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Home > Blogs > Flyer Connection: University of Dayton sports > Archives > 2009 > February > 02 > Entry
UD looks to build tourney credentials on road
UD Basketball: The Week Ahead Games: at La Salle (12-8, 3-3 Atlantic 10) 7 p.m. Wednesday (no TV); at Charlotte (7-13, 1-5) 1 p.m. Sunday (Channel 7).
Scouting La Salle: The Explorers have four players averaging in double figures, led by Rodney Green’s 16.8 per game. They had a three-game winning streak snapped with an overtime defeat at Rhode Island on Saturday.
Scouting Charlotte: Aside from Lamont Mack’s performance this season (13.9 points per game), Charlotte has struggled mightily while being ravaged by injuries. The 49ers do have a win at Mississippi State, but they’re shooting just 40.2 percent from the field, the second-worst mark in the league. Leemire Goldwire, where have you gone?
Scouting Dayton: The Flyers are coming off a 69-58 win against St. Joe’s, which looked like a team that could make a run at the A-10 regular-season or tournament titles. (Yes, I know about Xavier, but the defending champs just squeaked by 12-loss UMass by two at home.)
“You look at St. Joe’s and what they’ve done with coach (Phil) Martelli, and it’s a program you do want to measure yourself against. … I respect him a lot and respect the way he coaches,” UD coach Brian Gregory said. “It’s a completely different team than the one we played when they had Jameer Nelson and those guys. But it’s still a really, really good team.
“I’ll be honest, that’s an NCAA tournament team. I don’t care what their record says right now (12-8, 5-1 in the A-10). They play all home-and-home games. They don’t get any guaranteed games (that is, non-league games against soft touches willing to play on the road for a paycheck). He’s got those guys playing exceptionally well. … It just shows how tough our league is.”
The Flyers are 20-2 but probably still won’t crack the Top-25, even though there’s room in the poll with Saint Mary’s suffering two defeats last week and others near the bottom of the Top 25 falling.
“People might not hear about us, but the numbers don’t lie,” senior forward Charles Little said of the Flyers’ 20-2 record. “We’ll just keeping putting up the wins, and the rest will take care of itself.”
Lunardi weighs in: You’re going to see his face frequently as the NCAA tournament gets closer. He’s Joe Lunardi, perhaps the top “bracketologist” in the land.
He correctly predicted all 34 at-large spots in the tourney last year, and he explained Sunday why he thought the selection committee made the right call in leaving Dayton out.
The Flyers, you’ll remember, had a 21-10 record, an RPI of 32, a strength-of-schedule of 33 and wins over nationally ranked Louisville and Pittsburgh. But they were passed over apparently because of an 8-8 league record.
“The team being evaluated (on Selection Sunday) wasn’t the same team that played so well in the non-conference season,” Lunardi said. “If Chris Wright would have accelerated his comeback by two or three weeks, and he could have demonstrated he was whole, and the team could have demonstrated they were whole, they would have gotten in. But because he wasn’t, they weren’t.”
The Flyers have had some close calls against weak teams this season (a one-point home win over Fordham and a two-pointer at George Washington), but Lunardi doesn’t believe that will detract from the Flyers’ credentials.
“The committee will tell you the margin of victory is not an issue,” he said. “And arithmetically, with the RPI, it’s true. Whoever the committee member is who follows the A-10 … that person might say, ‘I watched them four times, and they were lucky to get by them and them and them.’
“Could that be an issue? Yes. Will it be if they win 25 games? I think the issue is can they avoid an anchor or two (by actually losing to a bottom-tier team)? Someone could say, ‘You know what, they lost at Charlotte, and that team has been in the tank for six weeks. A tournament team wins that game.’ “
Lunardi said beating Xavier at least would help the cause, but that isn’t necessarily a requirement.
“They’re going to have enough wins,” he said. “The idea is to avoid bad losses.”
Permalink | Comments (12) | Post your comment |
Comments
By marky mark
February 2, 2009 7:29 AM | Link to this
Our Strength of Schedule improved to 264 after playing St Joes. It is still god awful. Wright State’s SoS is 89. If we are lucky, our SoS will get to around 200.By Joe
February 2, 2009 7:59 AM | Link to this
Give me a break. The selection committee does not use the Sag rating (who does?). They use the RPI. And in the RPI the Flyers SOS is probably in the 160s at this point and will climb to the 100 to 125 range by the end of the season. This will be a non issue but the end of the season.By FaithfulFlyer65
February 2, 2009 8:12 AM | Link to this
The Flyers have 9 regular season games left. If they want to dance in March, they need to win 5 of those games and at least one, more likely two, games in the A-10 tourney. Or of course, they can win the tourney and get in. It’s going to be tough to win at LaSalle and Rhode Island and then their is Xavier twice, so they have their work cut out for them. However, if they can continue to play like they played against St. Joe, they can accomplish both. I’m beginning to believe Coach Gregory’s strategy may pay off, if he continues to coach as he did against St. Joe. The better players played more minutes than in the past against St. Joe and he only went 10 deep. He needs to continue that. Every player is showing improvement and playing with more confidence. If only they can eliminate those 5-6 minute mental lapses when they start turning the ball over. I’m impressed with how CL has improved his free throw shooting. Play with the intensity that they showed in the first 25 minutes of the St. Joe game and they will be a part of March Madness.By sec 312
February 2, 2009 8:44 AM | Link to this
what does WSU SOS have to do with the Flyers? one of the best complete games all year, a very good win.By Doug
February 2, 2009 9:25 AM | Link to this
Just keep winning - that will settle everything.By Doug
February 2, 2009 9:26 AM | Link to this
Just keep winning - that will settle everything.By Doug
February 2, 2009 9:26 AM | Link to this
Just keep winning - that will settle everything.By Ed
February 2, 2009 9:32 AM | Link to this
I’ve been saying the same thing for weeks that Lunardi is saying. Of course I don’t have his reputation, nor any reputation at all. However, more so than who you beat, it’s more important who you lose to that determines whether you dance in March. You cannot lose too many times to teams that you should beat. Beat a good team or two and win the games you’re suppose to win, and you’ll get there.By Bhoops
February 2, 2009 1:03 PM | Link to this
Forget RPI, forget ratings… Keep up what has been working and they will make the dance. Defense, rebounding, and offensive transition. Shooting good from 3 will help. However, don’t expect consistency here. CW finally got 30 minutes and his stats show. 16 and 7. CJ played 20 minutes and had 8 boards. Coach is understanding he needs more minutes from CW and CJ. Charles Little played a great game, and Huelsman and Searcy minutes were balanced. Good strategy against the best post player in the league. Nivins was frustrated and was taken out of his game. Wish we could have done this against UMASS big man…By felixinKett1
February 2, 2009 2:45 PM | Link to this
agree with bhoops. i cringe when Huelsman touches the ball. play Searcy more and Huelsman less.By Xavier Dave
February 2, 2009 6:13 PM | Link to this
Get ready to play X, it is your Super Bowl. For us, it means very little… and UD is not our rival, never has been, never will be.By Mongoose
February 5, 2009 3:20 PM | Link to this
Nice article on CW…front page…http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/