02.25.05

Outta Here

Temple has suspended men’s basketball coach John Chaney for the rest of the regular season.

Chaney richly deserves this fate. Earlier this week, in a game against friendly hometown rival St. Joe’s, Chaney sent bench-warming behemoth Nehemiah Ingram into the game for the sole purpose of committing hard fouls. Ingram is 6′8″, 250 pounds; he wouldn’t look out of place on a football field.

Chaney was upset because he thought that the St. Joe’s team was setting moving screens. At one point, Ingram pulled back from an opportunity to commit a hard foul; Chaney called him to the sideline and yelled at him. Soon after, Ingram responded with his fifth and final foul–he knocked one of St. Joe’s best players, John Bryant, to the floor as Bryant was driving for a layup. According to some sources, Temple fans cheered and spit as Bryant lay on the court. (Dragonballyee has some photos from the game on his site, if you’re interested).

Under Chaney’s prodding, Ingram committed five fouls in four minutes, and was out of the game. John Bryant–a senior and a co-captain of his team–wasn’t so lucky. He is out for the season with a fractured arm, and his basketball career is over.

In his post-game press conference, Chaney called his own player a “goon,” and admitted that he had sent him in there because he was angry with the calls on the court. He had these kind words to say about Bryant’s injury:

“That’s what happens,” he said. “I’m a mean, ornery, son of a bitch. You understand? When I see something wrong, I try to right it.”

The day after the game, Chaney gave himself a one-game suspension, and expressed regret for his actions. Today, the president of Temple University, thinking that Chaney might not be the best person to “right it,” imposed a suspension of his own. I guess he decided that the spectacle of a seventy-three year-old, ornery son-of-a-bitch using nineteen year-old thugs to vent his aggression was not the image he wanted to present of his school, no matter how many shiny arenas Chaney had helped build.

Chaney may be a Hall of Fame coach, but he had this one coming–anything less would have been an outrage.

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