Adam Fisher: John Chaney 'smiling down on us' as Temple wins - ESPN

FORT WORTH, Texas — With his team on the cusp of its first trip to the NCAA tournament since 2019 after an improbable win over Florida Atlantic in the AAC tournament semifinals on Saturday, Temple coach Adam Fisher said he was thinking about John Chaney, the Owls coaching legend who died three years ago, following the victory.

"[Coach] Chaney is smiling down on us," he told ESPN after Temple's thrilling 74-73 victory over FAU, a Final Four squad a year ago.

With a win over UAB on Sunday, Fisher would complete one of the greatest in-season turnarounds in recent college basketball history, just a month after his team lost 10 games in a row. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, Temple (5-13 American) would tie Holy Cross (2016) as the only teams to make the NCAA tournament with 13 conference losses. Saturday's win was also the second-largest upset over the past 30 seasons for Temple, which was a 14.5-point underdog.

Saturday's chaotic game ended as FAU star Johnell Davis committed a turnover on his errant pass and Temple's Hysier Miller dove to the floor for the loose ball as time expired to seal the win.

It was a fortuitous moment for a program that had not experienced that bliss for the majority of the season. Last month, Temple had an 8-17 record — 1-11 in the American — after a 10-game losing streak.

And earlier this month the school announced that it had launched an investigation after a gambling watchdog company flagged a matchup between UAB and Temple for suspicious gambling activity.

Fisher, a first-year head coach, said his team stayed «locked in» amid its challenges as it orchestrated an 8-2 record in its last 10 games.

«We use the term loose and locked in,» he said after the game. «If you're at our