Chaney: I Should Be the Black Knight

Temple Coach John Chaney yells during practice, screams in the locker room and--in his own words--”is fussing and cussing” as much as former Indiana coach Bobby Knight did on the sidelines.

So Chaney is disappointed that he’s not compared to the hot-tempered Knight.

“If they would take some snapshots of things that I do to [players], they would compare me to Bobby Knight,” Chaney said, mostly tongue in cheek. “I’ve done more things to them than he ever did to his players.”

“I should be the black Knight. I’m a little jealous.”

Chaney and his sideline antics--whether real or exaggerated--will be on view again Friday, when 11th-seeded Temple faces seventh-seeded Penn State.

*

Plenty of good seats are available at Atlanta.

With four teams from north of the Mason-Dixon line playing in the cavernous Georgia Dome, the regional is drawing little interest locally.

Michigan State, Penn State, Temple and Gonzaga are not the most attractive teams in the South, and with the four schools an average of nearly 1,000 miles from Atlanta, fans are expected to stay away in droves.

The situation could sour the Sweet 16 for the NCAA and South Regional organizers, who are counting on it as a dress rehearsal for next year’s Final Four in the Georgia Dome.

About 24,000 ticket packages had been sold for the three games by Wednesday, and Steve Orsini, the Georgia Tech senior associate athletic director who’s managing the South Regional, said he’ll be happy if that many show up for the games. That would not even fill half the Georgia Dome, which will be configured for the 55,000 seats that will be available for next year’s Final Four.