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Home > Blogs > Flyer Connection: University of Dayton sports > Archives > 2009 > February > 02
Monday, February 2, 2009
Flyers at 26th spot in national polls
Dayton made a significant jump in the national polls after beating Saint Joseph’s for its third straight win Sunday but not enough to crack either the Associated Press or ESPN-USA Today coaches Top 25.
The Flyers have the 26th-most votes in each poll. Last week, they were 36th in the AP Top 25 and 33rd in the coaches ratings.
The Flyers are getting some love elsewhere. They’re ranked 24th in the collegehoops.net Power 50, and they’ve become fixtures in NCAA tournament bracket projections.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, who correctly picked all 34 at-large teams last year, has Dayton as a ninth seed now in his bracket. In other words, comfortably in.
But the Flyers, of course, still have much work left. They have nine regular-season games to go, beginning with road trips to La Salle and Charlotte before coming home to face league favorite Xavier.
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Gregory says Johnson ‘fine’
Dayton coach Brian Gregory is optimistic junior guard Marcus Johnson will be cleared for the La Salle game Wednesday.
Johnson suffered a knee injury after colliding with teammate Chris Wright in the waning minutes against Saint Joseph’s on Sunday.
“He’s fine. He just had a little bruise on the knee,” Gregory said on the Atlantic 10 teleconference today. “Chris Wright missed a free throw, and as Marcus sprinted down court, him and Marcus banged knees.
“He’s always had a little tendonitis in his knee, and it’s a little extra tender. He had ice on it right away. He’s got to get two days of a lot of rehab and stretching, and I think he’ll be OK on Wednesday.”
The Flyers put together one of their best showings of the season in a 69-58 win over St. Joe’s, making 7-of-11 three-pointers, holding the Hawks to 34.6-percent shooting and grabbing a 35-29 advantage on the boards.
UD led by six at halftime and opened the second half with a 10-3 run to put the game away, getting a pair of 3-pointers from Johnson.
“In some other games, we maybe did some specific things better, but all the way around — our defensive intensity, our coverage on the backboards, stepping up to the line and making free throws — every facet was pretty good,” Gregory said.
“The only one that maybe wasn’t as good as it could be was the opportunities in the open court. We were loose with the ball. At the same time, I make it hard on our (point guards). Those guys have to do a lot of stuff. The intensity and pace they need to play with for us to be successful … at times it’s almost an impossible task to slow down and make great decisions with the ball.
“What’s happened is we’ve done enough things to compensate for that shortcoming when we do have it. But for a 40-minute stretch against a team like (St. Joe’s), you had to be on the top of your game, and we were.”
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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.”
