Temple University Athletics
2000-01 Season Review in Brief
8.1.01 | Men's Basketball
In his 19th season at the Temple helm, head coach John Chaney guided the Owls through a tumultuous up-and-down campaign in which the Owls won the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament and advanced to the "Elite Eight" of the NCAA Tournament ... Unranked prior to the campaign, Temple gained national notoriety by winning their first four straight and advancing to the championship final of the Preseason NIT ... There, the Owls fell to top-ranked Duke, the eventual national champion, 63-61, at Madison Square Garden in New York City ... Six more losses followed, and the Owls, ranked 15th after the narrow loss to Duke, found themselves out of the polls for good with a 4-7 record ... The team rebounded with six straight wins, including a 4-0 start in the Atlantic 10 Conference ... But the Owls could manage just four wins over the next nine outings and stood at 14-12 overall and 8-4 in the A-10 with just four games left in the regular season ... A resounding 84-52 win at Massachusetts turned the tables, as the Owls went on a 10-game win streak leading to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament ... Along the way Temple won the Atlantic 10 Tournament, which included a dramatic 77-76 win over George Washington in the semifinal-round ... Seeded No. 11 in the NCAA Tournament's South Region, Temple dispatched sixth-seeded Texas, third-seeded Florida and seventh-seeded Penn State ... The season ended in a 69-62 loss to defending national champion and No. 1 regional seed Michigan State in the South Region Final at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta ... The Owls wound up ranked No. 16 in the final ESPN/USA Today national coaches poll ... Junior guard Lynn Greer was named to the All-Atlantic 10 Conference first team, the A-10 All Tournament Team and the All-NCAA South Region Team ... Junior center Kevin Lyde was named to the All-Atlantic 10 Conference second team, the A-10 All-Tournament Team and the All-NCAA South Region Team ... Senior guard Quincy Wadley was named to the All-Atlantic 10 Conference third team, as well as the A-10 All-Tournament team ... Freshman David Hawkins was named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team ... In May, it was announced that coach Chaney had been elected for induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, scheduled for Oct. 5 in Springfield, Mass.
