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Friday, February 20, 2009
Flyers make ESPN’s power ratiings
Dayton is ranked 22nd in the ESPN.com power ratings after being ranked 22nd last week.
The poll is compiled by a tally of votes from 10 TV broadcasters and writers, including Jay Bilas, Andy Katz, Dick Vitale and Doug Gottlieb.
Vitale and ESPN.com writer Dana O’Neil have the Flyers rated highest on their ballots at 17th.
The Flyers, 23-3, who play at Saint Louis on Saturday, are No. 25 in this week’s Associated Press poll.
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UD faces challenge in Saint Louis defense
A couple of weeks ago, Dayton coach Brian Gregory was talking about his team’s sporadic offense in a 47-46 win over Saint Louis.
“They’re a top-10 defensive team in the country,” he said, “and we’re not a great offensive team. That’s a bad match-up.”
Well, the Flyers are careening into that very same match-up again Saturday — this time on the road. In some ways, UD has improved offensively since that Jan. 29 game. Chris Wright has become more accurate from the perimeter, making him a beast to guard. And the freshmen, Paul Williams and Chris Johnson, keep getting better.
And Saint Joseph’s found some holes at least in that Saint Louis defense on the road Wednesday. The Hawks shot 57.1 percent from the field while dropping a 73-71 decision.
But a Rick Majerus-coached team is always going to be nightmare to face on defense. Here’s what Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli had to say before their game:
“We were fortunate to play Bob Knight when he was at Texas Tech. We’ve played a lot of good defensive teams. Dayton is spectacular. It seems to me what Rick Majerus and his staff have been able to do is teach these guys so they’re perfectly placed with their rotations and ball pressure. They don’t chase you all over half court. They’ve drawn a line in the sand, both feet above the 3-point line, and it’s like a drill. Every guy is help side, every guy is strong side.
“They’re third in the country in 3-point defense, percentage-wise. It’s an extraordinary defense, and the other thing is they’re doing it with, by my count, four freshmen.”
Yes, the Billikens have plenty of freshmen in their rotation, but in seniors Kevin Lisch and Tommie Liddell III, they have a pair of players who have topped the 1,500-point mark in their careers, so they’re not exactly short on experience. They’ve won five of their last six games and are playing as well or better than any team in the league right now.
The Flyers have at least six games left, counting the first-round of the Atlantic 10 tournament, and only two of those are at home. A split of those six probably puts them into the NCAA tournament.
But there are no gimmes in the A-10. As Charlotte’s win over Xavier on Thursday showed, there’s not much separation between No. 1 and No. 12 in the league.
