Super Bowl XLVI: Jake Ballard’s pain, Steven Tyler’s snub

By Tom Archdeacon | Monday, February 6, 2012, 02:22 AM

Jake Ballard injured in Super Bowl’s fourth quarter (Associated Press photo)

INDIANAPOLIS — As his New York Giants teammates celebrated all across the field, Jake Ballard could do little more than lean on his crutches. Standing next to him was fellow tight end Travis Beckum. He too was propped up on a pair of the medical supports.

The Giants had just beaten the New England Patriots, 21-17, in Super Bowl XLVI thanks to a last-minute touchdown, but Ballard hadn’t seen any of the thrilling 88-yard final drive that culminated with Ahmad Bradshaw’s six-yard touchdown trot with 57 seconds left.

The 6-foot-6, 275-pounder from Springboro had torn the meniscus in his left knee early in the fourth quarter and after lying on the field in pain, had been helped to the sideline, where he made a gallant, but heart-wrenching attempt to return to the game.

He wanted to keep playing - he had had two catches on the night and was doing a lot of the heavy blocking on the edges - because he knew his team needed him.

Beckum, his back up, had been lost earlier in the game with a torn ACL.

But when he tried to run near the Giants bench, Ballard’s knee gave way and he crumpled into the arms of a trainer, then melted to the ground in a slow, pained fashion.

He was hurt - maybe more so after that sideline’s attempt - and was taken to the training room where he was unable to follow what was happening back on the field.

“There was no TV, no phone, no nothing,” he told reporters long after the game was over. “All I could hear were cheers, so I had one of the doctors run out there and he came back in going nuts so I knew we had scored at the end.”

Ballard eventually made his way to the field on crutches, then returned to the training room. It hasn’t been decided if he’ll need surgery for this injury. In November he partially tore the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and missed the final two regular season games.

“Winning the Super Bowl is good medicine for the injury,” Ballard said afterward.

xxxxx

Well, I did speak to one celebrity here at the Super Bowl.

I was on in an over-stuffed elevator going to my seat in the auxiliary press area at the top of Lucas Oil Stadium about 40 minutes before Sunday’s game when the elevator stopped a few levels below my destination.

The door opened and there stood Steven Tyler - the American Idol judge and former front man for Aerosmith - with a couple of other folks, one who was quite perturbed at their circumstance.

Steven Tyler (Associated Press photo)

“Sorry we’re full,” I said apologetically from the back of the elevator.

I doubt Tyler heard - he was already getting the message from the body language of the folks in front of me - but when the door closed and we started moving again I thought I might have heard that famed high-pitched yowl that once had him dubbed the “Demon of Screamin’.”

Actually, I did walk alongside another singer in a stadium hallway after New York had beaten the New England Patriots, 21-17.

Seal - minus supermodel wife Heidi Klum from whom he has just separated — was with former Giant great Michael Strahan and they were in a rush to get to the Giants dressing room. He didn’t ask me about my wife, so I didn’t ask about his and we walked along in silence.

Xxxx

Xxxxx

Matt Light , New England veteran left tackle from Greenville, had an impressive game Sunday, keeping the Giants super-active pass rushers - Osi Umenyiora and Jason Pierre-Paul - from getting to Pats quarterback Tom Brady.

Although Brady was sacked twice, neither of those losses came on Light.

In fact, the 11-year vet so negated Pierre-Paul on one play - bulldozing him onto all four as Brady completed a four-yard TD pass to running back Danny Woodhead just before the half - that the Giants right end resorted to pounding the field with his fist in frustration.

Xxxxxx

Eli Manning now has bested Brady twice in Super Bowls, Each time — Sunday night and four years ago in Super Bowl XLII - he orchestrated the come-from-behind victory with a game-ending drive that culminated with a TD in the final minute. Such heroics have made him the MVP in each game.

And with two Super Bowl victories he now has won one more than big brother Petyon, the more celebrated Manning…for now.

In the preseason Eli took a lot of heat for an honest answer he gave during a radio interview in New York.

He was asked is he thought he was one of the game’s “elite” quarterbacks, on a level with Brady, who has three Super Bowl rings.

He said he thought he was and he was criticized by some who pointed to his league-leading 25 interceptions the year before.

That effort a year past is looking more and more like the aberration on his resume, not the other way around.

After Sunday’s game - in which Manning completed 30 of 40 passes for 296 yards, a TD and his eighth come from behind victory of the season — Giants coach Tom Coughlin had no problem with the elite designation:

“He deserves all the credit in the world. That was quite a drive he put together at the end of the game. He put our team on his shoulders once again. As he’s shown all year, he’s amazing in the fourth quarter when the game is on the line.”

Archie Manning - Eli and Peyton’s dad and an All Pro quarterback himself in the NFL - was proud of his son’s performance Sunday night, but wasn’t ready for any post-game coronations,

When asked if he had ever contemplated the possibility of having TWO Hall Of Fame sons, he said: “No, absolutely not. I don’t know anything about the Hall of Fame. Eli is in his eighth year and I know one thing. He might have said earlier in the year that he belonged with the elite quarterbacks. He will not be saying that he belongs in the Hall of Fame.”

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Giants over the Pats and four other things I think

By Tom Archdeacon | Sunday, February 5, 2012, 04:43 PM

INDIANAPOLIS - Here are 5 things I think:

1 - The New York Giants will edge the New England Patriots today in Super Bowl XLVI…The score? How about 24-21.

2 - Giants tight end Jake Ballard from Springboro will make a couple of big catches against the Pats today. … He already helped New York derail New England, 24-20, on. Nov. 6. with a huge, 28-yard, third down catch on the game’s final drive and then he made the winning TD catch with just 15 seconds left.

Interestingly, Ballard is No. 85 for the Giants, the same number of another Giant who tormented the Patriots four years ago in Super Bowl XLII. New York got that 17-14 upset win thanks in a big way to David Tyree.

The unheralded wide receiver had the game of his life against the Pats, making his first NFL TD catch early in the contest and then making a spectacular, third-down, 32-yard snag - leaping up and pinning the ball to the top of his helmet - to set the stage for the 13-yard game winning TD pass from Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress.

3 — Matt Light - the Patriots left tackle from Greenville - deserves to be the NFL Man of the Year. This is certainly not a knock on Baltimore’s Matt Birk, who won the prestigious award this year and will be presented with it today at the Super Bowl. The 14-year NFL center is a worthy recipient because his youth literacy program “Ready, Set, Read” and other projects that his foundation are in involved in.

But before he’s out of the game, Light - the 11-year vet who has started every game for which he’s been healthy but two since turning pro - should be honored for his work with the Matt Light Foundation, which helps youth nationwide with programs in Greenville, the Boston area, West Lafayette, Ind. (he’s a Purdue grad) and on a Montana Indian reservation, among other places.

His 500-acre camp, Chenoweth Trails, outside Greenville brings in teens from all different areas of the country and various ethnic groups and shows them how to get along and be better people using outdoor activities as a motivator. His Foundation already has an over $1 million endowment.

4 - Cris Carter belongs in the Hall of Fame. The Middletown High/ Ohio State wide receiver who played 16 NFL seasons with Philadelphia, Minnesota and Miami was bypassed again Saturday when the panel off 44 Hall voters failed to make him one of the five modern era players who will be enshrined later this year.

Carter was an eight-time Pro Bowler and remains No. 3 all time in NFL career TD receptions (130) and fourth in receptions (1,101). He had 13,899 career receiving yards.

5 - Peyton Manning will end up with the Miami Dolphins.

The Indianapolis Colts quarterback is reported to have gotten medical clearance for the serious neck injuiry that kept him off the field this entire season. He’s due a $28 million bonus on March 8 and it’s almost certain the Colts aren’t going to pony up for the 36 year old vet.

Miami and Washington both want him badly and Manning - who owns a condo in South Florida - may well be enticed by the Dolphins, who seemed to be a team on the rise by season’s end. The have an offense-minded head coach in new boss Joe Philbin and a Pro Bowl receiver in Brandon Marshall. And the late-season sunshine sure is nice.

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Angelo Dundee — Saying goodbye to an old friend

By Tom Archdeacon | Thursday, February 2, 2012, 11:00 PM

Angelo Dundee with Muhammad Ali, then still known as Cassius Clay

I lost one of my pals Wednesday.

Angelo Dundee, the most famous trainer boxing has ever known, died in Tampa at age 90.

I knew Angie for over 35 of those years. Back when I was at he Miami News, I used to cover boxing and I’d spend a few days a week over on Miami Beach at the Fifth Street Gym, which his older brother Chris ran and where Angelo trained his fighters.

He was the guy who first introduced me to Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, Luis Rodriguez and Florentino Fernandez and Jimmy Ellis and so many other of his fighters, some champs, some just undercard ham and eggers.

He taught me a lot about the fight game and about people in general. I’d watch him work a corner, where at one time or another, he’d be a psychologist, magician, medic, task master, cheerleader, con man, and, when all was said and done, simply a kind man.

I’d listen to his stories and his kibitzing with Chris and all the other gym regulars, guys like “Sellout” Moe Fleischer, Sully Emmit and Jerry White, “the 1932 lightweight champ of New Jersey”. Afterwards I’d sometimes join the Dundee brothers for a bite to eat at Wolfie Cohen’s or one of their other Miami Beach haunts.

Angelo Dundee

Once I moved to Dayton, I saw less of Angie. I’d still catch him at fights now and then and I met with him a few times when I came back to Miami on vacation or assignment. I’d get Christmas cards from him, occasional letters or maybe a phone call to talk up a fighter or tell me about somebody’s passing in Miami or maybe just to see how I was doing.

Ali and Dundee

He was one of the nicest guys I knew in sports and I’ve made sure he and Chris were featured prominently in the Punchers & Painters photo exhibit we’ve put on at the Color of Energy Gallery in the Oregon District the past two summers here.

I took out some of those old photos again tonight and found myself smiling as I went through them. I also found a column I wrote on Angie back in 1995.

Here it is. It will tell you a little more about a fight guy I really loved,

Xxxx

CORNERMAN KNOWS ALL THE ANGLES

LAS VEGAS - When Willie Pastrano was the light-heavyweight champ of the world back in the 1960s, he had trouble making the 175-pound weight limit because - in the words of his trainer, Angelo Dundee - he was “a degenerate for water fountains. He always was water-logged.”

To discourage his fighter, Dundee would stick lighted cigars in Pastrano’s water glass at the training table.

When Muhammad Ali - then called Cassius Clay - fought Henry Cooper in England in 1963, he was dropped by a left hook at the end of round four.

As he wobbled back to the corner, Dundee sat him down and began working his hands over one of his padded mitts. And the next thing Cooper’s camp knew, Dundee was calling the referee to the corner to show him how the leather on Clay’s glove had suddenly split.

The maneuver bought time - new gloves had to be found - and Clay’s head cleared. He knocked Cooper out in the next round.

Then there was Sugar Ray Leonard’s fight with Daniel Gonzalez in Arizona in 1979. Moments before the bout, Dundee just happened to walk into Gonzalez’s dressing room and notice the challenger wasn’t sweating a drop.

Hurrying back to Leonard, Dundee said, “This guy is cold as ice. He didn’t warm up properly. I want you to jump on him immediately.”

Leonard knocked Gonzalez out in the first round.

Now comes tonight’s HBO-televised fight between champ George Foreman, 46, and Axel Schulz, a German challenger 20 years younger, at the MGM Grand.

With Dundee, 73, in Foreman’s corner, what can we expect?

At Foreman’s last fight - when he shocked the world and knocked out Michael Moorer to become the oldest man in boxing history to win the heavyweight crown - we know Dundee told Foreman to lure Moorer into a trap.

“I figured the kid being a southpaw was made to order for George,” Dundee said. “When a southpaw moves naturally, he moves right into George’s power. They had Moorer moving the other way, but I figured if George just pitty-patted him for a while, the kid would get confidant and step into George’s sights.”

That’s exactly what happened and in the 10th round - losing on every judge’s card - Foreman flattened Moorer with a right hand and took the title.

So what’s up for tonight?

Well, Dundee - tape measure in hand Friday, as it was for the last fight - was checking out the heights of stools Foreman could use in the corner. So much for those standard milkmaid deals, Foreman needs a barstool.

“See, he don’t sit down between rounds - it’d be too hard getting back up each time,” Dundee said. “So we gotta find one he can just lean on.”

When you are “older than dirt,” - as Foreman calls himself - you get advantages where you can.

But then that’s why Foreman pulled Dundee into his fold four years ago.

Dundee is the most famous cornerman in all of boxing. Since he began slipping through the ring ropes some 47 years ago, Dundee has tutored 13 world champions.

“As a cornerman, Angelo is the best in the world,” Muhammad Ali once said. “He’s aware of the mistakes you are making and also he knows how to take advantage of the other guy’s mistakes. If he tells you something during a fight, you can believe it.”

The cornerman’s role is the most fascinating in all of boxing. In between rounds, he’s got just 60 seconds to mix strategy, psychology and magic. All this while icing down bruises, stanching cuts with Q-Tips and bismuth and working Vaseline to the face, life into the legs and will into the heart.

On a cornerman’s instincts, championships are won and lost.

“In that one minute, Angelo is Godzilla and Superman rolled into one,” Ferdie Pacheco — the fight doctor who worked a decade with Dundee - once told writer Phil Berger.

In the corner, Dundee may cajole, berate, praise, pinch, slap, insult or simply pull the guy’s waistband out and dump ice cubes into his trunks.

That abrasive style Dundee sometimes shows in the corner is nowhere to be found when he is outside the ring ropes. He avoids confrontation, so much so, that he has something of a Pollyanna reputation when he ruminates on most subjects.

Using a vernacular all his own, he calls himself a mixologist and in crowds is the nonstop kibitzer.

That was the case Friday afternoon as he circulated around the Grand Garden Arena.

He said Helen, his wife of 43 years, was at the beauty parlor, so he had time to talk. “Just an hour though, she said I can’t be late,” he said, feigning a henpecked look.

The youngest of five boys, Angelo Mirena he had followed brothers Joe and Chris into the fight game.

Joe was a boxer and had adopted Dundee - the name of some of the best Italian boxers before World War II - as his ring name. Chris, who worked Joe’s corner, changed his name, too.

Eventually Chris — who made hustling an art form — went to New York, where he began to manage and promote. He worked out of a room at the Capitol Hotel. When Angelo joined his brother, he was given a few bucks a week to type, make phone calls and help with boxers.

He slept on a couch in the office and in the afternoons he’d hang out at Stillman’s Gym. Working fight shows at night, Angelo carried the spit buckets for veteran trainers like Ray Arcel and Chickie Ferrara.

He learned the trade from the bottom up and when Chris moved his operation to Miami Beach - and the Fifth Street Gym - in 1950, Angelo joined him a year later and the legend began.

Dundee succeeded because he knew fighters, knew “they were a special brand of cat.”

Today, he still has a stable of boxers he trains and manages. Several are from Europe. Some are contenders. None are like Ali.

“There was only one Muhammad,” Dundee said with reverence. He grew quiet and finally started to laugh:

“So I’m on the road in 1958. Had Willie Pastrano in Louisville for a television fight. We’re sitting in the hotel room and the phone rings. This kid is calling me from the lobby hollering in my ear. He’s a Golden Gloves champ. He wants to come up and see me.

“I put my hand over the receiver and tell Willie, ‘There’s some nut wants to come see us, said his name is Cassius Marcellus Clay and he’s gonna be a champ.’ “

The two men were together for two decades and though their relationship changed, their bond always stayed.

Dundee kept Clay from quitting against Sonny Liston when Liston’s liniment got in his eyes. He guided his comeback after a nearly three-year layoff during his Vietnam War exile, and he helped engineer Ali’s destruction of George Foreman in Zaire in 1974.

That fight is why Dundee will be in Foreman’s corner tonight. “I would put a whipping on Ali, round after round and he’d go back slow into his corner,” Foreman said. “Then after that minute with Angelo he’d come out fresh and give it back to me. I wanted some of that this time around.”

Not that Foreman is likely to need it tonight. He’s a 7-1 favorite and the pick here is that he’ll knock Schulz, 26, out in the middle rounds of their scheduled 12-rounder.

Few people know exactly what to expect from Schulz. Although he’s 21-1-1, all but two of his fights have been in Europe, and in Las Vegas he has trained behind locked doors.

Dundee smiled and said: “Well, he’s not quite a mystery. See I trained another German heavyweight - Reiner Hartmann - a while back. Lives in Miami, married my friend’s daughter. Well one day, Reiner brought another kid with him to train in my gym for a while.”

Dundee shrugged: “… Kid’s name was Axel Schulz.”

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Pats’ Matt Light offers YOU a chance to go to the Super Bowl

By Tom Archdeacon | Wednesday, February 1, 2012, 11:46 PM

Matt Light - the three-time Pro Bowl left tackle of the New England Patriots from Greenville, the man quarterback Tom Brady acknowledges as his most valuable protector - is offering folks a chance to not only be his guest at this Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, but also to bolster a tremendous cause that helps kids across the country and especially in Darke Country.

Light’s Patriots meet the New York Giants in Sunday’s NFL title game and the 11-year starter for New England is sponsoring a Super Bowl trip raffle from which the proceeds go to the expansive Matt Light Foundation.

The raffle - which ends Thursday at 11. a.m. - includes two tickets to the game at Lucas Oil Stadium as Light’s guest, three nights in a premium Indianapolis hotel, a travel allowance of up to $2,000, a jersey autographed by Brady, a football autographed by the entire Pats’ offensive line and hand delivered by Light and a cash prize of $2,117.50 to cover the winners tax liability as result of the contest.

Tickets are $2 and must be purchased in a 5-ticket minimum. The drawing will be held Thursday at 11 a.m.

To purchase raffle tickets visit the Foundation website at www.mattlightfoundation.org and follow the prompts.

As of late Tuesday. Light said some $230,000 had been raised for his foundation through the raffle.

The Foundation runs a 500-acre camp called Chenoweth Trails outside Greenville. It has programs for kids in need around the nation and also helps schools and youth groups from through-out the Darke County area.

Light has other foundation ventures in the Boston area, as well as West, Lafayette, Indiana, where he played his college football at Purdue.

Of all the pro athletes to come from the Miami Valley, none has given back more to the community than has Light.

This raffle is not only a chance to help him continue his work, bit also to possibly win yourself a Super Bowl trip like few people will have this year.

To find out more about Light, his preparations for the Super Bowl - the fifth he’s played in in his 11 seasons with the Pats — and especially his Foundation, check out my story on him in Friday’s edition of the Dayton Daily News.

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Ochocinco at Super Bowl: Cincinnati was good to me

By Tom Archdeacon | Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 11:29 PM

Chad Ochocinco at Super Bowl Media Day (photo by Eric Gay/ Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Although he didn’t agree with Artrell Hawkins on one thing about the Cincinnati Bengals, Chad Ochocinco did give a heartfelt tip of the cap to his old team several other times during his Super Bowl XLVI Media Day session, Tuesday, at Lucas Oil Stadium.

After playing his first 10 seasons in the NFL with the Bengals - and becoming one of the franchise’s greatest offensive players ever — Ochocinco left Cincinnati last summer for the New England Patriots in exchange for an undisclosed draft pick.

After experiencing just two winning seasons in a decade with the club - and never winning a playoff game - he’s now in the Super Bowl his first year with the Pats.

But while he had seven 1,000 yard receiving seasons with Cincinnati, was selected to the Pro Bowl six times and was best known for his colorful TD celebrations with the Bengals, he has been only a shadow of himself with the Pats.

Ochocinco has had just 15 catches for 276 yards and one touchdown - all of them lows for his career. In the postseason, he played just one play againstDenver..

At Tuesday Media Day Hawkins - who also started out his 10-year career with the Bengals and later played with the Patriots, as well as Carolina, Washington and the New York Jets - pulled Ochocinco aside for an interview.

Hawkins works for a Cincinnati radio station and tried to get Ochocinco to fess up to a longing for his old team:

“When you switch teams you lose part of yourself,” Hawkins said.” I felt that way when I left Cincinnati and didn’t know how well I had it with (Dick) Lebeau. I got to Coach Fox in Carolina I remember I did miss Cincinnati. I had it good there. Did you kind of go through that?”

Ochocinco never missed a beat: “No… not really.”

“The talks I had before with (Coach Lewis) about life - I was ready for this.”

Ochocinco did look praise many aspects of his Cincinnati years:

““I’ve only been in one place. Cincinnati was good to me.

“Man, (Bob) Bratkowski was the reason I was able to come here. Mike Brown, I would like to say, in a sense, gave me life for drafting me. And Marvin Lewis was the factor behind all my success. He was a person I confided in. Everything about that organization, that city, is what made me what I am…The fans were awesome. Coach Lew was like a dad.”

Asked if he ever thought he might never make the playoffs if he stayed with Cincinnati, Ochocinco shook his head:

“I never thought about it like that. But what I always did ‘was work. I always worked. You guys know how I am. I’m a workaholic. That’s the way I’ve always approached it. Maybe in a little different way, a little flamboyant, a little flashy at times. But that’s what drove me.”

I wrote about Ochocinco for today’s newspaper. Here’s the column I had:

Xxxxxxxx

INDIANAPOLIS - Nothing Chad Ochocinco has ever said has been more surprising.

Caught in a crush of people with cameras, microphones and open notebooks at Tuesday’s Media Day for Super Bowl XLVI, Ochocinco - once the record-setting receiver and chatterbox of the Cincinnati Bengals, now the barely-used pass catcher for the AFC champion New England Patriots - was asked what he had learned about himself this season.

“That I can actually shut the #%&# up,” he said with a shrug.

The response got a laugh…one of the few he drew all day.

For so long one of pro football’s most flamboyant provocateurs, Ochocinco is now the soft spoken straight man of the Super Bowl.

The usual cast of sideshow characters showed up for Media Day at Lucas Oil Stadium - buxom, barely-clad gals asking flirtatious questions, a dorky guy in a green and gold cape and a black mask, another in a leather helmet and knickers - and this time thousands of cheering fans were allowed to sit in the stands and take in the show, as well.

In the middle of this carnival, Ochocinco proved to be one of the most subdued - sometimes almost dull - guys to take part.

Because he’s changed his name to his Spanish number, follows soccer, visits Mexico and Spain and comes from bilingual Miami, he has a huge Latin following. Several Mexican TV crews gravitated toward him Tuesday and one concerned NFL.com espanol reporter seemed to speak for many when he asked:

“Are you sad? You look sad.”

Ochocinco shook his head: “I’m good. You’re looking for the Crazy Chad. Nah, I haven’t been that all year. Why would I do it now?”

He’s not crazy, just out of character in so many ways these days.

He played the first decade of his NFL career with the Bengals and was selected to the Pro Bowl six times, had over 1,000 receiving yards seven different seasons and relentlessly sought the spotlight.

He had a good-natured way of needling opponents, was a one-man stage show with his end zone touchdown celebrations, ran against race horses, rode bulls, hosted a cable dating show, was on Dancing with the Stars and finally teamed with fellow diva Terrell Owens on a reality TV show.

But the Bengals rarely had success - they never won a playoff game while he was there - and last season finished 4-12.

Over the summer, his welcome beginning to wane, Ochocinco and the Bengals parted ways and the Pats picked him up for an undisclosed draft pick

Under New England coach Bill Belichick, the Patriots’ machine has found valuable, tote-the-company-line cogs in other team’s problematic players. It was hoped Ochocinco might duplicate the success the team had several years ago with former Bengal Corey Dillon and more recently with receiver Randy Moss, who had a record 23 touchdowns in 2007.

Instead Ochocinco has had just 15 catches for 276 yards and one touchdown - all of them lows for his career. In the postseason, he played just one play against Denver and wasn’t active for the AFC title game against Baltimore because he had missed practice for his father’s funeral.

“The year wasn’t the way I expected or the way anyone else expected,” he said. “But I did everything I was supposed to do. I worked, I stayed quiet.

“It’s been an adjustment. The first year in anything is going to be an adjustment. It’s been tough, but one abnormal year doesn’t negate years of success. You have to understand I had years to learn the Bengals playbook and get to a certain level of comfort. I didn’t have that coming here. Everything was on the run here coming in after the lockout.

“I try to compare it to something we all can relate to. It’s like having a girlfriend for 10 years and she’s always one way. Then you meet somebody new and you have to adjust to her because you have no idea, so you learn her on the run. Sometimes it’ works, sometimes it doesn’t. In this case I’m still here, you know what I mean.”

As he was talking Deion Sanders the Hall of Famer turned commentator, called him over for an interview and then a private conversation in which Ochocinco quietly expounded:

“If I acted up on the biggest stage of them all with the elite of elite teams, what would come after that? Where would I go after that? So I bought into the Patriot way: Being a team player, not being disgruntled, not complaining - all those things I’ve been labeled with over the past…(being) a cancer.

“I keep my mouth shut and do what I’m told. Or I could have done it the other way and said ‘This is what I want.’ And then I would have been cut in five or six weeks and today I’d be at home watching instead of in the Super Bowl.

Tuesday though was not the stage many expected he’d have if and when he finally got the NFL’s biggest game.

During New England’s hour-long session, 14 Patriots were given mini-stages from which to hold court and four more got specially-designated areas in the stands.

Ochocinco, though, joined the mass of non-marquee players left wandering around the stadium sideline. And yet he soon was mobbed by media types, drawing more of a crowd than most teammates on the risers.

Asked if he didn’t wish he had a stage, he shook his head and held up his cell phone:

“I don’t need a podium. I have my own podium. It’s my phone. I can reach three million people faster than anyone can here.”

Ochocinco has embraced social media like no other pro athlete. He’s sent out over 32,000 tweets and has over 3.1 million followers.

For instance, during President Obama’s State of the Union address last week, he tweeted about the “guy over Obama’s shoulder” who “doesn’t seem happy.”

It turned out to be Speaker of the House John Boehner, who later tweeted a response and now the two have messaged back and forth enough that they plan to meet after the Super Bowl.

The Cincinnati-raised Boehner ended one good-luck message with “Who Dey!”

Although no longer a Bengal, Ochocinco — who noted “I come from Dade County, a place they call Liberty City, where the odds were against me all my life growing up,” - spoke glowingly Tuesday about his old team and the chances it gave him:

“Man, (Bob) Bratkowski was the reason I was able to come here. Mike Brown, I would like to say, in a sense, gave me life for drafting me. And Marvin Lewis was the factor behind all my success. He was a person I confided in. Everything about that organization, that city, is what made me what I am…The fans were awesome. Coach Lew was like a dad.”

As for the Patriots, he said: “It’s like Fort Knox. Everybody on the outside thinks they know, but they really have no clue, honestly. I play for a guy who is a genius in every sense of the word. People ask what he’s like. I compare him to the drill sergeant in the beginning of Full Metal Jacket.

“…But I tell you the winning experience is always great whether you have a big role, a small role or, hell, no role at all. What I’ve had this year is something I can grow accustom to.”

In the case of Chad Ochocinco, who would have guessed that silence would be so golden? time.”

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Misery has many forms when Rhode Island comes to town

By Tom Archdeacon | Saturday, January 28, 2012, 11:42 PM

No team has brought more misery to UD Arena in the past nine seasons than Rhode Island.

In fact, no team that regularly plays the Flyers holds as lopsided of a winning margin against UD in that span - not even Xavier.

The Rams haven’t just beaten the Flyers on a consistent basis in the past nine years, they’ve broken their hearts.

Counting Saturday night’s 86-81 upset of UD, Rhode Island has won four of its last five games in UD Arena and eight of its last 10 games against the Flyers overall. Four of those game’s have been decided by Rams baskets in the final seconds that crushed UD’s hopes.

Saturday night it didn’t come down to a final dagger as much as it was the repeated jabs by sophomore guard Billy Baron - the son of Rams’ head coach Jim Baron - who made several huge baskets down the stretch and finished with a game-high 25 points.

“Billy Baron was outstanding,” said UD coach Archie Miller.” To score 25 on the road. He neutralized everything in the second half.”

UD came into the game with a 14-6 record and impressive victories over teams like Alabama, Ole Miss, Minnesota, Wake Forest, Xavier, Temple and Saint Louis.

Rhode Island, meanwhile, had won just 3 of its 21 games. They had lost six in a row. Their leading scorer had been kicked off the team last month and Saturday night they were also without junior guard Andre Malone, a 9.3 p.p.g. scorer who had been ruled ineligible before the game because of an unresolved academic matter.

Yet, all of that didn’t seem to matter, Saturday. When the Rams take the court at UD Arena, it’s like they own the place.

The last time they were here - in January of 2010 - they snapped UD’s 30-game home winning streak when Marquis Jones hit a three pointer with 3.4 seconds left to give them the 65-64 victory.

This was the same guy who stunned the Flyers the season before at the Ryan Center when he came driving down the lane in overtime, did a 180-degree spin and banked in a left handed flip before the buzzer to beat UD, 93-91.

Five years ago it was Billy’s older brother Jimmy Baron who left the visiting Flyers reeling when he hit a running scoop shot in the lane with 1.5 seconds left to give Rhode Island the 75-74 victory.

Some years the Rhode Island victories weren’t as unexpected as was Saturday night’s. Several times the Rams have been one of the better teams in the A-10. But this time they came into UD Arena winless in six league games.

But Saturday night the Flyers couldn’t make a defensive stop when they needed to. They relied - to their detriment - on the three-point shot and didn’t pound the ball inside. That led to one glaringly disproportionate stat. They attempted 29 three-point shots, but shot only 10 free throws. Too much long-range bombing, not enough going up with the ball inside and getting hacked.

Add in some costly turnovers in the final minutes and an inability to rebound in the second half like they did in the first 20 minutes and you have the recipe for their collapse.

The loss - especially the way the Flyers deficiencies were exposed — puts a bit of a damper on this feel good season of overachievement and also puts a hole in UD fragile NCAA Tournament resume.

All those big wins will help get you in the field, but a 29-point loss to Buffalo coupled with failures against struggling teams like Miami and Rhode Island erodes all that good fortune.

Yet as numbing as Saturday night’s loss was, it didn’t leave quite the sock-in-the-gut queasiness that the Rhode Island victory did here in March of 2004.

It was the last home game of the season - Senior Night - but the only going away present those Flyers got was a knockout punch from a 6-foot-5 guard named Dustin Hellenga.

With UD’s Ramod Marshall guarding him, he hit a last-second three pointer from deep on the baseline to give the Rams the 65-63 win.

Actually Saturday night had a bit of a déjà vu moment with that 2004 game.

Saturday the UD student section took special delight in needling Billy Baron with chants of” Daddy’s Boy…Daddy’s Boy.” He responded with 25 points.

In 2004, the students rode Hellenga hard after he hoisted up a shot that missed everything with 5:27 left in the game. After that, every time he touched the ball they chanted “Air Ball…Air Ball … Air Ball.”

When he hit that crushing three-pointer for the win right in front of the student section, he didn’t say a word. He just looked over, put his finger to his lips and went “Ssshhhh !”

Saturday night, as the Rams used a different tact to lay claim to UD Arena, they showed silence - and misery — comes in many forms when Rhode Island comes to town.

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“We were all yellin’ at each other. “

By Tom Archdeacon | Friday, January 27, 2012, 11:32 PM

FAIRBORN - Sometimes it’s not what a coach says in the huddle as much as what a player says.

In the case of the Wright State Raiders, it was what a few players, especially junior guard Julian Mays, were saying — NO, make that yelling - during a time out with 15:49 left in the second half Friday night and Loyola up by four points, 25-21.

Let’s let Mays describe it since he was in the thick of it.

“Their point guard was driving and I stripped the ball and everybody just stood there as it was bouncing around. They picked it up and got an easy lay-up and that’s when Coach Donlon called a time out.”

As Donlon described it later: “That was the only play all night where we didn’t show any effort or intensity. The only one. Five guys stood around out there and watched…I called time and Mays and a couple of guys got combative with each other and it really lit a fire under them.”

Here’s how Mays remembered the time out:

“We were all yellin’ at each other. I was telling them, ‘This is bull. This can’t happen. We go after 50-50 balls.’ We were all calling each other out. Me and Johann (Mpondo) went at it pretty good in the huddle and Coach let it go for a minute or so and then stopped it and made us focus.

“I was still mad when we went back on the court. We all were, but we knew we couldn’t go at each other so we took it out on Loyola.”

Although Loyola would score again to go up 27-21, within five minutes Wright State had the lead for good and would go on to win, 47-41.

“That bad play actually helped us,” said Donlon. ‘In its own ways, this is kind of a fight out there. It gets combative. And every once in a while families have fights. Usually from my experience when a family has a fight, things get better. Everybody opens up. People look in the mirror and then they patch things up.”

“I let the guys go a little bit and then I put a stop to it. I said, ‘It’s all our fault. Five guys watched out there. We’re all in this together.’…And sure enough that little fight led to positivity for us.”

Mays - who finished with a game-high 16 points - agreed with his coach:

“Johann and I laughed about it afterward. We were mad at each other at the time, but then we went out and turned those feelings on them and we played better. And when you do that…and when you win…everything is fine.”

Xxxxx

My column in Saturday’s newspaper is also about Mays, who is basketball’s version of a wounded warrior. He averages 34.5 minutes a game in his 10 Horizon League games this season. That’s the fourth highest in the conference.

He played 39 minutes against Loyola, but only because he had four sessions - three before the game and one after — in the Raiders training room, Friday, with WSU trainer Jason Franklin.

“Jason is my main man,” Mays said. “I spend more time with him than Coach (Billy) Donlon and the team….I’m with him more than I am my girlfriend (Terah), too. She understands…I guess.”

Donlon certainly gets it:

“You want a guy like Julius Mays on the floor. I’ve coached and been on teams with good players who were on the court 38 or 39 minutes a game.

“When Duke beat Butler in the national championship game, Michigan State was in the Final Four, too And I remember all three of those teams played their starters 33 minutes or more every night, every game.

“We need Julius Mays playing - not only for what he does himself, but what he does for the other guys. He gives them confidence when he’s out there.”

Friday night Mays gave them more than that.

He also gave them an earful.

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Dayton Flyers: “Everybody likes to see a story get a happy ending.”

By Tom Archdeacon | Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 01:30 PM

While there were many moments to remember from Dayton’s victory over Xavier Saturday at UD Arena - at least if you were a Flyers fans - the most heart-warming one had to be when Ralph Hill - the once little-used sub - came out of the game after making some key plays in crunch time and got a standing ovation from the crowd.

Ralph Hill on the Flyers bench (photo by Erik Schelkun)

“I think fans just like seeing someone go out and play hard,” Hill said. “You don’t to be spectacular.”

Asked if —considering his back story - there wasn’t a little more to it that that, he thought a few seconds and finally admitted: “Yeah, maybe it has something to do with a little guy trying to make a big step. Everybody likes to see a story get a happy ending.”

As for Hill’s story, that was my column in today’s newspaper.

Here it is below:

Xxxxxxx

IT’S ALL STARTING TO CLICK FOR RALPH HILL

That old saying finally is ringing true for Ralph Hill.

“I’d tell him his bread always lands jelly side up,” Vickie Bradley, Hill’s mom, said with a little chuckle. “I called it having favor in your life. When things are going wrong - when our bread falls - it lands jelly side up so it’s not a complete disaster. It’s still salvageable.”

And that’s never been more true for the Dayton Flyers’ 6-foot-6 sophomore than the past few days.

This time last year he found himself relegated to an end-of-the bench Siberia. His entire freshman season he played just 23 minutes. For 29 of the Flyers’ 36 games he never left his seat.

But this past Saturday he felt the warmth of the crowd when - after making several impressive plays in crunch time against Xavier - he returned to the bench and got a standing ovation from many in the sold-out crowd of 13,435 at UD Arena.

“I’ve got to be honest, it felt great,” he said. “It kinda sent chills to my spine.”

Afterward, as she does every game, Bradley - who raised her only child as a single parent and always has been his unbending backbone - waited with the other Flyer families for the players to emerge from the dressing room.

“When he walked out he looked like he might have grown an inch,” she said quietly. “His chin was up. He had a glow about him. His countenance was lifted. There was a confidence. I was just so proud of him.”

That glow was still there Monday as Hill made his rounds on campus.

“Unless I wore a Dayton (basketball) sweatshirt or something, people didn’t really know me when I walked around here last year,” he said as we sat and talked in the Torch Lounge in Kennedy Union. “This year is a little different and today has actually been a great day. A lot of people have come up to me and said ‘Great game.’”

And then, as though on cue, two elderly professors taking part in a nearby reception honoring Father William Joseph Chaminade - founder of the Marianists - went out of their way to pass in front of Hill and smile and nod appreciatively.

A few minutes later, a woman taking photos of the festivities turned her camera toward him.

He didn’t see her, so he didn’t pose. But he still was smiling.

Feeling His Pain

As a high school senior at Westerville North outside Columbus, Hill came to Kettering for the Flyin’ to the Hoop tournament two years ago and put on a show. He scored 28 points, grabbed nine rebounds, had six steals and assists in a victory over Flora Macdonald Academy.

A four-year varsity starter, he averaged 22.5 p.p.g. of as a senior, won Division I All Ohio honors and was recruited by several colleges.

He chose Dayton and joined fellow signee Juwan Staten in lobbying Brandon Spearman and then Devin Oliver to join their recruiting class. But once he got here, Hill’s star suddenly faded and he almost never played.

“I’m not gonna lie, it was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to face next to losing my grandfather,” he said.

“I went from being the star in high school - the No. 1 option on a team that had to have me to win - to being a guy that the team didn’t need at all.

“My mom would come to ever game and afterward, I’d say. ‘Ma, I can’t do this any more. It’s too tough.’ And she’d listen and let me vent and then she’d let me calm down and give me an unbiased point of view.

“She’d say, ‘Look, you’re not always going to be successful. There are going to be trying times, so get your chin up and move on.”

A manager in the technology department of JPMorgan Chase, she has always been proof of that her son said:

“She’s a strong woman and 99 percent of what you see in me came from her. She instilled the good traits. She’s the one who hammered it in that, yeah, you’re here to hoop it up, but the main reason you’re in school is to get degree. That’ what will get you a job in life.”

Vickie, though, said she knew her son was hurting last season. She was, too:

“When you’re a parent, you feel your child’s pain, same as you do their joy. I knew he felt he couldn’t do it anymore, but I made sure he got a good dose of mom kicking him in the right direction.

“I tried to remind him this is the way life is sometimes. It happens to all of us. Sometimes you have to be patient and wait your turn. He had to humble himself.”

For a while Hill figured maybe he should just turn himself totally toward his studies - he’s a mechanical engineering major - and take a different approach.

“As bad as it sounds, I thought, ‘OK at least I have front row seats to the games,” he said. “But when you’re a competitor, that doesn’t really work, so then I thought about going some place else.”

The feeling intensified when Staten and Spearman announced they were transferring.

Once again, though, mom took a different stance.

“I didn’t want him chasing a basketball,” she said. “To me Dayton is an awesome school academically and the basketball program had been awesome, too…. I always see the glass as half full.”

It Finally Clicks

Hill said his teammates, especially Oliver, his roommate, convinced him to hang on. And when coach Brian Gregory left and Archie Miller was hired, Hill took a wait and see approach.

Thanks, in part, to his mom’s no-coddling attitude, he reevaluated his situation and admits, “I wasn’t ready to play that much last season. Offensively I could play, but defensively I couldn’t accomplish what BG wanted. And now I can say I was playing behind an NBA guy ( Chris Wright) and two other upper-classmen (Josh Benson and Luke Fabrizius,) too.”

The bottom line was he needed to get better. But when preseason injuries slowed his initial progress, he said he still doubted himself enough that he approached assistant coach Kevin Kuwik:

“I asked him, ‘Am I good enough to play at this level?’ And he was like, ‘I’m not going to tell you yes or no. There are some things you need to work on and some things you’re good at,’ and I feel like that was a great answer. If he had told me yes I might not be working as hard as I am now and if he said no, I might have thought, ‘I shouldn’t be doing this any more.’”

Miller said Hill began to really dedicate himself in practice and then when Benson was lost for the season with an ACL tear, he helped fill that void with his rebounding and interior defense.

Over the past three games, Hill has averaged 12.3 minutes a contest, had 14 rebounds, eight points and two assists.

“I’m really happy for Ralph because he’s earned this the hard way,” said Miller, who commended Hill in front of the team after the Xavier game.

“I hope this is just like my mom kept telling me, that everybody has a moment when it finally clicks,” Hill said.” I never wanted the story to end up like, ‘Okay, he didn’t play. He quit. He left because he wanted something easier.’… I wanted my story to end better than that.”

He wanted make sure his bread really did land jelly side up.

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Local athlete’s message: “I’m going to beat it out of you”

By Tom Archdeacon | Monday, January 23, 2012, 10:00 AM

“There is no lying in boxing. Either you’re going to tell on yourself or I’m going to beat it out of you. Either way, at the end of the night THE WORLD IS GOING TO KNOW THE TRUTH.”

That’s the message on the slick new poster being used to market the young pro boxing career of charismatic Trotwood junior middleweight Chris Pearson. The poster will soon be available here in Dayton.

After more than 100 amateur fights and some prestigious national titles, the 21-year-old Pearson turned pro last November. He’s 2-0 and fights again Feb. 25 in St. Louis as part of an HBO-televised “Boxing After Dark” card. His opponent in the six-round, 154-pound fight is yet to be named. The headliner that night is unbeaten Cincinnati junior lightweight Adrien Broner.

Pearson and Broner are both in the boxing stable of Cleveland-raised, Harvard-educated manager Al Haymon, whose most famous fistic clients - Floyd Mayweather Jr., Andre Berto, Jermain Taylor and others - are only overshadowed by the musicians and entertainers he has promoted.

Pearson spent part of the past week in New Jersey meeting with Adidas and Under Armour officials who may sponsor him. A former Trotwood-Madison High basketball player, he returned to town in time to see his alma mater take on - and lose - to Dunbar High, Sunday, at UD Arena. Today he is scheduled to return to Northern Michigan University, where he had been working toward his degree and still trains at the U.S. Olympic Education Center gym there.

There is talk that down the way he will be partnering in a sports venture here with Brandon McKinney, the veteran Baltimore Ravens nose tackle, who attended Trotwood Madison before transferring to Chaminade Julienne.

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Matt Kavanaugh: Once he collected Flyers’ autographs, now he gets Flyers’ praise

By Tom Archdeacon | Sunday, January 22, 2012, 01:53 PM

I thought Chris Mack was a class act when he had nothing but praise for Archie Miller, Kevin Dillard and especially Matt Kavanaugh after his Xavier Musketeers were outplayed by the Dayton Flyers, 87-72, Saturday at UD Arena.

“As crazy as this sounds as an opposing coach, I’m really proud of Matt,” the Xavier coach said after Kavanaugh made eight of nine field goals, four of four free throws and finished with 20 points, nine rebounds and two assists. “I know it’s crazy to say that.

“We didn’t recruit him…not that we probably could have gotten him. His parents are season ticket holders here.

“He’s a self made player. He’s done an amazing job of understanding his role. Playing to his strengths. Being an efficient scorer. He’s put up numbers against really good teams. I’ve got a lot of respect for Matt. Good things happen to guys who really work hard when it means a whole lot to them. A couple of players in our locker room could learn a lot from that.”

When Mack said this “means a whole lot” to Kavanaugh he was right on the money.

The other day when we I sat down with him in the Kennedy Union snack bar on campus, Kavanaugh talked about growing up in Centerville a Flyers fan.

“The first UD game I actually went to I was younger than I can remember - my parents took me,” he said. “My parents had season tickets a while and my dad used to get seats from his bank. The games I first remember going to is when Mark Ashman, Brooks Hall and Tony Stanley were playing.

“Back then I was a big Flyers fan. I had posters in my room I went to all the camps - Oliver Purnell was the coach then - and I’d get autographs from players like Nate Green, Sean Finn and Brooks Hall.

“By sophomore or junior year in high school, I knew I wanted to come here. There were a lot of reasons, but one was the crowds They really support our team and they really pull for guys from here who play hard. Guys like Keith Waleskowski, he was a crowd favorite.”

Kavanaugh has become the same thing this season.

Although you’ve got to give former coach Brian Gregory credit for recruiting Kavanaugh, the 6-foot-9 center spent his first two years at UD often buried at the end of the bench. He got little playing time - especially freshman year when he got in a grand total of just 43 minutes in 14 games. The other 23 games he never got off the bench. Sophomore years he got in most games, but played in bits and pieces averaging just over nine minutes and just under two points a game.

Both seasons he got yelled at constantly in practice.

This year - getting more of an embrace from the new coaching staff - he’s averaging 9.2 points and a team-leading 5.9 rebounds a game.

And as the season progresses and he becomes more and more of a force for the Flyers. the UD Arena crowd is rewarding him with some of its most heartfelt cheers. And after games he is one of the players little kids wait for outside the Donoher Center doors. Today he’s the one giving the autographs.

Watching this scene, a lot of Flyers fans will agree with Chris Mack.

You’ve got to be proud of Matt Kavanaugh.

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Archie Miller gets everyone’s praise after Flyers thump X

By Tom Archdeacon | Saturday, January 21, 2012, 05:10 PM

The most telling quote I heard after the Dayton Flyers 87-72 throttling of Xavier Saturday afternoon in a raucous, sea-of-red UD Arena came from defeated coach Chris Mack:

“They’re a tough team to play here at home. Archie has done an amazing job with this team this year. They play a lot different than they did a year ago.”

In the past few days I’ve heard variations of that same theme - this team is different under new head coach Archie Miller - from Flyers legendary coach Don Donoher, Centerville High coach Jim Staley - who coached Matt Kavanaugh in high school - and especially UD point guard Kevin Dillard after Saturday’s game,

The difference from last year is simple, said Dillard:

“It’s Archie Miller.”

Miller has taken a team short on bodies and All Conference talent and gotten it to play far beyond anyone’s expectations so far this season.

Whether that’s a reflection on departed coach Brian Gregory or simply one of those addition by subtraction deals that saw a couple of disgruntled players leave and a group that totally buys into the team concept take their place, I don’t know. Probably a little of both…but mostly it’s just a tribute to Miller.

“He’s got us all believing in ourselves and each other,” said Matt Kavanaugh, who finished with 20 points and nine rebounds.

Remember Kavanaugh’s first two years here when he played sparingly - if at all - averaging less than a point a game as a freshman and just 1.9 last season?

He’s started all 19 games this year and the Flyers are 14-5.

And how about Ralph Hill , who was buried so far at the end of the bench last year he rarely saw the light of day? He played in just seven of 36 games. A grand total of 23 minutes…almost all of it at mop up time just before the final buzzer.

Saturday he played 12 minutes in crunch time, got five rebounds, four points and had an assist. And no turnovers. And after the game Archie Miller brought him up in front of the team in the post-game dressing room and commended him.

One player after another is playing like he never has before in a Flyers uniform.

The leader is Dillard who was on the court 38 minutes Saturday, finishing with 16 points, nine assists , three rebounbds and a steal. He won the games’s MVP honors.

He spent last season in street clothes, sittng out the year per NCAA edict after transferring in from Southern Illinois.

With the loss of disgruntled freshman point guard Juwan Staten —one of the most heralded recruits Dayton had ever landed transferred first to Penn State and then West Virginia - UD hasn’t missed a beat because Dillard has come in and upped the play at that position.

A year ago Xavier point guard Tu Holloway had his way against the Flyers. He scored 73 points in three games against UD and Xavier won two of those three meetings.

Saturday Holloway was overshadowed by Dillard.

Afterward Dillard was asked why he has been able to come in and take command right away.

He gave the same answer again:

“Archie Miller.”

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Don Donoher on Archie Miller, Donnie May and holding a dubious NCAA Tournament record

By Tom Archdeacon | Friday, January 20, 2012, 02:33 PM

When it comes to sports, the best half hour I spent this past week was when I was sitting in the dimly-lit upper reaches of UD Arena talking Dayton Flyers basketball - including this year’s team and new coach Archie Miller - with Don Donoher.

To me, Donoher is more than just a local treasure, he belongs in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. With coaches like Utah’s Stan Watts, Loyola’s Leonard Sachs, Notre Dame’s George Keogan, Wisconsin’s Walter Meanwell and Oregon’s Slats Gill already in there, he should be enshrined right along side them for what he’s done on the court for UD and the entire game of college basketball.

Not that you’d ever here him say anything about that. Donoher doesn’t like to draw attention to himself. Although he’s been coaxed to be a spokesperson for the Local Organizing Committee’s effort to make the NCAA Tournament First Four an annual event in Dayton, he’s more comfortable out of the spotlight.

There’s no better example of that than where he chooses to sit at UD basketball games.

As the Flyers winningest coach ever - after playing for the Flyers in the early 1950s, he coached them for 25 years, won 437 games and took them to 15 postseason tournaments, including the 1967 NCAA title game and the 1968 NIT crown - he could sit wherever he wants.

He does have six tickets to each game - two are behind a basket and two others are in the lower arena - but he chooses to sit halfway up in the 300 section against the wall. He likes the anonymity that comes with the seat.

Before that he used to sit in an old air handling room high above the arena. The place was dark, It had just a slit of window to look out on the court and when the blowers turned on, you couldn’t hear a thing through the racket.

“It was the poor man’s skybox,” Donoher laughed. “It was great.”

Before I get into our conversation from the other day, here’s one other side note. Back when Donoher was playing high school ball for Toledo Central Catholic, his team would make semi-annual treks down to my little hometown - Ottoville - for a game to go along with another a day prior or following at Delphos St. John’s just seven miles away.

My granddad, L.W. Heckman, coached the Ottoville Big Green, who over the years held their own with the Toledo team. But that wasn’t the case on December 4, 1948. Toledo thumped Ottoville, 65-40.

My mom, Agnes Archdeacon, was Ottoville’s scorekeeper back then. She’s gone now and so is my granddad, but I have the official scorebook from that season. And from that Dec. 4 entry, there is Donoher — No. 10 for Central Catholic - who scored eight points and “hacked” our guys for two fouls.

In the past I’ve talked to him about those days, but the other afternoon when we sat down - ostensibly to hype the First Four — I soon pushed the conversation toward UD hoops past and present.

Here are some things he had to say:

On this year’s team and Archie Miller: “They have over-achieved. If you stop to think what they lost from last year and to have Archie come in here brand, spanking new - his first job - he really has them playing together. They’re a fun bunch to watch,

“(Matt) Kavanaugh has really come on. I’m impressed by his footwork in the post. …And Kevin Dillard has really brought something to this team. I knew people who had been trying to recruit him (to other schools after he left Southern Illinois) and they said the (fans) in Dayton don’t know what they’re getting and just how good this guy is.”

On his team’s run to NCAA title game in 1967: “Too bad the games were on back to back nights and we couldn’t really enjoy it like you could now. We were a huge flop in that national championship game (losing to UCLA) but that win against North Carolina - that was Dean Smith’s first Final Four - that’s a nice memory to have.”

On All-American Donnie May, the star of the ’67 team: “I smile, I genuflect when I hear his name. He’s just the nicest guy in the world. Just humble and down to earth.”

On UD Arena, which has hosted more NCAA Tournament games than any venue in history: “It was built on a limited budget. Originally it was supposed to be a roundhouse. I have the pictures from the original architect — Knowlton Brothers and (Dutch Knowlton) was one of the original owners of the Bengals.

“At that time a lot of roundhouses were going up., but when when it came in at about twice what the budget called for, they went to local architects here and rather than go straight up, they came up with this underground concept and it cut way down on the architectural steel.

(Athletics director) Tom Frericks was scared to death about it. The seats were set back. It wasn’t like St. John Arena where you could have a balcony. But the beauty of the place is that if you took the baselines and painted them all the way up top the top of the arena, 80 percent of the fans have a courtside seat. And the 20 percent on the sides are close. They’re some of the best seats in the house.

“After our run in the ‘84 tournament that loosened up some funds and they were able to excavate down here some more and build a place to store a hardwood floor. Before that there was no room, that’s why we had the Tartan floor. You couldn’t have a permanent hardwood floor in here because it would warp with the water that came through here.

“Now both Ted Kissell and Tim Wabler (UD’s most recent ADs) have made great additions on their watch. The graphics around this place make it like a museum I went around to a million of these venues when I did my thing with the Cavaliers (as a college scout) and the graphics here are second to none.

“And now they’ve added the video boards - the place just keeps getting better.”

On playing on the 1952 team that was in both the NIT and NCAA tournaments: “Tom Blackburn was just an NIT guy. That’s what mattered most to him,. We played in the NIT and then came back home and got ready to play the next Friday and Saturday in the NCAA. It was our first time in that tournament and we were matched against Illinois. There were just 16 teams in the whole deal, so if we won the two games at our regional in Chicago, we were in the Final Four, which was just a couple of days later in Seattle.

“They had a little get-together before the games and though it’s hearsay, it became gospel with us. Supposedly the representative of the Big Ten who was on the tournament committee said he wanted to take the opportunity to wish Illinois well in the Final Four in Seattle.

“Blackburn and the Duquesne coach were sitting together and Tom said, ‘Well, it looks like we got a fat chance.’

“And sure enough they called enough fouls on us in our loss to Illinois that we still hold the record for the most fouls on a team in an NCAA Tournament game.”

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Six things I like about Xavier

By Tom Archdeacon | Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 11:44 AM

My family has been long tied to the University of Dayton. For at least 80 years.

Like me, a couple of my uncles, my aunt, and several of my cousins all graduated from UD. My aunt was a longtime biology professor there and an Assistant Dean of Arts & Sciences. My uncle was the president of the Flyers Club. A cousin played for Don Donoher on the NCAA runner-up team and the NIT championship team. In the 23 years I’ve been back here, I’ve written hundreds of stories on Flyers basketball.

With that as a backdrop, I’ll admit something that many Flyers faithful consider blasphemy.

I like Xavier, too.

Especially Xavier basketball.

Four days before UD and X tip it off in what I’m sure will be an over-amped scene at UD Arena, here are a few things I like about the Musketeers:

1 — I like Chris Mack and his wife Christi Hester, who very well may be the most delightful woman every to play UD women’s basketball.

2 — I always got a kick out of those “Mini Me” signs Xavier students used to tease Brian Gregory. Unlike the stuff the went on between X and UC, that’s all part of a healthy rivalry.

3 — I liked it even more when Gregory turned the tables on the Musketeers in 2010 by stepping out of character, donning a red fight robe and boxing gloves and — with LL Cool J’s “Momma Said Knock You” providing loud accompaniment — jabbing his team on in the Arena’s pregame dressing room with a stunt that paid huge dividends - UD 90, Xavier 65.

4 — The way Xavier has carried the Atlantic 10 banner on the national stage with nine appearances in the NCAA Tournament - and two advancements to the Elite Eight - in the past 10 years.

5 — Of all the X grads - including a bunch of well-known politicians from John Boehner, Ken Blackwell and Jim Bunning to our own Rhine McLin - I like it that Robert Romanus is a Jesuit product. He was Mike Damone, the bookmaker, scammer and self-professed smooth ladies man in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” a movie that still makes me laugh.

6 — And maybe best of all — and linked to point 3 - I like the fact that X gives UD a red-hot, 92-year-old, 155-game rivalry that many times has prompted the Flyers to rise to their greatest heights on the basketball court.

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