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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > January
January 2009
blog: UD and the guy once called Curly
The heart-wrenching, one-point loss just moments before intensified his feelings and brought along a flood of thoughts.
A drained Rick Majerus was standing outside the visitor’s dressing room after a last-seconds shot had failed and his Saint Louis team had fallen to the Dayton Flyers, 47-46, Thursday night, Jan. 30 at UD Arena.
As he talked to reporters, the Billikens coach happened to notice his two nieces — Tory and Kelly Dowd, both UD students — standing a few feet away with some friends.
At about the same time I brought up Don Donoher, his great pal and longtime mentor. And as he thought about the former UD coach, Majerus remembered something his ailing mom had told him before the game — something she tells him each time she knows he’s coming to Dayton.
Suddenly all these images swirled together in the perfect emotional storm. His eyes glistened, he began to choke on his words and as everyone else stood there not quite sure what to do, Chuck Yahng, the Billikens’ sports information director, motioned to the closed dressing room door and said quietly to Majerus, “Would you like to take it in there?”
Although some of his assistant coaches were still dressing, Majerus told them he needed a few private moments with me. They filed out — one with clothes in hand, all a bit perplexed — and stood in the hall with everyone else, wondering what was going on.
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For a moment, Majerus leaned on an over-sized trash can trying to compose himself. He tried to talk — once…twice..three times — but the words couldn’t work their way through the meltdown.
I put my arm around his beefy shoulders and he finally nodded. “I was just gonna say…My one niece, Tory is in law school. She’s really bright, went to Penn undergrad. Kelly, her younger sister, she got an E in par-tee,” he said with a laugh. “Now she’s a senior about to graduate and she’s doing great — just a great kid — and it’s all because she got a chance.”
The reason, he said, was Donoher:
“Mick got her transcript, put in a word for her and she got in here and it’s been great. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate him.”
The feeling had been underscored by his 82-year-old mother, Alyce, who lives in Milwaukee, where she’s battled cancer for years.
“Every time I come here my mom tells me to say ‘Hi’ to Mick,” he said. “I tell him, but he just doesn’t realize what a big deal he is to her.”
Majerus and his mom are tight. He beams when he tells you stories about her — their trips to the Farmers Market, the family’s holiday gathering at her home. Long divorced, Majerus lives in hotels wherever he coaches. In St. Louis, the chef in the restaurant of his place makes him chili using his mom’s recipe.
“My mom’s been pretty sick,” he said quietly. “She’s about down for the count, yet here she is telling me to say something to Mick.”
She knows what the former UD coach has done for her son.
The two men first became friends in the early ’70s when Majerus was a Marquette assistant and their bond continued to grow when he became the head coach at Marquette, then at Ball State and finally, Utah, where in 13 seasons he took 10 teams to the NCAA tournament, one to NCAA Championship Game.
The dismal 1989 day that Donoher was let go by UD, Majerus came over here and the next day the two drove to Indiana to see mutual friend Bobby Knight. When Majerus has battled heart problems — including the attack nine years ago that sidelined him from coaching for a season — Donoher was there for him.
The two talk hoops on the phone and over the years Majerus has often had Donoher fly in to teach his team.
“Whatever career I’ve had, I owe a lot of it to him,” Majerus said. “More importantly, I owe the conduct of my players and their academic success to him. He’s been a real role model for me.”
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The 300-pound Majerus — one of the best known coaches in the game — cuts a larger-than-life figure wherever he goes.
Take the time he was staying in the same hotel as several movie stars. The lobby was filled with autograph seekers, all waiting for one of the Hollywood types. One person recognized Majerus and came over for an autograph.
When the other people saw that, they, too, rushed to Majerus and thrust out pads and pens. Finally, he heard one guy whisper to another: “Who is this anyway?”
The other guy leaned in: “I think it’s the guy who used to be Curly in The Three Stooges.”
Yet, beneath that corpulent countenance is a man who — while a basketball workaholic — loves Broadway shows, movies, reading and has broadened his players interests, introducing them to everything from scuba diving to theater.
“People might say I’m a little vulgar, that I’m profane and a god-awful dresser, but there isn’t a parent who won’t say their son’s education wasn’t put above all else,” he has told me. “There’s isn’t a parent I have to lower my eyes to.”
You saw some of that Thursday night when he hovered with concern over a fallen player. “When he went down, it might have been the only laugh I had,” he smiled. “I said ‘Are you dizzy?’ and he said. “No, it’s my leg.’
“I was just very apprehensive. I’d rather lose every game and be a homeless guy, that harm a kid. You can’t get a kid his career back.”
Throughout the night — as Majerus worked the sidelines in animated fashion — UD students gave him a good-natured razzing.
And he took no offense.
“Other than this game and our next game, I love Dayton,” he said. “I always respect Dayton. I respect the way they handle their business here — that they’re student athletes — and I respect the Dayton tradition. I always have a special feeling here.”
And some of those feelings came flooding back full force late Thursday night behind a closed dressing room door.
Tweetblog: Majerus on UD — “They’re NBA athletic”
Of the four things that really struck a chord with me Thursday night at UD Arena — where the Dayton Flyers slipped past Saint Louis, 47-46 — I’ll tell you about three of them right here.
As for the last one — where Billikens’ coach Rick Majerus tossed his assistant coaches out of the dressing room so the two of us could talk in private and they wouldn’t be able to see his tears when he poured his heart out about something very personal — I’ll detail that when I have a little more time to listen to my tape recorder and write the story. I’ll write it for Saturday’s newspaper and then for this blog, as well.
As for the other three:
1 — Eleven NBA scouts were scheduled to be at the game — to especially scout Saint Louis seniors Tommie Liddell III and Kevin Lisch, but also check out UD’s Chris Wriight and Marcus Johnson — and even with the wintery weather, most of the 11 made it.
One scout from an Eastern Conference team — a guy who once was a college coach himself — had high praise for Chris Wright and Brian Gregory.
“Wright is as athletic of a player as there is in the nation,” he said. “He needs to develop the rest of his game — he needs to learn how to really play — but for pure athleticism, he’s as good as anyone in the college game now.”
As for Gregory, the scout — who begged anonymity — said the UD coach “has done a great job with this team. I mean, I’m thinking, ‘He beat Marquette with these guys?’
“But he’s gone for athleticism and he’s got players who have bought into what he wants them to do, especially defensively. He’s done a hell of a coaching job this year.”
2 — One player who has especially “bought in” is Marcus Johnson who made two huge plays when the game was on the line in the final 66 seconds.
With UD down by a point — 45-46 — and Wright on the bench with five fouls, Johnson saved the day. He came roaring along the baseline on a play he said Gregory called, skied upward toward the rim, gathered in a Rob Lowery ally-oop pass and dunked on the stunned Billikens.
On the ensuing inbounds play, a suddenly rattled Saint Louis turned the ball over. Freshman Brian Conklin mishandled the ball and Johnson — who had made the quick transition from offensive glory to defensive grit — scooped up the miscue.
Although UD didn’t capitalize on his steal — Charles Little missed a shot, but then Saint Louis missed a jumper in the final four seconds that Paul Williams rebounded — Johnson was the guy who showed the real savvy at the end. Lowery’s pass was pretty good, too.
“Those were two big plays,” Johnson said as he sat at his dressing stall after the game. “BG called the (ally-oop) play. We messed it up the first time we tried it, so we did it again and Rob threw a great pass and I just finished it.”
Did he think it took some moxie to call a play like that?
“No, he knew I’d catch it,” Johnson said.
“And this is good win for us, a real confidence booster…We had to make some big plays at the end and we did. My coming up with the mishandled ball was a big play and so was Paul coming up with that rebound.. Wins aren’t going to come easy now — it’s a tough league — so games like this are really big for us. We showed what we were made of right at the end.”
3 — No one sang the praises of the 19-2 Flyers any more than Majerus, who has now been beaten by a lone point in each of his last two games with UD:
“Our last couple of shots were good shots — (Kevin) Lisch had a good jump shot and Tommie (Liddell III) had a drive — but they’re so damned…they’re NBA athletic is what they are.”
The shot, nor the drive — or Kwamain Mitchell’s jump shot with four seconds left — turned into any Billiken points.
“They’re phenomenally athletic and deep,” Majerus said. “They play their (rear ends) off. I think Dayton is a great team and should go deep in the NCAA Tournament.”
Tweetblog: Kay Yow’s Dayton Moment
If I was at the memorial tribute North Carolina State University is holding at Reynolds Coliseum Wednesday for Kay Yow — it’s beloved Hall of Fame women’s basketball coach who died over the weekend after a long battle with cancer — I’d recount the glorious moment she had here in Dayton.
I was next to her on the UD Arena floor for some of the most poignant parts of it and I have never forgotten it.
It was 1998, the NCAA Tournament women’s regional here in Dayton and Yow’s underdog team first knocked off top-seeded Old Dominion on a Saturday, then, two nights later, came the stunning 60-52 triumph over second-seeded Connecticut.
That sent Yow — who then was in her 32nd year as a head coach — to the Final Four for the first time in her career.
“If you hang in there long enough,” she told me, “morning will come.”
In my column the next day, here’s how I described dawn in Dayton:
At the final buzzer, N.C. State forward Nailah Wallace ran straight to her 55-year-old coach and hugged her tightly. Chasity Melvin did the same, as did center Summer Erb, then another player, then Melvin again.
Although the Wolfpack players would soon embrace and cavort and toast one another, the primary concern of almost every one of them seemed to be Yow. In these what’s-in-it-for-me days you so often see in sports, this was real and refreshing and long overdue.
“I was hugging her and we were all going crazy and finally it hit me, `Oh coach, you got to go shake hands with their coach,” Melvin said. “She had to stay with the norm. That’s how she is.”
In the red seats across the floor, Yow’s younger sister, Susan - now an assistant coach with the WNBA Cleveland Rockers - tried to stay with the norm as well:
“I knew this was a time for her and the staff and players, but the emotions swept over me so much that I couldn’t hold back, and next thing I was out there hugging her and she was crying. And pretty soon I was feeling the same. This is a great day for the Yow family.”
And that’s when the two sisters found a guy on the arena floor with a cellular phone. They got him to dial that familiar North Carolina number, back to that Old Tobacco Road home where they both grew up. Back to their aging dad - Hilton Yow - who had watched the game in their Gibsonville hometown with friends.
As the number was ringing, Kay Yow handed the phone to her sister. Susan handed it straight back. “No, you tell him,” she said.
And when Hilton answered, his jubilant daughter — the one whose 552nd college victory had finally gotten her to the Final Four — couldn’t help but gush:
“You packing your bags, Daddy? You ready to go to Kansas City?”
As father and daughter talked, Susan whispered: “He’s 78 years old … that’s a long, long time to wait for your daughter’s dream to finally come true.”
And Hilton had a share in it. He and his wife — who died of cancer four years ago — were both basketball players of two generations past. That’s how they had gotten their jobs in the cigarette mills. They played for mill teams. Their kids — a son and three girls — had the love of sports as well.
Kay played for Gibsonville High, back in the old style of 6-on-6 girls basketball. She scored 52 points one game, but it parlayed into nothing but sorority-league ball at East Carolina. There was no such thing back then as intercollegiate women’s teams. She studied English and library science and planned to teach. She found a North Carolina high-school job, but was told she would get it only if she’d coach the girls basketball team.
She had taken eight other teams to the Sweet 16, but never gotten further. People made a lot of the fact that she was likely the greatest women’s coach never to make the Final Four, but she said it was not her primary goal:
“I said if I never made it, it didn’t matter,” Yow said. “Coaching is where I should be. It’s where the Lord placed me. My job wasn’t just to work with young people to make them into the best basketball players they can be. It’s also to get them a degree and help them grow as people. My greatest thrill has been to see where these players start and where they end up.”
Melvin said all the players know that. That’s why the coach’s hugs came first:
“She has spoiled us. She gives us so much. Finally we could give something back.”
It was something Yow said she will not forget. She knows where she’s going — to Kansas City with her team and her Daddy — but she won’t forget where she’s been.
“We love Dayton, O-HI-O,” she said in a voice still tinted with Tobacco Road. “From now on, when I go to Cleveland I’ll probably go out of my way to come here. From now on this will be a special town.”
It’s the place where morning finally dawned for Kay Yow.
Tweetblog: Six things I liked at UD, Sunday
Here are six things I liked about Sunday’s Dayton Flyers’ victory over St. Bonaventure and the embrace given so many of the past players who were in attendance, especially the guys from the 1973-‘74 team and the 1983-84 team, both of which were honored at halftime:
1 — I loved the long, standing ovation Don Donoher got from the crowd. He was a great coach and is still a class act. And you’d never know he’s painfully shy by the way he turns on the charm when he steps before a microphone, especially when it’s to salute his former players. He is the best ambassador UD has ever had.
2 — The high-flying athleticism Chris Wright and Marcus Johnson showed . Especially Wright. Not just on the ally-oop dunks, but the way he blocked a sure lay-up and a dunk by the Bonnies. And after that, his mere presence gave the St. B boys a case of heebie-jeebies- inside.
3 — The sheer energy Rob Lowery and London Warren bring to the court, though it was a little frightening the way Lowery hurled himself head first over the UD bench and into the crowd, slamming his chin on a railing to make a play.
4 — The sight of Adreian Payne, the 6-foot-10 uncommitted junior from Jefferson High, sitting on one of the leather couches in the middle of the Flyers dressing room and smiling as he took in the scene after the game.
5 — The emotion that welled up in Mike Sylvester when he started talking about his 1973-74 teammate and roommate , the late Donald Smith at the reception before the game. When the tears came, the hard-nosed Sylvester had to stop. He and Smith had a bond — two stars, one white, one black, roommates for four years in a row and friends until the day in 2004 that Smith died — like few players ever do.
6 — The class the UD players showed when they came off the court at halftime. Lined up in the UD tunnel were the players from the teams of 25 and 35 years ago that were to be honored. Before going to their dressing room, the Flyers players shook hands with each and every former player.
The UD players also wore throw-back jerseys, replicas of the ones the Flyers wore that ‘83-‘84 season.
“We were told to wear those jerseys with pride, and if we didn’t there’d be some problems,” Wright said “Those guys won a lot of games and had a lot of pride. We wanted to honor them as best we could.”
Tweetblog: Most Memorable Dayton Flyers team ever?
At Sunday’s Dayton Flyers game with St. Bonaventure, two fabled UD teams — the 1973-1974 team that made it to the Sweet Sixteen and took UCLA to three overtimes and the 1983-1984 team that made it to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight by knocking off Louisiana State, Oklahoma and Washington — are being honored at halftime.
There will be a reception before the 2 p.m. game at UD Arena and many of the players from those two teams are coming back. Actually, an invitation went out to all Flyers players and, as of now, at least 160 former players are scheduled to be there.
That got me to thinking about the most memorable Flyers teams ever, so I compiled a short list, debated it with Bucky Albers — who knows Flyers hoops as good, if not better, than anyone — and here’s what we came up with.
The Six Most Memorable Flyers Teams Ever:
1 — 1966-‘67 team — Every hoops junkie knows of this NCAA runner-up led by Don May. The Don Donoher coached team beat Western Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia Tech and North Carolina before falling to Lew Alcindor-led UCLA in title game
2 — 1961-‘62 team — NIT champions…UD’s first national hoops title… Led by Garry Roggenburk and Bill Chmielewski, the MVP of the Tournament.
3 — 1955-‘56 team — Highest nationally-ranked Flyers team ever…got up to No. 2 and ended season No. 3 in nation…Started season 19-1…Team included these well-known UD stars: Bill Uhl, Jim Paxson, Bucky Bockhorn
4 1950-‘51 team — The team that put UD on the national map….Coached by Tom Blackburn, the previously unknown Flyers finished as NIT runners-up…Led by Don “Monk” Meineke.
5 — 1983-‘84 team — NCAA Tournament run ignited town once again. Team led by UD’s all-time top scorer, Roosevelt Chapman.
6 — 1973 -‘74 team — Played the Bill Walton-led Bruins even for 50 minutes in NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen game in Tucson before falling in the third ovetime….Led by Donald Smith and Mike Sylvester.
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Tweetblog: What Obama’s done to area athletes
Coach Charlie Coles talked about it just before his Miami RedHawks faced longtime rival Ohio University last week.
Wilberforce guard Angelica Rucker came out of the dressing room after the Bulldogs’ crushing 48-point loss to Rio Grande, sat courtside and talked about it, too
With his Central State teammates still relishing their victory over Lake Erie College, forward Brandon Price slipped away from them so he could share his thoughts, as well.
As snow came down and temperatures plunged, Miami track athlete Cedric Diakabana trekked over to Millet Hall to discuss it.
And late one night — after basketball practice and an evening class — University of Dayton forward Marie Rosche sat in her apartment and talked about it, too.
The subject?
Barack Obama, whose inauguration Tuesday, Jan. 20 will make him the first black president of the United States.
Over the past 10 days, I have talked to two dozen black athletes and coaches at UD, Miami, Wilberforce, Wright State and CSU about Obama, his election and what it means to them, their families, friends and this nation.
I wrote a big story about that in today’s newspaper and that can be found on the DDN sports web page as well.
I was moved by the passion of the athletes and coaches, their pride, the utter joy and the heartfelt belief in their fellow man that so many of them showed.
And we talked about their growing sense of self, as well.
“This gives you a belief that no matter who you are, where you’re from or what color you are, anything is possible,’ said UD guard Mickey Perry.
Across town, Paige Lowe, a guard on the WSU women’s team, shared that thought:
“I remember when we were little, I’d hear somebody say ‘One day I just want to be the first black president.’ It was always like this fairy tale….And now, you know, we have one. It’s really amazing. But even more, it’s just so beautiful.”
Tweetblog: Why UD’s Gruden was dumped in Tampa Bay
It wasn’t that long ago that Jon Gruden was THE hottest coach in all of football.
He was the ultimate success story. A back-up quarterback at the University of Dayton in the early 1980s, he ended up energizing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and - in his very first year with the team — coaching them to a victory in Super Bowl XXXVII. In so doing he became the youngest head coach ever to win the Super Bowl.
Today, it’s back to the bench for Gruden.
In a surprise move for everyone but the Glazer family that owns the Bucs, Gruden was fired Friday. So was the team’s general manager, Bruce Allen.
Although just last January Gruden signed a hefty contract extension that would take him through the 2011 season, he missed the play-offs after starting the season 9-3 this year and that was enough for the Glazers.
So how does a guy rise so steeply, then plummet so instantly?
Remember the Glazers also jettisoned their former coach Tony Dungy after things seemed to stagnate?
Dungy went on the far better times with Indianapolis and I’m sure Gruden will be back in the game quite quickly if that’s what he wants. There are still NFL jobs open for next season.
I know plenty of folks at UD are extremely proud of Gruden and appreciate the way he’s carried his Flyers football heritage for all to see — he’s publicly sung the praises of Mike Kelly, and rightly so — but those who dealt with him on a daily basis, especially some in the media, had a different relationship with him.
From my few dealings with him, I can tell you this: He was harder to get along with than Dungy. Often Gruden wasn’t especially open or friendly.
Still that’s not what did him in.
It’s the fact that in the six seasons since the Super Bowl, he’s gone 50-51. His teams were up and down, up and down. He was trumpeted as an offensive guru, but the offense never quite materialized.
The problem was he tried to patch-work the process with second- tier quarterbacks. Winning the Super Bowl with Brad Johnson at quarterback seemed to give him a sense he could stick anyone behind center …and he did. But with retread quarterbacks and no names he got no results.
When things didn’t work, veteran Buc players often got saddled with the blame and were made expendable. While Gruden had believers on the team, there also was a negative under-current.
“I’ve always been a person who feels like you reap what you sow,” receiver Michael Clayton told reporters Friday. “You have to treat people fairly…It’s about showing more confidence in your players. He was kind of a turncoat. He’d tell you one thing and then do something else.”
Fair or not, that’s kind of what the Glazers have now done with him.
Tweetblog: OU’s Tillman Puts on a One-Man Show for Mom
OXFORD — As the temperatures plummeted and the snow kept coming down and the news reports of treacherous road conditions and multiple accidents became an ominous backdrop to the afternoon, Florence Tillman thought about skipping Wednesday night’s trip.
Her some Jerome and the rest of his Ohio University basketball team were coming into Millett Hall to play Miami University, but that meant she and her 17-year-old daughter Jackie would have to traverse 50 miles of tricky roads between Dayton and Oxford.
“I was concerned about the weather and not being able to make it — and for a few fleeting moments I did think about just not coming,” Florence admitted. “But all day, whenever I had a break at work, I would text (Jerome) and try to send him positive messages…And after a while, I just knew…We were going
“It was just an internal thing. Maybe it’s a mothers instinct. But I told Jackie and their brother, Justin — he’s a sophomore and starts for Wilmington — that as much as possible, we have to support Jerome this year. It’s his senior season.”
And so Florence — dressed in OU green — was there Wednesday night with Jackie, as were some folks from Beavercreek High, where her 6-foot-6, 235-pound son had been a high school hoops star.
“It was definitely worth the trip,” Florence beamed after her son put on a one-man show to help the Bobcats edge Miami, 66-62. “I would never have forgiven myself had I heard about this game, but never shown up. “
Making 13 of 18 shots from the field — including four of seven three-point attempts — Tillman scored a career-high 35 points and pulled down seven rebounds.
He opened the second half making OU’s first 18 points. In all, the Bobcats scored 37 second-half points and Tillman had 29 of them.
His 20 p.p.g. average leads the Mid American Conference in scoring. His 9.4 rebounds a game leads the MAC, as well.
“Whoa, it’s been a while…been a long while since a kid played that well against us,” Miami coach Charlie Coles said afterward. “He played his rear end off.”
OU’s first-year coach, John Groce, playfully challenged Tillman before the game:
“I read our game notes and saw he had just six shots in Millett Hall the last time he played here. I said, ‘We have to make sure he doesn’t just shoot six times.’ For us, it starts and stops with him.
“I joked with him and told him about coming in here (as an assistant coach) a couple of times with Xavier and how David West had a performance I thought couldn’t be topped in my coaching career …But Jerome was very dominant today. That was a statement game.”
In that 2001 game at Millett, West made 10 of 11 field goal attempts and was 9 for 10 in free throws for 29 points.
Considering Tillman’s versatility both inside and out Wednesday night — from dunks to mid-range jumpers to deep-threes — his performance certainly equalled the show West put on.
After the game, Tillman sought out his mom and gave her a big kiss
As Florence hugged her son in return, you could tell there was no place on earth she’d rather have been than right here Wednesday night.
Tweetblog: UD or Miami — which school of thought will prevail?
As college basketball now moves full force into league play, it will be interesting to see which pre-conference scheduling plan will pay the most dividends around here:
— The Dayton Flyers have played almost every one of their games in the comfortable confines of UD Arena against — as it turns out — some teams that currently have some of the worst records and RPI ratings in college hoops.
For instance, NC Greensboro — who UD beat Dec. 20 — is now 2-11 and has an RPI rating of 318 (among the 343 teams playing NCAA Division I basketball). November victim Delaware State is 2-14 and is rated 265. Among the other December foes, Coppin State is 2-13 and rated 261 and Troy is 7-11 and ranked 304.
UD beat all those teams at the Arena. In fact, the Flyers have won all 10 of their home games this season. Add in two quality wins at a neutral site — they topped Auburn and Marquette in a Chicago tournament — and the Flyers went into Saturday’s game at UMass with a gaudy 14-1 record and bit of swagger.
— The Miami RedHawks took the complete opposite tact. They played most of their non-conference schedule on the road — in part, of course because they don’t draw the kind of crowds and revenue UD does at home — and when they play, it’s usually against some of the best teams in the nation.
This season the RedHawks already played at Pitt, which is 15-0 and the nation’s No. 1 RPI team as of Sunday. They went to Xavier (13-2 and No 4 RPI) and West Virginia (11-4 and ranked No. 17). They visited No. 36 Temple and Dayton, ranked No. 42, and went to the West Coast to play at 13-2 UCLA, rated No. 43 in RPI and 10th in the AP poll..
The RedHawks lost all of those games, except Temple. Although black and blue from all but three games of their first 12 games the road, they were 7-5 going into the Saturday’s league opener with Akron and their strength-of-schedule consideration has given them one of the nation’s best RPI ratings (No. 15)
— Somewhere in between the UD and Miami ends of the spectrum is Wright State, which has played nine teams on the road —including three in the San Juan Shoot-Out — and faced 13-0 Wake Forest in Winston Salem.
Throughout the season, UD coach Brian Gregory has defended his team’s schedule, saying a lot of these teams will prove better than people give them credit for now.
Miami coach Charlie Coles believes in his method as well. As he told me after the Xavier game:
“There are two schools of thought. Some guys like to get those (early) wins and the public seems to buy that now. But a lot of those coaches are young guys and they’re always on the move after that.
“But I’m too far into my career for that. I’ve always hoped at the end of the season we’re able to take advantage of these kinds of games come (conference) tournament time.”
With all that as backdrop, Miami and UD — which started last year 14-1, as well, then lost six of its next nine — opened conference play on Saturday. Wright State, which had lost three of four conference games prior to this, had a league game, too.
The Raiders beat Valparaiso on the road Saturday and Miami topped Akron at home.
In a real clunker, the Flyers lost to UMass in Springfield, Mass. by 13. That’s the same Minuteman team that — while it did beat Kansas — had lost to Jacksonville State at home, was edged by a bad Toledo team, was blown out by Wisconsin Green Bay and fell at home to Vanderbilt by 30.
There were complaints by some Flyer loyalists about the discrepancy in fouls called on the two teams — 27 on UD, 10 on UMass — but trying to pin the whole loss on that is both weak and myopic.
Maybe this was just an aberration— and not a true indicator of the Flyers team — but on Saturday UD shot the ball poorly, was out-rebounded and was unable to put the clamps on the Minutemen shooters — who shot over 52 percent from the floor. If the Flyers were whistled closer than their hosts, well, that’s the way it often happens to a visiting team. A lot of UD’s Arena victims can attest to that.
Some of the painful lessons UD was taught at UMass might have been better learned had they come a little earlier in the season with a few more tough outings on the road.
Tweetblog: Death at the Race Track
First Eight Belles — now eight more.
While the race track death of Eight Belles — the champion filly who had finished second in last year’s Kentucky Derby, then broke down just past the finish line and was euthanized on the track — shocked the public and stirred demands for racing safety, something even more disturbing has come to light this week.
Suddenly, The Sport of Kings is looking like The Sport of Coffins.
Kentucky horse racing officials announced that last month — in the 21 days of racing that make up Turfway Park’s Holiday Meet — there were eight fatal breakdowns on the Polytrack surface of the Northern Kentucky track just outside Cincinnati.
That’s two times as many on-track deaths as there were in 2007 Mary Scollay, the equine medical director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, told reporters. She also noted that another horse died in the Turfway paddock last December.
There’s also talk that there have been a rash of injuries in morning training sessions at the track, though no statistics are kept on work-outs.
Burr Travis, a Cincinnati-area attorney who races horses at the track, told a Lexington equine writer he’d heard stories that as many as 14 other horses had been injured in the morning sessions in December.
Dr. Bryce Peckham, the chief veterinarian of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, said figures show there were 16 ambulance runs to carry injured or sick horses from the track last month.
The synthetic racing surface — which is a mix of sand, recycled rubber and wax-coated polypropylene fibers — was put in at Turfway in September of 2005 because it was considered safer than dirt, would drain better and reduce winter cancellations.
Initially, the surface was praised by everyone.
Keeneland and Arlington Park outside Chicago use the same kind of Polytrack surface. Santa Anita in California uses a different kind of artificial surface — its called Pro-Rule — and it’s had an alarming five breakdowns since Dec. 26 — three of them which were fatal.
While jockeys and horsemen at Turfway — including those from Ohio racing at the track this winter — are said to have voiced no specific concerns about the synthetic surface , there had been some debate over the ban of the cleat-like toe grabs on horseshoes.
In response, Turfway — which finds itself under a microscope when it resumes racing this afternoon — has lifted the ban on rear toe grabs.
The rules were put in place last year after the death of Eight Belles, who had toe grabs on her front shoes.
Some horsemen believe without toe grabs on the rear shoes, horses might not be able to get good traction with their rear, thrusting legs and that could cause too much weight and torque on the fragile front legs.
Of the eight December deaths at Turfway, six of the catastrophic injuries involved left front legs. Just one of the fatalities occurred when horses clipped heels during a race.
While Kentucky racing officials and Turfway personnel are alarmed at the rash of fatal injuries, they are at a loss as to exactly what — if any one thing — is causing the problems.
“We really can’t connect the dots,” Turfway president Bob Elliston told reporters.
Regardless, everyone gets the picture and it is not a pretty one.
The animals deserve far better and those running racing better figure it out quickly because there has been a dramatic drop off in wagering during this economic downturn.
Safety issues — and the public relations cloud that comes with it — could turn even more people away from the sport.
Tweetblog: Which 14-1 Flyers team is better — this year or last?
Are these Dayton Flyers better than last year’s team?
After barely escaping the sludge-up-your-carburetor style of Miami Tuesday night at UD arena, the Flyers are now 14-1 on the season.
They started last season 14-1 as well, but then, as they delved deeper into A-10 play, they lost three in a row and six of the next eight games and eventually finished the season 23-11 and made it to the quarter-finals of the NIT.
Of course, last year part of the swoon was due to the loss of Chris Wright, who broke his ankle in mid-season and missed 19 games.
This year, Wright is healthy, but UD no longer has prolific scoring point guard Brian Roberts, who graduated and is playing professionally overseas.
Miami coach Charlie Coles compared the Flyers teams of last year and this in his post=game press conference Tuesday night.
And though the wizened RedHawks’ boss didn’t bring it up, you had to think this game might have turned out a little differently had Miami not been without its senior point guard, Kenny Hayes, the Northmont High product, who suffered cartilage damage in his wrist last month and was scheduled for surgery today.
Hayes not only was Miami’s second leading scorer at 13.9, but with him as a scoring threat outside, it would have taken some of the pressure off Miami star Michael Bramos, who Dayton zeroed in on and forced into a 3-for-12 shooting performance and just six points, 13 below his average.
Hayes, who sets up the RedHawls offense, is as important to Miami’s team this season as Wright was to the Flyers last season.
With Hayes gone, Miami had no real outside threat beyond Bramos Tuesday night and still the RedHawks made the thing a seesaw affair until the end.
Afterward Coles talked candidly about UD, whom he lost to last year on a final-seconds shot by Roberts.
“Everybody says, ‘They’re better without (Brian) Roberts….Yeah, if they’re running up and down the court. But in a half-court set, they’re not. Roberts could score in the half court.
“I thought if we could keep them from breaking, we’d be fine. And it worked well until at the end when Chris Wright took over.”
Coles gave Wright high praise after the game — “that kid’s a star,” — but said some of the the RedHawks’ earlier opponents this season, teams like UCLA, Pitt and West Virginia, were still a level above UD.
“It’s hard to describe how good those teams are” he said. “But I will say this about Dayton — I think they can get in the (NCAA) Tournament this year if they get some things together, get some outside shooting and keep Chris Wright playing.”
“Things are looking up for Dayton. If they’re not in the top 20 this year, they’ll be in the top 20 next year.”
So until — and if — the outside shooting comes, are they better than last season or not?
Tweetblog: “We’re 13-1 and no one is talking about us”
At his introductory press conference as the new athletics director at the University of Dayton, Tim Wabler stressed one thing:
Getting the Flyers’ name and sports successes — especially in men’s basketball — recognized on a regional and national basis.
“It bothers me when I’m talking to someone (around the country) and they go, ‘Oh yeah, how’s your team doing?’
“We’re 13-1 right now and no one is talking about us. …That needs to change….The first thing we need to do is find ways to make that connection outside of Dayton, Ohio.”
Tweetblog: NFL — Johnson’s “Bogus” Claim Wrong
I got a kick out of Chris Johnson when he played that set of bongo drums set up near the end zone after he’d score a touchdown earlier this season against Kansas City.
While I’m Old School and still believe that mantra — “act like you been there,” — it was harmless and spontaneous. No pulling a Sharpie from his sock or running to the sidelines for one of his pre-arranged props like Chad Johnson. Still he got a $10,000 fine.
And while I can understand his dismay now, I think the Tennessee Titans rookie running back has hit a sour note in claiming Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is a “bogus” choice for NFL Rookie of the Year.
Ryan — who passed for 3,440 yards with 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions and led the Falcons to the play-offs with an 11-5 record — got 44 of the 50 votes from the Associated Press’ 50-member media panel that selects the winner.
Johnson — who rushed for 1,228 yards and nine touchdowns, helped the Titans win the AFC South and the No. 1 playoffs seed and is the only rookie headed to the Pro Bowl — got three votes.
“He’s a good player, and he played quarterback and did a good job this year, but he whole thing is bogus,” Johnson told Terry McCormick of the Nashville City Paper. “because the people voting for it are not on the same field as the people who are playing.
“I’m disappointed. I did all I could to win it. I feel I did the best…”
Johnson thinks that Rookie of the Year voting should be done the same way as the Pro Bowl does it — one-third of the tally each from the players, coaches and the fans — and not be decided by a panel of sports writers and broadcasters who cover the league.
What he doesn’t get is that the Pro Bowl must name three running backs and three quarterbacks from each conference. Those guidelines don’t pertain to the Rookie of the Year voting.
While Ryan might be the fourth best QB in his conference and Johnson the third best back — it doesn’t necessarily translate that he was the better rookie of the two.
Johnson split playing time with LenDale White. Ryan — playing the most pressurized position in football — carried a team on his back.
Ryan took over a club in total disarray, one still reeling not only from the Michael Vick scandal, but a head coach quitting in week 13 of the previous season and made it a real team again.
Without a doubt, he’s the NFL’s Rookie of the Year.
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