After Explorers’ season ends, Fran Dunphy talks future: ‘I want whatever is best for La Salle’

NEW YORK — Fran Dunphy is going to take a few days.

His La Salle Explorers fell Wednesday night in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, with Daeshon Shepherd’s putback attempt falling to the floor at the buzzer in a 75-73 defeat to St. Bonaventure. Season No. 32 leading a Big 5 bench for the Delaware County native came to a crashing end, and so the immediate attention shifted to what happens next.

Will Dunphy, 75, return for a 33rd?

“I’ll sit down with the powers that be,” he said. “I want whatever is best for La Salle.”

He was asked to make an opening statement when he sat down inside the Barclays Center interview room, and so he did.

“The abruptness of ends of seasons are amazing to me,” Dunphy said. “I want to go to practice tomorrow. I want to play another game with these guys. When it all ends, it’s hard. It’s one of the hardest things I think we do as coaches.”

He talked about being proud of his guys, with two seniors, Jhamir Brickus and Anwar Gill, seated next to him. The Explorers had been picked 15th in the Atlantic 10 and nabbed the 10th seed. They won a game here Tuesday after winning a pair last season. They led inside of three minutes to play Wednesday. Touchdown underdogs, they were tied with 1 minute, 31 seconds to go. Dunphy made a switch out of a timeout and went to a zone, but St. Bonaventure’s Chad Venning found his way to a basket in the post. One last reach into the bag of tricks couldn’t get the underdog Explorers over the hump.

Dunphy said he kept “going back to the abruptness.”

“When you’re their age, it’s different,” he said, referring to Brickus and Gill. “When you’re my age, it’s a daunting task to then take a step away and think about what these last days were like, coming to a place like this and to be in an Atlantic 10 tournament setting, to win our first game as we did yesterday, then to come to where we needed to be at the end of the game. They just made the right plays at the right time. We were close, but we didn’t get over that hump. The abruptness of these seasons, they just leave you empty.”

Dunphy indicated that he had a contract for next season. La Salle does not talk publicly about personnel and contracts. Dunphy said he will take the next few days and sit down with athletic director Ashwin Puri and school president Daniel J. Allen, who he said he had “great faith in.”

“I just enjoyed being with these guys,” he continued, referring to his players, before a brief pause. A new question was on its way to Dunphy, but you could hear him mutter: “Very much. Very much.”

» READ MORE: La Salle honors legacy of Tom Gola in final game at arena: ‘This place will always have him’

“They’ve been great, and the kids have been tremendous,” Dunphy said. “Every day, every game has been great.”

This one was, too. La Salle had advanced in this tournament after winning Tuesday at the end on a tough shot in the post from the 5-foot-11 Brickus. The Explorers are undersized and sometimes outclassed, but there are few teams capable of matching their toughness, with Brickus and guard running mate Khalil Brantley capable of keeping them in every game the way they did Wednesday night.

Dunphy has spent the last two years leading the basketball team at his alma mater because who else would?

“Fran is a really good friend,” St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt said after the game. “He took that job when no one else wanted it. He stepped up and came out of retirement. He’s a great coach and a better man. He’s done a wonderful job with those guys. He knows what he’s doing … even though he’s old.”

» READ MORE: La Salle special assistant Joe Mihalich’s inspiring road back to the bench honored by the PSWA

Later, Brickus was asked what it’s meant to have Dunphy coaching him the last two seasons. No one knows what the future will hold. Dunphy may or may not be the coach anymore, and Brickus and any good player like him could be gone in the portal.

“It’s been lovely having a coach that not only worries about you on the court but off the court, [it] means a lot,” Brickus said. “You don’t find too many dudes like that. Definitely playing for him and him allowing me to be me, says a lot and says that he trusts me. He’s a legendary coach and I wouldn’t want to be playing for anyone else.”

“I enjoyed the [expletive] out of every single day with these guys,” Dunphy said later with a smile.

But then he went back to the way these seasons just seem to end, the conclusions coming out of nowhere.

“The abruptness of these seasons … OK, you’re playing, you’re juiced, you’re ready to go,” Dunphy said. “We win and we’re going to play a game tomorrow … Now what do you do? Where do you go? There’s no gym to go to tomorrow. No practice to go to tomorrow.”

He’d go if he could. But will he coach a practice again? Will he open La Salle’s new arena? He’ll take a few days to decide. No decision needed to be made Wednesday night. He deserves all the time he needs.