Update: Maybe Temple's moribund, soon to be 0-11, football team should make the goon their starting linebacker. Temple will not fire Chaney over this incident. However, they might fire Chaney because the team has done quite poorly the past few years (Can you say N-I-T, N-I-T, N-I-T). This year's Temple team was probably the worse team in decades. They lost to all the good non-conference teams, then lost to just about all the bad in-conference teams. They are not much better than LaSalle or Drexel these days. This incident simply gives Temple the impetus to can Chaney. It's verrrry similar to how Indiana shanked General Knight (although Knight truly is a bully). Of course, we can thank ESPN for this shameful beating of a dead horse over and over and over...You know a sports story has jumped the shark when ESPN shells out $$$ to play some awful parody song (which they did with Chaney) on the dreadful Mike&Mike Radio Show on ESPN (almost tempts me to put the dial over to FM Hip-Hop). Now that Temple went quitely in the NIT, ESPN can focus all their shrillness on the Baseball Steroid Scandal they helped create and engender.

It IS a big story, and that is what will get Chaney fired. Coaches, at every level I've ever watched, coached and played at, utilize a goon from time to time. It's called making adjustments to what the officials are calling. The rule, which is not consistently adhered to by all (read any) referees states that the person setting the pick cannot initiate contact with the defender either by moving, leaning or reaching. There is an excellent reason for the rule, it prevents injury to the defender, as magellan correctly points out. As a game progresses, it becomes obvious that the refs are not going to change their pattern of allowing a team to get away with this infraction, and Chaney has never been a pillar of self-control, ask John Callipari, from his days at Rhode Island. What is unfortunate here is that a serious injury occurred, but isn't that what the unenforced rule was supposed to prevent, also? So, Chaney, as head coach, bears the brunt of responsibility for that injury. However, so do the referees, and so does the NCAA. The incredibly irresponsible ESPN, much like the rest of the media, prostitutes itself for ratings by showing only the part for which Chaney is responsible, making a pariah out of him. A reasonable person might expect a sports network to cover the whole story in a fair, analytical and incisive manner. But they don't, and Chaney's toast, and college basketball loses a great head coach who has done more than most for his players and his employer. And ESPN's rating rise.

The media won't let this story die. Chaney deserves one more year.

I love Saint Joe's I also still Love John Chaney and would love to play for him

This is a real bummer of a story, and I think that anyone who isn't from Philadelphia is going to have a hard time understanding why Chaney shouldn't lose his job. But I am from Philadelphia, so let me try and take a shot at putting this incident in some context. First of all, St. Joes and Temple (along with Villanova, Penn, and La Salle), compete in an all Philadelphia basketball conference called the Big Five. Big Five games are brutal, often bloody affairs, and determine bragging rights for the city's basketball community. To give a sense for the intensity of these games, the series between St. Joes and Villanova is referred to as the Holy War. These games are played with the intensity of NCAA tournament games, but with an added edge / hatred that only someone who has been to a Big 5 game will understand. Second, St. Joes does set dirty picks. They are a team of jump shooters, and the only way that jump shooters can get their shots off against defender's like Temple's is to run off picks. Chaney has a right to be upset about dirty picks, as they put his players at risk ( a buddy of mine tore his acl on a dirty pick). Third, John Chany is a pillar of the city's basketball community and has positively impacted more young people than most other college hoops coaches combined. He is fanatical about discipline and academics - conducting his practices at 5AM. He suspended his best player for a game this season for not wearing a ski cap on the short walk from the team hotel to the bus (disrespectful to the team, as the player could get sick). 4) John Chaney is crazy. With just two exceptions (including this one), this crazy has always been a lovable, passionate crazy - not a dangerous crazy. Ending another player's career on a dirty foul is an awful offense, even worse when it comes from a coach. But I think you have to look at Chaney's body of work. My guess is that Martelli will come out with a public statement of forgiveness on behalf of St. Joes in the next couple of days, and things will be start to heal in Philadelphia. What would be a tragedy is if Chaney loses his job because of the outrage of those who 1) are not from philly; 2) do not follow philly basketball; and 3) perhaps don't like Chaney's politics. We'll have to see what happens...