page_title: Temple University
section_title: Men's basketball
hierarchical_section_title: Temple University / Athletics / Men's basketball
caption_attribution_description: English: The Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University.
context_page_description: Temple University is a state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell. On May 12, 1888, it was renamed the Temple College of Philadelphia. By 1907, the institution revised its institutional status and was incorporated as a university.
  As of 2019, about 40,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students were enrolled at the university. Temple is among the world's largest providers of professional education, preparing the largest body of professional practitioners in Pennsylvania.
context_section_description: The Temple Men's basketball program is ranked 5th in all-time NCAA wins with 1,903 starting the 2017-2018 season. Only Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, and Duke have a higher total.
  Temple is recognized as having won the first-ever National Collegiate basketball championship in 1938, under Coach James Usilton. That Owls team, which finished with a 23–2 record, won the inaugural National Invitation Tournament by routing Colorado 60-36 in the championship final. Because the NCAA Tournament was not held until the following year, Temple's NIT championship earned the Owls the first national college basketball title. During the 1950s, the Temple basketball team made two NCAA Final Four appearances (1956, 1958) under legendary Head Coach Harry Litwack. Litwack would be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame after concluding a 21-year coaching career that included 373 wins.
  Head Coach John Chaney, who is also a Hall of Fame coach, won a total of 724 career games and took Temple to the NCAA tournament 17 times. His 1987–88 Owls team entered the NCAA tournament ranked No. 1 in the country, and he has reached the Elite Eight on five occasions. He was consensus national coach of the year in 1988.
  On April 10, 2006, University of Pennsylvania head coach and La Salle University alumnus Fran Dunphy was named the new Temple's Men's Head Basketball coach after Chaney's retirement in conclusion of the 2006 season. Dunphy had coached the Quakers for 17 straight seasons prior to the move. Dunphy and the Owls won three straight Atlantic-10 tournaments in 2008, 2009 and 2010, with the third marking a conference-leading ninth A-10 title. In the 2011-12 season, the Owls won the A-10 regular season title.
  Heading into the 2015-16 season, the program owned a 116-year win-loss record of 1,849-1,024. The Owls' history also includes 48 postseason tournament appearances (31 NCAAs, 18 NITs), two Final Four appearances (1956 and 1958) under Harry "The Chief" Litwack, five regional finals in the last 22 years under John Chaney (1988, 1991, 1993, 1999 and 2001), NIT championships in 1938 and 1969, and two Naismith Basketball Association Hall of Fame Coaches in Litwack and Chaney. Temple is one of eight schools that have competed in the last six NCAA Tournaments, as of 2013.
caption: Temple University Liacouras Center
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