John Chaney Quotations

The point of the matter is that we have too many people who sell this league down. If this was the ACC or it was the Big Ten, we'd be busy talking about the parity of the league and not talking about one team carrying the day.

We struggled with one guy making baskets throughout the game and yet we were able to stay in there. But (Duke) has so many ways to hurt you.

We're not as good a team as Villanova. No way.

We ran into the rifleman. They put it all together, and they just destroyed us. Everybody had a gun but us.

Phil and I talked about many things at lunch yesterday, including ways we can help the victims of the hurricane,

Phil and I resolved it. We sent money to Katrina (the hurricane relief fund). That's what we did to resolve it. But if you want to keep singing that same song, go ahead. Philadelphia don't let nothing go. You guys don't let nothing go. I'm a lightning rod in this city and I know it. . . . Without me you don't have any news.

I wish there were some way we could check the DNA on some of these SOBs that are allowed to come to games and show bad manners and throw stuff at Duke's team -- a class coach and a class team. Why is it that we find that all over the country, not only in college, but in pros? You ought to be able to check the DNA of an idiot, and do something about it, so you'll not be able to see it again.

Bryant was back in 2 1/2 weeks when everyone thought his arm was broken. It didn't look so broken to people who saw him play.

For us to hold them in the 50s with six or seven minutes to go, that's good. We just couldn't match them in baskets. The game was lost early.

He has no fear. You can knock him down, he's getting up.

He managed a lot of big plantations before he worked for us. As for turkey hunting, he lives it. He could write books about it.

What I kept pressing upon them is one of the greatest gems there is a diamond. A diamond, whether it's man-made or comes from coal, is a result of pressure. I wanted them to understand the more pressure is put on you, the more of a diamond you can become.

We've got to stop Caner-Medley. He's a machine once he gets going.

Kids will say whatever sounds good, and you guys print it or whatever. They've gotten together on things before, and it hasn't made a difference.

It certainly is just outstanding that we get a home game after all of these years of playing in the NIT, and we are honored that we are invited to participate in one of the greatest all-time traditional tournaments.

I thought both teams played excellent and stood up to the moment. It was a great moment in Philadelphia basketball as far as I'm concerned.

I think we have to win our tournament. Normally, a committee looks at how you finish. They already have us down as a team that's capable of beating some top teams.

I think this could mean a lot of things, ... Maybe I've been here too long. But I think there are a lot of memories coming off that floor tonight.

I will not be here (tonight), but I have a coaching staff that will meet that challenge. I have no doubt about it. I just have to deal with a personal problem (today).

I will continue to look at it. I will continue to criticize.

I will meet with him whenever he desires. He made some nice overtures to me that he wanted my support and I'm going to support him.

I think every year we've played (Duke), we haven't been able to stop anybody on that ball club. They're full of ammunition ...

Our guys had trouble making baskets. And our guys had trouble trying to get the ball to our shooters.

Our body of work speaks for itself. I've always built a tough schedule that I hope has us playing better at the end of the year.

Our players on the outside, when they make baskets, it answers a lot of questions for us. When we don't make baskets, we're not a good team at all.

Look, I was the culprit here. I admit that. We felt this was the most constructive thing we could do.

I think our talent is as good as anybody's in the league.

I think he makes the difference. I don't know if it's a significant difference, but it's the difference.

I'm sending a message, and I'm going to do what we used to do years ago - send in the goons.

When it suddenly happens, they're going to surprise some people. Believe me, there's some talent on that floor. They're going to get it done. By tournament time, this is not a team I want to play.

We are blessed to bring back one of the finest young men to play basketball here at Temple University as an assistant coach. Mark is a remarkable man, both on and off the court, and our young players can truly learn something from being around him.

We could not stop the great player in Williams inside. Our big guys are just not tough.

We could not stop him and we could not rebound. Our big guys are just not tough. They're not.

We could not get rebounds and we could not stop their big guy, Williams. Our big guys aren't tough, and this (Duke) is a great team.

You have to approach every game with a positive attitude. When we've had success in the tournament, we've always ended the season in a positive way. We need to win that first game to get over everything. Win that first game and then it's up to us as coaches to trick them after that.

We shot the ball real bad. The defense was all right.

We lead the nation in defense every year and it doesn't translate into wins. Sooner or later, you've got to put the ball in the basket.

This team makes more foul shots than any team in the nation has taken.

We go into neighborhoods as coaches and think we can convince a kid that 'son, if you get educated, you'll go to college, have a good job, a car,' ... That's bull. We don't understand that as he looks out of his eyes and sees Mike Tyson and others like him as heroes, he feels everything is instant. He thinks, I can gain a lifestyle without waiting 10, 15 years. It's easier to go out and commit a crime.

We tried to make them play faster. When you drive your car fast, you are going to get in more accidents.

We try to teach our kids. As much as I want to win a ballgame, I had two guys on the floor that I took off for that reason. Maybe they will learn a lesson. Maybe it will pay off for us later.

Villanova could easily be No. 1 in the country. There's nobody that shoots the ball as those four players on the floor, not even Duke.

There's so much parity in our league that they're all favorites. I think we're the underdogs. Put that out there.

There's no question about the difference he makes when he's on the floor. He's increased his minutes on the floor from 10 to 15 minutes. We're always trying to manage his time, getting him to come back slowly. He makes a lot of difference when he's underneath the basket .The other team has to respect him being there. We just didn't have that in earlier games.

The trend is we don't have a good team. They're a ranked team. They're supposed to beat us.

These youngsters came from not just a humble, but a terrible background. And this university made it possible to reach out and pull in people of that kind of background. That?s something that I came here for. And I?m hoping this university will stay its course.

Of course they earned them. They make more free throws per game than any other team in the country attempts. That's because they're a great team.

The national media hurts the A-10 more than any other league. We're always looked at as a stepchild. Our TV situation doesn't help recruiting. That's a major reason I play the type of schedule that I do, for recruiting.

something not out of the ordinary and blew it up.

No man stands up. You know what I said to him. I wouldn't want my mother to hear it.

Any game we win is an ugly win.

That's for me to know and you to find out,

You ought to be able to check the DNA of an idiot.

This is not a good team. It's fool's gold with our shooting. What happens when they don't shoot well? You have to have somebody to carry the day. This is just not a good team, not at all.

They made shots. It is just that simple. We couldn't stop them. We didn't put enough pressure on the ball, even though we stretched out the defense. We let guys get off, and we dug ourselves a hole early in the first half.

They're a great team. They know what they're doing. They're smart. Some teams are smart, but not tough. Some teams are tough, but not smart. This one's both. They've always been that way.

They?re not an ordinary team by any means. (The late) Jim Maloney said that shooters solve all your problems, and they have shooters. Villanova deserves to be No. 1 because no one can shoot the ball as well as the four players they have on the court, not even (No. 1) Duke.

For any stellar player in our conference to get hurt, I really feel for that. I'm sorry to hear that.

It's always a very traumatic time, but it is time. Temple gave me a chance to make my own decision and that's the great thing about it. Right now I'm faced with another problem with my wife, so it's the right time to go.

It's amazing to me that we don't seem to learn lessons when mistakes are made. ... Words that are spoken are simply lies and very few of us will call it like it is. ... Many of our leaders fail us. They find themselves saying things to make people feel good and many people fall for it.

It was a common foul. That was all it was. It was a hard foul that every player in the world takes and every coach in the world takes.

They just want to bounce the ball and dribble the ball, but I talk about things that are going to stay with them for the rest of their lives. Somewhere along the line, it will reverberate and they'll remember it.

They've got to learn how to finish games. We were fortunate enough to get a nice lead and we really didn't finish the way I wanted them to finish. We certainly should not have won.

Not just athletes, but guys who have an acumen, an ability to play this game.

I'm really depressed and upset. When you can't answer with your head, you try to use your physical ability. You can't play like that. You have to use your head.

I hope they straighten it out. I hope you get him back. Make him do something. Tie him to a chain and put him out there with the dogs and give him a bone with no meat on it. Do something. If you want me to come and put a whip on his (bleep), I'll do that. Tell him I said it. If you need me to fly up here and kick his (bleep), I'll do it.

I'm 73, ... I'll stay as long as my health is good and that's just the truth.

In all my years I've never had a team that's had this much talent in five players. But they seem to see a game out of a telescope instead of binoculars. They don't see the whole floor. They're penetrating when they should be passing. They're passing it when they should be penetrating. They're forgetting the role of every player, and that's to communicate with one another.

I'm just a blue-collar guy that goes to work, ... In any job I've ever had, I've never thought about a time when I would leave. I just go to work.

It has never been in me to run away from a challenge. Anytime somebody said they are waiting for me, I?m coming. You can bet on that. I?m going to be mean and ornery when I see something that is wrong. And I?m going to try to right it.

His heart is in the image of his coach.

How am I going to be when the bell rings for the following season? I don't care how old you are, that's always going to be something that's there in your head and in your heart. As long as you know that you're leaving the program in good hands, you can walk away and not have ill feelings.

I don't think so. Nobody is really ready for Duke. But were gonna show up.

(George Washington) is a talented ball club that plays very good defense. They come in fresh. They come in motivated. They love to break and get easy baskets, and we're going to have to form a cluster to rebound the ball.

I came here to recognize people at this university who gave a 50-year-old man a chance to come and coach.

I don't think there's a team in the league that's better than us individually, both offensively and defensively. But it takes a long time to get kids to play with energy as a team. Team offense and team defense, there's many teams better than us. They don't feed off one guy.

I am very, very sorry about this terrible tragedy. We are trying to reach out to his family. We are all very saddened about this.

I don't want to see a long parade of going around and celebrating...just do your job and just go on with your life. When you look at your life and put it in the right perspectives...you walk through that door and keep on moving.

I don't want to talk about that at all. We've been asked that question for the last five or six years. I've been asked that question ever since I came to Temple. We'll talk about that some other time.

For the minutes he played, he played well. I'm sure watching every minute he plays, because I don't want him to have a setback. He's still under doctor's care and he still takes medications. Very often you'll find him hyperventilating, and that's not good. We need him desperately, because we've been playing center by committee. That's not good. I don't like to do that.

You can't put your fingers in any hole to stop this team.

The guy that surprised me was Nardi. He was shooting from 25 feet out.

You've got to have a Temple person who knows this university.

The league's trying to make sure that we continue to sell ourselves. When our league plays top teams in the country, that's how we're going to get it done.

I will be here and be around, watching over you. You can bet on that. I'll find a way to get some peanuts and take some beer and tell some lies.

I don't want a team that escapes from reality and escapes from the truth. I don't want people who are always escaping, who always have a story and are always conniving. An ostrich tries to escape from the truth. Isn't an ostrich the thing that puts its head in the sand? But guess what's sticking out when he does it? It's ass, that's what. I don't want a team like that......Because when you have a team like that and trouble comes, that team will not face the trouble.

I have said all along that I would know when it would be time to step down, and now is that time.

The fans are bad everywhere you go, with language, and with behavior. You can't put enough cops in the stands, but you ought to give the cops cameras, give people cameras, so they can take a picture of the idiot and you can identify him.

I have said all along that I would know when it would be time to step down and now is that time. I want to thank Temple University, its fans and community for allowing me to do what I love for so long. It has never been a job for me, but a passion.

As long as I'm in this city, I'm a lightning rod, ... People don't like me for a lot of reasons and I create all of them. I love it when they hate me. All my closest friends hate me.

I always say to my guys, 'The most important day of your life is today. This very minute is the most important of you life. You must win this minute. You must win this day. And tomorrow will take care of itself.