Different coaches have different philosophies.
St. John’s coach Mike Jarvis, for example, said the other day that few teams in this pressure-packed NCAA Tournament enjoy the ride. He said the journey is what’s the most fun, what players should treasure most.
At Temple, where the legendary John Chaney rules, fun is not part of the equation.
“You don’t have fun playing basketball for Temple,” Temple guard Rasheed Brokenborough deadpanned yesterday. “It’s a business. Coach [Chaney] doesn’t have us out there laughing. On the road it’s practice and the hotel. That’s it. We don’t even go out to eat. We have room service.”
Brokenborough’s backcourt teammate Pepe Sanchez, the team’s MVP point guard from Argentina, concurred.
“No, we don’t have fun,” Sanchez said. “We have the whole summer to have fun. That’s what coach [Chaney] tells us. This is a time for business. There is no time for fun and laughing.”
Chaney himself said, “At Temple, we do things the hard way.”
To listen is to understand how serious Temple is about its basketball and the way it’s taking tonight’s NCAA Tournamament East Regional game against Purdue at the Meadowlands (10 p.m., Ch. 2).
The 23-10 Owls, who are seeded sixth, defeated Kent and Cincinnati to get here.
The 21-12 Boilermakers, who are seeded 10th, defeated Texas and upset Miami to get here.
“I keep challenging them,” Chaney said of his players. “I keep raising the ante, telling them you only have one chance to do it.”
Sanchez, whom Purdue coach Gene Keady called “the glue” of Temple’s team, played 77 minutes in the first two NCAA games, scoring 29 points, dishing out 10 assists, turning the ball over only three times, making seven steals and grabbing eight rebounds. He averages 7.4 points and 5.8 assists a game.
Mark Karcher, a 6-foot-5 sophomore forward, leads the team with an average of 13.0 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. Lamont Barnes averages 12.9 points and 6.8 rebounds.
The key with Temple, of course, is its 2-3 zone trap defense, with which the team controls the tempo of its games.