Flyers Week in Review 12.04.09

I figured I would start writing a weekly post breaking down the week that was in Flyers basketball, as well as whatever is else is on my mind at the time. It'll be my chance to overreact to the UD's most recent game as well as reneg on everything I said in the podcast earlier in the given week. Or, at the very least, it will give you something distracting to read when you should be working on a Friday. Let's give this thing a whirl.

Two wins
I wouldn't exactly call wins against Towson and Miami (OH) "big" wins, but I would definitely call them important ones. The Flyers seem to have, however temporarily, righted the ship after a disappointing trip to Puerto Rico. Running the table until a New Year's Day showdown at New Mexico now becomes a distinct possibility.

CJ > CW?
Okay we've all come to grips with the fact that Chris Johnson is the best player on this year's edition of the Flyers. He certainly has been through six games and I don't really see that changing any time soon. But here's the thing ... Somebody needs to print this (other than our little blog that nobody reads) or start talking about it. Especially to Chris Wright. I don't know much about Wright other than what I see on the basketball court, but he seems like a player driven by motivation. He feeds off the crowd at UD Arena, he plays his best in the biggest games (XU and WVU last year), so somebody call him out. BG? One of the assistant coaches? Tell him that until he steps up his play, he's playing second fiddle to Chris Johnson on what is supposed to be HIS team.

It seems a little silly saying a guy who averages 16 and 6 needs to be "called out." But I think CW is capable of a lot more. He could - and should - be averaging a double-double, and I'm not wild about his team-high 19 turnovers.

No zone after all
I tweeted about this during the game, but I can't believe Charlie Coles played 40 minutes of straight man-to-man defense. I would have bet Adam's life savings that he would play zone for two-thirds of the game if not more. Maybe that white piece of paper he kept checking during Wednesday night's game really was a take out menu.

Kurt will be missed
I can't believe I've become the chief Kurt Huelsman apologist in the UD blogosphere but then again, most days I can't believe I'm even a part of the UD blogosphere. I despised Kurt Huelsman the basketball player (as a person, we're cool) last year. This year I like him. He plays the best interior defense on the team by far, and he's averaging 3 and 3 right now. I think come A10 play, he'll average 5 and 5 and everybody will hate him a lot less.

But here's something for you to chew on. Will Kurt Huelsman be missed more than any other graduating senior come the 2010-'11 season? I could make a pretty strong case that he will. Searcy and Benson are much more accomplished on the offensive end, but they don't D up like Kurt. They also don't do the dirty work Kurt does. Huelsman has become something of an enforcer for this year's UD team.

When you think about it, the tandem of Staten and Parker seems more than capable of replacing London and Rob Lowery. Paul Williams is waiting in the wings to inherit MJ's two guard spot, and Mickey Perry is a solid role player but nothing more. I think KH is the most-missed senior come this time next year.

Speaking of...
Mickey Perry, he saw more court time than London against Miami, 22 minutes to 18. Perry had six assists and only one TO in the game. Under different circumstances, I'd be interested to see if this starts a new trend for the PG position. But with Lowery's likely return on Saturday, it probably becomes moot. Let's not forget that Perry was nothing short of cancerous in Puerto Rico, but at least he's come around a little in the last two games. I think Perry still sees 15+ mpg in the coming weeks - some at the point while Lowery gets his sea legs back, some at the SG if Marcus is still struggling and because he's a little bit better defender than P-Will.

Props to Tim
I pretty much laughed Tim off when he predicted the Big Ten would come away victorious for the first time ever in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. And, while it means absolutely nothing, he was right. It did happen. Obviously, I blame Oliver Purnell for this as his Clemson team blew a 23-point second half lead AT HOME to a mediocre Illinois team. (If there was a way to place some of the blame on Trent Meacham, I'd do that as well.) Anyway, the Big Ten won the challenge 6-5, but I still think the conference is overrated and not underrated as Tim claimed. Michigan was the most overrated team in the country preseason and, to me, Purdue looks more like the 20th best team in the nation than the 6th. No way the Boilers make it past the Sweet Sixteen especially with their starting PG sidelined by injury.

Off Topic
The other day I had a random thought about the future of Duke basketball. It's probably its own full post, and it probably has no place on a Dayton Flyers b-ball blog, but I wanted to run it by the masses. Basically, I see some major parallels between where Duke is headed and where Notre Dame football is right now. I think that when Coach K hangs it up, Duke finds itself at a major crossroads as to the (near term, at least) future of its program. The wrong hire at that time could send them into a similar tailspin. Just think about some of the similarities:

• Having to replace a legendary head coach who was the face of the program
• High academic standards make fewer super-stud high school athletes available to them
• Duke won't take one-and-done guys (notable excpetion: Corey Maggette); Notre Dame doesn't redshirt its players
• ND has its own TV network (NBC); Duke has its own TV announcer (Vitale)

It's weird because the media treats Notre Dame as if it is a relevant player in the national championship picture every single year when it hasn't been since the days before Bobby Bowden was castrated and Charlie Ward was his star quarterback. The media (mainly ESPN) treats Duke in the same manner even though the Blue Devils haven't been past the Sweet Sixteen since '04 and have, if I remember correctly, been knocked out by a higher-seeded team each of the past five seasons. Maybe it's coming or maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part.

I'm working on Saturday but I still plan to watch the internet feed of Dayton-Lehigh. I'll tweet if I'm able to, so follow us on Twitter under the name UDFlyers. You can also check out our podcasts on the right side of this very page.