Congratulating the Temple University men's basketball team for winning their 2,000th game.

Congratulating the Temple University men’s basketball team for winning their 2,000th game. WHEREAS, The Temple University men’s basketball team, the sixth winningest NCAA Division I men’s collegiate basketball program of all time, is the flagship athletic program of the university. The Temple Owls have won thirty conference championships, thirty three NCAA Tournament appearances; seven Sweet Sixteen appearances; eight Elite Eight appearances; two Final Four appearances; and were the inaugural winners of the 1938 National Invitational Tournament (NIT); and WHEREAS, A quarter of these victories, 516 to be exact, came under the leadership of Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coach John Chaney, who led the Owls from 1982 to 2006. Chaney coached only one losing season during his over two decades as head coach, winning ten A-10 conference championships, making seventeen NCAA tournaments, and appearing in the Elite Eight five times; and WHEREAS, John Chaney was the architect of a matchup zone defense that stymied opposing offenses for decades. He became known for life lessons, tough nonconference scheduling, and his infamous 5:30 a.m. practices. He was a blunt, unapologetic, tough coach who demanded excellence on and off the court; and WHEREAS, The Temple Owls are a staple program of the Philadelphia Big 5 association of men’s college basketball programs in Philadelphia, with twenty eight Big 5 titles to their name, second most in the Big 5 behind only Villanova; and WHEREAS, Temple’…