Drew
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Aaron McKie has come full circle, making the decision to take the Temple job an easy one
"I hope people understand he is not a good man. He is a great man," John Chaney recently said of McKie, Fran Dunphy's successor.
theathletic.com
He had time to prepare, an entire year to be exact. At the 2018 Final Four, The Athletic’s Seth Davis broke the news that Fran Dunphy would retire at the end of the following season, with McKie as his successor. But reared on the basketball etiquette of Ellerbee and Chaney, where there’s only room for selflessness and team, McKie never thought to use his year in waiting to practice head coaching. He ceded to Dunphy, just as he had for his previous five years as an assistant, the only noticeable change coming when McKie was asked to attend meetings with athletics staff that he otherwise wouldn’t have been included in. “Shizz (Alston) said to me, ‘I’m so curious what your style is going to be,’ and I realized, so am I,’’ McKie says. His old coaches have given him sage advice: It’s fine to take a little from each of them, but ultimately he has to be his own man. McKie is just fine with that. Though he’s overwhelmed at the thought of living up to the standards and reputations of his predecessors and mentors, he is not afraid to do the job. He likes to play the sheep, he says, but he’s not lacking for confidence.
McKie knows a few things for sure. The Owls will not practice before sunrise. “Couldn’t sell that today,’’ he says. “No way.’’ He will redecorate the offices. He will play uptempo but rely on defense, and though he will pull no punches, he will not coach as he was coached. He can’t. Even Chaney agrees with that. A 30-minute phone call with the Hall of Famer invariably dovetails into a conversation about “kids today,’’ Chaney bemoaning that he believes athletes now are coddled far too much, unwilling to accept criticism as a part of improving.
That’s not to say that McKie doesn’t believe there is a place for the lessons he’s learned. “Believe in them, just as someone believed in me,’’ he says, summarizing what has brought him here, full circle to the head coach’s chair at Temple University. “If you do, who knows what can happen? Look at me.’’
Not sure how he will do at TU but hope he does well. Nice read on a good man.
