Dayton-Xavier Recap

First of all, let me say that I'm never very happy after a loss and that I don't really do moral victories. That said, I think there are a lot of encouraging things about today's game. I'm so used to watching the Flyers come out sluggish, especially on the road. It almost always seems like UD is content to let its opponent be the aggressor. Dayton's opposition acts while the Flyers spend the opening minutes of a game reacting. This morning at the Cintas Center that was not the case. UD dictated play to Xavier instead of vice versa. The Flyers came to play, and the Muskies came out flat (but not for very long). If UD could knock down free throws, it would have been a 6-0 lead for the good guys right off the bat.

The bottom line, however, is another loss to Xavier in Cincinnati. You all know the drill: Dayton has not won at XU since 1981 before I (and probably most of you) was even born. Let's recap it:

• As a Flyers fan you're probably saying, "If we make just one or two more shots, either from the field or at the line, we win this game." If you're a Xavier fan (and why would you be?) you're probably saying, "If we could get a freakin' rebound, we beat those guys by 15." Both sides are probably right.
• The rebounding, the hustle, and the energy were phenomenal. The boys in red played as hard as I've seen them play all year long. They beat Xavier's players to loose ball after loose ball and dominated on the glass. In case you've yet to see the numbers, the Flyers outrebounded XU 51-34 and had a ridiculous 25 offensive rebounds. This allowed UD to attempt an equally ridiculous 70 field goals.
• Chris Johnson's jumper wasn't falling today, which is shame because the dude played an incredible game. Not sure how it comes across on TV but after being there in person, I can tell you that CJ was absolutely everywhere on the court today. He had 10 points and 16 boards, 10 of which came on the offensive end. Ten offensive rebounds is unheard of; I'm surprised he didn't play more than 26 minutes.
• Speaking of minutes, Luke Fab continues to make the most of his. 2-4 from downtown for 6 points and 3 rebounds on the afternoon. Maybe more importantly, he didn't force any bad shots. He did pick up two first half fouls, but I didn't see him playing much more than 12 minutes anyway.
• Hopefully Marcus Johnson is officially out of his funk. He played great today on both ends of the floor. He continues to be a tenacious defender and was taking the ball strong to the bucket on O. MJ led the Flyers with 17 points and 3 steals. He also went 4-for-4 from the stripe which was a welcome surprise.
• I didn't think Chris Wright played all that well. Why CW was on the floor with 8:00 left in the first half to even have the opportunity to pick up his third foul is beyond me, but that's another story. It looked like Jason Love went to the Cole Aldrich/Kansas school of defending Chris Wright: play way off of him daring Wright to shoot jumpers, favor his right hand, let him dribble into your chest and then swat his shot. Love had six blocks while Wright was just 2-7 from the floor.
• For a guy who is supposed to be UD's "energy guy," its "spark plug," London Warren was virtually nonexistent today. LW only played 11 minutes while Rob Lowery continues to try to make up for lost time by chucking it early and often. The numbers show a solid game for Rob Low (13 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 0 TO's), and he did have a really nice floor game. But 3-17 FG (0-9 inside the arc) shooting just won't do.
• Honestly, all that analysis (okay, rambling) is moot because this game came down to two key possessions. On the first, Jordan Crawford hit a back breaking 3 from about 30 feet out with the shot clock winding down. On the second, the same Crawford hit a fadeaway J from 15 with about 12 seconds left to put Xavier ahead by five and virtually end the game. I'm not mad about either one because, in both instances, UD got exactly what it wanted. If the fadeaway 2-pointer doesn't drop, UD is a defensive rebound away from having the ball and needing a 3 to send it to overtime. Sometimes good players just make superior plays. Crawford did that, and the Flyers came up just two plays short.
• UD continued its trend of letting one of XU's less heralded role players have a career game. In the week in review post, I highlighted Will Caudle's game in '05. In 2010 it was Dante Jackson scoring a career high 19 points on five made 3-balls.
• Kurt Huelsman's breakaway slam and the foul and the hang on the rim was nasty. Wouldn't have believed if I wasn't in the building.
• Josh Benson was forced to play a dozen minutes due to foul trouble by Wright and Devin Searcy, and the freshman acquitted himself nicely. He had 8 points on 4-7 including a dunk in traffic over Kenny Frease. Didn't see that one coming.
• I was in the third row under the hoop (opposite of XU's students section). If you were watching ESPN2 and saw a guy who had painted his entire upper body blue except for a white "X" across the top of his bald head, then you probably saw me as well. I was one of the dudes standing behind him wearing a red Flyers t-shirt. At one point early in the second half, the Musketeers were on a little run and they showed that guy on TV. I immediately got two texts, one of which read, "Slap the X off that douche bag's head." Good advice that I just didn't take.
• I didn't think the officiating was bad. There were some tough calls on both teams, and I still think travelling should be called way more frequently than it is; however, there is just no excuse for all of the timekeeping issues. I can't argue that affected the outcome of the game, but it makes it really hard for the game to have any flow whatsoever. If you're Xavier and you had to endure that debacle against Butler, wouldn't you be extremely sensitive to this? The game was stopped at least four times for clock issues (including twice in the final 4:00 of the game).
• It's been an interesting season in that the Flyers have really won every game they're supposed to and lost all of the ones they weren't expected to win. In recent memory, we've been treated to a few UD upsets (Pitt, Louisville, Marquette) as well as a game or two where the Flyers lay an egg and lose to an inferior opponent. This year, it's been pretty much all chalk (with Ga. Tech as the lone possible exception because nobody, including Paul Hewitt, knows what to expect out of the Jackets).

Conclusion: I'm not thrilled but it's hard to be too upset about losing at a place where you haven't won since 1981. Especially since the Flyers manhandled X on the glass and did not back down at any point.

Prediction: Your Dayton Flyers reel off five straight wins culminating with a W in the rematch against XU at UD Arena. This moves the good guys to 18-4 and back into the top 25 come Monday, February 8th.

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: