Believe it

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After a month of rumors and speculation, I'm ready to say the dust has settled: Temple has a new basketball coach and Penn will have to find one.

I don't have any of the gory details, and Fran Dunphy may not yet have signed on the dotted line with the Owls, but this is a done deal. This morning the Quakers coach of 17 years gave his farewell address to a few hundred friends and supporters.

He's thought long and hard about this. He's spent many nights taking long walks with his dog undoubtedly pondering his future. He reminded everyone today how much he cares about attention to detail -- even mentioning how he counted the ring of church bells as he was walking through campus to make sure the time was correctly chimed 11 and not 10 because of Daylight Saving Time. This isn't something he's doing on a whim, and as competitive a person as Dunphy wouldn't make such a change if he didn't think he could win and make a difference.

Dunphy wouldn't have stressed the importance of seizing opportunities, accepting change and moving on if he wasn't. No surprise, then, that there were an awful lot of heartfelt hugs when the show was over.

"You're never too old to change and to learn new things," Dunphy said to the crowd.

There will certainly be a lot of new things to learn next year in the Big 5. This is just the beginning.