It's back

No, not UDFlyerNation actually posting articles, the Swag is back!

In early December, I was wondering what happened to the Flyer's Swag. Well apparently Rob Lowery took notice as he had this to say in the Dayton Daily News:

At 10-2 and close to cracking the Top 25 again, the Flyers — said Lowery — are starting to get “our swag back. We had it last year and it’s coming back.

Mr. Lowery, I asked and you are delivering, I appreciate it. Keep up the good work and bring us a W in the Pit.

Week in Review 12.23.09

Every Friday I'll break 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 renege 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.

Merry Chris(Wrigh)tmas
Short holiday week means a short week in review. It also means you get this post on Wednesday this week and next because, as much as I love FlyerNation and all of its readers, I can guarantee you I won't be writing for the blog on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. So let's get to it.

2 More W's
Presbyterian and Appalachian State: program changing wins, they are not. However, the Flyers did manage to put up 19- and 16-point wins respectively. I know we've complained about not putting inferior teams away and letting teams hang around too long and playing down to the level of competition, but these last two games have been pretty stress free from a fan's perspective.

I was especially impressed with the second half performance against App State. Down a Fabrizius, two Johnsons, and with London Warren sitting on the bench with foul trouble (more on this in a second), UD played arguably its best half of basketball of the season. The Flyers held ASU to just 20 points in 20 minutes on 32% shooting (and 25% from three). Dayton committed just one turnover in an entire half of basketball. Don't be surprised if you fail to see that again the rest of the season.

A disturbing trend?
It seems like, and this could just be me, UD gives up way too many open looks -- especially from the perimeter -- early in games. It's almost like the team is saying, "Okay let's see if you can make a few of these and then we'll think about stepping out and guarding you." I don't have any stats in front of me, but the games against Towson, Presby and ASU all started out this way. UD's opposition made three or four pretty wide open 3-point shots before UD started to hunker down on the defensive end. This is all well and good againt those three schools, but try it in a game against New Mexico or a worthy A10 foe and we'll be singing a different tune. With its inability to score points in bunches, UD can ill-afford to fall behind big early because of poor defense. Look for this to be addressed or to come back and bite the Flyers down the road.

London's Fouls
London Warren is a senior point guard, one of this team's leaders, a guy who is relied upon game in and game out, a player who is trusted with the ball in his hands on nearly every possession. If you're this guy, you have to play smarter than LW did on Monday night. London knew that CJ, MJ, and Luke were all sidelined against App State. He knew the team was shorthanded and did not have its usual deep bench, so what does he do? Commits four fouls in his first nine minutes on the court. If Josh Benson does this and has to sit on the bench most of the night with fouls, okay, I can get over that. For a senior PG to do it is simply unacceptable. Thankfully, UD has one and a half other senior point guards it can turn to and, as mentioned, was playing ASU.

Hey Mickey
Since having probably the worst three game stretch of any Flyer this season in San Juan, Mickey Perry sure has turned things around, hasn't he? The most obvious reason why: The Mickster is playing more minutes at his natural position. Put a guy out of position against the likes of Villanova and K-State and he's gonna get eaten alive. Mickey did in Puerto Rico. With Rob Lowery's return, Perry is playing more at his natural 2-guard spot and is thriving. He scored 15 points apiece in a pair of wins this week, going 5-10 from behind the arc and 11-11 from the free throw line. (That's 50% and 100%; I calculated it all in my head too.)

Being Kurt to the opposition
I talked about Kurt Huelsman's value to this year's Flyers here and here, and I still contend that he will be missed by next year's squad more than any other current senior. Don't look now but Kurt is playing the best basketball of his UD career. KH is now averaging 4.5 and 3.2 on the year, and he's shooting 59% from the field and a stellar .786 from the line. Being so right feels good. (Unrelated note: In the preseason podcast, I picked Marcus Johnson to have a breakout season for UD. How's that going so far?)

Injury Plagued
Looks like Luke Fab is out a couple more weeks and Chris Johnson is a big fat question mark after his concussion. We are getting reports though that Marcus Johnson will return for UD's next game against Boston U. I said when he got hurt that having Paul Williams in the starting line-up for a few games wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen to the Flyers. I think we'll see the three guard line-up of London, Mickey and Paul to start the BU game. I also think that bringing MJ off the bench might spark him to get his act together and start playing like he's capable of playing. When CJ gets back, I wouldn't mind seeing London, Mickey or P-Will, CJ, CW, and Kurt as your starting five. Prediction: Another double-digit win for the Flyers over Boston.

That's it for me, folks. Told you it would be a short one this week. Next week I'll have BCS bowl predictions and why you should be following the Iron Sheik on Twitter. Merry Christmas.

12/21 Rankings and RPI update

Another phenomenal weekend for the A-10 is in the books and UDFlyerNation digs in to tell all six blog readers how the rankings mistakenly left the Flyers out, again.

RPI

I said that last week was the first week we can really take a good hard look at the RPI and attempt to get some real meaning out of it. Another week down is another week closer to how the RPI will look at season’s end. It will become increasingly solid every week as we will begin to see the Flyer’s position fluctuate less and less.

That 25th RPI ranking last week was pretty cool, huh? Well, play a clunker like Presbo and look what happens: The Flyers see their SOS plummet from a very respectable 25th to a less respectable 49th(!) to the Wabler bashers delight. That takes our pure RPI rating from 25th to 32nd - not too much damage.

The Flyers see six, yes I said six opponents in the top 25 of the RPI this week, four of whom we still have yet to play AND three of whom are in the A-10 – Temple (3), Richmond (21), Rhode Island (24). I’ll tell you what folks, that screams of opportunity in conference to boost a tourney resume.

Another great RPI sign shows us that besides Fordham (at a disgusting 249 RPI), the next worse A-10 team is Umass at 129; the same Umass who beat Memphis in The Garden this weekend. That is the best news of all, especially if things stay that way. I believe that if we can enter conference season with all teams other than Fordham within the top 150 RPI mark, 12-4 is looking like a tourney lock, so long as this conference avoids a complete pant crapping the next few weeks.

I’m not a big schedule basher this year because I believe we will end up around the 40 RPI mark when the non-con is over. However, Wabler does need to avoid some of these 220+ RPI teams. There are currently 283 college basketball teams with a better RPI than Towson St. and Presbyterian. You can’t tell me 2 of those 283 teams won’t come collect a check at The Arena. I’ll give Wabler a B in the non-con scheduling, let’s just try to avoid the super clunkers, ok Wabs?

Rankings

Three signature wins for the A-10 on Saturday included Richmond over Florida, Temple over Seton Hall and the previously mentioned Umass over Memphis. Friend of the Blog, ODU shocks the Hoyas of Georgetown by collecting a win in their gym. X had an opportunity to score with 1.2 seconds left vs. Butler to add another big win, but they missed that shot. Wait, I’m being told X actually didn’t get that opportunity, the refs just ran the clock down with the game stopped. X lost the game while Butler lost a water fountain.

This weekend is exactly why my Xavier hating theory is correct. There are 12 other teams in the Atlantic 10 that I root for every game, Xavier is not one of them. We can control our destiny outside of X’s success while others in the conference step up. Way to go A-10, and way to go Butler timekeepers!

The AP poll looks like this:

21. Temple
34. Dayton
35. Charlotte
52. Richmond
53. Rhode Island

8. Villanova
12. Kansas State
13. New Mexico

Glad to see Temple getting some recognition but are you kidding me voting Richmond at 52?!? With 4 quality wins including @ Florida, @ Mississippi State, vs. Missouri and ODU, the Spiders will be a very touch match up this year and a team I believe will seriously contend for the A-10 title. Will five teams not named Xavier getting this kind of recognition mean 4 bids this year?

I said a week ago and still believe that the Flyers will need to beat New Mexico to earn an AP ranking. With only one more voting Monday (Dec. 28th) before the New Mexico game, the best Dayton can do to sway voters will be a win over Appalachian State tonight. I dont believe that will be enough to move the Flyers up 9 spots. Furthermore, if the Flyers lose to New Mexico, we’ll see them drop from 27ish back down to 40ish with a long winning streak in the A-10 needed to ever get back on to Sportscenter highlights.

Dayton cannot ask for much more out of their past and future opponents this year. New Mexico may very well be in the top 10 on New Year’s Day in the Pit (how many schools call their gym/field “The Pit” by the way) which would vault the Flyers into the top 20 entering A-10 play. We’ve received a lot of help from our A-10 brethren, and control our destiny for an NCAA bid. The question remains; can we do it?

Not Good

The Dayton Daily News is reporting that the initial prognosis on Chris and Marcus Johnson is that both players are expected to miss Monday's game against Appalachian State. Chris took a blow to the head very early in Saturday night's win over Presbyterian. According to the DDN, CJ suffered a concussion after running full speed into a backcourt pick. Reports are that Marcus has an ankle sprain and had X-rays taken late last night.

The Flyers should be okay against App State even without the Johnson boys and the previously injured Luke Fabrizius. Hopefully Johnson and Johnson can return in time for the Boston U. game if only to knock off some of the rust. I would not want to have two starters playing their first game back from injury after a two-week layoff in a hostile New Mexico environment.

They're laughing with you, not at you.

This is the actual dialogue of a phone call between Secaur and I at 4:16pm today:

“Hahahahahahaha. Bwahahahahahaha. Muwahahahahahahahaa. Bwahahahahahaha. Hahahahahaha”. This happened for literally 45 seconds before we said an actual word. And it wasn’t funny haha laughing, it was devious, menacing, deep terrorizing laughter – as if we were both super villains who had just taken over the world. It was truly a tremendous moment.

For those of you that did not watch the Butler vs. Xavier game, you missed one of the all time jobbings I’ve witnessed, in all of sports, ever. If that had happened to the Flyers, I’d be in the market for a new 52” television seeing that my fist just went through my old one.

With about 45 seconds to go in the game, Butler made two free throws to bring the game to a one point Bulldog deficit. Xavier inbounded and Butler’s Gordon Hayward was able to get a hand on the ball, allowing the ref to call a jump ball. Possession arrow > Butler. First off, the definition of a jump ball is when two players both have possession of the ball simultaneously. I didn’t see Hayward secure possession of the ball and I think he fouled the X player. That didn’t stop Bob Knight from slurping Hayward for the next 15 minutes though. After the jump ball, Butler down one point, the last “play” of the game took place. It's really indescribable but just know Butler scored with 1.2 seconds left on the clock.

During this long play, the clock stopped for approximately one second around the 14 second mark but play continued on. After Butler’s bucket, clock reading 1.2 seconds, the referees took a break to put it all together.

And that’s where things really went wrong…

For starters, Bobby Knight does not understand how time and clocks work. He repeated several times that the referees were going to be adding time on the clock. Robert, when the time clock stops but the game continues you need to subtract time from the clock to make up for it. He and Musburger could not grasp this concept whatsoever. Secaur put it best by saying that when the broadcasting team’s combined age is around 140, you’re in trouble.

Let’s move from the commentator’s ignorance to the referee’s ignorance...

I mentioned that the clock stopped while play continued; the refs now needed to determine how much time should come off the clock when it was stopped so that they could subtract this time off of the final game clock. This was an impossible task. How does one determine that the clock was stopped for 1.3 seconds rather than .9 seconds? Does the ref count “one Mississippi” and know exactly how much time came off the clock?.

Well, apparently they were able to make a perfectly accurate determination. And they discovered that exactly 1.3 seconds should come off the clock. Conveniently for Butler, that was exactly how much time should have been left on the clock after their final shot, meaning, game over. Butler’s shot was, in reality, a buzzer beater.

Mack went absolutely ballistic, and I don’t blame him one bit. Honestly, I think he should have made even more of a scene than he did. I would have thrown a chair. I would have taken off the suit jacket and gone on an absolute tirade. I would have pulled a Joe Pa and followed the refs all the way into the tunnel. The refs just told you and your team that instead of there being 1.8 or even 1.2 seconds on the clock, the game is now over. Not only that, but Butler’s shot counts and it just so happened to go through the hoop at the exact time the clock expired, even though the clock you’re looking at, Coach Mack, reads 1.2 seconds right now. Thanks for making the trip out, good effort, but you lose and you don’t even get a final shot. Ouch! And to add insult to injury we’re going to let the 1.2 seconds tic off the clock right in front of your face, with play stopped and sound the buzzer. Personally, that was one of my favorite parts.

People like Seth Davis are saying the refs made the right call, but what if Butler had taken the final shot with .5 seconds left on the clock as opposed to 1.3 seconds? Would the refs then determine that Butler’s shot did not count, and Xavier wins the game? Using the same logic they would have had to, right? Well, how would that be fair to Butler? If you think about it, what if a point guard had looked at the clock and specifically taken a shot with .5 seconds to go? Do you then tell that player, “sorry, I know the official game clock you were looking at said .5 seconds when you let the shot go, but really your time keeper screwed up 17 seconds earlier and the clock was at 0 when your shot went off. Sorry about your luck”? There really isn’t a right answer here.

I think the reasonable solution consisted of playing the end of the game with the time that was on the clock when Butler’s shot went through the hoop – 1.2 seconds. It was the Butler time clock operator who screwed up, let X get one more shot at it, with the time on the clock when the Butler shot went through. I can’t imagine being an X fan today, even if the “experts” say the refs got this right, they got absolutely hosed!

If your Butler, why in the world would do you not call a time out during that last sequence? Hindsight is 20/20 but that really surprised me.

Also, how many more times are we going to see Xavier players come off their bench to confront an opposing player or official? Does anyone else have the feeling Mack doesn't have the same clout with his players that Miller did? In addition to these guys throwing tirades, Mack lets Crawford do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. It will be very interesting to watch these guys the rest of the season.

When all is said and done, this couldn’t have happened to a better program. You earned this X, congrats! My dream scenario now is that Xavier becomes the last team left out of the NCAA tourney. Reason? They just needed one more quality road win.

Twitter will be hopping tonight for the game. Follow Rick and Kevin’s tweets via the twitter name “UDFLYERS”.

Finally, with all this talk of Robert Montgomery Knight and his recent resurfacing in the news about his comments on John Calipari, I thought I'd share one of my favorite all time RMK videos. Enjoy his top 10 moments:

Week in Review 12.18.09

Every Friday I'll break 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 renege 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.

Old Dominion
Anybody else feel like the Flyers played ODU about two months ago? This eight day layoff between games has been brutal. From what I remember, the win over the Monarchs was a pretty good one. UD played very solid D limiting its opponent to just 50 points.

After dropping the ol' "We're a man-to-man team" in our podcast, ODU coach and friend of the blog Blaine Taylor proceeded to play a 3-2 zone for about 75% of the game. Well played, Coach, well played. Any zone is going to give the Flyers a hard time but with Luke Fab sidelined, a team with a little length playing a zone can give UD absolute fits. 58 points does not impress me, but a five-game winning streak after coming home from Puerto Rico is nothing to sneeze at.

Hot Presbo Action

The Presbyterian College Blue Hose come to UD Arena tomorrow night sporting a 2-9 record on the season. How would you like to be a diehard Presby hoops fan? If that record and this guy as your head coach doesn't instill confidence in a fan base, I know nothing that will.

The Blue Hose's non-conference schedule consists of games at Clemson, at Illinois, at North Carolina, at Ohio State, at Dayton, at Marquette and at Florida ($$$). Are you serious? Do you think that's a big selling point for recruits? "Hey, come to Presbyterian College and get waxed by 30 points every night while members of the administration stuff their wallets with fat cash for your effort."

Anyway, I think UD cruises even easier than it did vs. Lehigh and wins by, let's go with, 24. I'm not going to waste 30 seconds of my valuable time looking up anything else about Presby, so let's also assume they are undersized. With that in mind, Kurtcy has a nice game for the Flyers going for 13 points and seven boards.

Throwback Night

Tomorrow will be "throwback night" as the Flyers will wear the replica 1969-'70 jerseys. I was going to make fun of this until I read that UD Arena is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and this year's team is wearing the throwbacks to honor the first team ever to play at the arena. That's actually kinda cool.

More Rob Low

If Rob Lowery is 100% or close to it, he needs to play more. The offense looks so much better with him in there. Plus, he's a threat to knock down an open jump shot from time to time. This is nothing you didn't already know, but hey it's been a slow week. Also, Mickey Perry learning to shoot a left handed lay-up might come in handy at some point this season.

Podcast

Ever since our newest contributor Rick Scaia mentioned rpiforecast.com on the most recent podcast, I've been checking that site like crazy. Aside from Ray's Georgia Tech preview, it's probably my favorite thing on the entire Internet right now. Here's the rub, though, it has UD going 21-9 on the season (10-6 in A10 play). I don't need to tell you this, but if it does shake out that way I'll be in UD Arena watching the Flyers host a first round NIT game.

The silver lining (sort of) is that it lists four games in which UD has between a 48-54% chance of winning. Those are basically toss-up games that could go either way. So win all four and you're 23-7 (12-4 in the league) and looking like a strong contender for an at-large bid; win three of four and you're 22-8 and and heading to Atlantic City with some work left to do; anything less and you need to win to the conference tourney to dance.

Coach Speak

New Mexico coach and former Indiana standout Steve Alford just happens to be a friend of the blog, so we'll probably be talking to him a few days after Christmas to get a preview of UD-New Mex. If you have any questions (or suggestions to make me sound like less of a bumbling idiot) for when I interview Alford, feel free to send them along.

Off Topic Stuff

Time for your favorite part of this post (and mine), the part that has nothing to do with Dayton basketball. According to reports, Fiesta Bowl employees were encouraged to donate money to specific political candidates and were then reimbursed by the bowl. This was allegedly done so that the Fiesta Bowl would remain in good standing with the BCS and not get bumped out of the rotation in favor of the Cotton Bowl. Corruption in the BCS? I'm shocked!!!

The new theory floating around the interwebs is that somebody got wind of this a while ago and, as a "punishment," the Fiesta was forced to take both TCU and Boise State this year. No word on what crime the Orange Bowl committed to get stuck with Ga Tech and Iowa (hey-oh!).

I had some more thoughts on the college football bowl season as well as on the death of Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry. But then I figured there are so few people who care what I have to say about the Flyers, so my best guess is that even fewer of you come to this site to read my opinions on that other crap. Maybe we'll do some bowl predictions before the ones that actually matter are played. Until then, enjoy Presby and App State.

There's a part two?

You didn't think we'd leave you hanging with just one podcast on this boring week, did you?

In the interest of full disclosure, we recorded a podcast on Monday night that was long. Really long. It lasted about an hour, and we decided not even the three contributing members to UD FlyerNation (and the three most knowledgable Flyer fans I know) could hold your attention for a full hour. But the content was so good that we couldn't leave you, our fans, hanging. We broke up it up into two sections. Part two is 20 mintues and it features:

-Is the RPI still useful (you can listen to the debate if you didn't like the name calling on the written part of the blog)
-Should the RPI include margin of victory?
-What's the difference between KenPom, Sagarin and RPI?
-Where do the Flyers stack up in these polls?
-What will the selection committee look for on our resume?

Click HERE to hear part two and let us know what you think.

Let's debate: podcast style

With a full week of no Flyer Basketball, management at UDFlyerNation thought this would be the perfect time to debut the third contributor to the blog.

He is internet celebrity and Flyer expert Rick Scaia. Rick, who formerly handled the professional wrastling department for CBS.sportsline.com can now be found over at OnlineOnslaught where he currently earns a living writing about steroid injected, greased men in underpants throwing each other around a ring.

We are fortunate enough to have Rick put down the steel chair and join UDFlyerNation this year. Rick will be a breath of fresh air to you stat geeks out there as he highlights all the numbers you never knew existed. Rick will also serve as our Information Technology Director as one day we will be taking the .blogspot out of our name. It's a thankless job but we're happy to have him aboard.

Without further ado, listen in as Rick joins Secaur and I to discuss a number of pressing Flyer issues including:

-What can we do to get Chris Wright out of his funk?
-How damaging will the Luke injury be?
-Should you be happy with the current OOC schedule?
-What are the Flyer's chances of being ranked before New Mexico?
-Who are the Flyer's most efficient players?
-Biggest disappointment of the year?
-And much, much more...

To begin play click HERE

12/14 Rankings/RPI Update

As teams begin to cross the 10 game mark in this young season, it gives UDFlyerNation a chance to look at rankings and RPI numbers that are supported by real actual data. While some will argue the RPI doesn't take shape until the new year, I'll argue that the 10 game mark is the starting point to have real discussions using such data.

Also, it's Monday, new rankings came out, and the A-10 had a great weekend. This is perfect timing to take a look at numbers, which are probably at their yearly peak, and let them make the Flyers and A-10 look decent before the spiral of death that is A-10 conference play begins.

Rankings

Flyer opponent and friend of the blog Kansas State makes their debut in the top 25 coming in at 17 and 22 in the AP and coaches respectively. New Mexico takes some of that same mojo and makes their first appearance of the season checking in at #19 in both polls.

As the A-10 continues to have fantastic OOC success, with a banner weekend for the conference, the sucess is recognized as several teams receive votes this week:

-Temple does what the Flyers could not as they defeat Villanova and jump up to #30 this week in the AP, receiving 83 votes.

-Your Dayton Flyers tie the 49ers of Charlotte at #36 as both teams receive 24 votes.

-And a few (literally) folks notice Rhode Island and show a tiny bit of love, placing the Rams at #48 this week with 3 votes.

-Still no sign of the X men after the crosstown shootout win but with big time opportunities coming up vs. Butler (15), LSU (NR) and Wake Forest (receiving a few votes) in the next 4 games, Xavier could vault their way over all of the above A-10 teams and secure a ranked spot for most of conference season. Although with a few losses in these games, the Muskrats will need some big time help in conference to secure another at large bid.

-Do you root for Xavier in the OOC? I sure don't.

-In related news, Dayton plays New Mexico in 2010.

-Gary Parrish brings it strong and makes his case for the Flyers over the Huskies

RPI

As the RPI begins to come together, the Flyers find themselves with four opponents currently in the RPI top 13 including Kansas State, Temple, New Mexico and Villanova.

Five Atlantic 10 teams show up in the RPI top 50 - I'll take that any day. However the A-10 only has 7 in the top 100.

The Flyers themselves have an RPI of 25, which, coincidentally is their SOS rating. A lot of folks were unhappy with our OOC scheduling but if we can finish with a top 40 SOS rating, I'll be thrilled. The SOS will drop big in our next three games but will receive a nice boost heading into conference play with the New Mexico game. Off the top of my head, I think we finish around 34 in (edit: Non Conference) SOS.

We talked a lot about this at the time but winning that Ga. Tech game was HUGE. Imagine we lose that game and play George Mason and Boston U. instead of Nova and KSU. Forget the fact we'd be playing them two times each, a Puerto Rico schedule consisting of those teams absolutely crushes our SOS - something the committee actually pays attention to. Would you rather be 2-1 in Puerto Rico with that previously mentioned schedule, or 1-2 how we actually did it. I'll take the 1-2.

The RPI numbers are young and raw, which means they can change fast but overall I'm not to disappointed with where the Flyers and the rest of the A-10 show up. Now go on and enjoy them before they change!

Flyght can Fly

Hopefully the second half vs. ODU was him officially waking up for the season.

Enjoy some video highligts of the game:



Thanks to flyerhoops.net for putting this one together.

New podcast up Monday evening where the mysterious third contributor to the blog will make his debut.

Podcast #7: Old Dominion Style

Earlier in the week, our crack staff at UD FlyerNation was trying to set up an interview with Old Dominion head coach Blaine Taylor. Taylor's schedule did not appear to be conducive to joining us on the weekly podcast; apparently D-I basketball coaches are pretty busy or something. But, out of the blue this morning, Taylor gave me a ring and said I could have ten minutes of his time if I still wanted them. I recorded our conversation (that's legal, right?) and present it to you now in podcast form. Enjoy.

Click HERE to listen.

Week in Review 12.11.09

Every Friday I'll break 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 renege 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.

One half at a time
Somebody should feel free to tell these Flyers that they're allowed to put together two good halves in a row. It's not against the rules or anything. Just when you thought Dayton was a "second half team," the Flyers come out and put a hurting on George Mason in the first frame in Fairfax to the tune of a 16-point lead at intermission. I won't get into the second half because we could argue all day about who's to blame for UD's poor performance there. Bottom line: When you shoot 5-20 in a half (0-7 from downtown), you're going to let a lot of teams come back on you. For the game, though, UD shot better than and outrebounded the Patriots. Hell, the Flyers even made 70% of their free throws. Six assists versus sixteen turnovers is a little worrisome, but road wins always seem to be a premium so I'll keep my griping to a minimum.

While I'm on the George Mason game, did anyone else catch the small roar that went up from the home crowd when GMU hit that meaningless 3-pointer at the buzzer on Tuesday? "Wooooo we only lost by one!" Way to know the score and situation, Patriots fans ... Unless, of course, that 3-ball covered the spread in which case I can't blame people for getting nuts.

Earlier in the week, Dayton played Lehigh and won.

ODU
In one of the podcasts I predicted UD would lose both at Miami and tonight's game at home to Old Dominion. When that happened I think I was still hung over from Puerto Rico and bitter about the Towson game. Four straight wins upon return from San Juan have me singing a different tune, but I do think this will be a tough, hard-fought game.

Old Dominion returns all five starters from a team that went 25-10 last season and is favored to win the Colonial. George Mason, as a point of reference, is picked to finish fourth in that same league. According to its web site, ODU captured the inaugural CollegeInsider.com Tournament title last year. What is that? Did they change the name of the CBI and nobody told me? Or is this a fourth postseason college basketball tournament?

Anyway, the Monarchs are supposed to be pretty good and they're led by Gerald Lee, a preseason co-player of the year pick in the CAA. Further, ODU has been tested playing at Richmond and getting games against Missouri and Mississippi State in some preseason tourney. Granted, they lost all three of those games, so I'm changing my mind and picking the Flyers to win by six.

TV or not TV
As a Dayton fan, one of my favorite pastimes is complaining about the fact that the Flyers are never on TV and that the team gets no national exposure whatsoever. Seriously, how ridiculous is that I live 50 miles from campus and have to watch almost all of the games on a tiny laptop screen with grainy video? BUT let me just say what a blessing this has been through the first eight games of this season. I'm so glad no one outside the Miami Valley got to see the Towson game (or even the games against Miami and Mason, for that matter).

If you've got a vote in one of the polls, all you know is that Dayton is 6-2 with a win over Georgia Tech, and the two teams it lost to are a combined 17-1 right now. Filling out my ballot, hmmmmm, I'd say they're about 35th in the country. Sounds like a winner.

MJ Injured?
During the Mason game, Hartsock busted out the ol' "Oh, Marcus Johnson's been playing with a wrist injury" nugget and did it real casual-like. I'm not one to speculate (okay, that's pretty much all I'm qualified to do), but does anyone else think something's fishy here? If I'm a senior guard and one of the guys expected to lead this team back to the NCAA Tournament and I'm shooting 36% from the field, 13% from three, and 40% from the foul line, I might suddenly develop a mysterious "wrist injury" too. Seriously, read those numbers again. 40% FREE THROWS and 13% from the arc. Yeesh. I hope your head, errr I mean wrist, gets right soon, MJ.

Coming up big down low
The Huelsman versus Searcy debate continues, and it will likely go on all season long. I'm taking a different tact though and just treating them as one player. They/it needs a sweet nickname though if I'm going to track them as one person for the rest of the year. Suggestions welcome. Right now, they (he?) are averaging 8.5 and 5.5 a game. I'll take that all season long.

A scheduling question
How does putting together a D-I men's college basketball schedule work? I feel like I should know more about this, but I find myself almost completely in the dark. When fans think a schedule isn't up to snuff, I hear the AD get criticized more than anyone, but doesn't the coach have a lot to do with it? I thought I read somewhere that coaches had as much influence, if not more in some cases, as to who their team played and where. Am I way off base here? If someone could point me in the right direction, I'd be much obliged.

John Wall
Ready for the off-topic rants? Good, because I know I am. Growing up in Northern Kentucky (Cincitucky, if you will) I came to love all, at least most, things Cincinnati and hate a lot of things Kentucky. One of the things I hated most during my formative years was University of Kentucky basketball. It just didn't make that much sense to root for a team who played its games 90 minutes away when there were not one but two Division I college basketball programs within a ten minute drive from my house. I rooted for Cincinnati and hated Kentucky as a kid.

Having said that, watching John Wall play so far this year has been awesome. The kid is sick and will almost certainly be the #1 overall pick in this spring's NBA Draft. (I have Derrick Favors two and Chris Wright three, in case you were wondering.) The UK-UConn game ended after my bed time, so I didn't see the finish, but it's been talked about all day today. If you can escape the Brian Kelly media blitz that's taken Cincinnati by storm, you'll find a lot of people talking about UK and John Wall. Seeing as this will be his only season in college, I really feel the need to get to Lexington and watch the kid play in person. Who's coming with me?

Tiger Woods y'all
I don't know how the whole Tiger saga is going to play out and, frankly, I don't particularly care. I do find it amusing that women are suddenly tripping over each other to come out and say they slept with him, but that's about where my interest ends. Nothing earth shattering is going to come out of this anyway. Nobody's getting arrested. His wife is either going to divorce him and get tens of millions of dollars or "reconcile" with him and get to spend half of his billions of dollars. Big deal.

I will say this, though, and you can bank on it. Tiger Woods will at some point go into rehab for sex addiction like that dude from the X-Files did. Think about it: If you cheat on your wife with one chick, you just made a mistake and maybe she gets over it, maybe not. If you're having dozens of ongoing affairs with women all over the country, if not the world, it's a little tougher to backpedal your way out of that. So does he admit he's a scum bag and a downright despicable human being? No way, he's Tiger; his image can't take that hit. But if you're addicted to something, if you physically and psychologically have to have it, if you've lost all control of yourself, it makes it easier for us, the public, to stomach. Some time in 2010 Tiger Woods tackles his "addiction to sex."

Social Networking
I'm about to turn 26 and never in my life I have felt older and less cool. Well, I probably felt less cool when I was about 14 maybe. (Note to any middle schoolers reading this: Getting straight A's in high school and junior high is the least important thing you'll ever do and a complete waste of your time. Try to figure out ways to make out with chicks instead - or at least work up the courage to talk to them - and you won't be such a d-bag in high school. You're welcome.)

Back to the present, can someone get me up to speed on what's cool and what's not in social networking? I mean, we can all agree that being on Facebook is cool, yes? As long as you're not a big enough tool that you play Farmville and Mafia Wars, you're fine. And I'm pretty sure MySpace is only for 14-year-old girls and creepy internet pervs who want to stalk 14-year-old girls, right?

Recently I find myself getting more and more hooked on Twitter (UDFlyers). I tweet more frequently and check the site multiple times per day. Does this make more of a loser, less of a loser, or about the same? What about LinkedIn? Does anyone know what that even is? Is there other social networking stuff out there that's so cool I don't even know about it? (Tim just renewed his eharmony membership, but that's another subject for another post.)

Twitter baby with a capital T!
And finally, while I'm on the topic of Twitter, I have started following Dick Vitale on there. No matter if you love Dickie V or hate him (put me in the "don't like him but think he's harmless" camp), I think it's hilarious that he tweets. If Twitter was ever targeted specifically toward one person, it would be Dick Vitale. Hell, you could make the case that he practically invented Twitter. Vitale has been speaking in sentence fragments and 140-character exclamations for almost 40 years now. Plus, it's great to get his dining out tips as well as his thoughts on the Heisman. You know, stuff on which Dick Vitale is in no way qualified to give an expert opinion.

Where's the swag?

A win is a win. That’s what we heard last year and I’m guessing that will be the excuse again this year. The question that arises highest in the minds of Flyer fans today reads, when will this team learn to put opponents away?

Or will they ever?

Maybe it’s the leaders on this team, maybe it’s Brian Gregory but whatever the reason, it needs fixed faster than Bob Barker’s dog. You can’t always count on Karl Hobbs not knowing how many players to put on the court. You can’t always count on looking at the scoreboard with 12 minutes to go and "not knowing we were down by that much" and mounting a miracle comeback, especially against a team as bad as Towson. Playing this way will burn this team. While many will counter with, "It hasn’t happened yet" or "These guys just know how to win," one day London won’t hit the free throws like he did against Miami, one day Paul Williams won’t hit a 3 and four straight free throws vs. Ga. Tech, and one day a team like Mason will make us pay big time for Mickey avoiding a make at the free throw line like he avoids the patty melts at KU.

The team that has stepped on the floor so far this year is not the best team in the Atlantic 10 (neither is Xavier for the record). It’s not even a 12-4 team in the A-10. The team we’ve seen thus far will be lucky to get 10 wins in this conference.

So what needs to change?

For starters, executing a game plan beyond the first 3 minutes would be nice. Every game begins with a focus to get Kurt a touch in the post. Often times, we’ll see the guards give him looks on three straight possessions to start a game. This leads me to believe that getting touches in the post is a pregame point of emphasis. However, after those first three possessions, this team seems to forget that game plan. It’s right back to rotating the ball around the perimeter, often times with a center dribbling around the three point line and handing off to a guard (opponents are learning how to defend this and draw charges by the way), and relying on an attempt late in the shot clock.

What’s wrong with continuing the original game plan? Don’t get me wrong folks, I don’t think we should focus the offense around Kurt but I do believe he would be much more willing to play an inside/outside game if the guards would give him more touches. When you know you’ll only touch the ball once every six possessions in the post, you become a black hole like Benson. Give the post more touches and they'll feed it back for open shots - give and take. I shouldn't rip Josh too hard. He's played well on the offensive end lately, and I bet we see more than four minutes out of him moving forward. Let's keep the original game plan. Feed the post, play inside/outside with your three bigs and create open shots that way rather than the weaving ball rotation around the perimeter.

Secondly, run plays for your playmakers. Did anyone realize we have a potential NBA draft pick on this team? I swear, we could have four absolute stiffs and a superstar on the court and Gregory would run the exact same motion offense. Oh wait, it was called the Brian Roberts era.

My point, do something creative to get your star looks outside of the regular context of the only offense you’re ever willing to run. BG’s stubbornness absolutely kills me sometimes! Whether it’s refusing to even try a trapping press, even when we are down in late game situations or subbing a hot shooter right out of the game, he is set in his ways. He holds the philosophy that "my system wins" and the players need to execute that system. While some of this rings true, this doesn’t always allow you to play to your strengths, (CW, CJ). Outside of one alley oop play per game, we run nothing specifically designed for these two. There just isn’t a lot of room for playmakers to make plays, it’s darn frustrating as a fan and I bet it’s even more frustrating as a playmaker.

I can hear the comments coming now. Why the rant, Tim? We are 6-2, we are winning games. If you are saying these things, refer back to the top of this post where I mention we are going to get burnt.

Lastly, light a fire under these kids. All I hear about is how players won’t play for BG if they don’t play defense but I see the same players getting the same minutes in the same substitution patterns every game. I don’t know what it will take: bench someone, call someone out in the press, make them walk around campus without headphones on, ban them from Tim’s, just do something. I want to see the Flyers play with that killer instinct I’ve seen from them before like last year’s games vs. Marquette, X and WVU. Find a way to bring that every game, Coach. That’s what we pay you the big bucks for. Have you seen this team come out and play like they know they are going to win? Like they know they are the best team on the court? Like they are angry they aren’t in the top 25 anymore and want to split some heads? Time to turn the swag on ... just like Flyght does in his pimp suit.

We need changes and we need them quick. I think this team has the leadership to wake up; they just need to do it. The A-10 isn’t great this year but teams 1-5 are all very tough. It isn’t UD and X with a boatload of mediocrity as in years past. The Flyers have their work cut out for them and they’ve already hit that sleep timer one too many times this year. I’m afraid if they try to sleep for just ten more minutes, we’ll be talking about the loss that makes us one of "the last four out."

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.

Miami Preview

Picking my favorite part of that video is like a parent choosing his/her favorite son. (For my parents that choice was an easy one, and I still resent my brother for it.) But if you forced me to pick, I'd say, "They're the Big Blue!" is the best line in Coles' rant.

I just wish the Flyers had a similar moniker in the hopes that Charlie would drop it in his postgame presser tonight. "Dayton Flyers, number 38 in the country, I'm hearing ONE second round draft pick ... They're the small red! ... Huelsman became Huelsman ... And that's how we held them to 48 and won the game."

I've seen the Flyers at anywhere from 3.5 to 4.5 point favorite for tonight's contest. I've also seen the total ranging from 134.5 to 138. Conventional wisdom says this game goes way under. If you're in the mood to gamble, I'd recommend a parlay with the Miami money line and the under.

I like the under not because of stellar defense but rather poor outside shooting. Millett is tough enough for good shooters, let alone these Flyers. I'm sticking with what I said on the podcast: 57-51 RedHawks.

By the way, if you think the above paragraphs are just one long excuse to re-post the Charlie Coles video, you know me all too well.