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

Fran Dunphy gave his normal opening statement to the media after an 81-74 La Salle win as if Saturday was any normal day.

He went on for 90 seconds talking about the way his assistant coaches game-planned and guided him, the way his players executed that plan, how his two guards were tough as nails, how his La Salle team was grateful for a win over a surging St. Joseph’s team after eight consecutive losses, about how the role players did their jobs, about how Sunday would be a day off before preparation began for the next opponent.

Normal, Saturday was not, but expecting Dunphy to wax poetic about himself and the day would have been an unreasonable expectation. Dunphy, who will retire from coaching at the end of the season, walked off a Big 5 basketball court for the final time as a head coach. Officially, his coaching career will end at next week’s Atlantic 10 tournament inside a sleepy Capital One Arena in the nation’s capital. Unofficially, a sellout crowd at La Salle’s renovated John Glaser Arena sent the winningest coach in Big 5 history off in style.

La Salle great Lionel Simmons was on hand, as were many former players, coaches, and friends in Dunphy’s orbit. Gov. Josh Shapiro declared Saturday “Fran Dunphy Day” during some pregame remarks. Dunphy then pulled another rabbit out of his hat. The Explorers used an 18-4 run to close the first half with an 11-point lead. La Salle’s lead grew to as many as 13 in the second half before St. Joe’s cut it to two.

Dunphy’s Explorers had every answer, though. Timely steals and rebounds. Timely baskets from Corey McKeithan and Deuce Jones, who combined for 49 points. It was fitting that the two guards put on a master class. McKeithan was plucked from Rider in the transfer portal, a one-year starter who averaged just eight points as a junior last season and entered Saturday at nearly 15 points per game. He played all 40 minutes. Jones was an under-the-radar recruit who has shined as a freshman. He went for a season-high 27 points Saturday. There were other contributions, too, like from former UCLA and DePaul big man Mac Etienne, who had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and from sophomore Swede Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi, who also played the whole game and scored 13 points while grabbing five rebounds.

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

La Salle lost Jahlil White, a critical forward who is known for his defense, in the first half, and White was forced to watch the entire second half from the bench with a walking boot on his left leg. Even without their stopper, the Explorers held the Hawks to just seven points over the final six minutes. Daeshon Shepherd, one of six seniors honored on senior day, might have recently lost his starting spot, but there he was with a transition dunk that bumped La Salle’s lead back to five with more than five minutes to go.

Even during a dismal season, the 76-year-old Dunphy, who last week coached his 1,000th game, got the best from his bunch at the very end. So when the clock wound down, Dunphy wasn’t thinking about what everyone else was, he said. He was, though, feeling what he thinks most of his peers feel when they know a game is won.

“There’s a peacefulness that overcomes you,” he said. “So I was much at peace as the clock was winding down.

“There’s not a lot of feelings like that.”

The other stuff?

“I didn’t think about the final home game,” Dunphy said. “I thought about just getting a win when we’re struggling against a really good team and it just happens to be your biggest rival in the league and that kind of thing and we hadn’t done well against St. Joe’s over the last couple years.

“I didn’t sit there and say this is my last game I’m ever going to coach in Philadelphia. That’s not my game. My game is just, I was happy for the kids.”

» READ MORE: Fran Dunphy served La Salle and the Big 5 better than anyone

There is, after all, more hoops to be played. La Salle (13-18, 5-13 A-10) will play in Wednesday’s preliminary round at the conference tournament. There was still some shaking out to do, but there was a chance a win in that game would set them up with a fourth date this season vs. St. Joe’s. Which would mean another chance to play spoiler against a Big 5 rival, the original Big 5 school where he has the fewest ties. Dunphy coached at Penn, Temple, and La Salle and has a master’s degree from Villanova.

Prior to Saturday’s game, St. Joe’s coach Billy Lange presented Dunphy with a gift, which included a six-pack of Blue Moon and a plaque.

“What the hell are you doing?” Dunphy said. “You’re trying to beat my brains out but you’re giving me a gift before the game? That’s what we do. That’s what Philly does.

“We’re not the perfect group. We make mistakes. But I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but this place, in Philadelphia, coaching college basketball for as long as I had the opportunity. This is pretty fabulous. Nobody’s been luckier than me.”

» READ MORE: Ciarlo Liples is paralyzed below his hips. He has become a ‘li’l bro’ to La Salle’s men’s basketball team

What’s next?

“One of the things I’d like to do is go see Swan Lake,” Dunphy said, referring to the Tchaikovsky ballet choreographed by George Balanchine.

“I’ve never been to a ballet [show] in my life, but I’d like to go because my brother went. And he said you will like it. I lost my brother a little bit ago,” Dunphy continued before pausing for a few seconds.

“So I’m going to go to Swan Lake and I’m hoping to go to Normandy at some point. That will be a bucket list for me. Those are things I want to do.”

He’ll get to those eventually. But on Friday night, on the eve of the day that was to come, Dunphy sat in the front row at St. Joseph’s Prep and watched a high school basketball playoff game.

Where else would he have been?