Division I regional track finals
Fenwick graduation 2012
Ponitz graduation 2012
Home > Blogs > Flyer Connection: University of Dayton sports > Archives > 2009 > January > 09
Friday, January 9, 2009
Benson on road to recovery
Dayton’s Josh Benson has shed the sling he’s been wearing since having surgery to repair his dislocated right shoulder two months ago and has begun his grueling recovery to get back to full strength.
The 6-foot-9 freshman from Dunbar — who will be redshirted this season — has been doing range-of-motion exercises with five-pound weights with his right arm. He’s also been doing intense lower-body exercises to strengthen his legs.
“This will be a year to develop and learn new things, so I can come back strong next year,” he said.
Asked how he’s handled not being able to don a uniform this season, he replied: “At times, it’s hard, especially when we had those close games, but I just knew we’d pull them out.”
Young fan meets players Will Homan, a 6-year-old student at Incarnation Catholic School in Centerville, experienced a rare treat when he ran into UD players at the Greater Cincinnnati Airport on Friday.
The Flyers were on their way to Massachusetts for their game Saturday with UMass, while Homan and his family were off on a vacation to Naples, Fla.
Will attends virtually every UD home game and showed the depth of his knowledge of the Flyers as he mingled with the team at a ticket counter. A relative would point to a player, and Will identified each by name. He easily picked out role players Rob Lowery, Stephen Thomas and Luke Fabrizius. The only one who stumped him was freshman Paul Williams.
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Warren, Flyers hungry to get better
Dayton coach Brian Gregory has been harping all year to his team about constantly working to get better, and London Warren and his mates appear to have gotten the message.
The Flyers (14-1) set a school record for non-conference winning percentage — in 21 years of playing in leagues, they’ve never done better than this season’s .933 mark — but the players know they’ll ultimately be measured by how they perform in the Atlantic 10.
“I feel we did a great job in the non-conference, going 14-1,” Warren said. “But we’ve got to take it into league play where it counts the most and turn it up to another level. We’re still not as good as we can be with it being just January. These are the months that count, January and February, so we can be ready to go in March and April.”
Yes, he said April, which sounds like he’s planning on the Flyers still playing when the Final Four rolls around. I think, though, UD fans would be quite content just making a deep run in March.
How capable of the Flyers of even making the NCAA tournament? Miami coach Charlie Coles said after the 45-40 loss on Tuesday that he believes they’ll earn a bid, and I don’t think he was just playing the part of gracious loser. I think their chances are good, too, but I’ll need to see how they perform in a few A-10 road games before I’m convinced.
I like their defense, I like their tenacity, I like their chemistry, I like their commitment, but I’m just not sure they shoot the ball well enough to consistently win on the road. And I’m guessing they’ll need to go at least 11-5 or 12-4 in the A-10 to stay off that dreaded NCAA tourney bubble (never a good place for a non-BCS school).
Simply put, the Flyers will have to be better than what they’ve shown so far. But judging from Warren’s comments, the players have already figured that out.
