Bellbrook graduation 2012
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Kroger Aquatic Center opens
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
March 2010
Nothing but “bad memories” of Dayton, Ohio
NEW YORK CITY — Asked about Dayton, Ohio, Roy Williams scrunched his smile into a grimace and just shook his head:
“Oh yeah, I’ve been to Dayton — I got bad memories,” North Carolina’s Hall of Fame coach said Wednesday.
“There are a couple of really good restaurants there and a couple of nice walking areas around the river and the whole bit like that, but as a coach, you remember those bad times.
“I think I’ve been there with four NCAA teams. In 1992 (with his No. 2 in the nation Kansas team) we lost top UTEP in the second round. In 2006 (coaching the No. 10 Tar Heels) we lost to George Mason in second round. We won a couple of second round games there, too, but the bad times stay with you.
“And watching Brian’s team — that’s a bad time too ‘cause you get a little scared,” he said in reference to Coach Brian Gregory and the 24-12 Dayton Flyers who face 20-16 North Carolina — last year’s NCAA champs — for the NIT Championship Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
“And that’s not coach speak. I was (scared) and I still am.”
TweetDayton Flyers: “This is special for a lot of people now.”
NEW YORK — He said it before the game and afterward — after the Dayton Flyers had out-shot, out-rebounded and out-played his Mississippi team to win their NIT semifinal match up, 68-63 — Andy Kennedy he was even more adamant about it.
“They are playing some of the best basketball — maybe THE best — of any team left playing in the country right now,” Kennedy said. He was talking about the NCAA Tournament, as well as the NIT.
“They play extremely hard, they play selfless and they have a lot of interchangeable parts. I think they have a terrific team.”
And Thursday night, the Flyers meet North Carolina in the NIT championship game. The Tar Heels edged Rhode Island in overtime in Tuesday’s other semifinal.
Less than three weeks ago, the Flyers seemed as if they were dead in the water. They had lost five of their last seven regular season games, then blew another late game lead — this one a 15-point margin on Xavier — in their Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinal in Atlantic City.
That got them a quick trip home and a stumble into the NIT.
Although the Flyers were too much team for Illinois State in the NIT opener, who would have ever thought they could out play Cincinnati and Illinois on their home courts, then topple Ole Miss here Tuesday night?
“We did,” Flyers junior forward Chris Johnson said after leading UD with 22 points, nine rebounds and four steals against the Rebels.
“We were all a little upset when we didn’t make the NCAA Tournament, but we knew it was our fault. And we knew we were the only ones who could change it. We had to make it better for our seven seniors . We had to show our character and end this season on a better note….And that’s what’s happening now.”
And it couldn’t be happening in a more appropriate place. This is UD’s 22 appearance in the NIT and Thursday night will be the eighth time they’ve played in the title game. They won the crown twice — in 1962 and 1968.
Afterward UD coach Brian Gregory made mention of that: “You know the tradition and history of our program has always been important to me. Coach (Don) Donoher said what a great thing if we could figure out a way to win it and to be put in the same category as Donnie May’s team that won it here in ‘68. And that would be a hell of a deal.”
And a lot of UD alums seem to feel the same way. So many of them are from the New York and New Jersey area and along with folks from back in Dayton, they gave the Flyers had a big contingent of fans in the Garden Tuesday night.
“We can tell this is special for a lot of people now,” Johnson said. “It’s special for us, too.”
TweetI love NYC for lots of reasons
NEW YORK CITY — I’ve been coming to New York City for over three decades and next to Miami — where I lived a long time and have strong sentimental ties — it’s my favorite city in the country.
I love this place for a lot of reasons.
I’ve got some long-time friends here and some hard-bitten newspaper buddies, too. I love the different neighborhoods, the museums, the restaurants, some of my favorite taverns are here and, of course, there are the Broadway shows.
Mostly though it’s the mix of people from around the world and how they manage to get along and weave together into a vibrant city where something is always going on.
I’ve covered lots of NFL games here at the Meadowlands and plenty of big-time fights at Madison Square Garden. I was here for an Olympic media summit a few years back when they brought in more than 100 of our top athletes to talk to us before the Athens Games and I’ve been at the Belmont Stakes for a few Triple Crown bids.
Tonight I’ll be back at the Garden for the Dayton Flyers NIT semifinal game against Ole Miss.
I’ve had the most fun coming here with my wife Kate for summertime vacations, fall respites and delightful Christmas get-aways. I love the way my wife tackles this town. With a subway pass, a credit card and a sense of adventure, she makes this place her own from Harlem to Battery Park, Brooklyn to Queens, with plenty of stops in the Village, SoHo and along Madison Avenue in between.
But the thing that really sealed my embrace with this city — as numbing and sad as it was — were the 9/11 attacks and what I saw in the aftermath from the people here.
The newspaper sent me to cover the story immediately after it happened. Photographer Ron Alvey and I spent almost two weeks at Ground Zero and at various spots around the city. We chronicled the efforts of rescuers, the loss at a firehouse where many of the men had been killed and at a Catholic Church, where the iconic priest was killed as the World Trade Center towers were toppling.
We spent time with a Long Island family who lost their beautiful daughter — Kristy Irvine Ryan, a UD grad who worked as an equities trader with Sandler O’Neill & Partners — when the South Tower fell. Her sister and brother-in-law live in Oakwood and have started a charitable fund in Dayton in her memory — Secret Smiles — that UD coach Brian Gregory and his wife Yvette have become extremely active in.
Twice this season I saw Kristy’s dad, Stu Irvine, at UD games and once he was a guest of Gregory at the coach’s post-game press conference.
When we covered 9/11, we did stories on other UD grads as well: Another who perished leaving a husband and children. And one about an alum who managed to escape the carnage by running down 80 flights of stairs and reaching bottom just as the building trembled and fell.
Ron and I returned a year later to visit many of the same spots and talk to some of the same people and we were gripped again.
No assignment I’ve ever covered has hit me this hard or stayed with me so long.
A big part of it is that amongst all the fear and uncertainty and devastation, I saw the very best in people come out.
In the first couple of days after the attacks, I remember watching brigades of everyday people — from old grandpas and grandmas to teens, men sand women, white, black, Chinese, Puerto Rican, Eastern European, you name it — work together to help anyway they could.
Early on they worked on the smoldering pile at Ground Zero. They visited grief-stricken firehouses and police stations where so many first responders were killed and they went out of their way to comfort families missing loved ones.
I saw the true thread of a city that no terrorists — no matter how horrific the act — had been able to tear apart.
I’ll never forget that.
Like I said, I love New York City for lots of reasons.
TweetAndy Kennedy: “Dayton playing as good as any team in country.”
NEW YORK — While the Dayton Flyers are taking in New York City with a mix of fascination and awe, there is at least one guy here who has the same reaction to UD basketball.
“A lot of people around the country don’t understand the passion and support the Flyers generate,” said University of Mississippi coach Andy Kennedy, whose Rebels face the Flyers tonight, March 30, in an NIT semi-final game at Madison Square Garden.
“I know all about that part of Ohio — the talent there and how the fans just live and die with UD basketball.”
Kennedy was Bob Huggins assistant at Cincinnati for four seasons and then took over as the Bearcats interim head coach for the 2005-06 season. That year, he split two games with the Flyers, which, until eight days — when UD toppled UC in the second round of the NIT — was the last time the two rival programs had met.
“I’m very familiar with the program and I’ve seen a lot of their players grow up,” he said. “I recruited Chris Wright and Kurt Huelsman (for UC) and visited both of their high schools.
“I came up to Troy to recruit Matt Terwilliger and I drove through Dayton plenty times on my way to Lima to recruit Jamar Butler. That’s a real basketball area and the fans are like few others in the country.
“I remember one year, right after I got done playing (for Alabama-Birmingham), UAB had a game in Dayton on Super Bowl Sunday. That’s back when the Flyers were having a real tough (6-21) season — and they still drew almost 11,000 people. On Super Bowl Sunday! That’s the only place in the country that could happen.”
After studying film of UD’s NIT run, Kennedy said: “There are just eight teams in the country left playing right now and Dayton is playing as well as any of them. They could make some real ripples here in New York this week.”
And if you were around the Flyers Monday —which is the subject of my column in Tuesday’s newpaper and a piece that also can be found on thiss web page — you saw they already have. ole
TweetBrian Gregory didn’t want to be Brian Kelly
NEW YORK — Though some of it is a guess on my part, here’s what I think happened:
Brian Gregory didn’t want to be Brian Kelly.
Kelly, you remember, led his Cincinnati Bearcats football team to a unbeaten regular season record and lofty national ranking last year and the team landed a berth in the Sugar Bowl against Florida.
But before the game, Kelly jumped ship for Notre Dame job…and that numbing departure rippled through the team and they were drilled by the Gators.
Last week here I said Iowa would come after Gregory as soon as the Dayton Flyers season was over and I thought he would be interested in the job. Over the past two days, a prime source told both me and our beat writer Doug Harris that Gregory was Iowa’s top choice to replace fired Todd Lickliter.
I think because they couldn’t get some kind of binding commitment out of Gregory now — and knowing big time college sports I’d bet they sure tried — Iowa brass quickly weighed their other options. I think they were worried Siena’s Fran McCaffery would veer to the open St. John’s job and so on Sunday they named him the Hawkeyes next coach.
And McCaffery is a good choice.
But knowing Gregory, I don’t think he could secretly commit to Iowa while still coaching his Flyers here in the NIT — where they face Ole Miss in a Tuesday night semi-final at Madison Square Garden.
Gregory preaches the concept of “team first” and his players buy into it, which is why a dozen of them are willing to share minutes and, subsequently, the spotlight.
I don’t think he would be comfortable preaching that while knowing he had one foot out the door. He’d feel he wasn’t being true to his team and the basis he built it on.
Maybe in the often mercenary coaching world, this time a sound principle dunked right over a fatter wallet.
TweetA lesson with Don Donoher
Don Donoher teaches a class on the history of Dayton Flyers basketball at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on the UD campus.
Originally, it was to be a four-class session, but then the legendary UD coach added a fifth. And now — the way things have been going with the current team — he might have to add a sixth.
The 23-12 Flyers head off to New York City today, March 28, where they’ll not only meet Mississippi in an NIT semi-final Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, but, in the process, they will be renewing a cherished tradition between the school, this town and the tournament.
While the NCAA Tournament is the elusive end-of-the-season pot of gold for all college teams now — including the Flyers — the NIT holds a special place in the heart and history of Dayton basketball.
The Flyers have been to the tournament 22 times, winning the championship in both 1962 and 1968 and finishing as runner-up five times in the 1950s. That’s when the NIT — with a better TV package and a marquee setting — still eclipsed the NCAA Tournament in prestige.
And the city of Dayton — sending train loads of people to the New York games and amassing thousands to greet the title teams when they came back home — always has relished the best of the school’s NIT moments.
No other person in Dayton has quite the relationship with the NIT that Donoher does. He was UD player when Dayton made its first three trips to the tournament. Then, as the Flyers coach, he took seven different teams to the NIT and won the tournament in 1968.
I spent a couple of hours with him the other day and much of that conversation ended up in my column in today’s newspaper. The piece can also be found elsewhere on this web page.
Seeing an “unbelievable amount of similarities” between the 1968 team and this one, Donoher said this could end up another of those special moments.
And that could mean his hoops history class might just get a little longer.
TweetBrian Gregory and Iowa
There is suddenly lots of chatter about Brian Gregory and Iowa’s vacant head coaching job.
I think Iowa brass — and probably DePaul, too, which fired Jerry Wainwright two months ago — will pursue Gregory after his Dayton Flyers finish their run in the NIT.
Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis reported Wednesday that Iowa had inquired about Gregory, but he wasn’t interested.
I think that is wrong.
Although I believe Gregory likes his position at UD and certainly loves his players, I think he’s a Big Ten man at heart — he spent 10 years as an assistant at Michigan State and Northwestern — and, knowing him, I think the Iowa job would interest him.
And unlike Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl — who went on the record Thursday and told reporters he was not interested in the Hawkeyes job — Gregory has not publicly nixed the idea.
Last week he told our Flyers beat writer, Doug Harris, he was committed to UD and wouldn’t talk to any schools while his team is still playing.
Gregory signed a contract extension with UD last year that runs through 2018. It pays him $750,000 this year and will be worth $1 million by the final year of the deal.
Todd Lickliter — ousted at Iowa after three losing seasons — made $1.2 million this year.
After the Flyers toppled Illinois Wednesday night at Assembly Hall, Gregory did allude to how different the task is at a Big Ten school compared to a place like UD:
“I always say we have to do so much…The thing about it — and I was in the Big Ten for 10 years — has there ever been a team, 10-8 (in the conference), not go to the NCAA Tournament?”
He was referring to the 10-8 Illini being, what many said, the last team to get bumped from this year’s NCAA Tournament field. While he said that was an anomaly, he said the standard is different for a non-BCS school like Dayton
“I would say for us, you have to have a really good non-conference, finish in the top two or three in the conference and then you have to do pretty well in the tournament, too.
“The only thing you don’t have to do is walk on water.”
Right now, with the way he has re-invigorated his team in its run to the NIT semi-finals — not to mention his ability to recruit and present a good image in the community — Gregory might not be walking on water, but he is riding a growing wave of interest in him.
TweetFlyers: “We wanted Dayton to feel proud of us again.”
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Dayton Flyers impressive showing in the NIT — beating Illinois State, Cincinnati and now Illinois — wasn’t just about earning a trip to New York City and a berth in one of the tournament’s semi-final games at Madison Square Garden.
“We wanted the people of Dayton to feel proud of us again,” Flyers coach Brian Gregory — as relaxed and candid as I’ve ever seen him — said after his Flyers toppled the Illini, 77-71, Wednesday night at Assembly Hall. Next up is a Tuesday night game against Ole Miss at the Garden.
Gregory knows people were disappointed in the Flyers swoon as the regular season wound down and he realizes that stumble could fit into the fabric of what else has been happening in the city lately.
“The city of Dayton the last four years here has gone through some tough times and our guys — the seven seniors and especially Chris Wright, Josh Benson and Matt Kavanaugh, our Dayton kids — know that real well.
“We had a motto this year — we’re all Flyers, ‘Your team, your town,’ all that — and I think our guys wanted to make the city and the people who had supported us proud because there had been so many other disappointments in the city.”
Lost jobs, empty storefronts, declining population — Dayton has struggled like many Rust Belt cities. But college basketball — especially the successes of the Dayton Flyers — has always been something of a tonic.
No one knows that better than Wright, who grew up in some of the tougher neighborhoods of West Dayton and whose mom later raised him in Trotwood.
“These aren’t just words — it ain’t no joke — it really does something to me,” Wright said after scoring 10 points and pulling down seven rebounds against the Illini.
“I realize what’s going on in our city — the slump with jobs and people hating what’s happening to some of their neighborhoods. I’m from that, my family is part of it. It means something to all the guys on the team, but to us from Dayton, it means a lot more.
“We know when we’re playing, we’re doing it for the guys who played before us, the city and everybody who is watching us, including those people who lost jobs, who need something to feel good about.”
And after going to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year and returning all their players but one, the Flyers had lofty hopes for this season. And early on they were intensified with a Top 25 ranking and 13 wins in their first 16 games.
But they lost 5 of their last 7 regular season games, went 8-8 in the Atlantic 10 Conference — after being picked the preseason favorites — and then blew a 15-point lead late in the game against Xavier in the A-10 Tournament.
In Wednesday’s post-game press conference — after watching the way the Flyers ran roughshod over the Illini for most of the game — an Illinois writer questioned whether UD belonged in the NCAA Tournament.
Although he noted his team “was probably good enough” to be there, Gregory admitted: “We didn’t deserve to get in. We didn’t win enough games.. …I’m a realist.
“I would say for us, you have to have a really good non-conference, finish in the top two or three or be really good in the conference and then you have to do pretty well in the tournament, too.
“The only thing you don’t have to do is walk on water.”
He grinned when he said that, but his guys are pulling off some pretty impressive feats now. They’re playing some of their best basketball of the season.
“Two weeks ago when we got the bid to go to the NIT, we got our guys together and said we got to put those disappointments behind us . It’s up to you how you want to be remembered.
“And I think they’ve showed what they’re about. Our city is hard working and has been knocked down and it keeps fighting back and I think that’s what our team is about.
“They wanted people to proud of them again.”
And people should be now.
TweetA Head Butt for Brian Gregory
CINCINNATI — The only casualty of the night came when Brian Gregory got an accidental head butt from point guard London Warren in the huddle.
It left the Dayton Flyers coach with a noticeable scrape above his left eye after UD toppled the Cincinnati Bearcats 81-66 in the second round of the NIT Monday night at Fifth Third Arena.
In the end, the Flyers roughed themselves up more than anything the Bearcats did to them.
UD out-shot, our-rebounded and out-hustled a UC team that dropped to 19-16.
The 22-12 Flyers — who’ll now meet host Illinois in the NIT quarter-finals Wednesday night — played like a team that wants to extend its season as long as possible. Eleven players scored Monday.
UC players — at least if you listen to their coach Mick Cronin afterward — under-estimated the Flyers before hand. Maybe even showed them a little disrespect.
Maybe it’s that they’re from the Big East or that UC had beaten Dayton 26 of the past 28 times they’d played the Flyers in Cincinnati going all the way back to 1957.
“We’ve got to take a lot of people more serious,” Cronin said “You’ve got to understand anyone can beat you.”
While he said his players gave the Flyers little due beforehand, they “gained a lot of respect for Dayton when we were down 17.”
On the other hand, the Flyers knew UC well. Especially Chris Wright.
He said he’s familiar with 3 or 4 of the Bearcats and he said you “play harder for bragging rights.”
He saw Oscar Robertson — the greatest Bearcat and one of the greatest basketball players of all places and all times — sitting courtside Monday night. In his three varsity seasons at UC, Robertson scored 2,973 points for a 33.8 p.p.g. average.
“From the current players all the way back to Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati teams have always played hard and they won championships in the day,” Wright said.
“I went over (to Robertson) and said ‘What’s up?’ He came to our basketball celebration (at UD), but to see him courtside was different. He averaged a triple-double his entire career! That’s hard to do. And 33 points a game — that’s just crazy!
“To me, Cincinnati is a great program. They’re always gonna fight, no matter if they’re on top (in basketball,) in the middle or struggling. Their teams are always gonna bring it.”
The Flyers were up by 17 with 6:52 left in the first half, but Cincinnati did cut the lead to one point 44-43 with 16:22 left in the second half. Ten minutes later the Flyers had extended the lead to double digits again.
“To me this was the best response we had all year long,” Gregory admitted afterward. “This was our best in-game response to tough times in a long time.
“I thought we did a good job against Georgia Tech (early in the season) and I thought another time was in the Xavier game (Feb. 6 at UD Arena) when they cut it to 10 in the second half.
“But this was nut-cuttin’ time. This was a one point game with eight minutes to go (actually it was 4 points then) and we had to try to extend it…and we did.”
After the game — as Gregory was was heading over to the ESPN camera crew for an on-air interview — he asked UD’s sports information director Doug Hauschild how his forehead looked, then to make sure, dabbed a tissue to his brow.
Seeing there was no blood, he said “It’s okay.”
On this night — where the Flyers were concerned — everything was more than okay.
TweetFlyers and UC to play next season, too
The Dayton Flyers and Cincinnati Bearcats — who meet in the second round of the NIT Monday night at Fifth Third Arena — will play each other next season, as well.
That’s what Bearcats coach Mick Cronin told reporters Friday.
He said UC and UD have been working on a five-team tournament for next season. Three yet-to-be-named teams would be brought in to face both the Flyers and Bearcats on their home courts and then UC and UD would meet at U.S. Bank Arena.
The Flyers and UC used to be regulars on each other’s schedules, but haven’t met since 2005.
First facing each other in 1907, they have played 89 times with the Bearcats leading the series, 59-30.
When UC left Conference USA for the Big East, it agreed contractually to continue playing Memphis and UAB. That binding agreement ended this season, freeing up two more non-conference games for the Bearcats.
Cronin told Bill Koch of the Cincinnati Enquirer that he’d be willing to renew the home-and-home series with UD as long as the games are televised.
The date for next year’s game has not yet been settled.
TweetVIDEO: Xavier’s Jordan Crawford does it again.
Friday the rest of the hoops world got to see what Dayton fans painfully saw first hand too many times this past season:
Xavier’s sophomore guard Jordan Crawford putting on a one man show.
He did in the Flyers twice this past season, including taking over the final minutes of the A-10 Tournament game, scoring 22 in an X victory that permanently knocked UD from NCAA Tournament contention.
And then he did the same thing Friday, leading the Musketeers over Minnesota, 65-54, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament with 28 points and one razzle-dazzle scoop that may just be the most spectacular shot of the first round of the tournament.
Here it is:
TweetGreen 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.”
TweetDayton again proves it’s a great basketball town
When it comes to college basketball towns, few places can beat Dayton.
That was proved again Tuesday night when 8,205 people showed up to watch the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff top Winthrop, 61-44, in the Opening Round game of the NCAA Tournament.
Last year — thanks in part to the presence of Morehead State, which is just three hours away in Kentucky — a record 11,346 showed up to watch the Eagles top Alabama State.
This tournament opener — maligned by some folks every year who paint it as something akin to the junior varsity warm-up game before the big boys take the floor — is beloved by many here and has been played at UD Arena since it’s inception nine years ago.
“We always draw around 8,000 for this game,” UD ticket manager Gary McCans said matter of factly at halftime Tuesday night.
While there are now rumors that the NCAA may expand the tournament field by three more teams — to 68 — and have four play-in games, one in each region, it’s doubtful any will become an event quite like the one has become here.
Like every play-in game here — including last year’s Eagle-infused count — most of the folks in the crowd are from the Dayton area.
And except for Winthrop’s Reggie King — who’s from Novelty, Ohio way up in Geauga County, past Cleveland — there was no one on either roster Tuesday night from the state.
Folks here just love to watch college basketball.
And the Play-In game offers people who can’t get into UD Arena to see the Flyers — or who are stuck in the 400 Level — a chance to get closer to the action and to be a part of the NCAA Tournament.
And school’s like Arkansas-Pine Bluff — which brought along as good of a pep band as you’ll ever hear and 12 dancing cheerleaders who drew the crowd’s attention — make it all the more fun.
Like many Midwestern industrial cities, we have lost many of our factories, our downtown department stores and a big chunk of our population base, but the turnstiles still spin like mad here when it comes to college hoops.
This season the Dayton Flyers — who play Illinois State in the first round of the NIT Wednesday night at the Arena — set a regular season attendance record, averaging 13,038 fans for its 17 home games.
In the 41 years the Arena has been open, basketball crowds have averaged close to 12,000 fans per game and UD has never been ranked worst than 35th in the nation in attendance. Usually it’s in the Top 25.
What’s even more remarkable is that on a night when UD Arena is jammed to the rafters, Wright State — whose Raiders have now had four straight 20-win seasons — may be playing just across town and drawing another 5,000 to the Nutter Center.
Dayton leads the Atlantic 10 Conference in attendance every year and Wright State is second in the Horizon League to Butler.
Then there are the NCAA Tournament games that UD Arena has hosted in 24 of the 41 years it’s been open. Tuesday night was the 83rd men’s NCAA Tournament game held at UD Arena, tying it with Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City for the most ever hosted by one arena.
In 11 days, UD Arena will host one of the four regionals of NCAA women’s tournament.
“This is just a great atmosphere,” said UAPB athletics director Skip Perkins, whose teams plays at a 4,100- seat facility back home. “People really turn out for basketball here.”
Put another way, when it comes to college basketball towns, few places beat Dayton.
TweetAn NCAA Tournment tip from Mike Kelly
Monday night — as the Dayton Flyers women’s basketball team gathered with some 300 fans, parents, school administrators, cheerleaders and the pep band in The Hangar on campus to await its NCAA Tournament bid — there were three people in the room who already had taken part in the Big Dance.
Head coach Jim Jabir took two of his Marquette teams to the NCAA Tournament in the mid-1990s. Assistant coach Kyle Rechlicz played in two tournaments when she was a Wisconsin Badger and assistant Lesley Dickinson played in one when she was at James Madison.
And yet some of the best advice had come from an old football guy.
That would be Mike Kelly, the Hall of Fame Flyers football coach, who is now an Associate Athletics Director at the school. He was at the gathering with several other UD administrators and, as is his style, embraced Jabir warmly, but privately, after everybody else had offered congratulations when the Flyers women made school history.
They got UD’s first-ever bid to the NCAA (Division I) Tournament and as a No. 8 seed will play No. 9 Texas Christian University Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in Knoxville, Tenn. The winner will face the winner of the game between No. 1 seed Tennessee and 16-seed Austin Peay.
As the cheers and confetti mixed with hugs and tears, Jabir recounted a conversation he had had with Kelly a few days ago, one that he then shared with his players in practice:
“Coach Kelly had been with us for our WNIT game last year when we lost to Indiana. He was with us at our (Atlantic 10) conference tournament this year. He said both times when we lost he thought we were really, really tight.
“So a couple of days ago, I talked to the kids about it. We talked about enjoying everything — the bus rides, the meetings together, practice, warm-ups. We want to be loose so we can enjoy everything. These will be memories they keep for a long time.”
That said, don’t think the Flyers are just happy to be here,. They’re 24-7, they have a 38 RPI and have quality wins over Georgetown, Temple, Michigan State, St. Bonaventure and Purdue. They also nearly beat last year’s NCAA Tournament runner-up Louisville, played Vermont, also in this year’s Tournament, and took No. 3 seed Xavier into overtime.
Jabir and his staff planned to spend much of Monday night collecting and watching films of TCU and then putting a scouting report together that they would implement at Tuesday morning’s 6 a.m. practice.
The players knew Jabir would have them ready:
“Coach Jabir expects a lot out of us,” said Justine Raterman, the sophomore from Versailles who leads the team in scoring with 13 p.p.g. “He brought us all in here with one goal in mind and we never lost sight of it.
“We all came here to be a part of this program. We had other schools we could have gone to that already had established programs, but we wanted to build something.”
Before Jabir came here seven seasons ago, the UD women had one winning season in 10 years. He went 3-25 his first season and had just one winning campaign in his first four.
Since then — with his players, system and culture installed — his teams have won 25, 21 and, this season so far, 24 games. Although UD won the old AIAW Tournament 30 years ago — and played in the NCAA Division II Tournament many years back — Monday night was new territory.
“To know our girls are making history — to have them put their names on something that will forever be in the record books at the University of Dayton — is really special,” said Rechlicz. “Hopefully, this is the start of something greater and it’s a continuous thing. But just to know they are the first is a memory that they will always cherish.”
TweetVIDEO: Rob Lowery technical
ATLANTIC CITY — Here’s a video of the sequence of events that led to Rob Lowery’s technical foul with 34 seconds left against Xavier.
Trailing by 2, Dayton lost the ball, Xavier’s Terrell Holloway made the two technical free throws he was awarded and then two more just two seconds later when he was fouled after the Musketeers’ inbounded the ball.
That sealed the game.
Although Lowery did have a momentary mental short-circuit, his “punch” looks more like just a reactionary shove after Holloway swiped at the ball while he was calling time out. If I’m the ref, I don’t know if I make that call. It could have been called on both players or simply been a no-call.
Although its been overshadowed by the technical at the end, the real troubling part of this game is the way UD got conservative and blew a 15-point lead with 10:37 left.
Anyway, here is the video.
TweetUD Flyers: The biggest disappointment of all
ATLANTIC CITY — In an often-good season that got riddled by disappointment, what happened to the Dayton Flyers Friday night in the Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinal game at Boardwalk Hall will be the worst pill of all to swallow.
UD led Xavier most of the game — and by 15 points with 10:37 left — and then self-destructed and lost 78-73. The defeat — their 12th of the season — flattened any hope they had of the NCAA Tournament and now drops then into the NIT, where they likely will vie alongside Cincinnati and maybe Wright State, too.
While Rob Lowery’s meltdown in the final 34 seconds was the most dramatic mistake — with his team down by just two, he had the ball and was trying to call time out when he retaliated to a Terrell Holloway slap at the ball with a punch that drew a technical — the blame should be shared among the Flyers.
They were beaten soundly on the boards. Their three ball-handling guards had 10 turnovers. No one could come up with a big shot down the stretch and no one could stop Holloway (22 points) and Jordan Crawford (20 points) in the final minutes.
Afterward UD star Chris Wright talked about Holloway and Crawford and said big time players make big plays down in crunch time.
UD had no one to do that Friday night.
Xavier has now beaten the Flyers seven of the nine times the two teams have faced in the post-season, including all five times they’ve met in the A-10 Tournament.
TweetThe snub and what came next
ATLANTIC CITY — You reap what you sow.
Xavier guard Terrell Holloway snubbed Dayton’s London Warren, who came over to shake hands with him during pregame player introductions Friday night in the Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinals. Instead the Musketeers sophomore guard took a couple of steps, pounded his own chest and then walked away.
When the game started Holloway promptly missed a three-pointer, picked up two quick fouls and had the ball stolen from him three times, once by Warren, once by Rob Lowery and finally by Chris Wright. who punctuated the theft with a fast break, razzle dazzle dunk.
Meanwhile Marcus Johnson — in a shooting slump all season for UD — has hit his first three shots including a pair of three pointers
With just over four minutes left, Johnson also blocked Holloway on a fast-break lay-up attempt.
At the half, Dayton leads 40-35. Lowery has 12 points. Wright 11 points and three blocked shots. Marcus Johnson has 10 points.
Jason Love leads Xavier with 11.
TweetDayton, Xavier and the Billiken twin
You know how they say some people look like their pets?
How about coaches who look like their mascots?
Former Temple coach John Chaney was a dead ringer for the school’s owl mascot. And Jim Baron looks a little like the Rhode Island Ram.
But for twins separated at birth, how about Saint Louis coach Rick Majerus and the Billikens mascot?
After Rhode Island over-powered Saint Louis, 63-47, Friday afternoon in their Atlantic 10 Tournament quarter-final game, Majerus gave props to the Rams, then talked about his dislike for conference tournaments.
He said it would have been no different had his team won.
He thinks players belong in school at this time: “These tournaments are about making money, but at what cost to the student-athletes?”
Waiting for the to of the Dayton Flyers-Xavier quarter-final, here’s one note:
The Musketeers and Flyers have met eight times in post-season play and Xavier has won six of those games. It beat UD in the NIT at Madison Square Garden in 1958 , once in the MCC Tournament (at UD Arena) and all four times the two schools have met in the A-10
TweetWho will be bloodied at Boardwalk Hall?
ATLANTIC CITY — I’ve heard several folks from back home express their dislike of having the Atlantic 10 tournament in Atlantic City and especially of playing the games at Boardwalk Hall.
They say it’s dark, cavernous, dingy, ancient.
As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and for me, I like this grand old place.
I love the high ceilings, the stage curtain with that large ship riding across tossing seas, and, of course, having the famed boardwalk and the ocean right outside.
The place opened in 1929 and has been home to everything from the Miss America pageant, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to college football games, the 1964 Democratic National Convention and thousands of other events.
My favorite memories though are of the big-time prizefights I’ve covered here over the years.
This is where I watched Michael Spinks dispatch of Gerry Cooney in five rounds in 1987 and George Foreman do the same in two rounds three years later.
It’s where I saw Evander Holyfield decision Foreman in 12 and where I saw Mike Tyson at his scariest in the ring.
He was still the invincible destroyer when I saw him knock aside Larry Holmes here in 1988. Soon after, I watched him obliterate Michael Spinks here in 91 seconds, then Carl “The Truth” Williams in 93.
More than anything, Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall has always been a good place to watch somebody get punched in the nose.
Now I’m wondering who will end of bloodied here Friday night, Dayton or Xavier?
TweetWright State comes up empty
INDIANAPOLIS — There were just over nine minutes left in the game and Brad Brownell — standing on the Hinkle Fieldhouse sidelines, his arms crossed, his look frozen — seemed like a man who knew he was completely out of tricks.
So often a hoops magician, he knew wouldn’t be pulling a rabbit out of his top hat on this night. That hare had gnawed its way out the bottom of his chapeau long ago, leaving him with nothing to grab.
It was the same feeling when he turned toward his bench.
Butler forward Willie Veasley had just scored a lay-up inside to put Butler up 61-34 in the Horizon League Tournament title game. Exasperated by the easy bucket, Brownell looked for a replacement player, but only saw two injured Raiders in street clothes, three inexperienced freshmen, one star held scoreless all night and another in foul trouble.
He just shrugged and turned back to the game.
Across the way it was just the opposite with No. 12 Butler. The Bulldogs are loaded with talent.
That’s what you noticed most Tuesday night as 28-4 Butler trounced WSU 70-45 and took the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Already under-manned coming into this game, WSU found itself overwhelmed when two of its top players — Todd Brown, who has 1,469 career points and three-point artist Troy Tabler — both were held scoreless.
Only three Raiders made any kind of impact Tuesday night: N’Gai Evans led the team with 13 points and made the All-Tournament team. Vaughn Duggins had nine points and Cory Cooperwood — who always scraps inside even though he is undersized — had nine points and five boards.
Brownell acknowledged the difference between the two teams afterward:
“You’ve got to give them credit. They’re pretty darn good. They have experienced players. and they’re gonna be a tough out (in the NCAA Tournament) for somebody. They play exceptionally sound defense, have a lot of weapons, play the game with poise and the moment just isn’t going to bother them.”
Tuesday night that was not the case for Wright State.
TweetIs booing the Flyers wrong?
So the big debate coming into Dayton’s A-10- Tournament opener with George Washington is:
Is it wrong for UD Arena fans to boo the Flyers?
I think I’d have to go way back to the Jim O’Brien days — back to when UD won just four games that one season — to remember a crowd as disgusted and vocal as the one at the Arena became Saturday night when the Flyers were upset by Saint Louis, 71-65.
It was UD’s fifth loss in seven games and completely deflated the team’s hopes of getting an at-large bid to NCAA Tournament. Now the Flyers must win the A-10 Tournament.
The warm fuzzies that began Saturday’s Senior Night soon were riddled with some boos when the Flyers went through a 10-minute span in the first half where they did not score. There were a few more boos as the players headed for the dressing room at halftime.
And there were some more vocal raspberries in the second half — as well as some fans openly voicing displeasure with coach Brian Gregory — and after the game those outbursts stirred some pointed debate on internet message boards and talk radio.
Were the boos directed at certain players?
Were they aimed at the coach?
Or, was it just an over-spillage of general frustration and displeasure at the way the team was playing?
One camp says you don’t boo 18 to 22 year olds. They aren’t pros, they don’t get paid and they are trying their best.
Others say just as you put players on a pedestal and cheer them so often during the season, you should — as paying customers with the right of freedom of expression — be able to make it known when you think they or the coach are under-performing.
I can say this, in all the years I’ve covered basketball games at Miami University, Wright State and Central State — at least not at the games I was at — I don’t remember hearing the fans boos their players.
I think that’s the way it should be.
TweetOttoville girls have town rockin’
OTTOVILLE — I know I missed one hell of a party last Saturday night.
I still saw the remnants of it Monday afternoon when I drove through Ottoville, my hometown up in Putnam County.
Streamers of toilet paper still hung from the blinking traffic light where US 224 makes a turn into the heart of our small town of some 875 people. Other streamers were still caught on the roof overhang of Twisters ice cream shop a block away.
I’m told, Ronnie Miller, the mayor of the town, was out early Sunday morning taking on a job that rivals snow removal after a mid-winter blizzard. He picked up trash bag after trash bag after trash bag of the celebratory TP. There was so much of it, it had looked like banks of snow in front of the businesses and bars that line the main drag through town.
An even more telling sign of just how “festive” things got could been seen behind the three main saloons in town Monday. The dumpsters that service Wannemacher’s Tavern, Millie’s and the Dew Drop Inn were overflowing with empty Budweiser and Bud Light beer cases.
And in the front window of Midwest Sportswear, they already have a gold t-shirt on display that reads “Sweet Sixteen.”
Our high school girls basketball team — the Ottoville Lady Green — is 22-0, ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press’s final Division IV poll and this Thursday plays Fort Loramie in a Sweet Sixteen match-up at Springfield High School.
Last Thursday night, the Lady Green edged the No. 9 team in the state, Delphos Jefferson, 56-50 in two overtimes. Saturday night they topped No. 4 Kalida by one point to win the district crown.
And that has the town is in a tizzy.
High school basketball is huge here. The Ottoville Big Green — first the boys, now the girls — have been the focal point of this community for more than 80 years.
Six Ottoville teams have gone to state. Two of them were boys’ teams — the 1937 Big Green coached by my granddad L.W. Heckman and the 1978 team. Four girls teams have gone. None have taken the state crown.
Everyone is hoping this may be the year.
I love this time of year. Sure the NCAA Tournament holds everyone spellbound, but nothing tugs at your heart like the high school basketball tournaments. Everybody has a chance, even little towns like mine.
Vic Fishbach, Bill Wannemacher and a lot of other people in Ottoville are flying the school flag from their porches. Big Green banners line the main streets and many of the store fronts bear their own messages:
“We are banking on a victory” is painted across the windows of the Ottoville Bank.
“Nail down a victory” is the window message at the Ottoville Lumber Company.
At the telephone company its: “Ring in a victory.”
There are signs in front of the fire station, the bars and the school.
And then there’s the one in the window of the Ottoville Hardware store:
“If you dream it, you can achieve it….Lady Green basketball.”
They’re dreaming big in Ottoville right now. I’m hoping there are parties again this weekend and again next weekend after the girls state tournament.
If I’m lucky, I’ll make one.
TweetWSU closer to NCAA Tournament than reeling UD
So now Wright State is one game away from the NCAA Tournament, while UD is in a free fall toward the NIT.
Early in the season, who would have guessed that?
The Raiders started out 6-4, while UD jumped out of the blocks 12-2.
Now the 20-11 Raiders have a better record than the Flyers and — should they upset Butler in the title game of the Horizon League Tournament Tuesday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse — they’re in the Bracket of 64.
Meanwhile the Flyers, who were the preseason favorites to win the Atlantic 10 this year, have instead tumbled to 8-8 in the league and a No. 7 seed in tyhe A-10 Tournament. They’ll have to run the table — four wins in six days — to get an NCAA bid.
After what happened to them Saturday night that’s pretty unimaginable.
“We’ve got to find a way to pick ourselves up off the mat,” Chris Wright said after UD suffered a stunning 71-66 loss to Saint Louis at UD Arena. And it’s a game where the final score is deceiving.
The Billikens — who came into this game as 12 point underdogs, who dress eight freshman and four sophomores and don’t have a senior — controlled this one most of the way, leading by as a many as 17 in the first half and still by 10 with just 14 seconds left.
So what has happened?
How could a team with so much promise — a team that went to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year and had everybody back but one player, Charles Little — fall through a trap door at the end of their regular season?
I’ll tell you one thing, I have to go way back to the Jim O’Brien days - back when UD won just four games that season — to remember a crowd as disgusted as this one became Saturday night.
Here it was Senior Night — a big lovefest on the court before the game — and by halftime some folks were booing the team.
Things got a little better in the second half, but Saint Louis pretty much had an answer for everything the Flyers did. Midway through the second half there were some irritated folks behind the south basket who were yelling their criticisms of coach Brian Gregory, who worked the team’s sidelines some 40 feet away.
I’m not sure what’s happened:
Senior Marcus Johnson’s season got derailed early and now Chris Johnson — who for a long stretch was the best player on the team — is in a swoon. And Luke Fabrizius is now hobbled with a bum back and become a non factor. And as the season has gone on, several of the other players have had their flaws exposed.
What makes it so hard to swallow though is that this team looked like world beaters several times this season — beating Georgia Tech in Puerto Rico, running Xavier and Charlotte out of the gym in back to back games in early February and then running roughshod over UMass just a week ago.
“I know we’re not going to quit,” said Wright, “but you have to have faith. Work without faith is dead.”
And right now, this team that once had a Top 25 ranking and visions of building on last season’s NCAA Tournament breakthrough, is in dire need of some of those heart paddles with the juice turned up full bore.
TweetThree Questions for Flyers Fans
Here are three questions for Dayton Flyers fans:
1 — With the regular season ending Saturday night against Saint Louis at UD Arena , which of the seven seniors — Marcus Johnson, Kurt Huelsman, London Warren, Rob Lowery, Mickey Perry, Dan Fox or Luke Hendrick — will you miss most?
2 — Would it be a smart move — basketball-wise, financially — for junior Chris Wright to jump to the NBA?
3 — With eight freshmen and four sophomores, Saint Louis may have the youngest team in Division I basketball. In the preseason, the Billikens were picked to finish 12th of 14 teams in the league by the A-10 media. They currently are 19-10 and 10-5 in the conference and already have beaten the Flyers once.
So is Rick Majerus — who has a career coaching record of 475-186 with Marquette, Ball State, Utah and now Saint Louis — the best coach in the A-10?
TweetOhio State’s Turner or Kentucky’s Wall — Who’s the Best?
It’s one of the best debates to hit college basketball in a long, long time:
Who’s the best player in the country this season — Ohio State’s Evan Turner or Kentucky’s John Wall?
Early in the season, I gave the edge to Wall, but now I think it’s Turner. The way he’s returned from broken bones in his back, put his Buckeye team on his shoulders and lifted it to the Big Ten regular season crown and the No. 6 ranking in the country is amazing.
Not that Wall has swooned. With Wednesday night’s victory over Georgia — in which he led the way with 24 points — the Cats are assured of at least a share of the SEC title. And they have both a better record (28-2) and ranking (No. 3) than the Bucks.
But Wall has a far better supporting cast around him.
When the 6-foot-7, 210-pound Turner missed six games with his back injury, the Bucks went 3-3 and lost their first two Big Ten games. Since he’s back, they’re 14-3.
Of course, if not for Wall, Kentucky may well have lost to Charlie Coles’ Miami RedHawks, Stanford, UConn and Vanderbilt — all games where the 6-foot-4 guard made dynamic plays in the final minutes.
Wednesday Mike Rothstein of AnnArbor.com released the last of his four straw polls of several sportswriters around the country — all of whom cover college basketball — and Turner was the overwhelming choice for Player of the Year honors.
Of the 49 writers polled — each picking their top three players in the game this season — 41 gave their first place vote to Turner,. The other eight gave them to Wall.
By the way, rounding out the top five were Syracuse’s Wesley Johnson (3rd), Scottie Reynolds of Villanova (4th) and Duke guard Jon Scheyer (5th).
Interestingly in the first of the bi-weekly polls — released Jan. 20 — Wall has the overwhelming lead, taking 32 of 45 first place votes. Turner finished third in that poll and had just three first place votes.
As a junior, Turner has two years and a little maturity on the dynamic Kentucky freshman, whose only slight flaw is his 4.07 turnovers-per-game average this season.
Both players have impressive stats.
Turner is averaging 19.5 p.p.g., 9.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists. He’s shooting 53.8 percent from the floor
Wall is averaging 16.8 p.p.g., 4.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists. He’s shooting 45 percent from the floor.
Since the Naismith Award — given to college basketball’s best player — was first handed out in 1969, no player from Ohio State or Kentucky has won it.
That streak is about to end.
What I really hope for is that Ohio State and Kentucky end up meeting in the NCAA Tournament. Wall versus Turner would be a match-up for the ages. Something stirring reminders of Bird versus Magic.
If nothing else it would field the growing debate into overdrive.
And if you are a college hoops fan, you’ve got to love that kind of buzz.
TweetThe Best Names In College Basketball
Around here, the most unique name in college basketball belongs to Sinclair’s British Alexander, the 6-foot-6 forward from Trotwood Madison High and the subject of my column in Wednesday’s newspaper.
His mom, Cookie Grigsby, said one of her nephews came up with the name. British said he thinks the inspiration was a shoe:
“British Knights were an urban shoe that was real popular when I was born.”
“When I was younger I didn’t like the name ‘cause it was so different. But my teachers always told me it was a nice name and as I’ve gotten older I appreciate it more. I feel comfortable with it now.”
He should. After all, when it comes to college basketball, there are always some great names that are quite different.
Here are some of my favorite names from the past few seasons.
Hands down, the best this year is Just-in’love Smith, a senior guard for Sienna.
That’s right up there with Baskerville Holmes, who played for Memphis State in the 1980s, God Shammgod who played for Providence in the 1990s, Oral Robert’s Beloved Rogers, Maryland’s Exree Hipp and the Mapp brothers — Scientific Mapp played for Florida A&M, and Majestic played for Virginia.
And, of course, last season 7-foot-2 Chief Kickingstallionsims and his Alabama State team played in the NCAA Tournament’s Opening Round game at UD Arena.
Some other special names:
Special Jennings — Xavier’s women’s team…By the way, she has two sisters, Treasure and Wonderful.
Colt Idol — Montana State
Parfait Bitee — Rhode Island
Pops Mensah-Bonsu — George Washington
Urule Igbavboa — Valparaiso
Dionte Christmas — Temple
Alibaba Odd — Delaware State
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