Fenwick graduation 2012
Ponitz graduation 2012
Cars and Parts Swap Meet
Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > November
November 2009
Notre Dame’s Next Coach
When Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis was sent packing Monday — his gaudy Super Bowl rings, arrogance and hollow, bully boy bravado tied like tin cans to his dragging tail as he departed — the Irish were confirming the thought so many people had held for more than a year.
In Weis, the Irish had made their third straight bad head coaching hire. His two predecessors — first Bob Davie, then Tyrone Willingham— suffered similar fates in South Bend.
Don’t feel bad for Weis. He’s getting paid $18 million to leave and will end up an NFL offensive coordinator again in no time. He belongs in the pros. He wasn’t a great college recruiter like Florida’s Urban Meyer or USC’s Pete Carroll — he brought in some big talents but not the truckloads the other two did year after year after year — he didn’t schmooze alums and he had flaunted a sense of superiority, which is why he didn’t have a lot of folks in his corner at the end.
So now what’s Notre Dame to do?
Meyer and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops have both said they’re not interested in being the next Irish coach. While in in coaching circles “no” is not always no, the Irish will look elsewhere
Do they go after a big name coach with lots of marquee electricity? Say like a Jon Gruden or maybe even a Tony Dungy?
Or, do they court a bit of lesser name with solid credentials? Guys like Cincinnati’s Brian Kelly or TCU’s Gary Patterson?
Maybe, they look for someone right in between those two groups, say like Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh or Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz.
But, as for me, I still think Brian Kelly is the one who ends up at Notre Dame.
TweetLarry Johnson and the Ki-Jana Curse
CINCINNATI — After what has happened to him in the past year or so — suspended by Kansas City and then the NFL, pilloried by fans, finally jettisoned all together by the Chiefs three weeks ago in a move that could cost him millions in salary — Larry Johnson is now quite thankful to be a Cincinnati Bengal.
But he admits there was a time he wanted no part of his new team.
Coming out of Penn State in 2003, he didn’t want to be drafted by the Bengals. Not because of their perennial losing record though:
“I didn’t want them to hit me with Ki-Jana — with the Ki-Jana Curse. I’d already followed him at Penn State, but to follow him here, I didn’t want that pressure. So it was good for me to be drafted by somebody else.”
Kansas City made him a first-round pick.
In 1995, the Bengals made Carter the No. 1 pick in the entire NFL draft. But on the third play of his very first preseason game, the Penn State product blew out an anterior cruciate ligament. The knee injury was devastating and he never fully recovered.
He ended up playing — and hobbling — through 10 NFL seasons, five with the Bengals, and rushed for just under 1,200 yards total.
Two season’s ago FOXsports.com voted Carter the worst-ever running back draft bust in NFL history. I think that’s unfair in light of the injury, but the name does conjure up the bad old times around Cincinnati Bengals football.
Things are a lot better now. The Bengals are 8-3 and with their 16-7 victory over the Cleveland Browns Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium — thanks in a big way to Johnson — they have, for the first time ever, swept the other three AFC North teams and certainly appear headed for the play-offs.
Sunday, Johnson, who only joined the Bengals earlier this month, was huge. Although he had played just one series last week in Oakland, he was the workhorse against the Browns. With Cedric Benson out with a hip injury and back-up Bernard Scott a bit hobbled during the game, Johnson carried the ball 22 times and rushed for 107 yards,.
“I never expected to play so soon, but I learned the offense in two weeks and they trusted me enough today to go out and protect Carson (Palmer) and to carry the ball,” Johnson said. “That’s a big deal. When you’re carrying the ball, you’re holding a lot of hopes and dreams in your hands”.
Last week Scott, who had 87 yards Sunday, ran for 119 yards. And when he was injured two weeks ago, Benson was leading the NFL in rushing.
At present, the Bengals — who also have third- down specialist Brian Leonard — may well have the best stable of running backs in the NFL.
Johnson — a two time Pro Bowler who ran for over 1,700 yards in 2005 and 2006 before hiis casreer went into decline — said he just wanted a second chance with the Bengals. But after Sunday he realized he had gotten more than that.
“Coming here now I think I’m able to show what a Penn State back can do. I used to think being a Bengal would bring on that curse.
“Instead, now, it’s a blessing.”
TweetPractice drill helps Flyers avoid stain on post-season resume
You can focus on all the warts in this one and their initial 30-minute effort had plenty of them. The Dayton Flyers rushed shots, threw lethargic passes, had defensive lapses and found themselves down by 18 points to unheralded Towson with 9:30 left Saturday at UD Arena.
But in the end, UD avoided the monumental upset — one that would have certainly stained its resume for postseason tournament consideration — and won, 74-69.
And because of that you also have to recognize UD’s colossal defensive effort to end the game.
Towson never scored in the final 4 minutes and 27 seconds.
Instead the Tigers — who had made nine of 14 three-pointers in the first half (64.4 percent) — turned the ball over three times and missed four shots.
Several Flyers — and head coach Brian Gregory — mentioned the team channelling an end-of-practice defensive drill the UD coaches made a daily staple for the team since it returned from Puerto Rico last Sunday.
Gregory, who calls it the “Three Consecutive Stops Drill,” said it stems from the late-game situations his team has regularly seen:
“You get in games like we’ve been in — close games like we’ve played — and you’ve got to get three or four stops to win. We weren’t able to do that against Villanova. We weren’t able to do it against Kansas State. We did it against Creighton and Georgia Tech and now today…and we won.”
As for the actual drill, guard Paul Williams explained:
“He picks five guys at random and you have to play defense and make three straight stops. If you don’t — if the other guys score just once — that’s it. It’s all over. You failed.”
Gregory said when he first installed the drill, “one of the guys said ‘Let’s try it again.’ I said, ‘No, you just loss.’”
Williams said he was thinking along those lines in the final minutes against Towson:
“If we didn’t make stop after stop after stop we were gonna lose. And I knew it wasn’t going to be just one loss. All of a sudden we’d be on a three-game losing streak. That would change everything.”
Maybe even their post-season dreams.
TweetPredictions: Tiger’s wife, UD-WSU, Colt and Kelly
Here are four predictions:
1 — Colt McCoy wins the Heisman. He’s got my vote and plenty more I know of..
2 — Brian Kelly is the next Notre Dame football coach. An East Coach Irish Catholic who’s a miracle worker on the football fields — that’s a Gold Dome dream right there.
3 — Wright State wins as many basketball games as do the Dayton Flyers this season. It’s going to be a good hoops year on both sides of town.
4 — Tiger Woods finds himself in tabloids more than the golf magazines over the next month. Never mind Tiger’s big drives. how ‘bout his wife when she’s teed off?
TweetUD and WSU Hoops — angst and feeling mighty good
While all the hoops buzz around town the past week or so was about the Dayton Flyers — and rightfully so with that No. 18 ranking as they headed down to San Juan for three games — I’ve got to say Brad Brownell has quietly built himself quite a team this season at Wright State.
You saw signs of that Tuesday night as WSU toyed with Central Michigan before finally pushing the Chippewas aside, 69-53, at the Nutter Center.
This is as good of a Raiders team as I’ve seen around here in a long time. Although there’s no DaShaun Wood, I’d say it is better than the Raiders team who surprised everyone and made the 2007 NCAA Tournament:
Senior forward Todd Brown looks like a man on the court for the Raiders this season. He’s playing with a real confidence now, his outside shot is on the mark — he was 4 for 6 from three-point range Tuesday — and he’ll only get better with the return of Vaughn Duggins.
The junior guard — who had been out of the WSU line-up for a year — returned Tuesday with a 21-point, 5-assist., shut-down defensive effort.
Duggins being on the floor lifts the games of all his teammates.
The 3-1 Raiders are deep this year and they’re playing a stifling defense.
While there is some angst around Flyerland now after a pair of losses to good teams — No. 5 Villanova and Kansas State — the resultant fall from the Top 25 and the prospect that it will be a struggle to return to such lofty status during the next month while playing several teams with little juice when it comes to swaying pollsters, Wright State fans have to be feeling mighty good about their bunch right now.
Once the Flyers get into their A-10 schedule, I think they will acquit themselves quite well again and have a good chance to be every bit that NCAA Tournament team everyone predicted they would be just a week ago.
Even though Butler is figured to be the scourge of the Horizon League this season, don’t discount Wright State. All you need to do is beat the Bulldogs once in the league tournament and the under-manned Raiders nearly did that last season. This team is good enough to finish the task.
If things go as I think they might for both UD and WSU this season, it could be fun around here come mid March.
TweetOSU-Michigan — Curses, tears and a heartfelt remembrance
ANN ARBOR — Here are some images and comments I heard and saw after Ohio State topped mistake-prone Michigan 21-10 Saturday before a crowd of 110,922 at Michigan Stadium:
— In the final minutes of the game, there was as real rabid back-and-forth exchange going on between some vocal Michigan fans seated in the front row just behind the Ohio State bench and a few equally-zealous Buckeye players, most notably fireplug freshman fullback Zack Boren, whose brother Justin started his college career as a Michigan offensive lineman, then transferred to Ohio State — he’s from Pickerington — and stated at left guard for the Buckeyes Saturday.
Both the fan and Boren were red in the face from all their yelling. I can’t print what was said — I can tell you it was pretty profane and sometimes pretty funny — but I will say there were some gyrations and hand gestures to go with it. And it went on for a while.
— A much nicer scene was involved Kurt Coleman — the Buckeye safety and team captain from Northmont High who had two interceptions — spotting his family in the stands, then pulling himself up to them and crawling over the blue railing so he could hug them and tell them he loved them.
He gave his dad the rose he was holding and “Pops,” as he call his father Ron Coleman, an assistant principal at Stebbins High, gave him his scarlet newsboy cap which Kurt put on backwards and then wore proudly off the field.
“What a way to go out,” Ron Coleman said of his son. “He had two interceptions, he probably could have had four and mostly he just made us so proud…Again.”
— I walked off the field with Michigan’s sophomore running back Michael Shaw, whose prep fame came first at Alter High and then at Trotwood Madison.
He had rushed for 13 yards on 7 carries and he was in tears:
“This is a tough pill to swallow, especially being from Ohio. I hate losing to Ohio State, but they got the best of us.
“I love Michigan though/ This is where I’m supposed to be and where I’m going to be. And I think the rebuilding is over here. I honestly believe Michigan will be back next season.”
— Another Wolverine from Trotwood Madison — sophomore receiver Roy Roundtree — will play a big part of Michigan ascension. He had nine catches for 119 yards Saturday. A teammates’ injury thrust him into the starting lineup four weeks ago and he’s responded with 26 catches for 393 yards and two touchdowns since He ended the season as the Wolverines leading receiver.
Coming off the field, he accepted a few hugs from Bucks players, then spoke briefly as he made his way toward the stadium tunnel:
“It felt great being in this game —I think our team fought the full 60 minutes — but you got to give O-State credit. They got the better of us.”
— The Ohio State players all wore a white decal bearing a black “SS” on their old school throwback uniforms that were reminiscent of the look of the 1954 Buckeye team.
The SS was a remembrance of Stefanie Spielman — the charismatic 42-year old wife of former Ohio State and NFL star Chris Spielman — who died Thursday after a long and quite public battle with breast cancer.
Coaches wore the emblems, too, and Jim Tressel talked about the heartfelt tribute.
“We talked about that after the game,” the Bucks head coach said. “We thought about how excited we were, but also how — when we get back home and have a chance to reflect a little bit — we need to send some love to the Spielman family. Some vibes.
“We know what kind of Buckeye she is and Chris is and the whole family is. They are part of our family.
“What she and Chris have done for the Columbus community — the example she had given us — was extraordinary.
“Going into this we talked about how the toughest team wins this game. And we said if we could be half as tough as Stefanie, we got a chance.”
TweetOSU-Michigan : The TOP 10 Performances Ever
ANN ARBOR — “Great players play great in the Michigan game.”
That — according to Ohio State linebacker Austin Spitler — was Earle Bruce preaching to the Buckeyes football team this past week as they prepped for today’s game with Michigan in Ann Arbor.
“Coach Bruce said. ‘If you don’t play great in the Michigan game, you ARE NOT a great player here at Ohio State,’” said the OSU senior captain from Bellbrook High. “It’s the last game of the year, the biggest game , the most fierce game — the greatest rivalry in college football — and everybody strives to make a big play that impacts the game.”
And over the years there have been some OSU and Michigan players who have impacted games in monumental ways.
Jim Naveau, who covers Ohio State quite well for the Lima News, came up with a list in his Friday paper of the 20 players he felt had had the most memorable performances in this storied rivalry. He listed his Top 10 from Ohio State, then his Top 10 from Michigan.
I agreed with most of his choices — though I’d put a couple of other people on the list and I’d change the order of importance of a few. But that’s the fun of lists — everybody makes them up differently .
Here are my top performers from both schools, ranked — as I see it — in the order of their impact on the game. Like I said, the list is debatable:
1 — TOM HARMON (Michigan) — Michigan’s first Heisman winner was so overwhelming dominant in the 1940 game, he got standing ovation from crowd — the Ohio Stadium crowd!!! He passed for 151 yards and two touchdowns, rushed for 139 yards and two more touchdowns , intercepted a pass and returned it for a score and averaged 50 yards on punts.
2 — TROY SMITH (Ohio State) — His 2006 performance against Michigan sealed the Heisman Trophy for him, but his previous two games were just as good…..In 2004, he threw for 241 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 145 yards and TD in 37-21 win….The next year he passed for 300 yards and a score as OSU came back from 9 down in the final minutes to win 25-21… Finally, in 2006, he threw for 316 yards and four TDs in a 42-29 victory.
3 — LES HORVATH (Ohio State) — The Buckeyes first Heisman winner, he played the entire 60 minutes of the 1944 game, running for two touchdowns, including the game-winner as No . 3 OSU edged No. 6 Michigan, 18-14 …In 1942, he ran for one TD and threw for another as OSU won 21-3.
4 — TSHIMANGA BIAKABUTUKA (Michigan) — Carried the ball 37 times for 313 yards as Michigan upset Ohio State 31-23 in 1995.
5 — CHRIS WELLS (Ohio State) — Ran for 222 yards on 39 carries and scored on a 62-yard run in 2007 …He ran for 134 yards — scoring on a 59 yard run — in 2008
6 — DESMOND HOWARD (Michigan) — He struck the Heisman pose after stunning the Bucks with a 93-yard punt return for a touchdown in the Wolverines’ 31-3 victory in 1991. He also caught a 50-yard pass that game…In 1990, he had five catches for 73 yards and a score.
7 — ARCHIE GRIFFIN (Ohio State) — The two-time Heisman winner was part of three OSU wins and a tie. He scored a TD as a freshman, ran for 163 yards as a sophomore and ran for 111 yards as a junior.
8 — BOB FERGUSON (Ohio State) — He rushed for four touchdowns and 152 yards in the Buckeyes 50-20 victory in 1961… In 1960, he scored the only touchdown in OSU’s 7-0 victory.
9 — CHARLES WOODSON ( Michigan) — He sealed his Heisman Trophy in 1997 when he returned a punt 78 yards for a score, caught a 37-yard pass and intercepted a Buckeye pass in Michigan’s 20-14 win…In 1995, he had two interceptions in Michigan’s upset of OSU.
10 — CHRIS SPIELMAN (Ohio State) — He had an unbelievable 29 tackles in a 26-24 loss in 1986. The next year he had 16 tackles and a quarterback sack in OSU’s 23-20 win.
TweetOSU vs. Michigan — A Different Degree of Hate
COLUMBUS — A couple of days ago, Devin Barclay — Ohio State’s new and quite unlikely kicker, a guy who first had a career playing soccer for U.S., national teams and then five years as a pro — made a great point about the fanatical OSU and Michigan football rivalry.
The Bucks and Wolverines will go at it Saturday in Ann Arbor in, what all Buckeye players will tell you, is “the greatest rivalry in college sports.”
They say that distinction comes from longevity of the series, the storied tradition and grand success of both programs and, of course, the intense feelings the two neighboring teams have for each other.
“I know Ohio State and Michigan hate each other, but I think it’s more from a sense of competition,” said Barclay, who may have gone to high school in Maryland, but he knows enough about this scrap to distinguish it from other forms of “hate” he’s seen in his sports career.
“I’ve played qualifying matches in Mexico and I’ve seen how American players get treated there,” he said. “I’ve witnessed what they think of us and they REALLY don’t like us. Fans are not afraid to say anything and some of it would be really offensive to people here.
“FIFA is trying to deal with that stuff, not just there, but in some other places in the world, too, where you get the same kind of racism and racist comments. They really cross the line with some of the stuff they say. It just should never be said. But they say it and and believe it.
“Here, I know the feelings are pretty intense between Ohio State and Michigan, but I watched that documentary about Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler and as much as they battled, at the end of the day you could see they really cared about each other. There was a respect.
“That’s the difference here.
“This ‘hate’ is based on competition, but that other is not. That other is pretty evil.”
TweetChris Wright in SI; Charlie Coles on YouTube
Two of the area’s best-known college basketball figures — Dayton Flyers star Chris Wright and Miami University coach Charlie Coles — have gotten some high-profile exposure this week:
— The energetic Wright in a colorful, two-page photo spread in Sports Illustrated.
— The irascible Coles on a classic YouTube video that is getting more popular by the hour.
While both of the visuals come from losing efforts, neither is anything to hang one’s head about.
Quite the opposite.
The Wright photo came during UD’s second round NCAA Tournament game with Kansas last March.
The Coles video was shot during his press conference following his team’s near upset of No. 5 Kentucky Monday night at Rupp Arena. The Wildcats ended up winning 72-70 on a last-second shot.
The Wright photo — which is the centerpiece of SI’s College Basketball Preview Issue — shows his shot getting altered by 6-foot-11 Kansas behemoth Cole Aldrich. SI calls the Jayhawk’s 10-block effort that day “the most dominant defensive performance in the 2009 NCAA Tournament.”
The Coles’ comments came after his RedHawks nearly pulled off a monumental upset — Miami led by 18 in the first half — only to be done in by a hurried jump shot by Kentucky freshman John Wall. The No. 1 recruit in the nation, Wall — who sat out Kentucky’s first game due to an NCAA infraction — was making his college debut and hit his shot with just .5 of one second left.
TweetTop 25 Hoops Rank No Tournament Guarantee
An early November spot in the Associated Press’ Top 25 college basketball poll might fuel glittery euphoria for the recognized teams and their fans, but for some that turns out to be nothing but fool’s gold.
Over the past 20 years an average of four teams ranked in the preseason Top 25 poll ended up missing the NCAA Tournament. That bit of hoops research came from the Wall Street Journal last week and the number of ranked teams whose preseason dreams have been dashed over the years surprised me.
Eight teams ranked in the Top 25 in November of 2001 missed the Big Dance, most notably North Carolina , which started the preseason ranked No. 19 and finished the year 8-20.
Six teams ranked in the preseason missed the 1993 tournament.
Five preseason Top 25 teams— in 1990, 1997, 1998 , 2006 , 2007 and 2009 — failed to get NCAA Tournament berths.
Last year the biggest plummet was by Notre Dame, ranked No. 9 at the beginning of the season,. Two years before that, No. 5 LSU took the biggest fall. And in 2006 it was No. 7 Louisville.
So what does that mean this season — especially around here where the Dayton Flyers ranked No. 21 in the preseason have moved up to No. 18?
Well, the spot they moved into was occupied by Mississippi State, whose fans were all giddy until the Bulldogs bombed in their opener, getting trounced by Rider, 88-74, and promptly falling from the polls.
And how about No. 1 Kansas nearly getting knocked off by unranked Memphis Tuesday night?
And then there was No. 5 Kentucky needing a last-second basket to come from behind Monday night — at Rupp Arena, no less — to beat Charlie Coles’ Miami RedHawks team that got 16 points and five assists from Kenny Hayes, the senior guard from Northmont High.
A Top 25 ranking in early November guarantees you nothing — except a bull’s-eye on your back.
TweetBengals, UD, OSU Wright State and Manny — The Awards
This is one of my favorite times of the sporting year.
College football is getting into its most meaningful games, NFL teams are beginning to position themselves for the postseason, the college hoops season has begun — not to mention the NBA and NHL — and then, as a bonus, you get a big-time prizefight like the one Saturday night in Las Vegas featuring Manny Pacquiao, a once-in-a-lifetime fighter out of the Philippines.
So with that in mind here are a few — strictly personal — awards from a great weekend of sports.
MOST IMPRESSIVE KNOCK-OUT:
1 — Cincinnati Bengals — Thumped the Pittsburgh Steelers for second time this season. In the 18-12 victory, the stripes defense — a bunch of cast-offs who have forged themselves into the backbone of this team — kept Ben Roethlisberger in the pocket, sacked him four times, batted down a few of his passes, held the Steelers to just three third-down conversions in 15 attempts and didn’t allow a touchdown.
2 — UD Women’s Basketball — Dominated No. 10 Michigan State the entire game Friday night, winning 77-74 in a game that wasn’t quite that close.
3 — Manny Pacquiao — Showed why he’s the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing, throwing a whopping 780 punches and landing 336, nearly twice as many as his rugged opponen, two time world champt Miguel Cotto, who Pacquiao stopped in 12 rounds.
4 — UD Men’s Basketball —Although its 90-80 victory over Creighton was impressive, UD didn’t crack the top three only because the under-manned Blue Jays were missing their top rebounder and two key frontcourt back-ups and still managed to control the first half with a compact 2-3 zone defense. And here’s a fact not brought up around here, Creighton has now lost 25 in a row when it’s played ranked teams on the road. And because the Flyers are a nationally ranked team now — and a very good one at that — the bar is a little higher for them.
BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE:
1 — Bernard Scott — Bengals back-up tailback and new kick returner, scored the games only TD with a 96-yard KO return in the first quarter and then filled in admirably for Cedric Benson, who left the game in the second quarter with a hip flexor.
2 — Devin Barclay — Ohio State’s 26-year-old kicker — a former pro soccer player who is filling in for injured Buck Aaron Pettrey — booted the pressure-packed, 39-yard field goal in overtime to give OSU the 27-24 victory over Iowa and send his team to the Rose Bowl.
3 — Todd Brown — Wright State’s senior forward scored 57 points in three games and showed he’s ready to lead his team this season as the Raiders won two of three games in the Athletes in Action Tournament in Seattle.
4 — Chris Johnson — UD sophomore forward came off the bench to score 18 points and grab 15 rebounds against Creighton.
5 — Tie — UD’s Chris Wright had 25 points and eight rebounds against Creighton AND Jonathan Fanene, the Bengals defensive lineman, who sacked Roethlisberger twice. harassed him in the backfield a lot more and batted down one of his passes.
BEST COACHING JOB:
1 — Jim Jabir — UD women’s coach has rebuilt the Flyers women’s hoops program, has a team with depth and enough toughness that this weekend it showed it can contend — in back to back games, no less — with some of the best teams in the nation, MSU Friday and Louisville ( a 2-point UD loss) Sunday.
2 — Marvin Lewis — Right now he’s my pick for NFL Coach of the Year. He’s taken a team populated by other teams’ rejects, he’s turned some problem children like Bernard Scott (whose college rap sheet was as long as his stat sheet) into keeping-their-nose-clean, team-first guys and because of it, a Bengals bunch that won just 4 games last year is now 7-2 and has become the talk of the NFL.
MOST COLORFUL ENTERTAINER:
1 — Manny Pacquiao — The Filipino superstar with the massive global following is running for Congress back home, just starred in a superhero movie called “WaPakman” in which he wore a tight red and yellow suit and, after Saturday night’s victory — with his right ear bandaged, but partially hidden by a fedora — he headed to the Mandalay Bay to join his band and sing eight songs on stage.
2 — Chris Wright — UD dunk machine
3 — Chad Ochocinco — Gets a rankling on his body of work though Sunday’s two catches didn’t give him much of a stage.
BEST TEAM TO LOSE:
1 — UD Women’s Soccer — Fell for the first time in 22 games this season, a 3-1 loss to Virginia Tech in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Speaking of another great coaching job, the Flyers Mike Tucker is one of the best in the women’s game.
TweetUD-WSU together again on the court…sort of.
It looks like Wright State and the University of Dayton will be on the basketball court together this season after all.
Well, sort of.
It will happen in Fort Wayne…and places like Erie, Sioux Falls, Austin and Albuquerque.
The two schools, though, will be represented by well-known proxies and they’ll be on the same team.
The Fort Wayne Mad Ants — a farm team of the Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Developmental League — has named Vitaly Potapenko as an assistant coach.
Wright State’s highest profile basketball player ever, Potapenko was a first-round draft pick of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1996, played 10 years in the NBA — with the Cavs, Boston Celtics, Seattle and Sacramento — one season in Spain and has been living in Miami, Florida.
Potapenko was recruited to WSU out of Kiev, Ukraine by then-coach Ralph Underhill. Playing just two seasons for the Raiders, the 6-foot-10 Ukraine Train scored 1,113 points in 56 games and was named first team all league each year.
In last week’s draft, the Mad Ants picked former University of Dayton guard Andres Sandoval, who played for the Flyers from 2006-2008. He’ll join, among others, C. J. Anderson of Xavier, Frank Tolbert of Auburn, Michigan’s Chris Hunter and A.J. Ratliff of Indiana in the Mad Ants preseason camp.
Former DePaul coach Joey Meyer is the Mad Ants head coach. The D League team — along with 15 others spread out from Portand, Maine to Bakersfield, California — begins play Nov. 27.
TweetMiami, Dayton coaches forge New Orleans Saints’ perfection
While the bottom has dropped out of Miami University football — the team is 1-10 this season, has lost 15 of its last 16 games and has won just 11 times in four years — that Cradle of Coaches tag has never proved more true than this season.
For proof, look at the New Orleans Saints, who are a perfect 8-0 at the midway point of the NFL season.
Five of their coaches — including head coach Sean Payton — have strong ties to Miami University. Another Saints coach began his career at the University of Dayton.
Football fingerprints from this area are all over this remarkable New Orleans team, which already has scored 303 points — the Browns have just 78 — and is on course to shatter the NFL record of 539 points. Meanwhile, the Saints defense leads the league with 16 interceptions has has scored seven defensive touchdowns.
The Saints have had losing records in 27 of their previous 42 years as a franchise, but since Payton got there, things have turned around. In 2006, he guided New Orleans to its first ever NFC title game and ended up being named the NFL Coach of the Year.
He’s definitely one of the front runners for that honor again. As for the other contenders, I’d say it’s between Minnesota’s Brad Childress. the Colts Jim Caldwell and Marvin Lewis of the Bengals.
An assistant coach at Miami in 1994 and 1995, Payton coached the RedHawks quarterbacks and was the co-offensive coordinator.
The other Saints coaches from Miami’s Cradle include:
— Aaron Kromer — The offensive line and running game coach — whose digital video library of nearly every play run in the NFL each season is praised around the league and credited for much of the Saints success — was an offensive tackle for Miami in the late 1980s and twice was named team captain. He then coached at his alma matter — tight ends, H backs, offensive line — from 1990 to 1998. By the way, the guy he credits for much of his successful is Jon Gruden — the former University of Dayton quarterback — who made Kromer an integral part of his staff when he was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay.
— Bret Ingalls — The Saints running backs coach mentored tackles and tight ends at Miami in 2005.
— Dan Dalrymple — The Saints strength and conditioning coach was a two-time, first team All MAC offensive lineman for Miami, was the team captain and has been enshrined in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. After graduation, he spent 17 seasons at Miami where he built the conditioning program for all of the school’s athletes. In 2003 he also was named one of Miami’s assistant athletic directors.
— Mike Mallory — An assistant special teams coach with the Saints, he is the son of former Miami head coach Bill Mallory, one of the most trumpeted guys in the Cradle fraternity.
As for the Dayton Flyers connection to the Saints:
— Joe Lombardi — The grandson of the legendary Vince Lombardi is the Saints quarterbacks coach. His prime pupil, Drew Brees, has thrown for 17 touchdowns and orchestrates an offense that is averaging 37.9 points per game. Lombardi started his coaching career at UD, where he was he defensive line coach for Mike Kelly from 1996 to 1998.
Finally there a Cincinnati Bengals connection, too:
— Adam Zimmer — A defensive assistant working with Saints linebackers, he’s the son of Mike Zimmer, the defensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals.
TweetFlyers’ next star — Chris Johnson?
If I had to pick one player on the Dayton Flyers team this season who I think is going to really blossom — one guy who will step from the cast of talented support players into the spotlight now shared by high-fliers Chris Wright and Marcus Johnson — it would be Chris Johnson.
Although he’s still evolving, the 6-foot-6 sophomore forward from Columbus can soar like the other two and he’s better than them — coach Brian Gregory said — at pulling up on the break and hitting the three. He’s also one of the team’s most savvy rebounders and he’s handling the ball better than last season.
With a cursory glance, his stat line in the Flyers 71-61 exhibition victory over Northern Kentucky at UD Arena Monday night would appear to be pretty ordinary — 10 points, 4 rebounds, a blocked shot and a steal. But in the course of the game you also saw flashes of something greater from him.
When Northern Kentucky took the lead 25-24 with just over 7 minutes left in the first half, he instantly responded — it took just three seconds — and hit a three pointer from the wing to put the Flyers back in front. Soon after, that he hit another three to give UD a small cushion that it would maintain the rest of the game.
“Not only are we just seeing the tip of the iceberg with him, but he’s just realizing how great he can he, too,” Gregory said “He wants to be a great player . A lot of guys talk about that, but aren’t willing to put in the time.
“He’s a guy you can get on and you can tell him he needs to work on something and he is gonna work on it. That’s a great trait.”
After the game, Gregory talked about the back-to-back break-away dunks that Wright and Marcus Johnson had in the second half — the two plays folks will remember most from Monday night’s victory over a very good Division II team — and right away he included Chris Johnson in the conversation:
“If you look at it, with one guy flying on the right wing, and the other flying on the left wing, they’re maybe the two best in the country combination-wise…And then when you add Chris Johnson in the mix — and you’ve got all three of those guys who can run like that — it’s pretty good.”
Johnson — who averaged 6.3 points and 5.2 rebounds a game last season —likely will be named the fifth starter for Saturday’s opener against Creighton.
Speaking of Creighton — a team that blew Dayton out last season, a team that has had 11 straight years with 20 wins and 11 straight postseason appearance — Gregory gave a candid response that drew some chuckles from Monday’s post-game press conference crowd, when asked: “Do you like the fact you’re going to be challenged right away the first game of the season?”
Standing at the podium, Gregory kind of sputtered for a second. then smiled and simply said: “No…I mean…no…. If you think I’m excited about playing the game on Saturday, you’ve lost your mind.”
Soon after, he’d say he had been speaking tongue-in-cheek. He said it should be a great opener. One fans will love seeing.
In the process, they just may see the further emergence of UD’s next star.
TweetOchocinco playfully tries to grease a ref’s palm
CINCINNATI — A greased palm sometimes works wonders. It might get you a table in a crowded restaurant or help you slip around the velvet rope at a trendy club.
But as Chad Ochocino found out Sunday, it won’t help you get a call from an NFL official.
….Now, if it were former NBA ref Tim Donaghy.
But hey that’s another story. And that was serious stuff that got Donaghy exchanging his referee’s shirt for another set of stripes.
What happened Sunday was all tongue-in-cheek fun, though the Cincinnati Bengals receiver likely will end up cutting another check to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who has been padding the league coffers with Ochocinco fines
The Bengals had a 17-0 lead on the Baltimore Ravens in the third quarter of their game at Paul Brown Stadium when Ochocinco made a leaping catch of a 15-yard pass from Carson Palmer right near the sideline.
The side judge ruled it a catch, but the Ravens challenged the call.
As the officials checked instant replay, Ochocinco — having borrowed a dollar bill from a guy on the sideline — playfully sidled up to the refs with the folded bill in his hand, which hung down at his side.
It didn’t work.
The call was overturned. Ochocinco was ruled not to have gotten both feet down in bounds on the catch. With a grin and a shrug, he handed the bill back to the guy on the sidelines and went back to helping the Bengals finish off their 17-7 victory.
In his post game press conference afterward, head coach Marvin Lewis was asked by a reporter: “When you’re talking about a veteran like Ochocinco…”
Lewis started to chuckle: “You throw that term around loosely when you’re talking about 85. I wouldn’t say ‘veteran.’ I think you can start over every day with him.”
TweetBengals overpower Ravens, but Chris Henry breaks arm
CINCINNATI — Although the Cincinnati Bengals toppled the Baltimore Ravens, 17-7, Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium, the team received a big blow when receiver Chris Henry suffered a compound fracture of his left forearm.
Less than a minute into the second quarter — with the Bengals already leading 14-0 — Henry came across the middle, gathered in a 20-yard Carson Palmer pass and was tackled by Ravens cornerback Fabian Washington, who also was shaken up on the play.
The rolling Henry landed on the arm and when he tried lifting it up, you saw it flop sickeningly. Reports say the bone popped out through his skin near his wrist. His teammates — especially Palmer, fellow receiver Chad Ochocinco and guard Bobby Williams — gathered around him as he lay on the field.
When medical personnel came onto the field, Henry’s arm eventually was encased in an inflatable cast and he was taken off the field on a motorized cart.
On the season, the under-used Henry had 12 catches for 236 yards and two touchdowns.
The injury to the fifth-year receiver was one of the few negatives for the Bengals Sunday as they man-handled the Ravens, the former bullies of the AFC North. It was the second time this season the Bengals have beaten Baltimore.
The Bengals are unbeaten in the AFC North. They are 4-0 in divisional play and are 6-2 on the season.
The Bengals points — all which were tallied in the first half — came on a six-yard TD catch by Andre Caldwell, a one yard TD run by Benson and a Shayne Grahan 23-yard field goal.
Benson rushed for 117 yards, his second 100 yard game aainst the vaunted Ravens defense this season.
Bengals cornerbacks Johnathon Joseph and Leon Hall both intercepted Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco.
TweetToo bad Raiders and Flyers won’t SHAKE THAT THANG
FAIRBORN — While it was nice to see Wright State show itself so well Thursday night — romping over Central State, 83-55, in the Raiders exhibition opener at the Nutter Center — I’d rather have seen the game be close.
That way the sizeable contingent of CSU fans who showed up at the game would have had something to cheer about. Instead the plug was pulled on the party before it ever got started.
Some five minutes into the game, WSU was up 15-4 and it only got worse from there. The Raiders led by 29 at the intermission and by as many as 38 midway through the second half.
Although CSU did show up with all its cheerleaders in tow and some fans in the stands occasionally held up three big signs that read SHAKE THAT THANG, there really wasn’t much to shake about.
It would have been great to see the two cheering sections go back and forth. No school around here has more animated and vocal backers than the Marauders, Anybody who’s been to Beacom Lewis Gym when CSU hosts its across-the-road rival Wilberforce will attest to that.
Thanks to CSU, Wright State had a crowd that was bigger than most it drew to last season’s games. The official count was 5,137 — which seems a little stretched, but not that bad.
Regardless, this was a good event to help build a bridge between the two Greene County schools. And in the end that’s good for the community.
Of course, so would be a Wright State -Dayton game again — especially in a town that can use all the good-time events it can get now — but you know all the tired, old arguments impeding that one.
Too bad because it would be like CSU vs. Wilberforce — only times 10.
And this would be a good year to see it.
The Dayton Flyers appear to have the best team they’ve had in decades. And from what you could see Thursday night, Wright State — even with seniors Vaughn Duggins (suspended) and John David Gardner (injured) not in uniform — has a very good team that should make some real noise this season.
Senior forward Todd Brown — who had 17 points, Thursday — looks like he’s ready to wear the mantle of the team leader. The Raiders can shoot the ball — they were 10 for 21 from three-point range — and, as is a coach Brad Brownell trademark, they can play some tight defense.
They have a deep bench and while all three newcomers had their moments against the Marauders, I was especially impressed by guard Darian Cartharn, a 6-foot freshman from Canal Winchester. He’s a catch-‘em-napping passer, can shoot and has a little bit of swagger to him.
With the way this WSU team appears capable of playing, I think it will draw plenty more crowds this size and bigger during the season. Thing is, I don’t know if opposing fans will get much more of a chance to SHAKE THAT THANG than did the Marauders mostly-silent masses.
TweetGreatest Backcourt Ever Now Gone
The greatest backcourt in Ohio high school basketball history is now gone.
At least I think they were the best pair of guards ever to play side by side for a prep team in this state.
Back in the late 1960s and into the first few months of 1970, Phil Lumpkin was the point guard and Donald Smith the shooting guard for Roth High School. Both averaged over 20 points a game and then Lumpkin went to Miami University and Smith to the University of Dayton.
When they played Chaminade — which starred Dan Gerhardt, had a stronger inside game and would later win state — the game sold out UD Arena.
In college both ended up in their school’s Hall of Fame. Smith averaged 20.4 p.p.g. for his college career, Lumpkin 16.1.
Both were picked in the second round of the NBA draft — Lumpkin by Portland, Smith by Philadelphia.
Lumpkin, a successful high school coach in Seattle, was found dead in his apartment Monday. He was 57. Smith died five years ago at age 53.
TweetHigh praise for Tamika — but is she Dayton’s best?
I just got a copy of “GENO: In Pursuit of Perfection,” the book University of Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma has done with Jackie MacMullen..
In it he makes several mentions of Tamika Williams, the Chaminade Julienne High School All American, who was one of the fixtures on two of the six national titles UConn has won with him.
Auriemma tells about getting her out of Dayton to be part of one of the most celebrated recruiting classes in women’s basketball history. He recounts various games she played and the way she often was the glue that held the various personalities of the team together.
He talks especially glowingly of the impact she made at UConn before heading off to her pro career and then — after marrying former college athlete Ben Raymond — becoming an assistant hoops coach at the University of Kansas.
Here’s Auriemma on Tamika:
“Tamika Williams was — and still is today — maybe the most popular player among the coaches of anybody that came here. I just think her personality is so terrific. Her father was a Vietnam vet and he came back and was a DJ, among other things, and he is absolutely the most outgoing guy. He is funny and embracing and Tamika takes after him. She’s a lot of fun and very nurturing, always bringing people together.
“If you talk to Tamika and you’re not laughing, you don’t have a sense of humor Tamika and Meghan Pattyson, to me, epitomize the spirit of UConn basketball.”
That got me thinking. Tamika had a great prep and college career — she remains UConn’s all-time leader in field goal percentage — and then played several years in the WNBA.
Is she the most celebrated woman’s athlete ever to come out of the Greater Dayton area prep scene?
I’m not sure. Here are five other women I’d put in the mix:
LaVonna Martin (Floreal) — The Trotwood Madison High track star became a University of Tennessee All American and then ran the 100 meter hurdles at two Olympics, Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992, where she won a silver medal. Her husband Edrick Floreal is the Stanford track coach.
Tonja Buford (Bailey) — The Meadowdale High sensation went on to star at Illinois, where today — married to former pro football player Victor Bailey — she’s the head women’s track coach. She competed in three Olympics, Barcelona, then Atlanta in 1996, where she won a bronze medal in the 400 meter hurdles and finally the Sydney Games in 2000. She also won a silver medal at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg
Megan Duffy — After starring in hoops at Chaminade Julienne and then Notre Dame — where she was an Academic All American and won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association as the best senior player under 5-foot-8 — she played for Minnesota and New York in the WNBA, played overseas in Wales, Italy Slovakia and Romania and now is an assistant women’s basketball coach at St. John’s University.
Alison Bales — A high school All American at Beavercreek High, she starred at Duke University — where, at 6-feet-7, she became the third all-time shot blocker in women’s college basketball history — then played for three WNBA teams as well as playing pro in Moscow and Turkey.
Brandi Hoskins — Another CJ hoops star, she became a cornerstone player for Ohio State — where she was the MVP of the Big Ten Tournament in 2005 — then went on to the WNBA and plays overseas.
I’m not sure who I’d rate as the best of that group and likely I’ve forgotten someone who is deserving, but I do agree with Auriemma on his assessment of Tamika.
Tweet
