A salute to La Salle’s Fran Dunphy after a win that keeps his coaching career alive for another day

WASHINGTON — Fran Dunphy’s coaching career is in its twilight, but the sun hasn’t gone all the way down yet.

La Salle’s 78-71 win over Massachusetts in Wednesday’s first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament means Dunphy will have at least one more game on the sideline, and what a game it will be. The No. 14 seed Explorers will face No. 6 St. Joseph’s on Thursday (7:30 p.m., USA Network), in not just a longtime Big 5 rivalry, but a historic fourth matchup of this season.

A conference tournament game is reason enough to go all-out for a win. But Corey McKeithan, who led the Explorers with 30 points — including a perfect 11-for-11 day from the free-throw line — made it clear that they are playing for Dunphy as much as themselves.

“It means everything,” McKeithan said. “‘Dunph’ does everything for us, so we want to go out there and exhaust all our energy for him, the same way he exhausts his energy for us.”

It was a moment to celebrate before the end officially arrives. Though the stands at Capital One Arena mostly were empty, the spirit of the Big 5 undoubtedly had gotten on a train south to D.C.

» READ MORE: La Salle keeps its season alive with 78-71 win over UMass in A-10 tournament first round

A lot of people are fond of calling Dunphy “Mr. Big 5,” and for good reason. He played at La Salle, coached at Penn, Temple, and his alma mater, and got a master’s degree at Villanova for good measure. But there was a time when things could have gone quite differently.

In 2004, Dunphy was courted by Georgetown and Ohio State when those programs had openings. He didn’t get either job, as those schools ended up hiring John Thompson III and Thad Matta, respectively. (Both turned out to be good decisions.)

When Dunphy did leave Penn two years later, it was for a team that wasn’t in as big a conference as those two, but was as big a deal emotionally.

Has it really been nearly two decades since Dunphy succeeded John Chaney at Temple? Yes, it has been. It’s been so long that a current college freshman wouldn’t have been alive at the time — and, perhaps more important, so long that lot of people have forgotten how big a deal it was.

The pressure to fill Chaney’s dress shoes — and that sweater-vest and that always-loosened shirt and tie — was enormous. So was the privilege Dunphy accepted when Chaney gave Dunphy his blessing to take the job, which was far from taken for granted when it happened.

» READ MORE: La Salle coach Fran Dunphy, ‘Mr. Big 5,′ to retire from coaching at the end of the season

Perhaps some people only measure those 13 seasons by Dunphy not getting the Owls all the way back to Chaney’s heights or to the Final Four that Chaney so narrowly failed to reach.

But surely we can look back now and appreciate what Dunphy did achieve: six straight NCAA berths, including Temple’s first tournament win in a decade, before a conference switch that was a lot more about football than basketball.

Even then, Dunphy won an American Athletic Conference regular-season title and made two NCAA Tournaments before the task of succeeding there — with all those games against teams from a thousand miles away instead of ones fans care about — became too great.

How many coaches in any sport, college or pro, are so successful when succeeding a legend? There are all kinds of histories of ones who aren’t.

And how many coaches can say they stepped up to help three programs at their hour of need? Penn had fallen from grace under Tom Schneider when Dunphy arrived in 1989, Temple was where it was after Chaney, and La Salle called one of its sons home in a way he couldn’t resist. (Which he did when it called in 2004, for the record.)

» READ MORE: La Salle hiring Radford’s Darris Nichols as next head coach

Dunphy triumphed at all three: nine Ivy League titles, two A-10 regular-season crowns, three A-10 tournament wins in a row, the aforementioned AAC title, and helping his alma mater achieve its long-dreamed-of new arena.

I recently asked Dunphy to reflect on that. His response was classically himself: “That would mean I’m thinking about myself, and I hate that.”

I politely responded, as I have from time to time in the 23 years I’ve known him, that I wanted him to do it anyway. He accepted, as he has from time to time.

“Yeah, I appreciate it,” he said. “What we accomplished at Penn was great, it was terrific. And succeeding Coach Chaney was a rather daunting task, but he made it so good for me — he was always in my corner, always giving me his best wishes.”

Of his time at La Salle, he said: “I wish I could have done more, to be quite frank.”

» READ MORE: La Salle is saying goodbye to Fran Dunphy, the university’s ‘front stoop.’ Where does the basketball program go next?

But he knows he has done plenty even in just these three years, never mind his 33 total as a head coach.

“I’ve had an amazing life,” Dunphy said. He told stories of growing up in high school, college, and the military — which led to a recent text message from a teammate on a 1969 all-Army touring team, a certain Mike Krzyzewski.

“I’m the luckiest guy you know,” Dunphy said.

That’s an understatement, and not just because of how much was earned instead of luck. A lot more people know than just this one.

The sports information departments at Penn, Temple, and La Salle informed The Inquirer that Dunphy coached a combined 163 varsity letter winners across the three schools, plus many more players who didn’t earn letters.

Add in all the assistant coaches, student managers, and arena staff he worked with over the years, or even just said kind words to. Add all the coaches he coached against, too, such as Richmond’s Northeast Philly-born Chris Mooney.

» READ MORE: Fran Dunphy gets a Philly send-off as La Salle knocks off St. Joe’s: ‘Nobody’s been luckier than me’

“He’s my dad’s favorite coach, myself included,” Mooney said. “I think that there’s no one more respected than him. He’s an idol of mine and someone I’ve always looked up to.”

The Archbishop Ryan grad was one of Dunphy’s first recruiting targets when he arrived at Penn in 1989. Mooney instead chose the Quakers’ biggest rival, Princeton, starting there in 1990.

Two decades later, they met as coaches in back-to-back A-10 tournaments. Temple won the 2010 final, then Richmond won a 2011 semifinal to end the Owls’ streak of three straight titles.

“There’s never been a moment where the competitiveness of a basketball game, or recruiting, or anything had a negative impact on our relationship,” Mooney said.

Mooney, Phil Martelli, Matt Langel, Dionte Christmas, and Jhamir Brickus were covered by decades of student journalists at the Daily Pennsylvanian, Temple News, and La Salle Collegian. By spending time with Dunphy, they learned how to not be not just good sportswriters, but good people. (Many of them went on to write for The Inquirer, too.)

Then add the countless fans who watched his teams win with class, not just talent. And when they didn’t win, how Dunphy so often drew up the right play at the buzzer, only to stand on the sideline helpless as a young man growing into himself shot an inch to the wrong side of the rim.

The total you get is much greater than 625 wins he has recorded in box scores. That’s as it should be, and it hopefully will be what everyone appreciates when they look back on his legacy.

“It’s tremendous, really, to coach these guys — to coach young people,” Dunphy said after Wednesday’s win. “They drive you crazy sometimes, but they reward you with their loyalty, and their toughness, and their play. … It’s terrific, and let’s get off of me.”

There he was again, his true self in the spotlight. But he knows why this moment is about him, especially for all the other people he’s made his career be about.