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Home > Blogs > Flyer Connection: University of Dayton sports > Archives > 2009 > February > 22
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Flyers pull together after defeat
Dayton junior point guard London Warren called for a players-only meeting on the bus, asking the coaches and other occupants to step outside for a minute so he could share his heart, doing exactly what a team leader is supposed to do.
After Warren was finished and folks piled in, UD coach Brian Gregory joined his players in the back of the bus for a quick pep talk before pulling away from St. Louis. His message was upbeat and succinct: The Atlantic 10 is a grind, and the team that wins the crown will be the one that can be the most resilient and consistent over 16 games.
The Flyers, who are tied for first with Xavier, have exhibited those traits for 12 games so far, and he wanted to know whether he could count on the players to commit to doing it for another four. Their answer was an unwavering yes.
UD dropped a 57-49 decision to the Billikens in a game where both teams clawed for 40 minutes. But the Flyers (23-4, 9-3 Atlantic 10) had one of their offensive dry spells in the second half — amassing just two points on a pair of free throws in a seven-minute, 45-second span — and frittered away an otherwise credible showing.
Their intensity was there — they had 22 offensive rebounds and won the board battle, 44-31 — but they couldn’t come up with a single bucket during that nine-possession span.
“We talk about effort and energy and playing hard, and we’ve won 23 games because that’s what we do,” Gregory said. “And you know what, we did it again tonight. You can’t get 22 offensive rebounds unless you’re playing really hard and with great energy. It’s impossible … because those guys knock the crap out of you when the ball goes up, which is the way it should be.
“Did we make a lot of mistakes? Yeah. But we made a lot of mistakes in our wins, too.”
UD’s usual deficiencies were glaring while falling behind by 10 points in the first half. Saint Louis (17-10, 7-5) was coasting and a sell-out crowd was rocking.
The Flyers, though, fought their way back and took their first lead early in the second half. They still led by one after Marcus Johnson drilled a 3-pointer with 10:55 to go. But with a chance to grab the game by the throat, their offense became about as effective as a cell phone in a bomb shelter.
“(It was) a one-point game either way, and kind of lost ourselves,” Gregory said. “We had bad offensive possessions, did not rebound defensively, gave them some options. That cost us the game. But we lost to a good team today on the road in a tough environment against a Hall of Fame coach (Rick Majerus). We need to learn from it, get better and move on. But there’s nothing to be ashamed of losing to that team because they’re playing extremely well right now.”
Charles Little, the team’s lone senior, saw some positives in the defeat, too.
“I thought we played hard. … Our effort was there. We’ve just got to execute better,” he said. “We weren’t very patient on offense, and if you’re not making a team work on defense, it’s pretty easy for them to play offense.”
The Flyers will fall from the Top 25 with the defeat, but what matters is staying on pace for an NCAA tourney bid. The road doesn’t get any easier from here — 20-8 Rhode Island is next — but the Flyers are still in good shape. They know what’s at stake. And if they don’t reach The Dance, it won’t be because the players weren’t committed enough to the task.
