Dayton back in projected NCAA field

By Doug Harris | Monday, February 8, 2010, 06:33 PM

Dayton’s resounding 90-65 win over Xavier has catapulted the team back into the projected NCAA tournament bracket of the renowned Joe Lunardi of ESPN. He has the Flyers as one of the last four teams in the field, slotted as a 12 seed.

The Flyers were dropped from Lunardi’s bracket after suffering back-to-back one-point defeats to St. Joe’s and Rhode Island late last month.

Jerry Palm of Collegerpi.com has had the Flyers in his field throughout the season. They’re an 8 seed this week.

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Gregory, Mack look back at UD’s blow-out

By Doug Harris | Monday, February 8, 2010, 12:11 PM

Dayton’s Brian Gregory and Xavier’s Chris Mack talked about the Flyers’ 90-65 rout of the Musketeers on the Atlantic 10 coaches teleconference today.

The Flyers were tremendous in all phases, particularly on the offensive end. They shot 56.4 percent from the field and 53.8 from the 3-point line, both season highs.

“It was a tremendous college atmosphere — as you’re starting to see more and more in league,” Gregory said. “Just the prestige and national attention our league has drawn, watching more and more film, you’re starting to see not only great basketball in our league, but tremendous college environments across the board.

“For us, playing at home, we were able to feed off that energy. I thought our guys played with great intensity. We beat a very, very good team. We did a lot of good things. I always talk about our performance, and not necessarily the results. And I thought we took another step forward in playing better.”

Mack said his team didn’t do a good job of weathering an early storm.

“Dayton really, really came out of the gate. A big key was when it was 0-0 and Jason Love goes to the bench (with two fouls). For us, it became a different game early on,” he said. “But Dayton did an excellent job of pushing the ball. They’re a very quick athletic team. And before we could get off the mat, we were down, 17-3. We got into a hole we couldn’t get out of.”

Xavier has a bye this week before playing at Florida on Saturday, and Mack said those days off are coming at a good time.

“Any team would take a bye this late in the season. We’re physically and mentally bruised,” he said.

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Flyers finding range on 3-pointers

By Doug Harris | Monday, February 8, 2010, 06:03 AM

News flash: Dayton is adept at shooting 3-pointers. OK, within limits.

UD was 7-for-13 against Xavier and 6-for-12 in the previous game against St. Bonaventure.

Contrast that with a few of the team’s other outings: 8-for-33 at New Mexico, 3-for-22 at St. Joe’s, 4-for-16 at George Mason, 3-for-14 against Rhode Island.

When the Flyers shoot 3-pointers well, they are hard to beat. But coach Brian Gregory pointed out that it’s not as simple as just being more selective on when to pull the trigger.

“When we had them, we were aggressive to take them (against Xavier),” he said. “You have to be both. You have to shoot with some toughness and feel good about them and knock them down. But we are becoming much better in our offensive decision-making, and that includes 3-pointers.”

I think what he’s saying is don’t be too quick to let ‘em fly, but if an opponent is going to leave you open, fling away.

The Flyers have a brutal remaining schedule, including a home game with first-place Charlotte on Wednesday and road games with Temple, Richmond, Saint Louis and Duquesne. But if they can be even close to as accurate on 3-pointers as they’ve been the last two games, well, that remaining schedule suddenly doesn’t look quite so daunting.

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Gregory knew UD couldn’t afford loss to Xavier

By Doug Harris | Sunday, February 7, 2010, 04:09 PM

Dayton’s game against Xavier was a must-win for the Flyers. A loss would have put them at 15-7 overall and 4-4 in the Atlantic 10. Yeah, they could have rallied for an NCAA bid even with a defeat by going bonkers in the second half of the conference season, but how realistic would, say, a 7-1 record be with road games at Richmond, Temple, Duquesne and Saint Louis still to go?

Gregory talked with Andy Katz before the game and told the ESPN reporter how vital a victory was for his team’s NCAA chances.

“He didn’t say ‘must-win’ but he did say they had to have this one,” Katz said on the ESPN college basketball show late Saturday night. “He knows there has to be separation in the A-10. He told me without question there are six (league) teams that should be in the NCAA tournament, and he doesn’t think there are better teams one-through-six in these other conferences. That’s how good he feels about his team.

“They have an identical record from a year ago. But he’s confident, if they take care of business and don’t lose to those lower-level teams, they’ll be in the NCAA tournament with the other five.”

The other five are Charlotte, Temple, Xavier, Rhode Island and Richmond. Charlotte visits UD on Wednesday. Another must-win, I’d say.

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Senior Johnson gives Flyers what they need

By Doug Harris | Saturday, February 6, 2010, 06:10 PM

Marcus Johnson took a beautiful feed on a backdoor cut from Rob Lowery but missed a wide-open reverse lay-up against Xavier.

The Dayton senior guard, though, responded like a veteran and kept his head in the game.

“It happens,” he said afterward. “I kind of didn’t know where I was. But I didn’t let that get me down.”

Johnson came off the bench to tally 10 points and four rebounds in 21 minutes in a 90-65 win, and he’s showing flashes of returning to the form he had throughout his career.

He’s lost his starting spot, but not his fighting spirit.

“Defensively, he was good,” UD coach Brian Gregory said. “He had four defensive rebounds, which is huge from the guard spot. We’re a different team when he plays and he’s aggressive and he’s defending.”

The Flyers are going to need Johnson if they intend to make a run at the Atlantic 10 title and another NCAA tourney berth.

They’re 16-6 overall and 5-3 in the conference, and they host league-leader Charlotte (18-5, 8-1) on Wednesday. A victory would put UD one game out of first place.

The win over Xavier was huge — not only to stay in the race but for what it could do for the Flyers’ psyche. Their confidence had to be at low ebb after those two one-point defeats to St. Joe’s and Rhode Island, but they look like they belong with the upper-echelon of the A-10 again.

Xavier coach Chris Mack used that Rhode Island defeat to make a point to his team about persevering, but it didn’t appear to sink in.

“They punched Rhode Island in the mouth and got up 8-0,” Mack said. “That’s who Dayton is. They come out with a lot of energy. They pressure the ball. Their point guards do a tremendous job of putting the other point guards on their heels.

“My message to the team was twofold: Expect that punch, but if you get down, that doesn’t mean the game’s over. You’ve got to handle their flurry, but their flurry never ended, and we couldn’t do much to calm it down.”

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Flyers roll to lopsided win over Musketeers

By Doug Harris | Saturday, February 6, 2010, 02:07 PM

Chris Wright had 17 points and nine rebounds and Chris Johnson 18 points and six boards to lead Dayton to a 90-65 pounding of rival Xavier today.

Rob Lowery added 16 points and five assists for the Flyers (16-6, 5-3 Atlantic 10), who were fueled by a sell-out crowd of 13,435. Jordan Crawford led Xavier (16-7, 8-2) with 24 points.

The Flyers soared to an early 17-3 lead and never were really threatened again. They had a 42-24 rebounding advantage and shot 56 percent from the field, including 7-of-13 three-pointers.

Wright was named the game’s MVP.

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Snow won’t interfere with UD-Xavier game

By Doug Harris | Friday, February 5, 2010, 02:18 PM

No one around the University of Dayton can ever recall a men’s basketball game being postponed because of snow — for flooding on the UD Arena floor, yes; for snow, no — and the much-anticipated Dayton-Xavier clash will be played as scheduled Saturday.

Like the Flyers, the Musketeers arrive in town a day before the game whenever the two teams meet even though the campuses are only an hour apart, so travel won’t be an issue.

“It is a national TV game. Both teams are in town. The officials are coming in this afternoon. ESPN is here. We’re still tipping it off. That’s our plan,” UD Arena manager Tim O’Connell said this afternoon.

The arena parking lots were pre-salted, and crews will be hard at work plowing snow between now and the noon tip-off.

“We certainly expect to have a maneuverable parking lot, one that will be safe throughout the game,” O’Connell said.

“Fans are used to this. We’ve had some doozy snowstorms in the past. We’ve been through this before.”

O’Connell also said the arena staff made sure deliveries for concessions came earlier in the week to avoid any trouble with the snow.

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