPN lately.
Never one to let hyperbole get in his way, the Temple czar had good things to say about what Hobbs has done with such a deep bench.
“They always send in 50 people,” Chaney said of GW. “That’s not something that’s new. Some teams recruit guys that know they’re going to play. He’s got 10 guys who can play. It’s not something we’re unfamiliar with.”
Like any great performer or public speaker, he exaggerates to make a point, and makes good ones at that. After speaking about the Colonials’ depth, his next statement cleanly hit the nail on the head.
Surmised quickly: GW’s depth means squat if they aren’t knocking down shots. A deep bench is nothing without team chemistry and rhythm on offense.
But Chaney knew it. The Colonials did hit their shots Saturday, and he gave them their due.
“I would say they’re compared to Maryland in terms of being athletic … I would certainly like to play them again. It’s a shame we’re just looking at them (Saturday),” said Chaney, whose team might get another shot at GW in the A-10 Tournament.
I know one thing. I wouldn’t mind getting another shot at Chaney. Angry or not, listening to him is a trip worth taking again.
