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Home > Blogs > Flyer Connection: University of Dayton sports > Archives > 2009 > January
January 2009
Martelli believes Hawks have shaken funk
I always enjoy listening to Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli, whose team plays at Dayton on Sunday.
I had a phone interview with him today, and he’s a sports writer’s dream: candid, quotable and accommodating.
When I suggested his team was playing well, having won seven in a row, Martelli countered: “I wouldn’t say ‘well.’ I would say ‘efficiently.’ I thnk we’re doing each time out something a little better, and the beauty of it is I think there’s still a whole lot of growth we can make.”
I suggested the Hawks’ rough start (they were 5-7 at one time) may have stemmed from having had to move its home games to the spacious Palestra this season while that pit known as Alumni Fieldhouse is being renovated, erasing the intimidation factor.
They probably don’t lose to Siena and Drexel at home if those games are played at the Fieldhouse.
But Martelli said he thought the November trip to Maui and then a last-second loss to crosstown rival Villanova left his team dragging.
“Some of the emotional (commitment) and even some of the fortitude was left a little bit behind,” he said. “It took us getting knocked down by Siena and Drexel to get it back.”
Martelli raved about the Flyers’ Chris Wright, who missed the Saint Joe’s game last year (and all but eight minutes of Atlantic 10 play) because of a fractured ankle.
“It’s really exciting to see him play and see what he’s all about,” Martelli said. “I think it’s great for the league to have a player that’s just bubbling nationally beneath the surface and will (emerge) in the next couple years. It’s exciting for the A-10 to have a freakish athlete like him.”
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TweetFlyers overcome offensive woes
Dayton had a 45-42 lead with seven minutes to go against Saint Louis, and the Flyers’ defense was playing so well that a spurt of any kind would have put the game away.
But they spent the next six minutes in a futile search for offense. It was like watching a team of archeologists going on a dig for precious artifacts equipped with nothing but metal detectors.
Marcus Johnson missed a three, London Warren committed a turnover, Rob Lowery clanked a 15-footer and Chris Wright couldn’t get a drive to fall.
Center Kurt Huelsman went scoreless on an 0-for-4 night. The Flyers’ point guards, Warren (1-for-5) and Lowery (0-for-7), had a combined three points. And UD was 0-for-11 from 3-point land.
But with the game slipping away, they notched the biggest basket of the night, executing a perfect ally-oop dunk from Johnson with 1:05 to go. But even that play was a mess at the start.
Johnson had to direct his teammates to their proper spots while Lowery dribbled outside. In the end, though, it worked.
“It was a play coach (Brian Gregory) designed to get an easy bucket,” Johnson said. “We messed it up a few times, but Rob threw it, he made a good pass, and I finished it.
“It was a big basket. We got a W. You can’t complain.”
As Gregory has often pointed out, the Flyers are a flawed team, and they were exposed again as a squad that lacks scoring punch in half-court sets. But they pulled out a 47-46 win by attacking the glass (15 offensive boards) and keeping the Billikens dribbling sideways because of some wicked defense. They’re 19-2, and if they beat St. Joe’s on Sunday, they’ll have 20 wins — on the first weekend in February. Preposterous.
“The most important thing is finding a way to win — especially in a game like that,” Wright said. “Every possession is important. We just want to grind it out. We knew going into the game that it would be a game of possessions, and we just found a way to win.”
UD looked to be taking control after grabbing a 27-22 lead (the biggest for any team all night) with an 8-0 run, but Saint Louis freshman Kwamain Mitchell buried a career-best four 3-pointers in the first half, including two in the final 65 seconds to give the Billikens a 28-27 lead at the break.
“We told our guys at halftime that we needed to do a better job on our defensive intensity, and they sure did that,” Gregory said. “We needed every defensive stop, every defensive rebound, every effort play on the offensive glass.”
UD fans may need to stock up on the nitroglycerin — these close shaves can’t be good for the heart — but the Flyers have put themselves in a great position for an NCAA tourney berth in year that wasn’t supposed to be nearly this promising, and it’ll be fun watching these final six weeks to see if they can pull it off.
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TweetFlyers hold on for one-point win
Chris Wright had 16 points and Charles Little 14 to lead cold-shooting Dayton to a 47-46 win over Saint Louis on Thursday night.
The Flyers (19-2, 5-1 Atlantic 10) were 18-for-55 from the field (33 percent) and 0-for-11 from 3-point range, but they forced the Billikens (11-9, 2-4) into 19 turnovers.
Saint Louis had the final shot of the game, but Kwamain Mitchell missed a drive in traffic with three seconds left.
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TweetGregory ready to face A-10 coaching royalty
Dayton’s Brian Gregory is going against two coaching giants this week in Rick Majerus of Saint Louis and Phil Martelli of Saint Joseph’s. Majerus has a 449-170 career record, Martelli 272-159.
“My second league game as a coach was against Temple and John Chaney,” Gregory said. “I told the guys, ‘He’s got 700 wins. I’m not out-coaching this guy, so you guys better out-play ‘em.’
“With coach Majerus and coach Martelli, you’re not just talking about two of the best coaches in college basketball, you’re talking about two of the best coaches who ever COACHED in college basketball.”
Gregory is in his sixth year and has a 116-62 record. He’s 3-0 against Majerus and 3-3 against Martelli.
Majerus has a .725 winning percentage, Gregory .652 and Martelli .631.
“As I’ve learned in my ‘vast experience’ now, it’s not the X’s-and-O’s, it’s the Jims-and-Joes,” Gregory said.
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TweetSnow not expected to impact Saint Louis’ trip
The Saint Louis men’s basketball team is scheduled to leave for Dayton on a charter flight at 6:30 p.m. Central time today, and Chuck Yahng, the school’s sports information director, doesn’t believe the heavy snowfall will affect the Billikens’ travel plans.
Dayton hosts Saint Louis at 8 p.m. Thursday.
“It has stopped snowing here,” Yahng said Wednesday morning. “It’s just a matter of whether they’re able to clear off all the snow. We still have nine more hours before we have to leave. I’m anticipating we should be OK.”
Saint Louis’ charter flight is scheduled to land at the Wright Bros. Aero facility next to the Dayton International Airport at 9:30 p.m.
“We still have planes taking off and landing,” said Katie Mitchell of Wright Bros. Aero Inc. “As long as the snow stops around noon (as predicted), they should be fine.”
The UD women’s team hosts George Washington tonight. A UD spokesman said GW has already arrived in town, and the game will be played as scheduled.
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TweetFreshman Williams healing
Paul Williams said he’s still only about 85 percent recovered from the broken bone in his left foot that caused him to miss most of the preseason. He also suffered another setback last week with an inner-ear infection forced him to the sidelines for two games.
“It was painful,” the Dayton freshman said of the latter ailment. “In quiet places, it didn’t hurt, but if you’re around a lot of noise, it feels like your head is going to explode.”
The 6-foot-3 guard finished third in Michigan’s Mr. Basketball voting last year, once scoring 55 points in a game. His high game with the Flyers has been nine points, and he believes fans have seen only a fraction of his talents.
“I can do it all,” he said. “I just don’t give up. When I’m 100 percent healthy, I’ll do everything that’s needed of me — and even more.”
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TweetSedric Toney realizes dream in playing at UD
Notes and quotes from Dayton’s 80-68 win over St. Bonaventure and the festivities to honor the 1983-84 and 1973-74 teams on the anniversaries of their accomplishments Sunday:
• Sedric Toney, now a basketball analyst for ESPN, on playing at UD: “I used to sit in our living room watching the games on TV and fantasizing about playing for the Flyers. For it to come true is indescribable.”
• Toney on Roosevelt Chapman’s famous boast before dousing Wayman Tisdale and Oklahoma with 41 points in the second round of the ‘84 NCAA tournament: “He said, ‘We’ll see who the real All-American is.’ Coach (Don Donoher) was livid. … But I think Chap got us stirred up, and he was stirred up himself, and he had one of the greatest games in NCAA history.”
• Ed Young on the game-winning banker to beat No. 3 DePaul in ‘84: “People come up to me all the time. It’s very flattering. It’s nice to be recognized. … But what people don’t remember is Larry (Schellenberg) got one of the greatest rebounds of all time (after a missed foul shot to start the sequence of events).
“Sedric was on the left, and I was trailing the play. Everyone knows Chap was getting the ball, and I was just thinking about getting the rebound. It was nice to make that shot. It was very spontaneous. It was just boom-boom-boom. It was a lucky shot.”
• Don Donoher on the ‘84 team: “Everybody really understood their role. If you look at the films, everybody knew who the kingpin was (Chapman). He carried us. But he didn’t carry us in rebounding and defense, just scoring.”
• The Flyers have won 14 games in a row at home dating to last year, tying for the seventh-longest streak in the nation.
• UD and St. Bonaventure each grabbed 33 rebounds. The Flyers are 15-0 when they win the battle of the boards and 2-2 when they don’t.
• Bonnies junior guard Chris Matthews tied a school record for 3-pointers with eight in 17 attempts. He finished with a career-high 28 points.
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TweetFlyers stay home for two more
UD Basketball: The Week Ahead
Games: vs. Saint Louis (11-8, 2-3 Atlantic 10) 8 p.m. Thursday (CBS-College Sports Network); vs. Saint Joseph’s (11-7, 4-0) noon Sunday (WHIO-TV).
Scouting Saint Louis: First, the game will be broadcast on the network formerly known as CSTV, which is available only to cable subscribers who purchase the special sports-tier package.
The Billikens are one of the A-10’s top defensive teams, and they have two proficient offensive players in seniors Kevin Lisch and Tommie Liddell III, who are averaging about 13 points apiece. But those two are surrounded by youth as coach Rick Majerus tries to rebuild the program.
Scouting Saint Joseph’s: The Hawks reached the NCAA tournament as an at-large team last season and have perhaps the league’s top player in burly center Ahmad Nivins, who is averaging 20.5 points and 11.3 rebounds while playing 39.6 minutes per game.
Coach Phil Martelli and UD’s Brian Gregory have had two different philosophies on playing time this year. Martelli believes in keeping his starters on the floor — four played more than 50 minutes in a triple-overtime win over Rhode Island — while Gregory is giving 12 players quality minutes.
UD and St. Joe’s have a common foe in Duquesne. The Flyers grabbed a 78-69 win on the road against the Dukes, while the Hawks prevailed, 99-98, in overtime at home.
Scouting Dayton (18-2, 4-1): When St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt was asked whether he thought Dayton was an NCAA tournament-caliber team, he replied: “If they shoot the ball.”
That’s always an uncertainty with the Flyers. For all their marvelous traits — their rebounding prowess, athleticism and competitiveness — they still are suspect on the perimeter. But they shot 53.1 percent in the second half in an 80-68 win over the Bonnies on Sunday (43.1 overall), and they’ve been able to compensate for that weakness so far.
The Flyers staged anniversary celebrations for the accomplishments of the 1983-84 team (Elite Eight appearance) and 1973-74 squad (NCAA second round — back in the day when only 25 teams made the tourney). And Gregory hoped all those old-timers left confident the current Flyers are upholding the UD tradition.
“When you look at those teams and the camaraderie those (past) players still have, I don’t think there’s any question, if you watch our team, we have great chemistry among our players,” Gregory said. “Guys are looking for each other. Guys who would be playing the same positions are cheering for each other.
“In the true sense of the word, this is a team. … I hope they would have walked out of here and said, ‘You know what, that game was really important to them. They wanted to get that win.’ “
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TweetFlyers climb to 18-2 with victory
Chris Wright had 19 points and eight rebounds and Chris Johnson added 17 points and eight boards to lead Dayton to an 80-68 win over visiting St. Bonaventure on Sunday afternoon.
The Flyers led by as many as 17 in the second half while improving to 18-2 overall and 4-1 in the Atlantic 10.
Chris Mathews had 28 points while making 8-of-17 three-pointers for the Bonnies (11-8, 2-4).
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TweetFlyers faring well under pressure
Dayton is 7-0 in games decided by five points or fewer this season. In the Fordham and George Washington contests, the Flyers could be accused of playing down to the level of competition. But at least you can say one thing about these guys so far: They don’t crack under pressure.
Last year’s team also did well in close tests, going 7-2 in games decided by five points or less.
“It’s a long season, and a lot of times the difference between a great season and a good season is those close games, how many do you win?” coach Brian Gregory said. “If you win most of them, you’re going to have a great season. If you win half of them, you’re going to have a good season. If you lose most of them, you’re going to have a bad season.
“We have competitive kids, and that competitive spirit has helped us in those types of games.”
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TweetWHIO broadcast of UD game faulty
WHIO Radio experienced technical difficulties during the broadcast of Dayton’s 63-61 win at George Washington on Thursday, leaving fans frustrated as the station struggled to produce a consistent signal from the Smith Center in Washington D.C.
Larry Hansgen, who does the producing for the games along with the play-by-play, said neither of the two enhanced phone lines he tried — called ISDN lines — would allow him to dial out or the station to dial in. He was forced to go with a standard phone line, and it proved to be unreliable.
“The problem when you’re using a phone line at a college is that it’s an extension off a universal line, and the quality is terrible,” he said. “That’s what we ran into. It was just an awful, awful phone line.”
Hansgen said the station received some complaints, as did the Dayton Daily News. With the signal breaking in and out, listeners caught about every third word.
“No one was probably more upset than me. … What they’re hearing, my ears are hearing it at the same time (through his headset), and it was distracting and unnerving. It was not a good situation for all involved.”
WHIO eliminated a broadcast producer for games a few years ago in a cost-cutting measure, but Hansgen said having that technical support wouldn’t have helped.
“We could have had Alexander Graham Bell there, we could have had Marconi there, we could have had Tesla there, and I still don’t know how it would have been any better,” he said.
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TweetFlyers win despite sputtering offense
WASHINGTON D.C. — Dayton is like a souped-up race car that looks sleek going around a track. But put it in stop-and-go traffic — like the post-Presidential Inauguration gridlock still gripping this city — and it’s usually just another clunker on four wheels.
The Flyers had oodles of trouble scoring in half-court sets against George Washington, but they had the moxie and — let’s face it — a needed stroke of good fortune to pull out a 63-61 win Thursday.
The Colonials (6-10, 0-4 Atlantic 10) entered the game with an RPI of 208 — they somehow managed to lose to 3-15 Coppin State, among other indignities — and lugged a seven-game losing streak into their meeting with the Flyers (17-2, 3-1).
Getting caught with six men on the floor for a crucial technical with 21.9 seconds left only added to their season-long woes.
The Flyers were slogging along at a point-a-minute clip through the first 11 minutes of the first half, making just four of their first 13 shots and committing six turnovers.
They really never did get into an offensive rhythm, apart from their 12 fastbreak points, and looked completely finished after falling behind by six with 2:14 to go.
But during the course of any season that ends up memorable, you need some bounces and breaks to go your way, and the Flyers now have had at least two instances of that.
The first was pulling out a one-point win over Fordham, which allowed Rob Lowery to dribble the length of the floor with 10 seconds to go (don’t you make Lowery kick the ball out and then take your chances on Dayton hitting a perimeter shot?) and then the GW technical.
Hardly anybody knew what was going on at first when play stopped with 21.9 seconds to go. Coach Brian Gregory was trying to call a timeout to set up a potential game-winning shot.
But GW didn’t properly sub — one player went in after a made foul shot but nobody came out — and a veteran referee crew spotted it as UD was ready to make an in-bounds pass.
The Flyers have NCAA tournament aspirations — and they’ve certainly laid the foundation for a bid — and that technical may turn out to be the difference between going to The Dance or being left home.
UD’s Gregory said he would have preferred that his team made a last-second shot to win it. But college basketball victories are like strokes in a golf tournament. The NCAA selection committee doesn’t ask how, it asks how many.
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TweetDayton rallies for win at GW
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dayton rallied from a six-point deficit in the final 2:14 to pull out a 63-61 victory over George Washington here Thursday.
Marcus Johnson made three free throws in the final 21.9 seconds — two of the attempts coming after a technical foul on GW for having too many men on the floor — and UD survived two Colonial shots in the final seconds to triumph.
UD is 17-2, 3-1 Atlantic 10. GW is 6-10, 0-4.
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TweetDuquesne coach praises Flyers
On the Atlantic 10 coaches teleconference this week, Duquesne’s Ron Everhart bemoaned the fact that star guard Aaron Jackson wasn’t 100 percent in the 78-69 loss to Dayton on Saturday, although the 6-foot-4 senior, who suffered a bruised tailbone in the Dukes’ previous outing, still played 37 minutes and scored 18 points.
But Everhart was complimentary of UD.
“Dayton did a great job defensively against us,” he said. “It was a very good college basketball game and a hard-fought one. Those guys made some free throws down the stretch and created some turnovers that led to a victory for them and defeat for us.
“All in all, we played hard and I liked our effort. But they’re a good ball club. It kind of gives us a gauge to see how far we have to go to compete at that level every night.”
• George Washington, which hosts UD on Thursday, shot a season-high 63.8 percent from the field and 80 percent from 3-point range in its 88-83 loss at Duquesne on Jan. 14. The 63.8 shooting was the Colonials’ best effort since 2005 and the third-highest accuracy rate in eight seasons under Karl Hobbs.
• The Flyers are 6-0 this season in games decided by five points or less. … Their 13-game home winning streak is the longest in the A-10. … They’re 35-4 under coach Brian Gregory when they score at least 75 points.
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TweetWright, Little spar over dunking artistry
Dayton has 61 dunks this year and needs just one to break the school’s single-season record for slams set by the 2003-04 team.
That’s 61 jams in 18 games. The ‘03-04 team needed 32 games to reach that mark. Impressive.
Earlier in the season, Chris Wright and Charles Little, who have racked up the bulk of the slams, had a good-natured argument over who was the better dunker.
To understand the exchange, you might need to know that Dominique is Dominique Wilkins, Michael is Michael Jordan and Vince is Vince Carter.
Little: “I’m a power dunker.”
Wright: “Mine’s mixed.”
Little: “You’re like Dominique, and I’m more like a Shawn Kemp.”
Wright: “That’s a good one. … No, wait. I’m Michael-nique and you’re Shawn Kemp.”
Little: “I can’t get no mixed?”
Wright: “I’m Michael-nique and you’re Vince-Kemp.”
Little: “Thank you. That’ll work.”
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TweetFlyers getting votes in both national polls
After two wins last week, including an impressive road victory at Duquesne, Dayton has begun receiving votes in the Associated Press Top 25 again. The Flyers have the 42nd most votes in that poll and the 32nd most in the ESPN-USA Today coaches poll.
The Flyers also squeaked into ESPN.com’s projected NCAA tournament bracket as an 11 seed.
The Flyers (16-2) also are ranked sixth in a poll at collegehoops.net that rates schools outside the six BCS conferences. They were second before losing their Atlantic 10 opener to UMass.
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TweetFlyer play at GW, then face hot Bonnies
UD Basketball: The Week Ahead.
Games: at George Washington (6-9, 0-3 Atlantic 10), 7:30 p.m. Thursday (no TV); vs. St. Bonaventure (11-6, 2-2) 2 p.m. Sunday (no TV).
Scouting GW: The Colonials once ruled the conference, but they’re in a rebuilding mode for the second straight season after going 9-17 last year. They’ve lost seven straight games after a narrow setback at Saint Louis on Saturday, but seven of their last eight games have been away from home (five road games, two at neutral sites). They beat the Flyers, 57-54, at the Smith Center last season.
Scouting St. Bonaventure: The Bonnies have won a school-record seven consecutive road games to start the season, prevailing at Richmond on Saturday. They won just one road game last season and five over the previous three years.
The Bonnies have out-rebounded their seven road opponents by more than 10 per game.
Flyer teams honored: UD will recognize the 1983-84 Elite Eight team and the 1973-74 Donald Smith-led squad that took UCLA to triple-overtime in the NCAA tournament at the St. Bonaventure game Sunday.
Schedule change: The GW game was originally scheduled for Tuesday before the A-10 realized it might be wise not to hold it on the same day as the Presidential Inauguration.
Scouting Dayton: When Chris Wright is involved offensively, the Flyers flourish.
He took just five shots while playing 33 minutes in the loss at Creighton, and he had a quiet 13 points in the other defeat at UMass. When the Flyers bumbled along in a one-point win against Fordham last week, Wright went 0-for-2 from the field.
But he played with his usual boundless energy in the 78-69 win at Duquesne, going 6-for-8 from the field and 3-for-4 from the foul line while tallying 15 points and picking up eight rebounds.
“He was active. He went to the glass. He aggressively took the ball to the basket,” UD coach Brian Gregory said. “The one area he needs to get better at is being able to understand when to attack.”
Wright had six of the team’s 24 turnovers, and he committed a couple of gaffes that show he’s still a somewhat raw talent. With UD shooting a one-and-one with four seconds left in the first half, Wright committed an over-the-back foul while going for a rebound with Duquesne in the double-bonus.
Fortunately for the Flyers, the Dukes’ David Theis missed both free throws. And Gregory could overlook the miscues because of the rest of Wright’s production.
“As I always say, it’s easier to tone guys down than to fire them up,” Gregory said.
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TweetRoad win puts Flyers back on track
“Let’s go, Ravens … Let’s go, Ravens!”
Dayton players and coaches were pulling away from Pittsburgh on a charter bus cheering for visiting Baltimore in the AFC Championship game, not to wish the Steelers any ill but to give radio broadcaster Bucky Bockhorn a hard time.
Bockhorn went to UD with Chuck Noll, the architect of that Steel Curtain dynasty of the 1970s, and is an ardent Steelers fan. The team actually was showing its affection for the Flyer legend with the ribbing, and he took it with a smile and a quick retort, telling the team to stuff it. (Or something to that effect.)
The Flyers were in an upbeat mood after a 78-69 road win over Duquense. Just when many message-board regulars were predicting their demise — despite a 15-2 record — the Flyers answered with their best performance since upsetting Marquette in November.
“I was not, at 15-2, going to be discouraged with our team,” UD coach Brian Gregory said. “And I’ve got to make sure our guys aren’t, either. We’ve never talked about the record. We’ve never talked about wins and losses. We talk about improvement and energy, and that’s what we did today.
“We played a really, really good team. And they have a senior (Aaron Jackson) who has taken control of that team. If they can stick with it, they’re going to be a force in the league as the season progresses. That ain’t the Duquesne people think of. Those times are gone.”
I was sitting on press row next to Mike Lopresti, a columnist for USA Today who was in town for the AFC Championship and decided to check out Duquesne because of its resurgence under coach Ron Everhart. After one of the Flyers’ seven slams, he asked if this was the “dunkingest” Dayton team ever.
Well, it soon will be. The Flyers have 61 dunks in 18 games and need just one more to break the school season record.
But UD was losing confidence and visibly pressing after starting A-10 play by losing on the road at UMass and then squeaking past Fordham, the league’s worst team, by one at home.
But a road win over Duquesne has the looks of a slump-buster.
“Sometimes you hear things and put pressure on yourselves,” Gregory said. “We never did that before. You can’t do that. … The only expectations we need to meet are ours.”
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TweetBalanced Flyers roll to road victory
PITTSBURGH —Â Rob Lowery had 16 points to lead five players in double figures as Dayton rolled to a 78-69 win over Duquesne on Saturday.
The Flyers (16-2, 2-1 Atlantic 10) led by just one at halftime but scored the first seven points in the second half and pulled away down the stretch.
Chris Wright had 15 points, Marcus Johnson and Luke Fabrizius 11 each and Chris Johnson 10. The Dukes (12-5, 3-1) had their seven-game winning streak snapped.
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TweetFrosh Williams out for Duquesne game
Freshman guard Paul Williams will miss his second straight game with an inner-ear infection when Dayton plays at Duquesne on Saturday.
Williams, who is averaging 1.5 points in 9.3 minutes per game, will be cleared to start workouts on Monday, coach Brian Gregory said.
Chris Wright and London Warren, who missed practice earlier in the week because of the flu, are back at full strength.
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TweetFlyers need to forget about Fordham game
Dayton needs to turn the page quickly to get ready for a resurgent opponent in Duquesne on Saturday, but it has to be hard for the players to shake the bitter aftertaste of that 72-71 win over feeble Fordham.
Yes, the Rams have a couple of nice freshmen guards in Jio Fontan and Alberto Estwick — both starred on the undefeated prep national champion St. Anthony’s in New Jersey last season and were recruited by bigger schools — but that was the kind of foe that the Flyers flattening during their 14-1 non-league season.
I’ve never seen a more subdued locker room after a win than what I encountered when I interviewed UD players in the aftermath. A stone-faced Rob Lowery looked like he had just made the play that lost a game, not a clutch drive to pull out a one-point victory.
Chris Wright, like the others, was troubled that Fordham had given UD such a scare.
“You’ve got to focus the whole game. You can’t have ups and downs during a game. You can’t have peaks and valleys,” he said. “When you have a lead, you have to continue to play at that level. You can’t let your energy drop off or your focus to drop off.
“We can’t win like that. A win like that, you’re happy you got the win, but you have to understand you could have easily lost that game, and you can’t put yourself in that situation and let it come to that. We have to pick it up. We can’t play like that.”
Certainly not if they want to reach the postseason. The Flyers set themselves up for an NCAA tournament bid with their non-league effort, but two straight clunkers have all but erased the momentum of that feel-good start.
“There’s going to be a lot tougher opponents (than Fordham),” Wright said. “They played well, they played hard. But we can’t let that happen.”
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TweetFlyers take step backward
Dayton seemingly had the perfect foe in Fordham to rebuild its confidence after that thrashing on the road at UMass. The Flyers know — shoot, everybody knows — the other 14 Atlantic 10 opponents left on the schedule will provide far greater tests than what the youthful Rams could muster.
But instead of a psyche-soothing victory, the Flyers are left to ponder whether that 14-1 non-league record was a deceiving feat built against mostly weak competition or whether they have the stuff to make a run at the postseason.
The Flyers pulled out a 72-71 victory, but that was a rattled team on the floor, playing, if I may channel Dr. Phil for a moment, with a fear of failure instead of a swagger that should be there from beating Marquette, Auburn and others.
These guys went into the game with an RPI of 43 — meaning they’re ranked ahead of exactly 300 Division-I teams in the computer ratings — but unless they solve their offensive woes, a slide down the standings is inevitable.
The Flyers are out of sync in half-court sets, and they’re not getting enough transition points to make up for it. There’s no easy solution, either. Opponents have figured out how to keep UD from running, and there aren’t enough players on the roster capable of creating shots for themselves.
And what’s happened to that celebrated defense? Only one of the Flyers’ first 12 opponents shot 40 percent from the field (Creighton), but Fordham connected at a 43.9 clip while becoming the fourth team in five games to top 40 percent.
“We’ve played two games now in this league, and in both games we haven’t defended and have not rebounded well, so we have a lot of work to do if we want to continue to improve,” UD coach Brian Gregory said. “Tomorrow morning, you feel a lot better that we won this game, but it’s hard to find a lot of things we did well.”
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TweetFlyers hang on for one-point win
Rob Lowery scored 13 points, including a driving lay-up with 5.4 seconds left to give Dayton a 72-71 win over visiting Fordham on Wednesday.
The Flyers (15-2, 1-1) had a 70-66 lead with 19 seconds left, but the Rams (2-13, 0-3) hit a 3-pointer, forced a turnover and converted two free throws with 10.1 seconds to go.
Fordham turned the ball over after Lowery’s bucket, allowing the Flyers to hold on.
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TweetWright, Warren fighting flu
Sophomore forward Chris Wright has missed the last two days of practice with the flu but is expected to play against Fordham on Wednesday, although he’ll be held out of the starting lineup.
Junior point guard London Warren also has the flu, but he’ll see some action off the bench, too.
Freshman Chris Johnson will replace Wright in the starting line-up, while junior Rob Lowery will take Warren’s place.
The Flyers (14-2) are coming off a 75-62 loss at Massachusetts, and in coach Brian Gregory’s mind, the UMass game was similar to UD’s other setback, a 77-59 decision at Creighton.
“In our two losses, we didn’t defend and rebound the way we have all year long,” Gregory said. “We’ve lost our poise on defense where every help situation and every team defense situation — and they usually say this with offense — we were trying to swing for the fences (by gambling for steals).
“We were trying to make up a six- or seven-point deficit in one play, and you can’t do it,” he said.
Because of their limitations on offense — namely, few reliable outside shooters — the Flyers depend heavily on their defense and rebounding. But UMass shot 52.3 percent from the field. Only three other opponents have topped 40 percent against UD.
The Minutemen also had a 33-26 edge on the boards. Creighton and Wofford are the only other teams to out-rebound UD.
To cure their offensive woes — the Flyers have been held to 66 or fewer points in four of their last five games — Gregory wants his team to push the ball and create opportunities in the open court.
That certainly would make the athletic Wright more of a factor. He’s failed to reach double-figures in three of the last six games and hasn’t scored more than 18 this year.
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TweetWright misses practice with sickness
Sophomore forward Chris Wright has flu-like symptons and missed practice Monday. Coach Brian Gregory said Wright’s status for the Fordham game Wednesday will be evaluated after today’s practice.
Freshman guard Paul Williams has an ear infection and is considered questionable for the Fordham game, too.
If Wright — the team’s leading scorer and rebounder — doesn’t play, freshman Chris Johnson will likely get the starting nod.
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TweetGregory talks Flyer hoops on ESPN ‘podcast’
Dayton coach Brian Gregory was interviewed by ESPN’s Andy Katz after the UMass game for a podcast that was posted at ESPN.com today.
Gregory touched on the Flyers needing to “hold down the fort” with their defense and rebounding until they become better offensively.
Katz talked about UD’s win over Marquette having some “shelf life,” meaning it will still look good when the NCAA Selection Committee evaluates teams in March.
Although the interview took place 15 minutes after the Flyers’ 75-62 setback, Gregory was upbeat and optimistic about his team.
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TweetFlyers face Fordham, Duquesne
UD Basketball: The Week Ahead
Games: vs. Fordham (2-12, 0-2 Atlantic 10), 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (no TV); at Duquesne (11-4, 2-0 Atlantic 10) 7 p.m. Saturday (no TV).
Scouting Fordham: The Rams have been lurking in the sub-300 regions of the RPI, their only wins having come at home against Lafayette and New Hampshire. They’ve lost to St. Bonaventure and Xavier in the A-10.
Scouting Duquesne: The Dukes have been one of the surprise teams in the league. Three of their four losses have been to ranked teams, and they played West Virginia to the final minutes.
They’re coming off a 98-80 win at St. Bonaventure, which took a 10-4 record into that game.
Scouting Dayton: The Flyers shot just 40 percent from the field in a 75-62 loss to UMass on Saturday, falling to 0-1 in the Atlantic 10.
The Minutemen really sagged off point guard London Warren and forward Charles Little, leaving few lanes for drives. Of course, that’s not the first time the shooting-challenged Flyers have faced a collapsing man-to-man defense.
“They packed the middle,” guard Marcus Johnson said. “Every time you tried to drive, there would be two or three guys on you. They sagged off the players that weren’t very capable of shooting it.
“We just have to work the ball around against that, drive and kick it.”
Gregory addresses alums:Dayton coach Brian Gregory spoke to about 115 UD alumni from the New England area before the game against UMass on Saturday, and the group applauded enthusiastically when he arrived.
During his remarks, Gregory cracked, “I very rarely get on the officials, so that’s your job today.”
Earlier in the week, a reporter from WDTN (Channel 2) asked the coach to say a few words on camera to retiring weatherman Carl Nichols, and Gregory displayed his biting humor.
Before offering his congratulations on a great career, Gregory said: “If I was as wrong as much as he was, I probably wouldn’t be coaching. I have two lovely daughters, and I figure out what he says the weather will be the next day and dress them just the opposite.”
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TweetFlyers fouls take bite out of defense
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Dayton is a team that relies on physical, in-your-mug defense and needs the officials not to call ticky-tack fouls to flourish. But the refs were calling everything Saturday (at least against the visitors), and that took away one advantage the Flyers had on UMass.
We’re not saying the Flyers got a raw deal — they took a slew of bonehead shots that had no chance of going in — but they were whistled for 27 fouls compared to just 10 for UMass. The Minutemen made 22-of-27 free throws, the Flyers 6-of-8.
The UD staff went berserk when officials disagreed on a drive by UMass’ Ricky Harris with 49 seconds left in the first half. One was getting ready to signal traveling, but he was overruled by another who called a foul on the Flyers and counted Harris’ basket.
The quick whistles seemed to take away the Flyers’ defensive aggression in the 75-62 loss, but UD coach Brian Gregory refused to pin the defeat on the officials.
“We’re a team that’s very good defensively and very good rebounding-wise, and we didn’t do either one today,” he said. “When you go on the road, you have to stick to the things you’re good at — you can’t be good at everything — and we weren’t very good at those.”
A-10 commish scouts site: New Atlantic 10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade attended the UMass-Dayton game to check out the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass., as a possible site to host the league tourney.
“Springfield has a great facility,” she said.
Actually, it’s a drab, aged multi-purpose building (a minor-league hockey game was held there the previous night) and holds only 6,700 fans. The game drew just 5,485.
McGlade has only been on the job a few months, but she pulled off a coup in getting the A-10 tourney championship game on CBS-TV at 1 p.m. on Selection Sunday, a spot previously filled by the SEC title game.
“We’re excited,” she said. “That’s a great opportunity to be on a network we know at 1 o’clock on Selection Sunday. The championship game for the men’s basketball tournament deserves an opportunity like that.
“We were fortunate. CBS is a great partner, and at the end of the day, the league and student-athletes and coaches are going to benefit a lot.”
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TweetFlyers drop A-10 opener to UMass
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Massachusetts blew open a tight game in the second half, getting 23 points from Ricky Harris, 16 from Tony Gaffney and 15 points and six assists from Chris Lowe in a 75-62 win over Dayton on Saturday.
Chris Wright had 13 points and nine rebounds and Marcus Johnson 10 points for the Flyers, who fell to 14-2 overall and 0-1 in the Atlantic 10.
UMass, which shot 52.3 percent from the field, improved to 6-8, 1-0 Atlantic 10.
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TweetBenson on road to recovery
Dayton’s Josh Benson has shed the sling he’s been wearing since having surgery to repair his dislocated right shoulder two months ago and has begun his grueling recovery to get back to full strength.
The 6-foot-9 freshman from Dunbar — who will be redshirted this season — has been doing range-of-motion exercises with five-pound weights with his right arm. He’s also been doing intense lower-body exercises to strengthen his legs.
“This will be a year to develop and learn new things, so I can come back strong next year,” he said.
Asked how he’s handled not being able to don a uniform this season, he replied: “At times, it’s hard, especially when we had those close games, but I just knew we’d pull them out.”
Young fan meets players Will Homan, a 6-year-old student at Incarnation Catholic School in Centerville, experienced a rare treat when he ran into UD players at the Greater Cincinnnati Airport on Friday.
The Flyers were on their way to Massachusetts for their game Saturday with UMass, while Homan and his family were off on a vacation to Naples, Fla.
Will attends virtually every UD home game and showed the depth of his knowledge of the Flyers as he mingled with the team at a ticket counter. A relative would point to a player, and Will identified each by name. He easily picked out role players Rob Lowery, Stephen Thomas and Luke Fabrizius. The only one who stumped him was freshman Paul Williams.
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TweetWarren, Flyers hungry to get better
Dayton coach Brian Gregory has been harping all year to his team about constantly working to get better, and London Warren and his mates appear to have gotten the message.
The Flyers (14-1) set a school record for non-conference winning percentage — in 21 years of playing in leagues, they’ve never done better than this season’s .933 mark — but the players know they’ll ultimately be measured by how they perform in the Atlantic 10.
“I feel we did a great job in the non-conference, going 14-1,” Warren said. “But we’ve got to take it into league play where it counts the most and turn it up to another level. We’re still not as good as we can be with it being just January. These are the months that count, January and February, so we can be ready to go in March and April.”
Yes, he said April, which sounds like he’s planning on the Flyers still playing when the Final Four rolls around. I think, though, UD fans would be quite content just making a deep run in March.
How capable of the Flyers of even making the NCAA tournament? Miami coach Charlie Coles said after the 45-40 loss on Tuesday that he believes they’ll earn a bid, and I don’t think he was just playing the part of gracious loser. I think their chances are good, too, but I’ll need to see how they perform in a few A-10 road games before I’m convinced.
I like their defense, I like their tenacity, I like their chemistry, I like their commitment, but I’m just not sure they shoot the ball well enough to consistently win on the road. And I’m guessing they’ll need to go at least 11-5 or 12-4 in the A-10 to stay off that dreaded NCAA tourney bubble (never a good place for a non-BCS school).
Simply put, the Flyers will have to be better than what they’ve shown so far. But judging from Warren’s comments, the players have already figured that out.
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TweetFlyers not at their best in half-court sets
Miami couldn’t quite knock off Dayton at UD Arena earlier this week, but Charlie Coles’ team may have given Atlantic 10 schools a blueprint for beating the Flyers.
As Coles pointed out after the 45-40 defeat, UD is much more comfortable in transition than in half-court sets. And the RedHawks turned the game into a walk-it-up affair by keeping defenders back.
George Mason coach Jim Larranaga had the same idea. He constantly motioned to his players during a 66-62 loss to collapse in the paint, cutting off driving lanes to the basket.
Opponents fear the Flyers’ athletic ability, but not their outside shooters.
“Are we better in the open court? Yeah,” UD coach Brian Gregory said. “And that’s an area we need to keep improving at, and we have gotten better at it.”
Gregory knows the Flyers are vulnerable if they have to survive on the perimeter, but opponents give up something with that strategy, too.
“If a team sends four guys back (on defense), you’re not going to score in the open court,” Gregory said, “but they’re not going to get any offensive rebounds.”
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TweetDefense does it again
Dayton may not ever dazzle anyone with its offense, but we know at least this much after 15 games: The Fly-boys can rebound and play some serious defense.
Miami came into the game ranked 11th nationally in the RPI, but Michael Bramos and his mates were chewed up like leftovers going down a garbage disposal.
Bramos had just six points — 13 below his average — and the RedHawks shot a mere 32.1 percent from the field in their 45-40 defeat.
The Flyers went into the game ranked second nationally in field-goal percentage defense at 35.2 (Washington State was No. 1 at 35.1). And UD forward Chris Wright knows he wouldn’t fare too well, either, if he were wearing an opposing uniform against the Flyers.
“We do a good job of defense on each other. If you came to practice, it would look like two different teams (going against each other). We don’t cut each other any slack,” he said.
Miami (2-for-13) and UD (3-for-16) combined to make just 5-of-29 three-pointers. But the Flyers had 14 offensive rebounds and a 38-30 edge on the boards. They’re out-rebounding foes by 7.4 per game this season.
“Just another offensive battle between Miami and Dayton,” UD coach Brian Gregory said facetiously. “We only play each other once a year — thank God. … Both teams played tremendously at the defensive end.”
Miami’s Charlie Coles added: “I didn’t think that was a fun game to watch. I thought it was a fun game to coach.”
The Flyers aren’t very polished, but their depth allows them to apply unrelenting pressure on defense. Coles is right. UD’s offensive flaws are often exposed, but it’s hard to argue with the results.
They finished the non-league season with a 14-1 record, tying last year’s team for the third-best start in the modern era (since 1947). But the Flyers couldn’t sustain that torrid pace last season after losing Wright to an injury. They finished just 8-8 in the Atlantic 10, but I don’t see them fading this season if they stay healthy.
“I can speak for the team: we’ve been here before (at 14-1), and we have to continue to work every day,” Wright said. “They were 11th in the RPI and this was a great win, but we can’t be satisfied.”
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TweetFlyers hold on to defeat Miami
Chris Wright had 14 points and six rebounds to lead Dayton to a 45-40 victory over Miami on Tuesday.
Marcus Johnson had 12 points, including four in the final 15.2 seconds as UD finished the game on a 10-4 run.
The Flyers are 14-1, the RedHawks 7-5.
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TweetFlyers banding together in Roberts’ absence
When I pictured Dayton playing this season without Brian Roberts, I just assumed the team would take a step back and then make another run at the postseason once those younger players gained experience.
But a 13-1 non-conference record has put the Flyers in great position for a postseason berth, and I have to admit I didn’t see that coming.
UD coach Brian Gregory would never say it — what coach would openly doubt his own players? — but if someone injected him with truth serum, he probably would admit he’s been surprised by the results so far, too.
“We talked a lot in the past about who was going to replace Brian Roberts. And the coach-speak is you can’t replace a guy like that, it’s got to be a collective effort. You say that, but you’re never really sure if it’s going to work. So far, guys done a great job of that,” he said.
The Flyers are still rotating 12 players. I keep waiting for Gregory to pare that back some, but it hasn’t happened yet.
And really, who would you eliminate if you were calling the shots?
“Our guys have had to buy into the fact that our strength is in the pack of the team,” Gregory said. “With Josh Benson being out for the year with the injury, we have 12 players all contributing. If we didn’t have all 12 of those guys, we wouldn’t 13-1 right now. And that’s counter-cultural to what those guys hear every day — ‘look out for No. 1, look out for yourselves.’
“We’ve had guys in one game play six minutes and then the next game play 20 minutes, and those 20 minutes were the difference in the game. In this day and age, that is difficult to get guys to buy into. I never thought we’d have this many guys playing eight or more minutes a game or 10 or more minutes a game. You just never know how guys are going to respond or react to that.”
I’ve been around the team a lot, and I haven’t detected a hint of resentment from anyone yet over his playing time being limited.
The Flyers have some weaknesses — outside shooting being the most glaring among them — but many teams would fracture if the top players had to give up minutes to the 10th, 11th and 12th men. But at UD, the players seem to understand that in the post-Roberts era, winning is going to take a collective effort.
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TweetFlyers face Miami, then begin A-10 play
UD Basketball: The Week Ahead
Games: vs. Miami (7-4), 7 p.m. Tuesday (Channel 7); at Massachusetts (5-8) 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10 (Channel 7).
Scouting Miami: The RedHawks were dealt an unfortunate blow in losing Kenny Hayes to an arm injury. The Northmont product was leading the team in assists and was second in scoring before being sidelined indefinitely last week. But Miami still has sweet-shooting senior forward Michael Bramos, who is averaging 19.0 points and scored 36 against Dayton last year.
The Flyers trailed by 21 in the first half before rallying for a 63-62 win over the RedHawks last season — only their second win in 20 years at Millett Hall. The 15-point halftime deficit was the third-largest ever overcome by UD.
Scouting UMass: The Minutemen have been streaky under new coach Derek Kellogg. They dropped six straight games to fall to 1-6, won four in a row and then were blown out at Houston (80-54) and at home against Vanderbilt (78-48). Their highlight of the season so far was a one-point upset of defending national champion Kansas.
Junior guard Ricky Harris is second in the Atlantic 10 in scoring at about 19 points per game.
Scouting Dayton: The Flyers (13-1) are off to their fourth-best start in the modern era (since 1947). Only the teams from 1955-56 (19-1), 1949-50 (16-1) and 2007-08 (14-1) have done better.
Defense has been the Flyers’ strong suit. Five foes (UNC-Greensboro, Akron, Bethune-Cookman, Delaware State and Wofford) had more turnovers than baskets against UD, and two (Auburn and Marshall) had the same number of turnovers as field goals.
The Flyers begin Atlantic 10 play against UMass. The game will be held in Springfield, Mass., instead of the Minutemen’s campus arena in Amherst.
The Flyers will need to succeed on the road in the conference to keep its NCAA tournament aspirations alive. Last year, they went 21-10 in the regular-season and had an RPI of 32, but they missed the NCAA tourney because of an 8-8 league record. They became the first team ever to win at least 20 games and have an RPI as high as 32 and miss The Dance.
They went 3-5 on the road in the A-10 last season, winning at Saint Louis, Fordham and St. Bonaventure.
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TweetWarren foils Toledo’s strategy
Toledo tried the same ploy Marquette did while desperately trying to stage a rally against Dayton: Whack-a-Warren.
The Rockets fouled London Warren purposely in the late stages, but he made 3-of-4 free throws in the 77-63 win and has made 10 of his last 12 to improve his percentage to 63.6. (He hit 52.5 percent for his career going into the season).
UD coach Brian Gregory eventually pulled the junior point guard to get a better foul shooter on the floor, but that move didn’t over to well with Warren.
“He was mad when I took him out,” Gregory said. “He probably should have been.”
Warren, incidentally, is the only starting point guard in the A-10 with as many steals as turnovers, an impressive ratio. He has 24 of each.
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TweetDayton fans show up in droves
Marcus Johnson, London Warren and their Dayton teammates deserve kudos for the way they played on the road against Toledo, but the UD fans deserve to take some bows, too.
The Flyer Faithful had a noticeable presence at Savage Arena, accounting for perhaps one-fifth of the crowd of 6,921. And they made a ruckus. When they broke out into a pro-Flyer chant during a timeout, the Toledo sound man turned up the volume on some recorded music to try to drown them out.
“Dayton fans are great. And when we play well, they’re even better,” UD coach Brian Gregory said. “They really support our program. We’re 13-1, and we’re going to be able to draw a lot of people.
“I think they like the way this team plays. … We’re sort of a blue-collar team that gets after it.”
The Flyers found themselves engaged in an offensive battle against the Rockets, something that hasn’t happened much this year. UD shot 50.8 percent, UT 46.4.
“I’m pleased with our guys. We played hard. We didn’t always play great,” Gregory said. “We weren’t great defensively. They did stuff to spread us out and attacked us well.”
Toledo coach Gene Cross was peeved about his team’s defense, especially how his players left Marcus Johnson open for his 3-point spree (he had three in about a four-minute span).
“It all boiled down to a lack of communication,” he said. “They get the ball down the court very quickly. We sprinted back to the paint, which we’re supposed to do, but you also have to recognize who their primary threats are.
“If Marcus Johnson is one of their primary threats, you have to get out on him,. You can’t stand and watch him shoot it. You have to close out like your pants are on fire.”
The Flyers probably would have prevailed, though, even if the Rockets threw a net over Johnson.
Too much depth.
The Rockets had a 24-19 lead with 5:40 to go in the first half, but the Flyers ended the period on a 20-6 run, getting a pair of 3-pointers from Rob Lowery and another from Chris Johnson.
While the Flyers kept sending in waves of fresh players, Cross was limited in his back-up options.
“I thought fatigue set in with them during the first half,” Gregory said.
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TweetFlyers beat Rockets to improve to 13-1
TOLEDO — Marcus Johnson scored 21 points, Rob Lowery 13 and London Warren 11 to lead Dayton a 77-63 win over Toledo here Friday night.
The Flyers (13-1) led by 15 early in the second half before the Rockets (2-11) staged a rally, cutting the deficit to five with 13:33 to go. But Johnson hit three 3-pointers after that to give UD its fifth-straight win.
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TweetLowery signing paying off for Flyers
Three thoughts about the Dayton basketball team:
• If Rob Lowery does nothing else in his career, he’s earned his scholarship based on his 21-point game against Marquette and his 13-point, five-assist outing against George Mason.
It’s hard to believe he still was floating around when the Flyers had a scholarship pop free after Thiago Cordeiro transferred last last season. UD coach Brian Gregory is always scouring the high school and juco ranks even when he doesn’t have a full ride to give — you never know when a disgruntled player might leave — but to get someone of Lowery’s caliber was a real coup. He was recruited only by Fresno State and a handful of other mid-majors and has turned out to be better than probably anyone expected.
• Chris Wright needs to develop a go-to move. The athletic sophomore forward can always be counted on for a spectacular play or two each game, but he won’t become a consistent scorer until get gets better around the basket.
He’s barely played a full season of college basketball, though, after missing 19 games last year with an ankle injury. He’ll get there.
• Love that George Mason game? Well, the Patriots will be back in a couple of years. The schools have agreed to another two-year series with the Flyers going on the road first.
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TweetAlford doesn’t like NCAA treatment of Non-BCS schools
I’m not sure Steve Alford paid all that much attention to the distribution of NCAA tournament at-large bids while he was coach at Iowa, but he’s certainly following how they’re being doled out now that he’s at New Mexico.
The non-BCS schools have received just four of the 34 at-large berths the last two years, a pitiful total. That’s a lot of quality schools outside the six power leagues not getting their due.
“It’s not right,” Alford said. “There’s definitely something wrong with the set up. All you’ve got to look at is every year — whether it’s teams from the Atlantic 10, the Mountain West Conference or Missouri Valley Conference — you start looking at leagues like this that continually, year in and year out, get major wins against BCS leagues. And yet, in the end, it always seems like, ‘Well, they lost in the conference tournament,’ or it’s some different kind of excuse.
“For whatever reason, at-large bids have had a heavy balance to the BCS leagues, and that’s very unfortunate.”
New Mexico was has gone 24-9 and 22-12 the last two seasons under Alford, winning a Mountain West co-championship last year, but had to settle for two NIT appearances.
“We’ve won 46 games in two years, including the conference championship, in the seventh-ranked league in the country, and I don’t think we’ve been close to getting a sniff,” Alford said.
The former Indiana hoop legend weighed in on other topics during a phone interview Thursday.
• On Dayton’s basketball tradition: That’s a great hotbed for basketball, and this is a pocket of the country that’s a hotbed for basketball as well. The Pit is a special place with a special fan base. In that regard, these two programs mirror each other.”
On the 10-2 Flyers: “Coach Gregory does a tremendous job. I have a lot of respect for how he goes about putting his program together. He’s obviously got an experienced team that won 27 games last year, and all those guys are back.
“It’s an expeienced team that knows how to win — at home and on the road and in tough environments. They’re extremely athletic. We know there are going to be some tough matchups for us across the board.”
On the 13-1 Lobos, who are 3-0 against ranked BCS teams (California, Texas A&M and Texas Tech): “We’re playing pretty well. We’ve had one setback (at Oral Roberts), but we’ve played a very demanding schedule. We’ve got a young basketball team. I couldn’t be more thrilled with where we are at this point in the season.”
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