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Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009
Temple basketball coach John Chaney has handled himself admirably in the wake of a terrible act. But he still should go.
Mar 1, 2005 | John Chaney's schedule for the rest of the day: Apologies at 1:30, 4 and 8, with announcements of late-breaking additional self-suspensions at 2 and 5:30, and self-flagellation and fasting at 6.
The Temple men's basketball coach will continue his Woody Hayes Memorial Tour of Atonement until his position for 2005-06 season is secure.
In a world in which the non-apology apology has become the standard for public figures, John Chaney has been admirably genuine in his remorse for the actions that led to the end of a St. Joseph's player's career. He's been admirable in a lot of other ways too during a coaching life that's already put him in the Hall of Fame.
But he has to go. John Chaney should resign, and if he doesn't resign, Temple should fire him.
Apologies are nice, they're a good start. But they're only a start. As St. Joseph's University said in a statement, "There is no place in college basketball for this type of behavior." Chaney, by his own statements, seems to agree. He should act accordingly.
As you no doubt know, Chaney sent a player into a game against St. Joe's last week to commit hard fouls. He had threatened to do so in an earlier media conference call if game officials failed to whistle the Hawks for what Chaney believed were illegal screens. He was true to his word, sending in seldom-used Nehemiah Ingram, who is 6-foot-8, 250 pounds, to act as a "goon," in Chaney's word.
Ingram took four minutes to commit five fouls, the last of which was a full-body takedown of senior forward John Bryant, a St. Joe's role player, who suffered a broken right arm, ending his season and career. Moments earlier, Ingram had nearly taken the head off of a Hawks player with a thrown elbow.
Chaney suspended himself for one game, which was just odd. Can you suspend yourself? Isn't that just known as taking a day off? When the extent of Bryant's injury became known, Temple suspended him for the rest of the regular season, which was two more essentially meaningless games, since the Owls are not in the running for the Atlantic 10 championship.
Ingram apologized, saying he hadn't meant to hurt anybody and that he was just following coach's instructions to commit some hard fouls. He hasn't been punished. That seems right to me. I suppose he could have taken a stand and refused to do what Chaney asked, but I think standing up to a Hall of Fame coach is asking too much of a 22-year-old kid who doesn't have the juice of being a star player.
On Monday, in a surprise move, Chaney suspended himself again, this time for the conference tournament, saying that since Bryant won't be able to play because of Chaney's actions, Chaney shouldn't be able to coach. It's unclear whether he'll coach the Owls should they win the conference tournament and reach the NCAA Tourney, or, more likely, should they make the National Invitational Tournament.
