Philly Connection in the River City

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Dunphy, Donahue and Bo. The Philly Connection is alive and well in the River City at the NCAA tournament.

By all accounts, there are at least 12 head coaches with Philadelphia connections in this year's Big Dance. Three were sent South to the Sunshine State, here on the banks of the St. Johns River, and two good friends will square off in Friday's opening game -- Fran Dunphy of No. 5 Temple against Steve Donahue of No. 12 Cornell. Bo Ryan's No. 4 Wisconsin Badgers follow in the second game against No. 13 Wofford.

Naturally, the three are proud of their heritage.

"Well, what we should probably tell the audience is anybody from Philly that sits in the stands thinks they're a coach," Ryan explained. "Have you ever met anybody from that area that didn't think they could coach? So you learn early about opinions."

And Xs and Os.



Share Ryan, in fact, will be going for his 600th career victory when his club faces Wofford at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. Dunphy is six victories away from reaching 400. And Donahue was hired for his first Division I job as an assistant at Penn by Dunphy.

"You can't give me a better compliment than to say I'm a Philadelphia guy who came from Philadelphia and coached the way they coach, whatever that is," said Donahue, in his 10th season at Cornell.

"I think Dunphy is obviously the pinnacle of what a Philadelphia coach is: tough, single-minded, not a lot of sizzle, it's just about the game, there's not a lot of self-promoting. I think that's a great compliment. If someone considers me in that group, I'd take that as the ultimate compliment."

Friday's showdown between Temple and Cornell marks the first game between the two schools. Something's got to give, too.

Dunphy-led teams have lost 10 straight NCAA games and are 1-11 overall. Cornell is 0-5 with quick exits the past two seasons under Donahue. It should be an interesting, entertaining showdown. It matches the top 3-point shooting team in the country (Cornell, .434) and one of the tops at defending the trey (Temple, fourth nationally, .278 allowed).

Dunphy also suspects the selection committee was intent on matching him against Donahue.

"I think this was a planned endeavor by the committee," Dunphy said. "I think this was a planned matchup. If you had said to me who do you not want to play, I would say Cornell. Steve and I are good friends. There's just a no-win situation in that."

The Philly bond makes them inseparable, however.

Ryan, who was raised in Chester, Pa., located on the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Wilmington, said his choices as a youth were basketball or swimming. And swimming wasn't an option.

"The Delaware River, when I was growing up, you could walk across it -- not that anybody was supernatural, but it was so polluted," Ryan said.

"But you figured people stayed in gyms a little bit more or on the playgrounds. We didn't swim a lot. So everybody played a lot of basketball. Basketball was just something in Chester, in that area, that once it got a hold of you, you were never going to let it go."