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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 > 2010 > March > 18
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Green underwear…red and blue (empty) seats
He might be getting beaten up by a lot of internet posters and talk radio callers, but Brian Gregory hasn’t lost his sense of humor.
As he was walking off the press conference dais following his Dayton Flyers 63-42 rout of Illinois State in the first round of the NIT Wednesday night at UD Arena, the Flyers coach — looking sharp in in a dark suit — was asked:
‘Hey, aren’t you Irish?”
When he said he was, he was asked “Well, where’s your green?”
Without missing a beat, he cracked: “My underwear is green.”
I’ll take his word for it.
Actually though that’s pretty tame. On St. Patrick’s Day — be it downtown in the Oregon District bars, in the rockin’ UD Student Ghetto, at Flanagan’s Pub on Stewart Street or a lot of other spots around the city — you could have seen all things green: Dyed hair, painted faces and, if you surveyed the beer and blarney crowds long enough, you’d have seen almost every other body part given some kind of emerald hue.
At UD Arena, though, the prominent colors Wednesday were blue and red seats — the majority of them empty.
Just 5,127 people showed up to watch the game. That’s the smallest crowd to watch the Flyers in the 41-year history of UD Arena. The previous low was set just eight days earlier when 6,930 showed up to watch UD play George Washington in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
UD has drawn more fans to watch exhibitions against Marathon Oil and Athletes in Action. It drew more than twice as many fans to every one of its games in that dreadful 4-26 season 15 years ago.
And eight years ago, when a snow storm crippled the area — closing malls, churches and roads and cancelling every other event in town — over 13,400 fans showed up to watch UD edge No. 25 Saint Joseph’s.
As I wrote in my column in today’s paper, UD athletics director Tim Wabler claimed there were several reasons for the low crowd: A lot of other activities going on, St. Patrick’s Day, the tough economy, some people’s disinterest in the NIT.
But another reason, bigger than some people think, was people showing disappointment at the way the season — and the team’s NCAA Tournament hopes — fizzled out. Before Wednesday night, UD — a Top 25 team early in the season — had lost 7 of its last 9 games.
A lot of places a 21-12 record and playing in the NIT would be fully embraced. Sometimes it was here. But the expectations were so high this year and now, for some fans, there’s bound to be an empty feeling that the NIT just can’t quite fill.
With the Flyers now set to face the Cincinnati Bearcats in Cincinnati in NIT’s second round Monday night at 9 p.m., the interest will likely ratchet up. The Bearcats were once a long and heated rival of the Flyers. The two teams have played 89 times going way back to 1907.
But they haven’t played since 2005. Now that the Bearcats are in the Big East, they have little interest in playing the Flyers. So the buzz around this game should be a lot more than it was with Illinois State.
Along with the empty seats, here are two other things that caught my attention Wednesday night:
— It was nice to see long-injured Luke Fabrizius back out there hoisting — and making — three pointers. He went 3 for 5 from beyond the arc and had the fans who were there chanting his name.
— Guard Rob Lowery — caught up in the “punch” that was more like a push, that drew a final seconds technical and helped derail the Flyers against Xavier in the A-10 quarter-finals last Friday night — seemed like a shell of himself on the court. A burst of energy and enthusiasm in the past, he seemed tentative, even a little timid at times.
Although Chris Johnson started in place of him, Lowery still played 20 minutes.
But in that time, he never took a shot.
And there were times he seemed reluctant to drive to the basket.
Asked about it afterward, Gregory embraced his embattled senior:
“I’m sure there are some after effects, but he knows how we feel about him…He’s one of our guys. I’m sticking with that kid.”
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