Fran Dunphy Quotations

When your opportunity comes, it's not what you do right as much as it's what you don't do wrong.

We have a situation where we try to look at practice times that might fit for guys, who might have an hour on Tuesday or an hour on Wednesday. In that hour we may only get six or seven or eight guys.

I don't know but I'd sure like to pay to see that game.

I'd be delighted if we could get a lot more of those opportunities now that I'm at Penn -- sorry, Temple. First of many times, probably.

I am excited about the opportunity to coach at Temple University and look forward to the challenges that lie ahead in keeping Owl basketball among the nation's elite programs.

I don't understand what the problem is. To me, it's just a matter of respect. If the athletic department wants to honor or pay tribute to an important media icon like Chucky, then we have to value and prepare for such a colossal undertaking.

He saw the doctor today ... and he's going to have to go slow for a while.

He has a great feel for the game. He knows where the ball is coming off the rim, and he has great hands.

He'll remember it, which is the difficult part. He should never question how much heart and desire and hard work he's put into this. He deserves an opportunity to get one of these wins.

He'll have played against some of the best players in the country, so hopefully it will help his game as he plays the guys in our league as well.

We took advantage of the fact that they had a couple of guys that didn't shoot it as well as they are capable of. For the most part, we did a pretty good job.

He was right were he needed to be all the time.

Harvard had a tough loss last week. I think they'll be real eager to put that one behind them and come out ready to play.

It is a daunting task to try to fill these shoes. To try to be a great representative of Temple University and to continue to be a great representative of Philadelphia college basketball.

I thought Friedrich?s three-point play in the first half was huge. We were a struggling basketball team at that time. It really settled us. And from that point on, I thought we ran a little bit of a better offense.

I think you might want to give Villanova credit for that, but we also had some pretty good looks, the ball just didn't go.

I thought they had some pretty good looks, and they just didn't go in the basket.

I think we were timely in our shots dropping tonight, and that's what you gotta do if you're going to win a game like this on the road. It's a terrific win for us, no doubt about it.

I will not be as profound, or as prophetic. John had a great impact on me. I consider him a great friend. But to follow John Chaney is a very daunting task.

Our whole defensive thrust was better that last 10 minutes or so. It was a big stretch for us. From that point on, I thought we really played terrific basketball.

Our defense wasn't good, and our offense was worse.

Steve is our best post-position defender. We would have liked to have him in there all the time and hopefully limit the things Steven Smith does.

I wish that was the only problem we had.

I wish my job was that easy. The biggest quality of the Texas team is their balance, not just a few players.

I think our shots were timely tonight. That's what you have to do to win a tough game like this on the road against a good team. You've got to be timely.

That's two real good wins for us, there's no question. We feel very fortunate to have won both games.

We have obviously some very bright kids who can do some high-level academic work. But when it comes to playing basketball, nobody cares. Unless we do a good job, nobody's going to appreciate the kind of people that we are or the kind of students that we are.

We have to prepare that they are going to play the 50-point half on offense unless we guard them extremely well.

We need to keep him off the glass number one. He's stepping away from the basket and making jump shots, so we have to pay attention to that detail. When he does post up, he's got some pretty good inside moves as well.

We had one stretch of very inconsistent offense, and making poor choices. You can't give that team a 21-point lead. We didn't shoot well, obviously, but it would be wrong if you didn't credit Villanova's defense for a lot of it.

Those are two good players, and if we can limit their damage that they do to us, we'll feel like we've done a good job.

We have great respect for Aldridge, but we wish he was their only weapon.

We would have liked to have won more, but I thought we had great opportunities during those years.

We're putting a lot of energy into not allowing him to score.

The part that really makes it difficult is that they're pretty good. That's the biggest thing.

When we lost to Boston College (85-65) in the first round of the tournament last year, we played right with them except for a seven- or eight-minute span. You cannot afford to have gaps in a game with Texas because they're capable of overwhelming you in a very short period of time.

We're talking about Texas, we're looking forward to Texas. I coach 15 kids right now and we're looking forward to competing in the NCAA Tournament.

What are we, about 302nd? We're not very good at foul shooting, and we're going to concentrate on it a little more. We certainly need to improve, especially as we get into the latter stages of the season.

We just needed to close out the last 20 minutes and play it very much like the first 20 minutes.

We went to Duke this year as decided underdogs. Our job is to prepare our guys; we watched a number of segments of film.

Everybody stepped up. That's what it would take to win a game like this.

The Yale guys really turned up the screws defensively. We needed to be more patient. We needed to be exact in what we were doing.

Sometimes it's contagious; you make them and everybody makes them.

Defensively, we were just about as good as we could be. Offensively, when the separation occurred, it was because we did some things out of character.

Defensively, we were about as good as we can be. When the separation occurred, we did things that were out of character for us. We had three open looks we didn't make. We had to have those to beat a team like Texas.

This is a wonderful opportunity and now it's up to me to seize it and surround myself with some pretty good guys.

It was critical for us. I thought our guys did a good job early on, but you know they are going to make a run.

It's a great opportunity to come to Hawaii and not only enjoy the history and tradition of the place, but also to play college basketball. So we feel pretty fortunate to do both.

It'll be a pro-Texas crowd, but it's a challenge no matter where the game is played.

It was nice to see Oz make his first jumper of the game and have it be a three, and we put some space between us and them.

I've got a chance to be reborn again.

It's weighing on a lot of peoples' minds up at Cornell. I know coach Donahue is struggling with it, but I think he's doing a good job of trying to go on.

They can beat you inside, or go outside. We are going to have to mix up a few defenses to try and get them off rhythm.

It was a fractured game because of all the fouling. There's not a good flow to the game, but you have to battle through it some time.

Things change in a two-year period of time.

I'm guessing I just got divorced from those kids. And that's not an easy thing. And while I get divorced from those guys on one hand now I accept another group of guys with open arms and I will do my best to do everything I can to help you be better.

I'm proud of our efforts. We worked hard, played hard, played against a very hard basketball team and did a great job.

If you allow him to get off, he can definitely hurt you.

I think our league has a philosophy and a stance on what they think athletics should mean to their institutions and overall as a league. I think that's what they want to do, and I respect that greatly.

I think our guys are pretty bright. They understand how important the game is and how Princeton is playing. They respect everybody in this league and understand how hard it is to win the league.

His impact on me has been great. He's been a great friend and someone I have counted on for counsel a number of times in my career.

He's just a good basketball player, and the opportunity presented itself and he's done a good job with his opportunity. All you want from your young guys when they're given that chance is to play their very best. It looks like he's really stepped his game up.

He's really the guy they rely on the most for leadership.

For the most part, I was very proud of our effort. Before the game, we talked a little bit about having tremendous respect for this program, but we couldn't let that become a fear factor. I thought our guys did a pretty good job of understanding that concept.

All I could think of was, I can't believe he's leaving this place. And I remember thinking that whoever takes this job and follows him has to be a little crazy.

The guard play on both teams was, and is, extraordinary. The Nelson-West combination with Pat Carroll as a shooter was phenomenal. Villanova has great guard play, too. Neither one was a box of chocolates to play against. The knowledge of the game and the way they carry themselves is what you want to see.