Hlas: McCaffery vs. Temple in NCAAs, The Sequel

When the word "Temple" came up on the NCAA tournament pairings television show Sunday, smiles came to the faces of two of Fran McCaffery's best former players.

'I saw that and I was like 'OK, you should be able to handle Temple,' ' Daren Queenan said with a laugh.

'I texted Franny last night,' Mike Polaha said Monday. 'I told him to give Temple hell.'

Queenan and Polaha rank first and third, respectively, on Lehigh University's all-time men's basketball scoring list. Both played for McCaffery's Mountain Hawks team that lost to 77-64 to Temple in the first round of the 1988 NCAA tournament. McCaffery's Iowa squad faces Temple in an NCAA first-round game Friday in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Lehigh was a No. 16 seed in '88. It won the East Coast Conference tournament to earn its NCAA berth, only to face 30-1, No. 1-seed Temple. The Owls had future NBA players in Mark Macon and Tim Perry. Lehigh's players didn't have athletic scholarships.

'We actually played them tough until the last four or five minutes,' Queenan said. 'They just had more depth, more height, and more size.'

It's 60 miles from Temple's campus in Philadelphia to Lehigh's in Bethlehem, Pa. McCaffery is a Philadelphia native.

'That game was a big, big deal, and it was a big deal for a lot of us as local kids,' said Polaha, a senior finance director for Johnson & Johnson in his hometown of Allentown, Pa., just seven miles from Lehigh.

Scouting Temple: Owls boast pedestrian stats, toughness in clutch

Queenan was a small forward who scored 2,703 points and had 1,013 rebounds, both school career-highs. Polaha was a guard who tallied 1,969 points. Queenan once scored 49 points in a game. Polaha once scored 42. In that 1987-88 season, Queenan averaged 28.4 points, Polaha 20.5.

McCaffery was promoted from assistant coach to head coach at Lehigh in 1985 when he was 26, making him the youngest head coach in Division I basketball.

'He was a very young man,' said Polaha, 'but very mature with a very clear vision. He knew how he wanted us to play.

'You could see his confidence and swagger, but in a very good way. He had that Philly competitive fire. It really transmitted to us, gave us a bolt of confidence. We just competed, and I think every team he's had since has done the same.'

Queenan, 49, is a financial advisor at TIAA Financial Services in Ballantyne, N.C., just outside Charlotte. He grew up in Norristown, Pa., 20 miles from Philadelphia.

'You wouldn't believe how many coaches told me Daren couldn't play for them,' McCaffery told Sports Illustrated in 1988. 'Every coach makes mistakes, but when you say a kid can't play, and he scores 3,000 points, that's a mistake.'

'Fran took me out of a game once,' Queenan said, 'and he said 'You're not here to pass. You're here to shoot. That's why we recruited you to this team.'

'He had a way of connecting with players. He instilled confidence in me.'

Queenan was a sophomore in McCaffery's first season as Lehigh's head coach, 1985-86. The Mountain Hawks played Iowa in Carver-Hawkeye Arena that season, losing 89-68.

'I went up against (then-freshman) Roy Marble,' Queenan said, 'and Fran just said 'Show what you can do.'

'He looked like he was more relaxed then. Now when I see him on TV it's 'Oh my God, he's got gray hair!'

Joking aside, what Queenan and McCaffery both know is Philadelphia college players and teams show up. McCaffery was a Philadelphia high school star and played point guard for two University of Pennsylvania teams that went to the NCAAs.

'Philadelphia has hard-nosed players,' said Queenan. 'You've got to play hard against them. If they get a whiff that you're not playing hard, that's when they get very scrappy.

'As long as Iowa matches the energy level, it should be fine.'