John Cheney Says "Adios"

[GeauxLions94]

What will he be remembered for best, his great teams fueled by some pretty good defenses or "Thug-Gate?" Best of luck in the future, Coach.

John Cheney Retires From Temple (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2366357)

[bandl]

What will he be remembered for best, his great teams fueled by some pretty good defenses or "Thug-Gate?" Best of luck in the future, Coach.

John Cheney Retires From Temple (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2366357)

Great defenses, no doubt. He was a great coach. I always loved watching Temple, even in their recent lean years, because their defense has always been so stiffling. Ask GW about that this year...Temple could have cost them a higher seed in the NCAA tourney!

[Coastal89]

He'll always be remembered for attacking an oppossing teams player. IMHO.

[GannonFan]

If you're from Philly or a fan of the Big 5, he'll always be remembered for his incredible run of great teams, NCAA appearances, and running a quality program at Temple that often took in the more risky high school players and turned them into quality people. If you're not from around here, all you'll see is an irascible old man who lost him temper publicly many times and who unbelievably made that thug mistake last year that cost a college player the rest of his college career. There are plenty of people in Philly that don't like him, and everyone in Philly will never forget his mindless decision last year against St Joe's, but there's much more to him than just that last image that people not familiar with Temple will keep pointing to - in this case, to know him is to love him - as a Big 5 fan, he'll be missed.

[dirtbag]

I'll remember him for storming into John Calipari's press conference and screaming "I'LL KILL YOU, MOTHERF****R!!!!"

Never has anyone gotten a bigger free pass from the media than he did for that incident.

[Marcus Garvey]

John Cheney, like Bob Knight, is proof that as long as you (in this order):
1) Win games
2) Don't violate NCAA rules (or at least get caught)
3) Graduate most of your players...

Then colleges will tolerate a surprisingly huge amount of bad personal behavior. 5 straight NIT appearances (i.e., 5 years since the last NCAA Berth), and his age make this a good time to retire. Temple's administration must be growing tired of his antics.

[ngineer]

Cheney certainly made some mistakes--and he also admitted them and apologized, which is missing in a lot of places these days. I think his long reign at Temple and it's pressue defense and ''match-up zone' will be his legacy. Woody Hayes had his embarrassments as well, but most have faded with history and his is remembered for his life's work as opposed to those instances where his humanity betrayed him.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

This is a sad day for my University because we are losing our Icon and what many people perceive as the face of the University, sorry Bill Cosby. John Chaney did a lot of great things for kids who grew up in the inner city. He took chances on a countless number of kids during his 24 year stay on Broad Street and most of them turned out to be wonderful men. With that said he had his downfalls, number one being controlling his own emotions. He and Bobby Knight are are very similiar on a lot of levels except Knight has 3 National Titles and never coached at an inner city school. I think now is the time for Chaney to go, i actually thought he should have stepped down a year or two ago when it seemed like the program was starting to slip off its lofty perch. Before i arrived on North Broad in the fall of 2001, Temple was comming off an Elite 8 run the previous March and came in to the '01-'02 campaign with a Top 15 preseason ranking and a realistic goal of reaching the Final Four. My freshman year we had to camp out on North Broad to secure our season tickets, it was a great experience. That was one of the reasons i came to Temple, to be part of a big time hoops program and to be able to show school spirit. However, after that squad failed to make the NCAA tourney for the first time in 18 years i believe with really good players like Lynn Greer, Alex Wesby and Kevin Lyde something happened. The next year the anticipation for the start of the season was ho-hum, it almost seemed like we had our chances and time had run out, like we admitted that St. Joe's had passed us by and it was their turn to make a run. By the time the '04-'05 season started the athletic department was handing out season tickets and Morning Madness as it had been called was been cancelled. The program has been in a state of staleness now for 3-4 years and it's time for a change. Temple has a rich tradition and i only hope my University appoints the best possible person to lead us back to the NCAA tourney. I never got to experience what it was like to root for my school in the tourney while i was there but hold out hope i'll have plenty of opportunities in the future. Dawn Staley has built the womens program into a consistent Top 20 team and the football program is probably in the best shape it's been in in 15 years so i have confidence that Bradshaw will make the right choice. GO OWLS!!!!!

[griz37]

So is Mark Macon the next coach of Temple?

[AZGrizFan]

It's about time. His boat sailed about 4 years ago....just a crazy old man, now. Anybody else would have been fired for the Thug-gate incident.