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Home > Blogs > Flyer Connection: University of Dayton sports > Archives > 2009 > February > 09 > Entry
UD, Xavier looking to bounce back after defeats
UD Basketball: The week ahead
Games: vs. Xavier (20-3, 8-1 Atlantic 10) at 7 p.m. Wednesday (ESPN Classic); vs. Richmond (11-12, 3-5) at 7 p.m. Saturday (no TV).
Scouting Xavier: The Musketeers were shocked Saturday at Duquesne, which shot 81 percent in the first half while building a 45-30 lead on the way to an 72-68 upset.
“They shot 81 percent in the first half and scored 45 points,” Xavier coach Sean Miller told reporters afterward. “They were shooting at an impossible rate for us even to catch up.”
A-10 player of the week Aaron Jackson had a game-high 21 points for the Dukes.
“I felt we needed to get up early against these guys,” he said. “This is a team that has always been aggressive off the bat.
“We saw the losses they had (to Duke and Butler). They got jumped on, and it was hard for them to come back. They don’t have the veteran guard they had the past couple of years. So, we got ahead of them and took care of business.”
Xavier’s Derrick Brown (12 points) went just 8-for-15 on foul shots. He was fouled on a 3-point attempt with his team down by six with 1:12 to play but made only one of three free throws..
The Musketeers, who had its 11-game win streak snapped, made just 14-of-26 freebies.
“I’ve got to get the job done, it’s as simple as that,” Brown told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I take responsibility for what happened tonight.”
The Musketeers have had trouble with their point-guard play. They’re next-to-last in the A-10 in assist-turnover ratio. They have 303 assists and 361 turnovers. Dayton is sixth in the league with a near equal split of both.
Scouting Richmond: Spiders guard David Gonzalvez scored his 1,000th career point last week. He’s just the 10th player at the school to reach the milestone as a junior. The Spiders, who lost in triple-overtime to Saint Louis on Sunday, confound teams with their Princeton-style offense (keeping their “bigs” on the perimeter) and are third in the league and 26th in the nation in field-goal shooting (.475).
Scouting Dayton: Joe Lunardi knows his stuff. The ESPN “bracketologist” correctly predicted all 34 schools that locked down at-large spots in the NCAA tournament last year, and he said last week Dayton was a virtual shoo-in for The Dance as long as it doesn’t suffer any bad losses.
In dropping a 79-66 decision at Charlotte on Sunday, the Flyers may have managed to do exactly that.
The 49ers were one of three one-win Atlantic 10 teams and were ranked 193rd in the RPI, but they battered the Flyers, 79-66.
Charlotte buried nine of its first 15 shots — its “bigs” were connecting consistently from the wings — but the Flyers overcame some horrid free-throw shooting in the first half (7-for-15) with some precision sniping from 3-point land (4-for-7) to take a 37-33 lead at the break.
They led by six with 15 minutes to go, but they had five turnovers and a shot-clock violation over their next 12 possessions and went down meekly after that.
“They came to play and played better than us,” UD guard Marcus Johnson said. “We don’t look at the NCAA’s or who’s at the bottom. We just played the game we had today. We don’t focus on records. But this was a tough one for us.”
Johnson was coming back from a bout with the flu — he had seven points while playing just 16 minutes — but coach Brian Gregory pointed to the Flyers’ dismal foul-shooting (9-for-20), feeble rebounding (Charlotte had 14 offensive boards) and sloppiness with the ball (17 turnovers) as bigger factors.
“We have to get through some of that stuff (like illlnesses),” he said.
The Flyers’ clash with Xavier has lost plenty of sheen with both teams losing prior to their showdown.
“We’ve got two days to get ready for that game,” Gregory said. “We have to play better than we did today, that’s for sure.”
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment |
Comments
By GregS
February 9, 2009 7:31 AM | Link to this
Getting bumped off ESPN2 for a soccer game is simply embarrassing. Our biggest game of the year and it does not even make ESPN2? How low can it get?By Kurt
February 9, 2009 8:27 AM | Link to this
Everyone needs to relax about the whole soccer bumping UD-X game to ESPN Classic. ESPN has a contractual obligation with FIFA to show the World Cup Qualifying games - particularly ones involving the US - on one of the major channels in the ESPN family. When the game start time was changed, someone had to be moved. Duke-UNC is on ESPN at 9 and you know that isn’t going anywhere. I’m quite certain the suits at ESPN weren’t sitting around looking for ways to avoid the A10 and UD. There are much bigger things to worry about.By matt
February 9, 2009 2:57 PM | Link to this
We don’t HAVE to beat X to get in the NCAA. If we finish at 5-2, that puts us at 26-5, and 7-3 in our last 10 games, which is looked at more heavily than the committee will admit to. A win vs. X will get us in barring we don’t lose 2-3 others. The problem with making the tourney is what we do if we get there. The last 3 times they made it they received unfavorbale seeds, even when they were #4 in 2000, they got the worst 4 seed. Until we get out of the first round it will be hard to get in or get a decent seed.By doug
February 9, 2009 4:55 PM | Link to this
I disagree - I think we must beat Xavier at least once to get in. We have not defeated them since what - 2004? I think the selection committee does weigh the fact that if you cannot defeat the elite team in the conference, you do not deserve to go. This probably was one of the factors for our exclusion last season. Wins and RPI alone do not cut it for teams from the mid major conferences. Not all conferences and teams are judged the same. Quality wins and bad losses are far, far more pressing for schools like Dayton. The Xavier game presents an opportunity that they have only had one other time this season - a QUALITY game (i.e. against a NCAA tournament bound team). That is the biggest issue with the Flyers right now - they have more opportunities to blow the post season then opportunities to clinch it. Point being - the opportunities to prove they are NCAA tournament worthy are very few - so they must win at least one of them.By doug
February 9, 2009 5:22 PM | Link to this
Before any of you crucify me with my error - the last time UD defeated XU was 2/21/06. Sorry to slight the Flyers. My badBy rah rah
February 9, 2009 5:25 PM | Link to this
Don’t worry, the Flyers have Xavier in their sights. Matt is right. How could the NCAA not select this team? UD will be in the tournament because we want it. Denial is a river in Egypt.By Brad
February 9, 2009 6:51 PM | Link to this
Our win over Marquette just lost some luster. Marquette got beat by South Florida, a team Wright State hammered by 17 points.By Sam
February 9, 2009 7:14 PM | Link to this
Brad, did the Raiders beat South Florida without Duggins? That is a pretty good win for WSU. I still think that our Marquette win looks good. South Florida is a Big East team and is pretty good. There is no shame in losing to the Raiders.By FaithfulFlyer65
February 9, 2009 7:47 PM | Link to this
I agree with those who say UD does not need to beat Xavier to get in. But if they don’t, they had better beat Rhode Island and Temple, and I’m not sure they can beat either of them. A win against Xavier allows them to lose to one of those teams, assuming they can beat St. Louis and the Dukes. I believe they can lose 2 more games and still get in the NCAA tourney, as long as they also win at 1 game in the A-10 tourney.By Brad
February 9, 2009 9:50 PM | Link to this
Hey Brad, I just checked the box score, yea WSU beat South Florida without Duggins.By doug
February 10, 2009 4:07 PM | Link to this
Tommy (ATL): Assuming Xaiver wins the A-10 Tournament. Could this end up being a 1 bid conference? Andy Katz (ESPN): Yes. Dayton has the next best shot. Splitting with Xavier would be imperative for the Flyers. The win over Marquette certainly helps the resume.