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Saturday, January 10, 2009
Flyers fouls take bite out of defense
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Dayton is a team that relies on physical, in-your-mug defense and needs the officials not to call ticky-tack fouls to flourish. But the refs were calling everything Saturday (at least against the visitors), and that took away one advantage the Flyers had on UMass.
We’re not saying the Flyers got a raw deal — they took a slew of bonehead shots that had no chance of going in — but they were whistled for 27 fouls compared to just 10 for UMass. The Minutemen made 22-of-27 free throws, the Flyers 6-of-8.
The UD staff went berserk when officials disagreed on a drive by UMass’ Ricky Harris with 49 seconds left in the first half. One was getting ready to signal traveling, but he was overruled by another who called a foul on the Flyers and counted Harris’ basket.
The quick whistles seemed to take away the Flyers’ defensive aggression in the 75-62 loss, but UD coach Brian Gregory refused to pin the defeat on the officials.
“We’re a team that’s very good defensively and very good rebounding-wise, and we didn’t do either one today,” he said. “When you go on the road, you have to stick to the things you’re good at — you can’t be good at everything — and we weren’t very good at those.”
A-10 commish scouts site: New Atlantic 10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade attended the UMass-Dayton game to check out the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass., as a possible site to host the league tourney.
“Springfield has a great facility,” she said.
Actually, it’s a drab, aged multi-purpose building (a minor-league hockey game was held there the previous night) and holds only 6,700 fans. The game drew just 5,485.
McGlade has only been on the job a few months, but she pulled off a coup in getting the A-10 tourney championship game on CBS-TV at 1 p.m. on Selection Sunday, a spot previously filled by the SEC title game.
“We’re excited,” she said. “That’s a great opportunity to be on a network we know at 1 o’clock on Selection Sunday. The championship game for the men’s basketball tournament deserves an opportunity like that.
“We were fortunate. CBS is a great partner, and at the end of the day, the league and student-athletes and coaches are going to benefit a lot.”
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Flyers drop A-10 opener to UMass
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Massachusetts blew open a tight game in the second half, getting 23 points from Ricky Harris, 16 from Tony Gaffney and 15 points and six assists from Chris Lowe in a 75-62 win over Dayton on Saturday.
Chris Wright had 13 points and nine rebounds and Marcus Johnson 10 points for the Flyers, who fell to 14-2 overall and 0-1 in the Atlantic 10.
UMass, which shot 52.3 percent from the field, improved to 6-8, 1-0 Atlantic 10.
