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Home > Blogs > Flyer Connection: University of Dayton sports > Archives > 2009 > February > 23 > Entry
Flyers have tough test in Rhode Island next
UD basketball: The week ahead
Games: at Rhode Island (20-8, 9-4 Atlantic 10), 7 p.m. Wednesday (Channel 7); vs. Temple (17-9, 9-3), 4 p.m. Saturday (Channel 7).
Scouting Rhode Island: Senior guard Jimmy Baron is on pace to become the A-10’s all-time leader in 3-pointers. He had six treys in eight attempts in a 77-58 win over Fordham on Saturday. The Rams have two straight 20-win seasons and split with the Flyers last season.
Scouting Temple: The Owls have won five straight games and have an A-10 player of the year candidate in guard Dionte Christmas. The 6-foot-5 senior leads the league in scoring at nearly 20 points per game and averages about three 3-pointers per outing. Both Rhode Island and Temple have wins this year over Penn State, which is being touted by many as an NCAA tournament team.
About Dayton: The Flyers had three assists and 13 turnovers in a 57-49 loss at Saint Louis, and injured point guard Rob Lowery was sorely missed. Although he had just one turnover and played frenetic defense for 27 minutes, starter London Warren went 1-for-8 from the field for three points, and back-up Stephen Thomas had trouble matching up against Saint Louis’ speedy point guard, Kwamain Mitchell.
• Chris Wright had a hug and kiss for a cutie who stuck around after the game. A girl in every port?
Nah, Wright explained he met St. Louis resident Vasana Hill while in town for an AAU tournament during his high school days.
“We all just went out to the mall one time. It’s my first time seeing here since I was in high school,” he said.
Asked if he might risk the wrath of a girlfriend back home if the encounter were reported, Wright said with a chuckle: “I think my mom will be mad more than anything.”
The Flyers were leading 40-39 with 10:55 left in the second half but scored just two points in a nine-possession span after that, and Wright thought the Flyers missed freshman Chris Johnson, who was out with a bruised calf.
“I think we played hard, but I think we could have played a lot harder,” he said. “CJ not playing, that was big. But even with CJ not playing, we were still right in the game. That stretch of five or six minutes (actually seven minutes and 45 seconds) really killed us.”
UD coach Brian Gregory would have liked to have had Johnson, too. The freshman’s absence reduced the Flyers’ rotation to 10 players.
“During that (dry spell), I thought maybe we got a little tired for the first time all year long,” Gregory said.
• The Flyers shot just 30.9 percent from the field, their second-worst showing of the season. Only their 27.8-percent effort in a win over Auburn was worse. During that game, UD set an NCAA record for most 3-point attempts without making one, going 0-for-24.
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By Sam
February 23, 2009 7:16 AM | Link to this
A10 gets no love from ESPN…. Atlantic 10 (26). The A-10 has had some great teams in recent years (Xavier last year and Saint Joseph’s in 2004 come readily to mind), but rarely more than one at a time. It has been a one-bid league as often as not the past four years, and its hold on two bids this season remains tenuous. Biggest underachiever: Charlotte, which arrived with a big rep from C-USA but has added nothing significant to the league. The 49ers went to eight tourneys from 1995 to 2005 but none since, imperiling coach Bobby Lutz’s job security. sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3912678&sportCat=ncb
By marky mark
February 23, 2009 7:40 AM | Link to this
Fox sports is reporting that the A10 could be a 1-bid league this year. They cited our weak non-conference schedule. BG and AD need to start working on next years schedule now. We are never going to get respect by playing teams from the SWAC and Patriot league.
By patrick
February 23, 2009 8:00 AM | Link to this
Glad to see Harris is still crying about a back up point guard being injured! Instead of reporting the game he is crying and telling us about CW after game business.
By FaithfulFlyer65
February 23, 2009 8:05 AM | Link to this
If UD is to win at Rhode Island, they must shut down Jimmie Barron. Someone needs to follow him all over the floor and deny him the ball. His shadow cannot leave him to help out somewhere else on defense, or he will get the ball back and drain 30 footers. To have a chance to win, the Flyers need to force other Rhode Island players to shoot the ball. To beat Temple, they need to use the same strategy on Christmas.
By doug
February 23, 2009 8:19 AM | Link to this
I smell a 5 game losing streak…
By Jerseyflyer
February 23, 2009 9:44 AM | Link to this
Rhodie will be very tough to beat at Ryan Center. Baron’s key guy to stop along with Seawright. BG, put Little on Seawright in order to keep CDub outta foul trouble. Rams will go after Wright early to get him nailed to the bench. As Wright goes, Flyers go.CDub reaches way too much. Even 25 feet from hoop he’s reaching and getting ticky tack fouls. Match him up on Ulmer/James and hope for the best.Rams losses were all very close with biggest loss to Nova(by 13) in Philly.Played Dukies tough(lost by 3 in final minute) at Cameron earlier in year.Rams were winning this one all they way until the end. That speaks volumes about this team.RI lost only home game to X by 2.LaSalle took em to OT but lost by 10. Huge win for Dayton Program if we can somehow steal this game.
By Joe
February 23, 2009 10:40 AM | Link to this
I said a long time ago UD would end up no worse than 26-5 with a SOS around 100. I still think both of those will happen. As for the number of bids from the A-10, I think it is important that the top 3 (XU, UD, Temple) end up ahead of the second level pack (RI, SL, DU, SJ). I think this will happen as well with the top 3 all finishing at 12-4 in the league and the second level all finishing at 10-6. And when that happens, I think it is more likely that the A-10 will get 3 bids than 1. A 12-4 conference record should put XU in the RPI top 20, UD in the 25-30 range, and Temple in the 30-35 range. Temple may end up like last years UD team with a good RPI (30-35) strong SOS (30-40) and still out. That would make two years in a row where the best RPI team to be left out comes from the A-10. Let’s hope that is not the case as that is a bad trend for the A-10.
By The Kman
February 23, 2009 11:33 AM | Link to this
ESPN televises Big East and ACC so they have no interest in promoting conferences they rarely show. UD was handed a great opportunity and as in Flyer tradition we throw it away the first game. Flyeria of 8 minutes? Wow, laid an egg first day we get ranked. Time will tell but lets end the seed talk for a while. We haven’t clinched anything.
By tds70
February 23, 2009 2:41 PM | Link to this
DH, Police your blog or get someone to do it. Give all those who make good observations and comments a break by voiding people who talk trash not basketball. Most good blogs police the content of the posts and block those parties who constantly are off point, foul, and or not to the point of the article. Your wasting all of our time letting certain people make comments who do not know or care about college basketball .If you can not police it, shut it down. DH, your giving yourself a bad name in my book.
By StuttgartTim
February 23, 2009 6:19 PM | Link to this
Wow. Some little dictator is a bit full of themself. Here’s an idea. Start your own blog. That way you can decide who is worthy.
By StuttgartTim
February 23, 2009 6:20 PM | Link to this
Wow. Someone is a bit full of themself. Here’s an idea. Start your own blog. That way you can decide who is worthy.