Week in Review 1.23.10

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.

1-1 on the week
It feels like the game at Xavier has been covered ad naseum, so much so that the game seems like it must have taken place much more than just six days ago. I will reiterate one thing I said in the game recap though: Dayton took the game to Xavier. The Flyers didn't sit back and wait for X to take it to them. They didn't look like a bunch of deer in the headlights nor did they look scared or intimidated (or any other adjective) of Xavier simply because it's Xavier. For this reason, I think UD wins in the rematch and it might not even be as close as everyone expects.

It's difficult to predict how a team will react coming off a big rivalry game, especially a tough road loss. It's easy to fire up the troops for a game at X on ESPN2; it's not so easy to do the same thing for a week night game against a middle of the road George Washington team. UD responded well and cruised to a win without the services of Luke Fabrizius and Paul Williams. Sure, GW is a pedestrian team with a who coach who seemingly cannot grasp the concept of playing only five men at a time, but the Flyers needed a bounce back win and got it Wednesday night. Dayton also remained perfect on the year at UD Arena and stretched its home winning streak to 30 games. (Chris Wright is 37-0 in his career at home.)

The road ahead
If UD ever makes it to the Elite Eight in my lifetime, I really hope the program, the administration, and the coach at the time do not take one out of St. Joseph's playbook. The Hawks, led by current NBA-ers Jameer Nelson and Delonte West, did just that back in 2004 and, best I can tell, the basketball program has done nothing to build upon or parlay that success. In fact, if you aren't a college basketball fan who pays attention to these things, you'd probably never know this happened. I'm a huge Phil Martelli fan, but I'm very surprised SJU has failed to cash in on past successes with better recruits or more national exposure or ... something.

The Hawks are in a rebuilding phase and sit at just 6-11 overall (1-3 in conference play). This is a game Dayton must win and, in my opinion, should win handily. Will it be pretty? It never is. Will it be a blowout? It almost never is. I look for the boys in red to win by ten.

But if games again George Washington and St. Joe's provide a respite of sorts for UD, it will be a brief one. The Flyers return home for a Tuesday, January 26, bout with Rhode Island. The Rams are an impressive 15-2 (3-1) and sport a quality victory against Oklahoma State as well as a decent road win over Boston College. URI's lone conference loss game is in a 4-point affair with Temple. The good news for UD fans may be that Rhody will be coming off a big game at Xavier just three days prior to taking on the Flyers. The Atlantic 10 schedule makers seem to have done the Rams no favors this season, as URI plays the league's toughest out (Temple) twice and arguably its next two best teams both on the road.

How close is it?
I think this Dayton team is close. I feel good about where the Flyers stand right now and about the progress the team has made thus far in 2009-'10. UD is capable of playing stellar defense and has put on a rebounding clinic in its last two games. Really, the only thing you can say the Flyers do at a below average level is put the ball in the basket (if only that were not the object of the game).

As long as the Flyers continue to ratchet up the D and crash the glass as they have been, I think these guys are a forced to be reckoned with, at least in the A10. Plus, I honestly believe UD will have a game or two where shots start falling, a game or two in which the Flyers knock down half of their wide open jumpers and 80% of their free throws. If these games come against the right opponents (Xavier, URI, or at Richmond), UD could reel off a bunch of W's and even finish as high as 13-3 in the league. Even if it doesn't go down like that, I think UD can score just enough points and lean heavily on that D to win every home game and go 12-4 in A10 play (which would all but lock up an at-large bid.)

The Rotation
With Luke and P-Will on the bench last night, UD's rotation was smaller and Brian Gregory was forced to be much less liberal with his substituion patterns. And guess what? UD won in blowout fashion. Of course, one would have to attribue that more to GW being not good at basketball and less to substitution issues, but it does raise a question. Is it time for Brian Gregory to tighten up his rotation?

For the first half of the year, I was on board with the whole "play 11 guys and wear down the opposition over 40 minutes" strategy ... mainly because it worked so well last season. But that, as they say, was then and this is now. I think it's time for Paul Williams, sick or not, to see a lot more bench time. If you can't outplay Mickey Perry on a regular basis, you just don't deserve a regular spot in the rotation. I'd tell P-Will that he's still a big part of the plan here at UD and that I fully expect him to start at the 2 next season, but that there are two seniors (Mickey and MJ) in front of him right now and he might be seeing a cutback in his PT down the home stretch.

The other move I'd suggest is going to a 3-man platoon at the center position. Basically, Huelsman and Searcy (Kurtcy) have been averaging 36 mpg at the 5 with UD "going small" (or playing Kavanaugh and the walk-ons) for the other four minutes. Huelsman starts and sees 20 minutes a night; that part is a given. What I'd do is cut back on Searcy's minutes and have him split time with Benson. Benson's too skinny to be a traditional 5 but there are so few legitimate post presences in the A10 that the Flyers can get away with it for ten minutes an outing.

This means Searcy and Benson are getting ten apiece at the 5-spot; Wright and Luke are splitting 30/10 at the 4; CJ is in the game as often as possible without him collapsing on the court; MJ and Perry are dividing up minutes at the 2; and London Warren is getting the bulk of the minutes (let's say 26 to Lowery's 14) at the point. This still leaves you with a ten man rotation, but it really acts as nine since Searcy and Benson are both serving as one back-up center (Ben-cy? Searson?).

Speaking of...
Rob Lowery has not been good for the Dayton Flyers this season. There's really no other way for me to say it. Rob needs to step his game up and soon. If you take out his 23-point performance against Boston, Lowery has shot just 22-78 from the field and 13-50 from 3 in his other 11 games. Obviously, it's not fair to Rob to eliminate only his best game of the season, but those numbers certainly are telling. Roughly 7 shots per game is way too many for a guy playing a shade under 20 mpg. Those percentages, by the way, are a less-than-stellar 28 and 26. Shoot less and those numbers have nowhere to go but up.

Guard Play
I had a chance to watch a good chunk of Temple and Xavier the other night, and one thing is abundantly clear. Juan Fernandez and Ryan Brooks are by leaps and bounds the best backcourt duo in the conference. Fernandez has come a long way since that scared little pup of a freshman we saw at UD Arena late last season, and Brooks leads the Owls in scoring and is second in rebounding from the shooting guard position. Add in Luis Guzman off the bench and Temple might have best backcourt the Atlantic 10 has seen since the aforementioned Nelson and West.

Ghosts in the post?
Did anybody else catch this quote from Chris Wright in the Dayton Daily News? He was talking about playing at UD Arena:

"There's just all the energy and all the great players who played on that floor before. Everybody in spirit is out there with us — the ones who are still living and even the ones who have passed. It's fun being out there."

Yeah, that's not creepy at all, Chris. Nice to know the Flyers' homecourt is haunted. No wonder it's so tough to win there.

Around the Nation
Is it me or are there no great teams in college basketball this year? A month ago, I probably would have told you that Kansas is a cut above the rest of D-I and a clear favorite to win the national championship. In that time, the Jayhawks squeaked past Cornell by 5 and Baylor by 6, both at home, and got beat by an undermanned Tennessee team. I'd still have to say Kansas is the most complete basketball team in the country, but I can no longer say with certainty that they're this season's favorites.

Texas was looking strong until Monday's game against (friends of the blog) K-State. Frank Martin's men made the Longhorns look very beatable and downright average at times. And that leaves Kentucky as college basketball's only unbeaten team. A month ago, I would have told you I could see UK making the Final Four but that there's no way a team which starts three freshman and a sophomore could win the national title. Now, I'm not so sure about that.

In my opinion, the Big East is once again the best conference in the country. It's a weird league, though, in that it has 5 or 6 teams that could make a run to the Elite Eight if the chips fall, but it doesn't have a real national title contender. Villanova and Syracuse are close but not real threats in my eyes.

A sleeper team to go all the way -- well, as much of a sleeper as the #6/#7 team in the country can be -- is Michigan State. The Spartans stumbled a bit early but have won 11 of their last 12 and are a quiet 6-0 in Big Ten play. Plus, Tom Izzo flat out gets it done in March. With no elite team in college hoops, could MSU take advantage this year?

That's it for this week. My back and shoulders are getting a little tired from carrying this thing, but I'm gonna keep on truckin'. Live tweets from @UDFlyers during the St. Joe's game Saturday, which is on ESPNU.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Your Requisite Towson Recap

The University of Dayton Flyers played one of those classic "get healthy" games that all teams need from time to time during a season. A vastly inferior opponent + at home + coming off a tough loss or two = a recipe for a blowout win and a much needed confidence boost. The Towson Tigers, however, did not receive the memo on this. They gave your Flyers everything they wanted and then some this afternoon.

In the end, UD managed - and I'm still not totally sure how - to squeak out a 74-69 win. Honestly I feel worse after this game than I did after both the 'Nova and K-State losses. Letting a piss poor Towson team dominate you for 30 minutes only to turn it on with ten to play and eek out a victory is just asking for trouble. Games like these make you glad nobody outside the Miami Valley actually watches the Flyers play. I have no idea what emotion to feel right now. Anger? Relief? Disbelief? Here's a schizophrenic recap:

• Mickey, Marcus, CJ, Wright and Kurt started the game. Chris Johnson got the nod because of his play in San Juan, Mickey because LW was late to a meeting this week.
• Remember when the Flyers were a team renowned for their defense? When any bucket against that stout D was cause for celebration from an opponent? Not anymore, folks. TU came in shooting 28% from deep only to go 4-5 to start the game and 9-14 in the first half from downtown. Even after missing a bunch of desperation 3-pointers late, the Tigers still shot over 50% from three for the game. At one point in the second half, Larry H said Towson was shooting 75% from the field for the half. I honestly think this was more a case of them crapping the bed than UD storming back and winning it.
• Is there a difference between a two-fisted jam and a two-handed one? Larry kept saying two-fisted, which sounds dirty.
• Bucky's ability to identify a defense is just plain comical at this point. He gets it wrong more often than right anymore. You know your broadcast team is solid when they can't even agree if your opponent is Towson or Towson State.
• At what point does Chris Wright outgrow the "catch the ball and take two steps before dribbling" move? It was cute when he was a freshman, now it's just annoying.
• Trailing by as much as 18 to Towson is straight up embarrassing. Right now, this team is on the NIT bubble.
• Watching UD play so far this year has been painful, and it's not just because they fall behind every game. The play is so sloppy and full of turnovers (again, the last ten minutes notwithstanding) that the games never seem to have any rhythm. Against K-State, I chalked it up to the number of fouls called. Not this time, though, it was just a matter of poor play.
• London Warren played like ass today. Let's hope it's his sore back and not something more serious. With no Lowery, he becomes one of, if not the, most valuable guys on this team.
• Right now Marcus Johnson couldn't throw the ball in the ocean while standing on a beach in Puerto Rico. Normally, I'd say it's a slump and that he's a senior and will work his way out of it. The problem, however, is that London already can't shoot to save his life and UD's 5 spot is no threat to score either. With MJ slumping, this means the other team only has to defend TWO guys. I don't care how outmatched you are athletically, five guys can stop two from scoring all day every day.
• HOWEVER, the turning point came when Towson missed a wide open three and Marcus grabbed the board. He took it coast to coast for the and-1. The made free throw finally got the deficit back to single digits. After a Tigers bucket, Mickey and CJ then hit back-to-back threes to cut it to five. That was the first time I actually let myself think UD would win since late in the first half.
• Nice reminder that Mickey Perry is a SG playing out of position. He knocked down two huge 3-balls when UD was making its big push.
• How about not one but two passes that didn't come within 15 feet of a teammate? That's how you completely dominate a game for the first 30 minutes and still find a way to lose. Thank you, Towson, thank you much.
• CJ's three to give the Flyers the lead was huge. You think he'll go pro after this season? P-Will's three on the ensuing possession was arguably just as big. That kid deserves to be in games during crunch time. Plus, I'm pretty sure he missed that last FT on purpose just so UD could be perfect in games decided by five points or less.
• From 62-45 down with 10:00 to play, UD closed the game on a 29-7 run. Big time finish.
• CW's line: 20 points on 5-7 from the field and 10-11 from the line and 9 boards. Ah, if only the Puerto Rico Tip-Off was played at UD Arena.
• Chris and Marcus combined for 8-20 shooting and 3-9 from three. Thing is, it was waaaaay worse until both hit a couple key buckets down the stretch. If those two are going to take almost 40% of the team's shots, UD's going to need more out of them than it got this afternoon.
• Time for me to ask Tim if he's ready to concede a loss on our preseason point/counterpoint article.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to find someone to punch me in the stomach so I'll start feeling better.

Day Off in San Juan

Saturday is a day off for us (and boy did we work hard to earn it). Yesterday we (there are four of total - two buddies who are both UD class of '07 and Tim and I) drank an entire bottle of rum at the hotel pool before the Flyers game. This is noteworthy for two reasons:

1) As we were quite literally pouring our last drink from the bottle, one of the hotel employees came over and told us there was no drinking in the pool area. We begged to differ using the previous hour and a half as evidence.

2) I'm trying to party like I did in college and failing quite miserably. I really can't drink liquor anymore, and I'm only 25, which means I'm pathetic. It also means I don't remember yesterday's game against 'Nova in much detail. Flyers got down big, mounted a furious comeback late and fell just short. Luke Fab played well, Marcus Johnson needs to channel Stella and soon, the better team won, but it was an encouraging effort from our Flyers. Love that this team never says die even if it didn't squeak out a W yesterday afternoon.

Friend of the blog Glen Rice was kind enough to pose for a picture with me as GT was closing out a win against Mason. That will be my new profile picture on facebook on Monday. (And yes, I'm THAT guy.)

There is a happy hour during games at the arena here in PR. During games! Three dollar Coors Lights during halftime only. Our crew bought two apiece, walked down to our seats, set them down and immediately bought two more. If you want to get people from Dayton, Ohio, to spend their money, have a happy hour during halftime of a UD game.

We've been asking different local people where to go and what to do in San Juan, and at least four have recommended a strip club called Frenchy's. Now, I see three options here:

a) Frenchy's is the best strip club on the entire island, if not the planet.

b) Puerto Rican people think that all Americans love to go to strip clubs.

c) We just look like a bunch of perverts.

It's probably C. We haven't been there ... yet.

Went to a bar in old San Juan last night. They noticed four Gringos in there, and what song did they play for us? The electric slide. Puerto Ricans actually think Americans dance to that song. The kicker was when they played the local version of the electric slide. The dance steps are the same, but the music most definitely is not.

There was also a congo line featuring someone from the bar pouring shots of some unknown liquor concoction straight into our mouths. From what I recall, it was delicious.

Today we split our time between the beach (it looks nothing like the picture above, but still) and the pool. Tim said it best; this place is absolutely paradise. I said I wanted to buy a bar and move here, and I was only kinda joking.

A couple Flyers came to our hotel in the afternoon. Apparently, Mickey Perry's mom is staying here, and Mickey, London and Paul Williams came to see visit her. P-Will was playing a couple hands of blackjack and LW was just wandering aimlessly around the casino.

More updates to come tomorrow before, during or after K-State. We plan on doing a super sweet podcast (as if there were any other time) when we get back to the mainland and recuperate. Keep it tuned here in the meantime.

UD - Ga Tech Recap

Greetings again from Puerto Rico. In case you were wondering, 85 and sunny here this afternoon and it felt even hotter with humidity. Just thought our Ohio readers might like to know.

We are, at present, sitting in the hotel lobby/bar enjoying two hours of free drinks. Dayton fans and free alcohol = a recipe for trouble. I'm pretty sure the employee who came up with this idea has already been terminated. Now, if I can put down my rum and Coke long enough, some thoughts on today's W over Ga Tech.

*Absolutely had to have this game, and the Flyers got it. I'm still not entirely sure how it happened, but they got the job done. With this team it is rarely, if ever, pretty, but we'll take it.

*Can't say enough about P-Will's play down the stretch. Seven points in the final minute of the game, including a huge go-ahead 3 and 4-4 from the foul line. Great poise out of a kid who's only a sophomore.

*Speaking of sophomores, Chris Johnson with 19 points and 7 boards. Team high in both. Ho hum.

*I thought this was a great game, especially the last ten minutes of it. UD fans to put the Ga Tech supporters to shame. This may be an exagerration, but it seemed like there was about a 10:1 ratio in our favor. The Flyer fans wanted this win badly too, and I'm happy to say they got it.

*If I told you that Chris Wright would have 7 points and 6 turnovers and MJ would have no points, 5 turnovers and 4 fouls and the Flyers still win, you'd have called me crazy.

*Luke Fab - 4-7 from 3, 12 points in just 7 minutes of play. The problem remains that BG just can't play him down the stretch in close games because of his D. Not complaining though because his and CJ's 3-point shooting (8-15 combined) won this game (along with P-Will's clutch play down the stretch) for the good guys.

*Turnovers have the potential to absolutely kill this team. Six from CW, 5 Marcus, 4 Mickey Perry (who played awfully by the way). Can't have that from your upperclassmen. Luckily for the Flyers, GT turned it over a whopping 26 times.

*You think BG was sending Benson a message when we saw Kav not once, but during two different stints in the first half?

*Favors is gonna be nasty, but he's still a freshman. He didn't seem to be aware of who was guarding him at different times. Twice he took turnaround and/or fadeaway jumpers when Luke Fab was guarding him. I guess he didn't know he could have just taken one power drill and went up and dunked on him.

*Kurt played solid. 1-1 from the field and it looked like a solid post move. Five boards including two on the offensive end. And one major mental blunder. Saving that ball underneath your own hoop and basically gifting the Jackets a dunk is unforgiveable. Good thing it didn't come back to bite UD hard.

*My buddy Scott and I were walking up toward the concourse at halftime when he looked at me and said ,"Is that Glen Rice?" It turns out that it was, and he was on hand to watch his son (Glen Rice Jr.), who plays for Ga Tech. Scott and I actually went up and talked to him for three or four minutes during halftime. (Yeah, we're those guys.) He was genuinely a nice guy and really hid his digust for having to talk to two white kids from the Ohio really well. He also had a smoking hot broad on his arm who looked to be about 15 years his junior.

When we got back to our seats, I told Tim about the encounter. His response: "You know why he was happy to talk to you? Because nobody's recognized him in five years." I'd argue with that if I could. My only regret is that I didn't tell him how awesome he was on NBA Jam.

UD 63 - GT 59. Bring on 'Nova (who squeaked past George Mason by a single point) tomorrow.

The Kurt Conundrum*

Game one of the 2009-'10 UD basketball season is in the books, and what does that mean? It's time to overreact and make sweeping generalizations about an entire season based on a mere forty minutes of play.

Chris Johnson is a sure-fire First Team All-A10 performer and will average a double-double this year. Chris Wright has moved from late second rounder to lottery pick in next spring's NBA Draft. Freshman Matt Kavanaugh is resigned to a career riding the bench as Flyers fans hopelessly wish for his scholarship back. Kurt Huelsman needs to stay out of foul trouble and be on the court more if UD is to have success this year.

Wait ... what?

Many followers of UD hoops may think that last sentence is the most ludicrous of all. Perhaps, but it is, at present, the only one I actually believe to be true. Kurt Huelsman, he of the 0 points and 1 rebound in the season opener, needs to be on the court more. And the reason for that is simple: his defense.

Josh Benson struggled in the opener, especially on the defensive end. This has been well documented. Devin Searcy is a really solid player, and I hold high hopes for the last two seasons of his career as a Flyer. Also, I'm just as sick of the whole tangibles vs. intangibles debate as you are. That's why I wanted to bring the topic of Kurt's playing time back around to something that is, in my mind at least, very tangible. And Huelsman is, simply put, Dayton's best interior defender.

To me there were two key differences at the beginning of the second half when the Flyers made their run against Creighton. Those were the presence of London Warren and Huelsman, both of whom were forced to sit out much of the first half with foul trouble. With those two guys on the floor, UD is lightyears better as a defensive squad.

Huelsman's weaknesses have been discussed ad naseum at this point, and I've been one of his bigger critics especially last season. The fact that a guy who is (allegedly) 6'10" can only grab four rebounds a game still boggles the mind, but I've come to grips with Huelsman's limitations. And I'm of the opinion that what he brings to the defensive end outweights his lack of offensive output for this particular Dayton team.

So what does all this mean? Basically, I think Kurt needs to start, defend the opposition's best post player, and play 20-24 minutes a game ... which is convenient because that's exactly what's going to happen. Brian Gregory has been fiercely loyal to his senior center and seems hellbent on starting Huelsman every single game of his college career no matter how well or poorly the big man plays.

I'm embracing Gregory's stubbornness because I've convinced myself it's what's best for the Flyers. I also think Kurt slows down Georgia Tech's heralded freshman big man on Thursday (notice I said slows down, not shuts down) and helps lead the Flyers to a W. I also think a part of UD's game plan is to go inside to Kurt on offense and maybe pick up a quick foul or two on Favors early in the game.

In the podcast, I said UD wins 82-77. I'm amending that pick because I don't know that the Flyers can really score 82; I got all caught up in the excitement of scoring 90 against CU. I'm still going Flyers by five, 76-71.

Wright named co-player of the week
According to daytonflyers.com:

University of Dayton junior Chris Wright has been named Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Week after his 25-point performance, including 18 in the second half, to lead the Flyers to a 90-80 win over Creighton in the season opener for both teams.

Wright shared this year's first A-10 Player of the Week award with Duquesne junior Damian Saunders. This is the second time that both players have been named players of the week, and in an odd coincidence, they also shared co-player of the week honors last season when they were named on November 30.

Wow, that is a whacky coincidence.

Perry struggles in opener
I had high hopes for Mickey Perry entering his senior season, but he had a rough afternoon Saturday against Creighton. I really thought an entire offseason of playing the point coupled with his strong performances in two exhibition contests meant he was ready to take the reins of UD's offense behind London Warren. Instead, he turned the ball over three times and the offense just doesn't seem to flow when he's in charge. If LW gets into foul trouble in Puerto Rico, it could be a long couple of games for the Flyers. And Rob Lowery can't get healthy soon enough for me.

Miami (OH) might be good?
Or it might not. I watched a good chunk of the Kentucky-Miami game last night, and the RedHawks gave UK everything it wanted and then some. Miami led by as much as 18 in the first half, but the Wildcats clawed back and John Wall hit the game-winner with 0.5 left. Could have been a fluke, though, as MU shot a ridiculous percentage from three. Some dude named Winbush hit eight himself. He hit four or five in a row to start the game prompting UK's announcer to exclaim, "A windfall for Winbush!" (I'm Mike Hartsock and I approve this call.) This is the same Miami team which lost by 11 to Towson -- another team on UD's schedule -- in its season opener, so take that for what it's worth.

Here's how Charlie Coles reacted - hilarious.



*During my senior year at UD, I was the assistant sports editor for the award-winning Flyer News. One of the things the sports editor and I would do is try to write the most atrocious headlines possible for our stories. The worse the headlines, the better as far as we were concerned. We especially loved to use alliteration, as in "Dominant Dayton defense downs Drake." (I'm not sure why we were so easily amused by this. College kids.) All things considered, "The Kurt Conundrum" is a pretty weak effort. Here's a classic one that I wrote featuring puns!

Viva Los Flyers

18 points and 15 rebounds from Chris Johnson? 25 and 8 from Flyers Jesus? 0 and 1 from Kurt Huelsman? It all happened Saturday. The Flyers overcame a pretty poor first half of play, outscored a game Creighton team 49-34 in the second half, and came away with a win in the season opener. Tim's last post highlighted (overstated?) the importance of getting that W against the Blue Jays.

Riding high from UD's 1-0 start, Tim and I got together for a little podcast. During it we discuss Chris Johnson's beastliness, the blueprint for beating the Flyers, a Puerto Rico preview and much much more.

Download and listen here.

And don't forget to follow us on twitter under the name UDFlyers.

Exhibition Game #2: The Norse

Some Division I college basketball players come into a program, underperform from day one and prove to be a tremendous disappointment. Still others are over-recruited and never should have been brought in in the first place. Eventually, those player are given their walking papers so that scholarship can be used by someone who is not a complete waste of a roster spot. There is place these players go when this occurs. That place? Northern Kentucky University.

Our very own Dayton Flyers scheduled an exhibition game with James Cripe's alma mater Monday night. The Flyers managed a 71-61 win. I watched the game, and here are some thoughts in bullet point form.

• London, Perry, Chris Johnson, Searcy and Huelsman started the game. Larry H. tells us that Wright and Marcus Johnson were on the bench not because of the very minor injuries that kept them out of the Ferris State game, but because -- in Brian Gregory's system -- you "have to earn your job back."
• Flyer TV has the technology to produce a live event? And on location, to boot? I'm furious that this capability did not exist when I was an undergrad.
• On the alley-oop to Searcy, there was an NKU defender underneath. London threw it up there anyway, and Searcy went up and got it. Nasty. Later in the first half, Searcy hit a wide open 14-footer on the baseline; that's a good sign. Bucky called it the "toughest shot in all of basketball;" that's not a good sign.
• Luke Fab's first three was such a brick that it almost got wedged in between the backboard and rim.
• About 12 minutes in, I found myself googling Scott Bibbins. He is not a D-I transfer (read: reject), but rather an NKU lifer. Still trying to decide what's worse.
• LW took a shot with one foot on the three-point line and almost banked it. That's about enough of that.
• Late in the first half, I think NKU had cut the Flyers lead to 35-32 (wasn't paying that much attention). Then UD answered with six straight down the stretch to extend the lead back to nine. It would've been an 8-0 run had C. Johnson's tip-in with 0.4 to go counted. The follow-up was ridiculous and it didn't look like an over-the-back foul when I saw it live. The Flyers led 41-34 at the half.
• I thought the defensive intensity in the second half went way up, which was good to see. A couple of steals led to back-to-back breakaway dunks for UD early in the period.
• The technical foul on MJ for hanging on the rim was a joke. So was the intentional foul called on NKU against Searcy.
• I'd be shocked if Chris Johnson doesn't lead this team in offensive rebounding.
• Anybody else's video feed keep freezing all throughout the second half? Coincidentally, I finally gave up right around the time Monday Night Football started.
• Eleven points and five boards in 22 minutes of action from Wright is fine. 3-10 FG shooting is a big worrisome though.
• Mickey Perry looked really good in the first half (8 pts, 4 rebs, 2 assts, 0 turnovers). If he can put up that kind of line per game, I'd be thrilled.
• Kavanaugh tied for a team high in rebounds with five in just seven minutes. Huelsman had two in 19 mins. Kav is a frosh and will experience growing pains all year but he's going to be just fine.
• Nine assists to just one turnover from London? Yessir.
• After the Flyers shot 5-9 from three and 6-7 at the line in the first half, I was encouraged. But I still don't think this is a very good 3-point shooting team. 15-18 FT shooting is something you have to like though.
• A ten point win over a D-II school is nothing to do backflips over, but it was a fine performance. The formula is there: stifling defense and get out in transition.
• It feels weird how much the Creighton game and the P.R. trip seem to mean. I always get nervous when games in November seem to take on this much importance.
• Check out the blog all week as well as the twitter feed (UDFlyers). Look for the next podcast shortly after the Creighton game.

I put on for my city

With the season starting this evening, I'd like to share my favorite Flyer video ever made. I could watch this daily.



Secaur and I are recording a new podcast tonight - it's going to be a good one. Look for it up sometime tomorrow.

Atlantic 10 Names 2009-10 Preseason All-Conference Teams

No surprises from Atlantic 10 Media Day today. Your University of Dayton Flyers are picked to win the conference.

Chris Wright was named first-team All-Conference, Marcus Johnson makes the second team, and London Warren shows up on the All-Defensive team. I don't think they pick a preseason Player of the Year, so we here at FlyerNation are gonna go ahead, with apologies to Ricky Harris, and give Wright that honor as well.

No Xavier players made the first or second teams. It's pitiful how much pleasure I take in that.

Flyer Fun Facts: I love alliteration

University of Dayton Flyers men's basketball Media Day was held Monday, and we here at FlyerNation were snubbed. I, for one, am shocked and appalled that a blog which is not even a month old did not receive an invite. (Do you think the people in the UD media relations department even know what a blog is?)

But don't be dismayed Flyer Fans, the university did put out a 23-page booklet of Flyer Fun Facts. Find it hard to believe that anyone could actually compile 23 pages of Flyer Fun Anything? Me too, but click here for the whole thing. Let's review some of the highlights with my own thoughts added in italics.

• Senior Kurt Huelsman has started all 100 games of his Flyer career. Remember the kid on your grade school basketball team who got the Most Improved Player award every season? That's pretty much Kurt as this point.

• Senior London Warren finished last season among the NCAA’s Top 50 in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.33. If you'd have told me this during London's freshman year at UD, I wouldn't even have laughed at you. It was so absurd a notion so as to not even be funny. I'm still not entirely sure I believe it.

Pronunciation Guide
Luke Fabrizius - Fah-BREEZ-ee-us
Kurt Huelsman - Hills-MUN
Matt Kavanaugh - Cah-van-AUGH
Logan Nourse - Nurse
Devin Searcy - SEAR-see

I can't even tell you how many conversations I've had recently where I called him "Logan Norse."

• And when Dayton was ranked again during the 2008-09 season en route to a 27-8 record that included a first-round win in the NCAA tournament, Gregory became the first UD coach since Don Donoher to have the Flyers ranked in back-to-back seasons. First thought, this is a little disturbing. Second thought, OP never had his teams ranked in back-to-back years? Yikes. I don't even wanna know when the last time the Flyers were ranked in three consecutive seasons was.

Headlines about Chris Wright
The Wright Stuff
Wright to Know
The Price is Wright
Fight for your Wright
Taking Flight with Wright
Wright named first team NABC All-District

Whoever wrote that last one needs to be fired immediately.

• A versatile player that can play either the two guard or the wing, Luke Fabrizius is a strong scorer with good range from the outside. And whoever wrote that has never seen a single second of Luke Fab in game action.

• The University of Dayton finished in the Top 30 in men’s basketball attendance for the 11th straight season in 2007-08. The Flyers led the Atlantic 10 in attendance for the 12th straight season. UD averaged more than 2,400 fans a game better than any other team in the conference. This is either really impressive, or it underscores the fact that there is absolutely nothing to do in the city of Dayton, Ohio. I'm going with impressive.

2008-'09 Record by Uniform
White............................................20-1
Red...............................................7-6
Blue..............................................1-0
Black.........................................0-1

Simple solution: Wear white on the road.



New podcast coming early next week. Plus, follow us on twitter under the name UDFlyers.