Mark of greatness! Looking back at Temple's 1991 NCAA Tournament team

MARK MACON scored more points (2,609) than all but two players in Big 5 history: Lionel Simmons (3,217) and Michael Brooks (2,628).

He's the only man who played basketball for Temple since 1958 to have his number retired.

In his college farewell he had 31 on 12-for-23 shooting to go with nine rebounds as 10th-seeded Temple lost to top seed North Carolina, 75-72, at the Meadowlands in the East Regional final. His 30-footer at the buzzer hit off the front of the rim.

I asked UNC's Rick Fox what he was thinking when that shot was in the air. Without hesitation he replied, "I thought it was going in, because it seemed like everything else he put up did."

Later, at the podium, coach John Chaney got emotional talking about how he wanted to get to the Final Four "for Mark," when of course everybody else wanted to get there for Chaney.

That was the first season I covered Temple hoops. The first of many, as it turned out. Chaney would get to three more Final Eights: as a No. 7 seed two years later, as a 6 seed in 1999 and as an 11 seed in 2001. He lost to a No. 1 seed (Michigan, Duke and finally defending national champion Michigan State) each time.

On Sunday afternoon, the university celebrated the 25th anniversary of that 1990-91 team at halftime of a win over South Florida at the Liacouras Center. Nine people from that group were there, most notably Macon and Chaney, who will be forever linked. Macon was the prized recruit from Michigan who really gave North Broad Street a national identity. Chaney was the guy who gave him a "license to miss."

In their NCAA opener the Owls beat Purdue by 17 at Maryland, where they then also topped 15th-seeded Richmond by 13. In the Sweet 16 they got past 14th-ranked Oklahoma State in overtime. Few gave them much of a chance against the Tar Heels.

"It was like coming full circle," Macon said.

Four years earlier, when he was the national freshman of the year, the top-ranked Owls had lost at the Meadowlands to second-seeded Duke, 63-53. Macon went 6-for-29 in that Final Eight.

It's still the numbers that some, if not many, think of whenever his name comes up.

"I can recount every second of that game, and I've never watched it," Macon said. "I don't look back, because I don't have to. I know exactly what happened. I was the one that had the media hype."

As Mike Vreeswyk, who was a junior in 1988, likes to point out, he and Howie Evans shot a combined 4-for-20 that day. "I thank Mark all the time for taking me off the hook," he's joked.

But perception is whatever you want to make it.

I once asked current Temple coach Fran Dunphy what he thought about Macon. "When I was at Penn, and we weren't very good then, I told my kids never to throw the ball to his side of the court," he explained. "Because bad things would happen."

Macon never did much in the NBA, after being drafted with the eighth pick by Denver. Maybe that gets held against him. Or maybe it's the fact that Chaney gave him such a lengthy leash, for justifiable reasons.

"He validated so much of what we were involved in at the time," said Chaney, who last month celebrated his 84th birthday. "We didn't always get the best players. I wanted to make sure he was someone who was a topic of discussion, everywhere we went. And he was. I wanted to make sure we got there with that kind of exposure.

"Everybody on my team was in concert with Mark. His misses were better than most (of our other shots). I was not an equal-opportuity employer. We made sure he got his chances to shoot and score. That gave us the best chance (to win) . . .

"He would sit in front of my desk, every day and say, 'I'm going to rob you of everything in your brain.' When you looked at him, he was the prototypical player that everyone wanted."

The 6-4 guard was the Most Outstanding Player of the '91 Regional, even though his team didn't cut down the nets. Wonder if Fox had a vote?

"It wasn't about me," insisted Macon, who has four children and calls Philadelphia home. "It was about my guys. I was hurt bad, because I was leaving. I knew coach would probably get another chance. I wouldn't. I shed my tears, then moved on to what was next."

Nate Blackwell, who was Chaney's guy before Macon, was a first-year assistant a quarter-century ago.

"Not only did he carry the flag for Temple, he carried it for our whole (Atlantic 10) conference," Blackwell said.

Mik Kilgore, who was a teammate that season, added this: "Knowing he was there made it so much easier for everyone else. He just took it all on him."

Which was always the blueprint.

"It was never about being good," Macon said. "I came to Temple to be great. I considered myself average, but I just worked hard."

It's some legacy. So you can have Duke. I'll take North Carolina as my enduring impression.

And was it really that long ago?

"We were just talking about that," Macon smiled. "I'm watching all this NBA stuff last night and I'm like, 'A lot of these guys weren't born then.' Like Draymond Green. I played with his father . . . Wow."

Yo, wasn't that Fox's line?

kernm@phillynews.com

@mikekerndn