FIrst-year Temple head coach Fran Dunphy may be viewed as low key, but he’s restoring the fire in his men’s basketball team.

AP / H. Rumph Jr.

PHILADELPHIA — If John Chaney was still around, it probably would be different. No one forgot about Temple when Chaney was the Owls’ coach.

Under Chaney, the Owls were the flagship program for the Atlantic 10 for many years, the team everyone else aimed to beat. That’s why it seems so strange that the Owls have flown so low under the radar this season.

As conference members have boasted about how strong the A-10 is this season, Temple’s name has been way down the list. Very few have mentioned the Owls as contenders. The team was picked to finish ninth in the conference’s preseason poll.

However, as Temple prepares to host the University of Rhode Island tonight at the Liacouras Center, that is exactly where the Owls have themselves — in contention. The difference is that they have done it very quietly, as is the style of their new coach, Fran Dunphy.

Temple enters 5-3 in league play, 12-10 overall. It is just one-half game behind URI, which is 20-4 and 6-3, in a tie for second with Saint Joseph’s.

Finally, people are taking notice of Temple.

The University of Massachusetts sure did last weekend. Fresh off a victory over URI, the Minutemen lost in overtime to the Owls on Sunday. Travis Ford, the UMass coach, was convinced. Like everyone else, he knew about Dionte Christmas and Mark Tyndale, Temple’s two leaders. They are getting more help now, which has made the team better.

“They’re just a really good basketball team that’s played a really tough schedule. I look for them to come on toward the end of the season,” Ford said. “Temple has role players who are playing very good basketball now. That’s going to make them dangerous in the next couple of weeks.”

The aura around the Temple program is very different. Chaney, a Hall of Famer, was as outspoken as a coach can be, both with the media and with his players. Dunphy, who moved across Broad Street, where he built the University of Pennsylvania into the dominant team in the Ivy League, is far more low-key. Typical is his response on this week’s A-10 conference call to his team’s recent play. The Owls lost a close game at Richmond and then won that overtime game against Massachusetts.

“We just got luckier on Sunday (in the victory) than we did on Wednesday (in the loss),” he said.

All three of his team’s losses, like URI’s, have been in single digits.

“Every week is a battle for survival,” Dunphy said. “Each game looks like it’s going to come down to the wire. … One play changes the whole momentum of a game.”

“You caution your guys so often that a game can change on one play. As a result, you have to pay attention to each and every possession,” Dunphy added. “Every team gives you a different personality and a different look. You’ve just got to adjust. You’ve got to be ready for all aspects of the game.”

Unlike other teams that have one style and do all they can to make the game play that way, the Owls do not mind making changes.

“We think we can play both ways — a low-scoring game or a high-scoring game,” Dunphy said.

He knows that will mean doing more running tonight. That’s URI’s style.

“They’ve got good balance inside and outside, really good basketball players,” Dunphy said of the Rams. “They have a plan and they’re following through with it. … We’ll have our hands full, but we look forward to the challenge.”

Temple, which is the only A-10 team to beat Xavier this season (by 78-59), has dominated URI both at old McGonigle Hall and in the new Liacouras Center. Rhode Island will be attempting to do something it has accomplished only twice before.

The Rams won at Liacouras, 85-77, last season, a contest in which Rhody guards Parfait Bitee and Jimmy Baron each had 18 points while Christmas poured in 31 for the Owls. Only twice, in 1991-92 and 1996-97, has URI won two games in a row at Temple.

Obviously, with the standings so tightly bunched, the game means a lot. One Internet site, called the Pomeroy Ratings, uses computer numbers to rank teams and predict outcomes. This week, it predicted the final A-10 rankings. It said Xavier will win the conference at 14-2, Saint Joseph’s will be second at 11-5, and Temple and Rhode Island will tie for third and earn the other first-round byes in the conference tournament with 10-6 marks.

That computer predicts Temple will win tonight, 76-74.

pkenyon@projo.com