Creighton could be without top rebounder

By Doug Harris | Monday, November 9, 2009, 03:02 PM

The Dayton-Creighton season-opener on Saturday has been labeled by The Sporting News’ Mike DeCourcy as the best game of college basketball’s opening weekend.

But the visiting Blue Jays were dealt a blow Sunday afternoon when team leader Justin Carter suffered a knee injury in an exhibition win. The extent of the injury is still unknown, but Carter left the arena on crutches and told the local newspaper that trainers were concerned about his MCL.

If Carter can’t play against the Flyers, the Jays will be missing their top rebounder. The 6-foot-5 senior averaged 8.1 points and 5.5 boards last season. He had 15 rebounds in an NIT game against Kentucky.

He was one of three returning starters for Creighton, which was picked to finish second behind Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley Conference and has played in the postseason 12 straight years.

One thought raced through Creighton forward Justin Carter’s mind as he lay on the Qwest Center Omaha floor Sunday afternoon, fighting back tears as pain shot through his left leg. “I just kept thinking about my future,” Carter said. “I just hoped that it wasn’t too serious.” Carter won’t know until Monday the full extent of the damage to his left knee that occurred with about eight minutes to play in the Bluejays’ 93-77 exhibition game victory over UNO. He had to be carried to the locker room but later returned to watch the final minutes of the game on the bench. ADVERTISING

He underwent about 45 minutes of treatment in the Creighton training room after the game and will have a MRI performed Monday. By the time he left the arena on crutches late Sunday afternoon, Carter’s outlook had brightened a bit. “They don’t know how bad it is, but they’re talking like it could be my MCL,” Carter said. While hardly minor, injuries to the medial collateral ligament usually aren’t as serious as those to the anterior cruciate ligament. Surgery almost always is required to repair tears to the latter, putting a player on the sidelines for four to six months. Treatment of MCL tears or sprains usually is more conservative. “When it first happened, I was thinking negative,” he said. “I’m more positive now. This could be a minor thing.” That hardly seemed the case when Carter was being attended to immediately after the injury. A hush fell over the crowd. Teammates gathered around, and Creighton coach Dana Altman had a “what-do-we-do-now” expression on his face. The 6-foot-4 Carter is considered the Bluejays’ leader. He joined the program last season as a junior-college transfer, started every game and finished as Creighton’s leading rebounder (5.5 per game) and fourth-leading scorer (8.1 points per game).

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Wright, Johnson expected to play in exhibition

By Doug Harris | Friday, November 6, 2009, 11:56 PM

Chris Wright and Marcus Johnson practiced with the team Friday, and Dayton coach Brian Gregory said the two stars will play in Monday’s exhibition against Northern Kentucky.

Wright (ankle) and Johnson (ribs) missed the first exhibition against Ferris State with minor injuries.

The Flyers received some mention in this week’s edition of The Sporting News. They’re picked to win the Atlantic 10, and Wright was one of five players named to the All-Non-BCS team along with Butler’s Gordon Hayward, Nevada’s Luke Babbitt, Virginia Commonwealth’s Larry Sanders Jr. and Tulsa’s Jerome Jordan.

The Flyers could be in for a tussle against Northern Kentucky, which finished 24-7 and won the Great Lakes Valley Conference last season. The Division II Norse return two starters and will add three D-1 transfers to their mix this season: 6-9 David Palmer (Iowa), 6-7 Yan Moukoury (Houston) and 6-7 Chris Knight (Bowling Green).

Dustin Maguire, a 6-5 guard who once played for Saint Louis, averaged a team-high 15 points for the Norse last season. They’re ranked 20th nationally in D-II and will play at Xavier on Saturday.

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UD punter-kicker suspended

By Doug Harris | Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 07:04 PM

Dayton punter and kicker Nate Miller has been suspended indefinitely for an undisclosed violation of team rules, coach Rick Chamberlin said.

The third-year sophomore from Medina, Ohio, has made 5-of-6 field goals this year and averaged 39.2 yards per punt.

Senior Nick Glavin, who had been UD’s kicker before losing the job this year to Miller, will likely become the starter again. Either Glavin or sophomore Kenton Froebe will do the punting.

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Gregory sees areas to work on after exhibition

By Doug Harris | Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 11:03 PM

Rebounding and defense are expected to be strengths again this season, but to keep its status among the Top 25 teams in the nation, Dayton will need to knock down shots and find consistent sources of offense.

While it’s difficult to glean much from an 88-73 exhibition win over Ferris State since leading scorers Chris Wright (knee) and Marcus Johnson (ribs) sat out with minor injuries, the Flyers did show some positive signs.

Chris Johnson played with his usual energy. Paul Williams just has a knack for scoring. London Warren seems poised to contribute more offensively with his ability to get to the basket. And Luke Fabrizius and Mickey Perry can flat-out bomb from outside.

UD’s play, though, was spotty. Points were wasted at the foul line (13-of-23), and the 23 turnovers left the crowd groaning in dismay at times.

“The turnovers, a little bit, were due to just impatience,” UD coach Brian Gregory said. “You can still play fast but be patient and poised. That’s something we need to get a little better at.”

The Flyers had some trouble with Ferris State’s zone. Gregory pointed out, though, his team hasn’t gotten to its zone-offense phase of preseason practice — something they’ll do in the next 10 days before the season opener.

UD also experimented with a two-post lineup with Wright and Johnson out. And while Devin Searcy fed Kurt Huelsman on two nice high-low plays to start the game, the offense wasn’t crisp.

“We did a poor job today of making the extra pass,” Gregory said. “We took some poor shots. You’re not allowed to shoot just because you’re open. … You’ve got to be ready to shoot and prepared to shoot. And sometimes you can give up a good shot and make an extra pass and get a great shot. We had been doing that. Maybe more than anything, I’m most disappointed with that.”

The Flyers will get one more dress rehearsal before playing for keeps. Their final exhibition game is Monday against Northern Kentucky.

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Flyers post exhibition win over Ferris State

By Doug Harris | Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 09:02 PM

Mickey Perry scored 16 points, Kurt Huelsman 15, Luke Fabrizius and Chris Johnson 14 each and Paul Williams 11 to lead Dayton to an 88-73 exhibition win over Ferris State on Tuesday.

Johnson, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, also had nine rebounds and four assists.

Chris Wright (ankle) and Marcus Johnson (ribs) were held out of the game because of minor injuries.

UD sold 11,166 tickets to the game, about three-fourths of which were used.

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UD looking for improvement in exhibition

By Doug Harris | Monday, November 2, 2009, 01:04 PM

Exhibition games are normally a time for fans to kick back and enjoy a stress-free night while their team splatters an opponent, but that wasn’t the case when Dayton faced Findlay two years ago.

The Flyers survived, 81-78, against the Division II school and needed a questionable foul on Findlay and subsequent technical on the visitors’ coach to avoid a shocking defeat.

Of course, Findlay showed just how good it was by beating Ohio State, 70-68, a few days later.

The Flyers will play their first exhibition of the 2009-10 season at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Ferris State, and fans probably won’t have to worry about sweating this one out.

Although the D-II Bulldogs return four starters, they finished just 14-14 last season and didn’t start anyone taller than 6-foot-6 a year ago.

The Flyers, too, are more established than that 2007 team was at the beginning of the season. Although point guard Rob Lowery (knee) is still mending, and sophomore guard Paul Williams (concussion) will sit out, UD has experience galore this year.

“I think the most important thing is our guys have great confidence right now — not only in each other and themselves, but in the system, in the things we really try to preach and exercise,” UD coach Brian Gregory said.

“But we can’t look differently at what our core values are and foundation of what we’ve built this success upon. First and foremost, that’s taking every day and using every day to get better. The reason we’ve had some success is guys are continually getting better.”

Gregory is seeing that single-minded focus, thanks to veteran leaders who never try to slide by during practice.

“Those seven seniors (counting walk-ons) have set the standard. Those are the guys who are in charge of that,” Gregory said. “They don’t let any slip-ups. And that’s always the biggest challenge with a team that’s had success and is coming back. We tell our guys this is their team, and they need to take ownership for us in taking the next step as a program.”

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Another women’s regional coming to UD

By Brian Kollars | Thursday, October 29, 2009, 02:27 PM

This just in from UD media relations:

NCAA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL REGIONAL RETURNING TO UD ARENA IN 2011

INDIANAPOLIS - The National Collegiate Athletic Association has announced regional sites for the 2011 NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Championships, and the tournament is returning to the University of Dayton Arena. The Arena had already been awarded regional games that will be played this season on March 28 and 30. In fact, ticket orders are now being taken for the 2010 regional games.

It is just the third time that a regional will be played at the same facility in successive years since the tournament began awarding regionals to dedicated neutral sites. Greensboro hosted consecutive regionals in 2007 and 2008, and Oklahoma City did it in 2008 and 2009. It also happened four times in the first decade of the NCAA tournament when then-women’s basketball powers Louisiana Tech, USC, Old Dominion and Texas all hosted multiple times. The NCAA began conducting women’s Division I basketball championships in 1982.

“We are very happy that the NCAA women’s regional will return to the University of Dayton in 2011,” UD Vice-President and Director of Athletics Tim Wabler said. “It is extremely rare that the NCAA tournament plays at the same venue in back-to-back years, and we are gratified that the NCAA basketball committee and championship staff has demonstrated such a high level of confidence in our Arena staff, the Dayton community, and our fans.”

“The best possible experience for the teams and the student-athletes is a top priority in the site selection process, and our fans really tip the scales in our favor. They help create the electric atmosphere in UD Arena, and they also make the teams feel welcome when they are around town. It’s important to our fans, just as it is important to us, when the NCAA tournament comes to Dayton.“

In addition to this year’s East Regional, Dayton has been the site of women’s regionals in 1998, 2003 and 2007. The playing dates for the 2011 women’s regional at the University of Dayton Arena will be March 26 and 28.

“This is very exciting for women’s college basketball in our region,” UD women’s basketball coach Jim Jabir said. “Our sport has a lot of momentum right now. We’re picked third in one of the strongest women’s basketball conferences in the country, we open the year at home with two teams in Michigan State and Louisville who very likely could be back at the Arena this coming March in the 2010 regional, and now this announcement that the tournament is coming back in 2011 only reinforces that.”

“This is really big news for all the women’s basketball fans and especially the up-and-coming young players who are in this area,” Jabir concluded.

“Although our team would not be able to play in the regionals at the Arena, this is great for our women’s basketball program,” Wabler added. “This part of the country is a hotbed for women’s basketball at the high school and college levels, and having the NCAA women’s regionals in Dayton in back-to-back years raises the profile of our women’s basketball team that is already a post-season-caliber program.”

The University of Dayton Arena has hosted NCAA men’s and women’s tournament events in 24 of its 40 years since opening its doors for the 1969-70 season. To date, UD Arena has hosted 82 NCAA men’s tournament games, one behind Kansas City’s Municipal Auditorium and one ahead of the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City. In addition to the NCAA women’s regionals in 2010 and 2011, the Arena is also scheduled to host the NCAA Men’s Opening Round Game through 2013, and the Men’s First and Second Rounds in 2013.

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