Duke Blue Devils face Temple, Dunphy tonight

Temple coach Fran Dunphy

At Temple tonight, the 12-1 Duke Blue Devils will continue through the Penn Quakers segment of their schedule. Having smashed Penn coach Jerome Allen’s team on Sunday, 85-55 in Durham, No. 5 Duke now faces former Penn coach Fran Dunphy, who now leads the Temple Owls (7 p.m., ESPN2).

Dunphy coached the Quakers for 17 seasons, winning 310 of 473 games, before taking over for John Chaney at Temple in 2006-07. The Owls (9-3) have a more varied defense under Dunphy than was the case with Chaney and his trademark match-up zone. Little else has changed, especially the record. Dunphy’s past two Temple teams went 29-6 and 26-8.

Like Mike Krzyzewski, Dunphy’s early coaching roots included a stop at West Point in the early 1970s. Before Krzyzewski landed the Army post in 1975-76, Dunphy was an assistant for Dan Dougherty. By the time Krzyzewski got the Army job and hired Pete Gaudet and Bob Dwyer (former Wake Forest guard), Dunphy had left to take the Malvern Prep School job in Philadelphia.

The Owls’ three losses this season have been to Texas (77-65), Bowling Green (67-64) and Purdue (78-67). The most impressive win was over Villanova (78-67). Temple stopped Penn (73-67) to begin the schedule. In a 66-63 win over Delaware on Dec. 30, Temple’s experienced perimeter - seniors Ramone Moore and Juan Fernandez and junior Khailf Wyatt - collectively had their worst shooting game of the season, going 9-for-35.

The game against Duke will be Temple’s first of the season in Philly’s 20,000-plus seat Wells Fargo Center. The majority of the home games are played in on-campus Liacouras Center (10,200).

-- Caulton Tudor