Second Thoughts: A 10 seed will give fading Flyers a fighting chance

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, which means green beer, green milk shakes and plenty of overtime for the UD police. There’s also plenty of green stuff in plastic containers in the back of our refrigerator, so if I’m forced to pick a green option it’ll likely be a cold one.

The Dayton Flyers peaked on March 1 when they knocked off a physical VCU bunch to win the Atlantic 10 regular-season title. Things have gone downhill fast. UD did not show up in losses at George Washington (not totally unexpected) and against Davidson on Friday in the A-10 quarterfinals (very unexpected). The Flyers are good, but they are not good enough to sleepwalk through the first half and spot teams 16-point leads.

Cross your fingers today, because as we learned two years ago when UD landed in the First Four, nothing is guaranteed. The Flyers’ bad stretch might not be all that bad, though. UD always plays better as the underdog, which means if the Flyers are a 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament they can play the silly disrespect card. Frankly, you can throw all the 6-11 seeds in a hat, so a “10” in front of Dayton’s name might be a good thing. If the Flyers were a 7 seed they would show up with big heads and leave with a 15-point loss. Embrace the 10 seed, Flyer fans.

Kudos to the Browns for trying something. Their trade for overpaid QB Brock Osweiler allowed Cleveland to stockpile more draft picks, which they can dangle in a trade or use on draft day. The one thing the Browns should not do: overpay for Jimmy Garoppolo. I'd be OK with them sending their second first-round pick (No. 12 overall) to New England for the talented, but unproven, gunslinger. Sending the No. 1 overall pick to the Patriots? Not a chance.

Meanwhile in Cincinnati, the Bengals are scurrying to find scouting reports on every eligible offensive lineman in the draft. The guys who will be lining up in front of Andy Dalton in six months are a mystery. With the defections of Andrew Whitworth and Kevin Zeitler, the Bengals might have to crack open the piggy bank. Maybe they can get Andre Smith back from the Vikings. As a Vikings fan, I'd love that.

Sinclair Community College's baseball team beat Tiffin University's junior varsity 27-7 last week. Tiffin is an NCAA Division II school. I know it was Tiffin's JV, but that's still impressive. It would be great to see the Tartan Pride play more NCAA schools, but I doubt those schools want any of that action.

Trending up: Jack Gibbs, NKU, Dirk Nowitzki. Gibbs and a skinny kid from Iceland – Iceland! – proved to be too much for UD on Friday. Gibbs is a great player and torched the Flyers for 34 points and a late, clutch assist to Jon Axel Gudmundsson (who is only a freshman). The Flyers' defense was confused on that play and it cost them. Gibbs began the game by breezing past Charles Cooke for layups and ended it by shooting 3s over Kyle Davis. A great player – and an Ohio native. Recruiting is an inexact science.

Trending down: No. 1 seeds, Andrew Bogut, Jumbo Diaz. UD wasn't the only top seed to stumble in the first round of its conference tourney. Kansas (Big 12) and Purdue (Big Ten) also were toast in the quarterfinals. Villanova would've lost in the Big East semifinals if Seton Hall knew how to box out. Instead of nice hotels and great meals, those teams get to practice, practice, practice back on campus.


Knucklehead of the Week

Josh Jackson is a great basketball player and will be very rich very soon. But the Kansas freshman might have a few character flaws. Jackson was suspended for the Jayhawks’ only Big 12 tournament game because he backed his car into an unattended vehicle and left without leaving his contact info. He’s also in trouble for allegedly doing $3,000 in damage to a car driven by a Kansas women’s basketball player. That incident is getting ugly after the father of the woman went public with more details. Jackson also was interviewed as a witness in an alleged rape case. KU coach Bill Self might be the first give Jackson an agent’s phone number after Kansas chokes in the second round of the tourney.

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