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Home > Blogs > Flyer Connection: University of Dayton sports > Archives > 2009 > February > 20 > Entry
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.
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Comments
By marky mark
February 20, 2009 7:28 AM | Link to this
St Louis is god awful. They lost to Detroit which is the last place Horizon League team for gods sake.By sec 312
February 20, 2009 8:28 AM | Link to this
marky mark..you might know boy bands but you don’t know basketball..we will be lucky to win thereBy Joe
February 20, 2009 8:41 AM | Link to this
marky mark, get over it. Sometimes teams do have bad losses early in the season. St Louis also beat Boston College early in the year and has played well over the last couple of weeks. They will be extremely difficult to beat at their place. St Louis has also climbed to 121 in the RPI (yes marky they are still behind your raiders). UD has to approach this game with the same focus they approached the XU game with. Also, as I know this comment is coming as well, this game will not impact UDs SOS. This one is a SOS push. The final 4 games will all positively impact the SOS and it will end up just under 100.By jfish
February 20, 2009 8:52 AM | Link to this
St. Louis is playing really well right now. They are very good at home. We will have to play extremely well, or we will come out of there with an “L”.By the rosser
February 20, 2009 9:17 AM | Link to this
Hopefully, the week off was filled with practices emphasizing free throws and three-point shooting. Should these offensive tools improve, they, along with the Flyers’ tenacious defense, should put UD is the “W” column at SLU. Here’s hoping! Go, Flyers!!!By Harry
February 20, 2009 9:46 PM | Link to this
St Louis is not a good team. They are bad.By Tom
February 20, 2009 10:25 PM | Link to this
St Louis is not that bad. Their RPI is 121 which is only 17 places behind Wright State. They should give us a game.By Jerseyflyer
February 21, 2009 9:53 AM | Link to this
Tonight’s game will be a very good test for us moving forward in NCAA Tourney. Majerus will have Liddel&Lisch ready. But that’s where it should end. Clamp down on these two and we win. St Louie is small and we should pull Kurt up top and pound the rock down to CDub.Pressure from start to finish with heavy rotation to wear them down. Wright should get off in this one so watch out below. Dunk City. Go Flyer’s.By jfish
February 21, 2009 12:28 PM | Link to this
As a flyer alum living in St. Louis, I can tell you all SLU will give us a game. They are a very good team at home. They always match up well against UD. They have played well in the past month. This is going to be a hard win to get.By Ray Z
February 21, 2009 10:17 PM | Link to this
Once again the Dayton Flyers prove they are not yet ready for national recognition. I now see why the national press does not give any recognition to UD. They are not a very good team when up against a decent opponent. Their concern was beating Xavier, then they go in the tank. This team will get to the second round of the NIT, forget that nonsense with the mock NCAA. The Flyers once again show they are not a national type team.