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<channel>
<title>Through the Arch</title>
<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/</link>
<description><![CDATA[Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon &mdash; an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue &mdash; writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy&#133; or yours.]]></description>
<dc:language>en-us</dc:language>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2013-05-23T23:58:00-05:00</dc:date>
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<item>
<title>Norris Cole goes south on West</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/05/23/norris_cole_goes_south_on_west.html</link>
<description> It looks as if Norris Cole was trying to turn David West from a Pacer into a soprano in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals Wednesday night in Miami. In the final minutes of regulation, Cole - the...</description>
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It looks as if Norris Cole was trying to turn David West from a Pacer into a soprano in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals Wednesday night in Miami.

In the final minutes of regulation, Cole - the Miami Heat&amp;#8217;s back-up point guard out of Dunbar High - drove off a screen and was picked up by Indiana&amp;#8217;s West, who tried trapping him close to the sideline. 

Instead Cole hunkered down, kept driving and as he pushed past West, he delivered a left forearm blow to his groin. The announcers called it a shot to the &amp;#8220;midsection,&amp;#8221; but the way West momentarily folded up and grimaced, you could tell the swat was south of the midsection.

Cole was called for the offensive foul, but the Heat ended up winning, 103-102, on a last second lay-up  by LeBron James in overtime. Cole finished with two points, five turnovers and one YouTube video that made you wince. 

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<dc:date>2013-05-23T23:58:00-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>Wrestling Heels vs. Baby Faces</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/05/18/wrestling_heels_vs_baby_faces.html</link>
<description>Jake Crist hammers Relentless Ron Mathis at RockStar Pro Arena Wednesday night (Charles Caperton photo) As I was talking to wrestler Jake Crist for my story on him - and his wife Nevaeh and brother Dave - for Sunday&amp;#8217;s paper,...</description>
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Jake Crist hammers Relentless Ron Mathis at RockStar Pro Arena Wednesday night (Charles Caperton photo)

As I was talking to wrestler Jake Crist for my story on him - and his wife Nevaeh and brother Dave - for Sunday&amp;#8217;s paper, we got on the subject of heels and baby faces.

Pro wrestling always comes with a story line. A punch-in-the gut soap opera, it usually revolves around good guys and bad, or, in  ring parlance, baby faces and heels.

In more than a decade as a wrestlers - competing among others for  UCW, Buckeye Pro Wrestling, Heartland Wrestling, Ring Of Honor, Combat Zone Wrestling and Juggalo Championship Wrestling - Jake Jake and Dave (and for nine years Neveah, too) have competed all over the US. The brothers have also competed in Europe and Canada and Jake is headed to Japan for a 10-day your starting Tuesday.

During his career, Jake said he has performed both as a face and a heel. 

&amp;#8220;It&amp;#8217;s easier being a heel,&amp;#8221; he said. &amp;#8220;It&amp;#8217;s easier to get people to hate you. When I&amp;#8217;m a heel, I just run my mouth more. You can just go out, look at the crowd and say &amp;#8216;Screw You &amp;#8220; and it&amp;#8217;s instant.

&amp;#8220;It&amp;#8217;s really hard to be a good baby face. You have to connect with the fans. That takes time to develop. People don&amp;#8217;t start right off saying. &amp;#8216;Oh I like that guy.&amp;#8217;&amp;#133;You&amp;#8217;ve got to give them as reason to cheer for you and say &amp;#8216;Hey, I do like that guy.&amp;#8217;  A lot of times you can do it by the way you wrestle - the way you work in the ring, the skill you show, the charisma, the traits
 people see that they like.&amp;#8221;

Back in the 1970s and 1980s - when I was a sports writer in Miami, Florida - I often covered the semi-weekly pro wrestling shows at the Miami Beach Convention Center and at other venues around town.

Of all of the heels I saw in action - most of whom I interviewed - here are my Top 10 all-time favorites:

Superstar Billy Graham

10 - SUPERSTAR BILLY GRAHAM&amp;#133;Although he would stay on script the whole way,  I liked interviewing him. He called everybody &amp;#8220;Brother&amp;#8221; and could be as wild verbally as he was visually. In the ring - once he shed his psychedelic coat, razor blade earrings and beads, he wore tie-dyed tights and had the physique  of a body builder, which he was. Arnold Schwarzenegger,  in fact, is the godfather of his daughter&amp;#133;In later years he&amp;#8217;s lectured kids on the damage steroids can cause.

9 - TED DiBIASE&amp;#133;The Million Dollar Man&amp;#133;.I remember him pulling that black glove - supposedly loaded with some kind of concrete-like substance - from his tights and knocking out opponents, all in front of an unawares ref&amp;#133;.Today, among other things, he&amp;#8217;s a preacher.

8 - FABULOUS MOOLAH - She came from a farm in Tookiedoo, S.C. and held the women&amp;#8217;s wrestling title for over three decades. She got into the WWE ring when she was 80. In Miami once I remember taking my small town Midwestern folks - who had no idea what they were getting into - and plopped them in the front row at a match. That&amp;#8217;s where Moolah spotted my dad and teed off on him with a stream of profanity that even made an Irishman like him blush. I have a photo of that moment on my desk at work.

Harley Race

7 - HARLEY RACE - The King&amp;#133;I remember his feuds with Dusty Rhodes (who was my favorite wrestler back then.) But the thing I remember most about Race is an interview I had with him when he told me how he broke into the game.

His first job was acting as chauffeur to Happy Humphrey, the massive 800-pound wrestler who was known as The Squasher&amp;#133;Race told me he got $5 a day to drive Happy around and $25 when he got him in the ring with him and got &amp;#8220;squashed.&amp;#8221;

He also served as a valet of sorts&amp;#133;.Happy was so huge he couldn&amp;#8217;t fit into a normal shower, so Race said the big man would strip naked and lie down and then Harley had to scrub him with a brush and rinse him with a garden hose, same as you might do with an elephant.

6 - RAVISHING RICK RUDE &amp;#133;billed himself as the Sexiest Man Alive&amp;#133;. I remember him in Florida where he was managed by Percy Pringle&amp;#133;Sadly, like way too many wrestlers, Rude died young&amp;#133;He was just 40.

Macho Man Randy Savage

5 - MACHO MAN RANDY SAVAGE - He came from a great wrestling family. Born Randy Mario Poffo, his dad Angelo and brother Lanny were great wrestlers in their own right. Although he was billed as coming from Downer&amp;#8217;s Grove, Illinois, he had Ohio ties. He was born in Columbus, went to middle school in Zanesville and later was an outfielder in the Cincinnati Reds organization&amp;#8230;.In the ring he was best known for that deep, raspy voice and his catch-all phrase, &amp;#8220;Oooh Yeah!!!&amp;#8221;

Abdullah the Butcher

4 - ABDULLAH the BUTCHER&amp;#133;..The Madman of the Sudan&amp;#133;.He&amp;#8217;s in his 70s now, but still wrestles on occasions Jake Crist told me. &amp;#133;.He was one of the original hardcore wrestlers&amp;#133;.What I remember most was his deeply scarred forehead&amp;#133;He used to cut it with a concealed razor blade during matches to make himself bleed&amp;#133;I once saw him grab the script ring announcer Gordon Solie was holding, jam it into his mouth, chew it up and swallow it all. ..His menu has improved. Today he owns a restaurant in Atlanta called Abdullah the Butcher&amp;#8217;s House of Ribs and Chinese Food.

3 &amp;#8212; ROWDY RODDY PIPER&amp;#133;.Entering the ring with kilt, bagpipes, and arrogant swagger, he played the heel role to the hilt.  In my book, he was the best talker in the game.

My No. 1 Heel &amp;#8212; Ric Flair

2 - KEVIN SULLIVAN&amp;#133;The Taskmaster&amp;#133;.He showed up in Florida with a devil-worshipping gimmick that turned the crowd against him immediately and he worked that angle to perfection&amp;#133;I appreciated him because he was the first pro wrestler who ever took me back into the dressing room&amp;#133;.an otherwise off limits area for any sportswriter, not only because that&amp;#8217;s here the show was scripted, but also because afterwards you could see just how much some of these guys were hurting from their batterings in the ring.

1 - RIC FLAIR&amp;#133;The Nature Boy&amp;#133;Entering the ring with a fur-lined, sequined robe, strutting cockily  and letting loose with his trademark &amp;#8220;Wooooo!&amp;#8221; he worked the crowd better than any wrestler I have ever known. No one - and I mean no one - could tell a story better in the ring. 

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<dc:subject></dc:subject>
<dc:date>2013-05-18T22:16:37-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>Northmont&apos;s Jim Brown deserved better</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/05/16/northmonts_jim_brown_deserved.html</link>
<description>Everybody involved in Jim Brown&amp;#8217;s unexpected ouster as the basketball coach at Northmont High has a little different interpretation of the events that took place. One thing I think all of them can agree on though: The coaching change could...</description>
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Everybody involved in Jim Brown&amp;#8217;s unexpected ouster as the basketball coach at Northmont High has a little different interpretation of the events that took place. 

One thing I think all of them can agree on though: The coaching change could have been handled far better than this. 

At best it was a simple bungled affair. At worst it was an orchestrated matter that a lawyer may end up addressing.

Either way, I think Jim Brown - or any person in any job that gives that much time, brings that much success and is exemplary  in so many other ways - deserves better at the end of his career. 

I wrote about the matter in far more detail in today&amp;#8217;s Dayton Daily News and that same column is posted here on this web page.  

The gist of it goes like this: 

For 16 seasons Brown was a stellar representative of Northmont High. He turned a struggling program into one of the three best Division I programs in the Miami Valley. And yet after his 14th straight winning season - this last one a 17-8 campaign that ended with a loss in the finals of the sectional tournament - he will not have his contact renewed by the school.

Brown said he was told he was being let go simply to allow his young assistant, Collin Abels, to take over the job. He said certain school officials thought  Abels would leave Northmont for another job if he didn&amp;#8217;t get elevated.

The 68-year-old Brown had hoped o coach two or three more years at the most.  Instead his job unceremoniously ends when his contract runs out June 30th . 

The three administrators I spoke to Wednesday each said he did nothing wrong .

&amp;#8220;No, no, no, there was absolutely no incident, no single issue at all,&amp;#8221; said principal George Caras.

Really, the most serious wrong doing I heard about in this matter was the bogus resignation letter that athletics director Robin Spiller - supposedly at the prompting of Caras - had penned with Brown&amp;#8217;s name typed at the  bottom of it as if he wrote it. She sent it to the Northmont human resources department, where it then was put on the agenda of the next school board meeting.  

Brown said he didn&amp;#8217;t write the letter, OK it, sign it or even know it had been sent.

Caras admitted the letter was a &amp;#8220;mistake at the building level.&amp;#8221; He said, &amp;#8220;We followed the same process we do with all extra-curricular contracts. They are all one year contracts and when they expire they can be renewed or not. But the letter was a mistake on our part - me and Robin - but there was no malicious intent. Nobody was trying to pull the wool over Jim&amp;#8217;s eyes.&amp;#8221;

Northmont superintendent Sarah Zatik admitted she knew nothing of the move to oust Brown or the origin of the so-called resignation letter until a school board member called her and informed her Brown&amp;#8217;s  departure was to be acted on at the upcoming board meeting.

Zatik - who described Brown &amp;#8220;as a great guy,&amp;#8221; one she &amp;#8220;really respects,&amp;#8221; &amp;#8212; refused to accept the letter, and then had the resignation discussion pulled from the board agenda. She immediately met with all parties involved and she said what she found out  &amp;#8212; and what she has seen transpire since&amp;#8212;has  left her  &amp;#8220;very saddened,&amp;#8221; she said.

Brown too is saddened, and angered&amp;#133;and a bit shell shocked by what has transpired. 

&amp;#8220;Never in my wildest dreams did I think my career at Northmont would end this way,&amp;#8221;  he said.  &amp;#8220;Every time I think about what&amp;#8217;s been done here, it&amp;#8217;s like a bad dream.&amp;#8221;

That&amp;#8217;s the other thing everybody involved can agree on.

It is like a bad dream. 

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<dc:subject></dc:subject>
<dc:date>2013-05-16T01:25:03-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<item>
<title>Cincinnati Reds: The Donald Lutz Story</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/05/14/cincinnati_reds_the_donald_lut.html</link>
<description>Donald Lutz (Associated Press Photo) How&amp;#8217;s this for some foreign exchange? In 1958 we sent Elvis Presley to Friedberg, Germany. Now 55 years later, Friedberg has sent Donald Lutz to the Cincinnati Reds. One guy has Heartbreak Hotel, Jail House...</description>
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<![CDATA[Donald Lutz (Associated Press Photo) 

How&#8217;s this for some foreign exchange?

In 1958 we sent Elvis Presley to Friedberg, Germany.

Now 55 years later, Friedberg has sent Donald Lutz to the Cincinnati Reds.

One guy  has Heartbreak Hotel, Jail House Rock,  Burning Love and Don&#8217;t Be Cruel  and the other has some pretty big hits himself.

Some six months after Presley joined the military service in 1958, he was stationed  at the US Army Ray Barracks in Friedberg.  Today, the King of Rock &#8216;N Roll is commemorated all over that city, including at a shopping center called the Elvis Presley Platz.

Lutz, meanwhile, is gaining fame in Cincinnati these days. The young slugger became the first Germa- raised player ever to make the Major Leagues when he was called up from Class AA ball recently. He&#8217;s played in nine games, has had six hits in 19 at bats and has a .316 batting average.

His biggest hit came Sunday - Mother&#8217;sDay at Great American Ball Park - when he blasted his first-ever big league home run, a second-inning, three-run shot against Milwaukee that lifted the Reds to the 5-1 victory.

After the game Lutz told how he wanted to make Mother&#8217;s Day special for his mom back in Germany

Two years ago - when Lutz played for the Dayton Dragons - he talked to me at length about his mother and then I spoke to her by phone for a good while from Germany. I also spoke to his dad in Virginia.

It made for an interesting story and now, with everyone fascinated by the 235-pound slugger, I thought it would be good to share the Donald Lutz story again.

Here&#8217;s my column from 2011 on him.

xxxxxx

SLUGGER LUTZ DIALING LONG DISTANCE

When it comes to distance, nothing, it seems, is too far away for Donald Lutz. 

&#8212; The Dayton Dragons 6-foot-4, 230-pound slugger has swatted a ball onto the roof of Mendelson&#8217;s across from Fifth Third Field. He&#8217;s deposited two home run balls into the intersection of Sears and First streets beyond the ballpark. In fact, he&#8217;s cleared the home run fences a team-leading 16 times this season. 

&#8212; When it comes to his mom (her name is Marlen), his grandmother, even his 95-year-old great grandmother, all of them back home in Friedberg, Germany, his exploits here in Dayton had them hopping and squealing like giddy schoolgirls the other day as they watched an Internet feed. 

&#8212; As for his dad, an Army vet living in Virginia whom he never really knew the first 20 of his 22 years, he has bridged that gap, too. In fact, when the two first got together in 2009, they did everything from salt-water fishing to take in a George Clinton &amp; Parliament Funkadelic concert that had Dad singing along on &#8220;Atomic Dog&#8221; and &#8220;Give Up the Funk&#8221; as son watched with wide-eyed amusement. 

Seven years ago, Pete Kiefer, now Lutz&#8217;s Connecticut-based agent, had begun helping out with the German national baseball team. One of the players he met was Sascha Lutz, who was five years older than Donald. 

&#8220;Everybody kept saying, &#8216;Wait until you see what&#8217;s comin&#8217; down the pike,&#8217; &#8221; Kiefer said. &#8220;They said. &#8216;Sascha&#8217;s little brother &#8212; Big Donald &#8212; is really something special.&#8217; &#8221; Homesick mom 

Friedberg, an old town of some 28,000, is 20 minutes north of Frankfurt. For many years it was home to the U.S. Army&#8217;s Ray Barracks. It was the duty station of Elvis Presley during his military stint in Europe and today the King of Rock &#8216;N&#8217; Roll is commemorated all over town, including with the Elvis Presley Platz shopping center. 

Donald Lutz (Sr.), an American serviceman, also was stationed in Friedberg. He met Marlen there, they married, and after Sascha was born, they moved to the U.S. 

Daughter Vicki was born at Fort Collins, Colo., and young Donald &#8212; &#8220;He was a huge 10-pound baby,&#8221; Marlen laughed &#8212; was born in Watertown, N.Y., when his dad was at Fort Drum. 

Bouncing from Army post to Army post for seven years wasn&#8217;t easy for Marlen. &#8220;To tell the truth I was always homesick,&#8221; she said by phone from Friedberg. &#8220;There were some other problems, too, and we divorced and the children and I moved back to Germany when Donald was eight months old.&#8221; 

With the help of her mother, she mostly raised her family on her own, though many years later she remarried and now has a young son, Chondi. 

&#8220;It was a struggle sometimes, but Mom worked a job, took care of us and really taught us how to get through life,&#8221; Donald said. 

&#8220;When I was growing up, we had some photos of my dad, but I didn&#8217;t hear a lot of stories about him and there wasn&#8217;t a lot of contact and I didn&#8217;t think a lot about it. My big brother kind of took care of me if I did something stupid.&#8221; 

Donald said Sascha eventually led him to baseball: &#8220;Early on we lived in a little apartment and I could see the baseball field from my window. Sometimes they had the circus there and in the winter &#8212; because the field was made below ground level &#8212; they&#8217;d flood it so it would freeze over and everyone could skate.&#8221; 

A hockey player, Donald was coaxed to try baseball at age 15. The first time he came to the plate in a game, he hit a home run. 

&#8220;I didn&#8217;t know much about baseball,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I remember my brother had a little poster from the era of Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, but other than that I didn&#8217;t know any players. 

&#8220;That&#8217;s why I feel embarrassed sometimes here when they ask me about this person and that and what they did. I don&#8217;t know them, so I&#8217;m always online trying to catch up with the history of baseball.&#8221; 

By age 16, though, he was doing well enough on the field that he had joined the national team. &#8220;You start getting more and more involved,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and next thing you know there&#8217;s an American knocking on your door with an offer.&#8221; 

Finally Meets Dad

After signing with the Cincinnati Reds in 2007 as an international free agent, he played two years in the Gulf Coast League and last season was with Billings in the rookie Pioneer League. 

Two years ago he finally flew to Virginia to meet his dad. &#8220;A lot of people have asked me, &#8216;Wasn&#8217;t it really awkward?&#8217; &#8221; he said.&#8220;Sure I had a lot of feelings going through my body, but when I first saw him, he gave me a big hug and pretty soon it was like hanging out with a really good friend.&#8221; 

Donald (Sr.) said it&#8217;s &#8220;wonderful&#8221; to have his son back in his life: &#8220;He&#8217;s really a great kid. Wherever he goes he&#8217;s able to fit right in. And I&#8217;ve got to say it&#8217;s because of his mother. She gets 98 percent of the credit. She did an excellent job raising him and his brother and sister. She made her children first in every aspect of her life and it shows.&#8221; 

These days father and son stay in regular contact. &#8220;When he was in a little slump a while back I suggested he talk to his own pitchers and see how they&#8217;d pitch him,&#8221; Donald (Sr.) said. 

Whatever happened, his son went on a 16-game hitting streak that just ended this past week. He&#8217;s hitting .273 for the season, but in the last 10 games he&#8217;s at .467. 

Ten days ago against Peoria at Fifth Third Field, he became the first Dragon to hit for the cycle. His mom &#8212; who contacts him almost daily and coaxes him to do everything from eat his fruit and vegetables to mind his manners &#8212; told his grandmother about it and soon they were watching the game highlights on the computer. 

&#8220;My mother was going &#8216;aaah &#8230; aaah &#133; aaah,&#8217; &#8221; Marlen laughed. &#8220;We stood there and hollered and jumped and acted like little children. We were going, &#8216;Look at our Donald!&#8217; &#8221; 

Because of his open personality and his longball tendencies, her son &#8212; who lives with a host family outside Eaton &#8212; is a crowd favorite here in Dayton, as well. 

&#8220;Before games we sign autographs and it seems like every day someone comes up to talk about Germany,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The other day a guy in the stands gets up and yells &#8216;Lutz!&#8217; Then he showed me his arm. He had a big German symbol tattooed on it.&#8221; 

And that leads to one other distant goal. 

He wants to be the first German to play in a major-league game. At present there are just a handful of Germans in minor league baseball and just Kai Gronauer, a 24-year-old catcher with the New York Mets&#8217; Double-A team in Binghamton, N.Y. &#8212; is ahead of him. 

&#8220;I know him, we played together on the national team,&#8221; Lutz said. &#8220;It&#8217;s friendly competition, but, yeah, it&#8217;s a little race and, yeah, I think I can do it.&#8221; 

And why not? 

As he&#8217;s shown before, no distance is too far.

xxxxx 

Before we go, here&#8217;s also a little bit of Elvis just before he joined the Army.


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<dc:date>2013-05-14T00:35:49-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<title>Matt Kavanaugh vs. Roger Brown -- Different treatment at UD</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/05/09/matt_kavanaugh_vs_roger_brown.html</link>
<description>Matt Kavanaugh (Eric Schelkun photo) Matt Kavanaugh is getting what the late Roger Brown never did at the University of Dayton: A second chance. The difference in the treatment of the two Flyers basketball players, though decades apart, is startling....</description>
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Matt Kavanaugh (Eric Schelkun photo)

Matt Kavanaugh is getting what the late Roger Brown never did at the University of Dayton:

A second chance.

The difference in the treatment of the two Flyers basketball players, though decades apart, is startling.

Kavanaugh - who police said was a suspect in a sexual assault investigation involving a 17-year-old freshman student last August, but was never charged by the Montgomery County prosecutor - was suspended by UD for a year for violating  school conduct.

Wednesday, it was announced the 6-foot-10 senior - who had been a co-captain of the team before his ouster &amp;#8212; has been reinstated to the school.  Kavanaugh will begin summer classes on Monday and play for the Flyers, a team in need of an inside presence, next season. 

That decision, saluted by many UD fans, is not supported by the family of the girl, who finished the school year, but may not return next fall. The girl&amp;#8217;s father said the move &amp;#8220;borders on recklessness.&amp;#8221;

Roger Brown

As for Brown, who many say is the greatest basketball talent ever to wear a University of Dayton uniform , he was banned - railroaded, some believe &amp;#8212; from UD after his freshman season. 

His sin?  

When he was a Brooklyn school kid, he and teenage pal Connie Hawkins were said to have received about $200 from gambler Jack Molinas - UD great Monk Meineke&amp;#8217;s old roommate when they played pro ball together - who hung around New York City playgrounds and wanted introductions to other high school players. 

Molinas and a partner later were charged with fixing several college basketball games.

Brown and Hawkins never were charged with anything.

There was no proof Brown ever fixed games when he starred on the powerful  UD freshman team back in the 1960-61 season. The same goes for Hawkins at Iowa, the school that later bounced him, as well.  Nor was it said that anyone they introduced to Molinas ever  fixed games. 

Even though Brown had no legal representation when he later was kept  in a New York hotel room for several days by NCAA investigators, authorities admitted they could find no proof that the Flyers star even had contact with Molinas and his partner once he got to UD.  

But a teenage indiscretion - before he ever set foot on the campus - got Brown forever exiled from the school and because of that, in part, from the NBA for several years. 

Certainly the times are different. The administrations are different now, too, and so is the public embrace of the two players.

Kavanaugh is from Centerville, played for the Flyers for three seasons and his family is long tied to the university and its athletic teams.

Brown was an inner city kid from Brooklyn who didn&amp;#8217;t have any connections here when he first arrived. As the first black player of real note, some of his biggest supporters ended up being in West Dayton. 

Even so, after his banishment, Brown stayed in Dayton for six years playing AAU and industrial league basketball, working at Inland and living for a while with Azariah and Arlena Smith on Shoop Ave.

Roger Brown

Thanks to the intervention of the great Oscar Robertson, Brown eventually  became the first draft pick of the Indiana Pacers in the ABA,  led them to three American Basketball Association titles, was a league All Star four times and the MVP of the 1970 Playoffs. 

Brown - who died of liver cancer in 1997 - was elected to the Naismith Memorial  Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts in February. He will be inducted in September.

A lot of folks - from several of his old UD teammates to his freshman coach, the late Herbie Dintaman - thought Brown got poor treatment here.

&amp;#8220;He was a good man who got a bad deal,&amp;#8221; Dintaman once told me. 

Brown had no infractions at school. Never had legal representation . And it seems he had no champions with real juice - or courage - in the administration.

That&amp;#8217;s not the case with Kavanaugh.

Late last season both Coach Archie Miller and athletics director Tim Wabler told me they were in favor of Kavanaugh&amp;#8217;s return. Miller kept a scholarship open all year.

I don&amp;#8217;t know what happened between Kavanaugh and the girl. He won&amp;#8217;t discuss the incident, but he does admit &amp;#8220;mistakes were made.&amp;#8221; He said he has changed - that he has come to a better realization what is expected of him and how he should act - and Miller said he sees some of that transformation in the big man, as well. 

Wednesday, both  Kavanaugh and his coach talked about looking ahead.

The father of the girl can&amp;#8217;t help but look back a little, too. And you would too were it your 17-year-old daughter who had just arrived on the UD campus when the alleged pair of incidents happened.

&amp;#8220;We think the University of Dayton is a fine institution,&amp;#8221; the father told our newspaper by email. &amp;#8220;At the same time we feel the university&amp;#8217;s decision to readmit Kavanaugh is less than prudent and borders on recklessness.&amp;#8221;

This is a divisive issue with plenty of folks - including Flyers fans - and you can only hope that Kavanaugh can match what Brown did after UD cast him adrift

I&amp;#8217;m not talking about on the basketball court, but away from the game.

Brown became a Republican city councilman in Indianapolis, did extensive charity work and became an icon in the city. 

After his ouster from UD - even years later when he was a star with the Pacers - he still came back here to visit. Right before he died I talked to him and he again professed his love for UD. 

He would have been a great ambassador of the school had the times, the administration or the public embrace been different back in his Flyers&amp;#8217; days.

He didn&amp;#8217;t get a second chance at UD.

Matt Kavanaugh has.

Let&amp;#8217;s hope folks will look back on him one day and say: &amp;#8220;He was a good man.&amp;#8221;

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<dc:subject></dc:subject>
<dc:date>2013-05-09T10:35:56-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<title>Quinn Pitcock: The addiction that derailed his NFL career</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/05/02/quinn_pitcock_the_addiction_th.html</link>
<description>Quinn Pitcock (Associated Press photo) Quinn Pitcock - one of our area&amp;#8217;s best football players - spoke candidly on national TV Wednesday afternoon to Katie Couric about the addiction that derailed his NFL career. Pitcock and Katie Couric An All-State...</description>
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Quinn Pitcock (Associated Press photo)

Quinn Pitcock - one of our area&amp;#8217;s best football players - spoke candidly on national TV Wednesday afternoon to Katie Couric about the addiction that derailed his NFL career.

Pitcock and Katie Couric

An All-State defensive tackle at Piqua High, consensus first team All-American at Ohio State and a once-promising, 328-pound lineman for the  Indianapolis Colts, Pitcock gave up the game he had long loved for another game - one to which he was fully addicted.

The 29-year-old Pitcock was - and still is - a video game addict who ended up losing friends, his livelihood and most of all his perspective and sense of self as he sank deeper and deeper into the world of virtual reality..

&amp;#8220;I was living the dream. I was coming off my senior year for the Buckeyes being drafted in the third round by the Indianapolis Colts. So I was on the right path for greatness and then things turned for the worst,&amp;#8221; he told Couric on her show &amp;#8220;Katie.&amp;#8221;

One of our area&amp;#8217;s greatest football players

Pitcock - as those of us who have known him here a long time can well attest - told Couric: &amp;#8220;I&amp;#8217;m an introvert. I do better by myself. I&amp;#8217;m happier that way.&amp;#8221;

Video games became an easy escape for him and he said the gaming culture is prevalent in the NFL: 

&amp;#8220;We have off season workouts and some of us do charities during the day and the rest of the day is off to play (video) football games, Halo (and) Call Of Duty like myself. In the locker room we had a video game system and we played them there. That&amp;#8217;s how my video gaming started. I end up buying a game station for home. Then the online players are what got me because no matter what time of day&amp;#133; there is still someone playing.&amp;#8221;

He said he became one of the top ranked players in the world in three different games: &amp;#8220;Top three rakings in millions and millions of people, so in my mind I was doing well. So why not keep on playing?&amp;#8221;

With a pause, he quietly added: &amp;#8220;And if I really put myself to it, I could have been No. 1, but I didn&amp;#8217;t want that.

&amp;#8220;(But) all of a sudden, I was away from everybody. I became secluded from friends, family. I stopped going to my workouts, stopped doing what I needed to do for my professional career. I called my agent and said, &amp;#8216;Look, I&amp;#8217;m done with football. I can&amp;#8217;t do it right now. It&amp;#8217;s not for me anymore.&amp;#8217;&amp;#8221;

Pitcock (97) as a Colt

After just one season Pitcock left the Colts. He claimed depression, which - though he was secretive about it at first - was being fueled by his growing gaming addiction. 

&amp;#8220;I have such respect for game and I wasn&amp;#8217;t fully 100 percent committed so I felt they were better off with me,&amp;#8221; he told Couric.

Pitcock said the Colts offered to help him, but initially he slipped deeper into his addiction:

&amp;#8220;I was spiraling down where video games were taking over my life. Once I did quit the NFL my addiction got even worse. That&amp;#8217;s when I really got into the 18-plus hours a day. Eating one meal a day. Secluded from everybody - my friends, family, everybody. I realized then it was a physical need. It was no longer just a mental, &amp;#8216;Oh, I want to play.&amp;#8217; It was, &amp;#8216;I don&amp;#8217;t want to play anymore,&amp;#8217; but physically, I had to play. I could not stop.&amp;#8221;

It took Pitcock a while to accept the Colts&amp;#8217; offer, but when he did it helped him save his life. 

&amp;#8220;They (the Colts) didn&amp;#8217;t shun me out at all, they were there to help me,&amp;#8221; he said. &amp;#8220;But it&amp;#8217;s like any addict - you can&amp;#8217;t get recovery until you&amp;#8217;re ready to accept you&amp;#8217;re an addict and that you want recovery. And that was the part I wasn&amp;#8217;t ready for. It took me at least six months to a year until I started going to the psychologist/psychiatrist provided by the Colts.&amp;#8221;

Played a year with the Colts

After a couple of years, Pitcock tried to return to the NFL - first with Seattle in 2010 and then Detroit in 2011. He got as far as the final cut of preseason camp or the practice squad, but didn&amp;#8217;t play in another regular season NFL game. Now he is playing Arena League Football for the Orlando Predators and he still hopes he can work his way back to the NFL.

&amp;#8220;I&amp;#8217;m always going to be a recovering game addict,&amp;#8221; he said. &amp;#8220;I started off going from one addiction to another - like on-line poker and then on-line auctions&amp;#133;At first I was just replacing addictions and to this day I still have troubles with just some small game applications. If I get myself in a room with too much time I could catch myself into a game for hours without knowing.&amp;#8221;

He said talking to someone about his addictions helped him deal with them and he suggests other people who find their lives spiraling downward into a gamer&amp;#8217;s world of virtual reality should find someone to open up to, as well: 

&amp;#8220;Talk to a third party and just speak your mind. For me, I realized once I got things off my chest, it was a lot easier to get away from the games, because the games are a way to separate yourself from reality (and go into)  virtual reality you can control. Once you face the truth of reality, I think you can move forward.&amp;#8221; 

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<dc:subject></dc:subject>
<dc:date>2013-05-02T09:15:35-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<title>Who is Reds early MVP?</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/04/22/who_is_reds_early_mvp.html</link>
<description>Shin-Soo Choo Three weeks into the baseball season, who would you say is the early MVP of the Cincinnati Reds? If I had to pick the top four candidates, I&amp;#8217;d rate them like this: 1 - Team MVP - Centerfielder...</description>
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Shin-Soo Choo

Three weeks into the baseball season, who would you say is the early MVP of the Cincinnati Reds?

If I had to pick the top four candidates, I&amp;#8217;d rate them like this:

1 - Team MVP - Centerfielder Shin-Soo Choo - the best lead-off hitter in baseball right now.   He leads the Major League Baseball  in on-base percentage (.523). He&amp;#8217;s second in the National League in batting average (.382)  and runs scored (17). 

2 - runner-up MVP - Second baseman Brandon Phillips - for both his production (21  RBI, 4 home runs, .307 average) at the plate and his Gold Glove acrobatics in the field.

3 - second runner up - Closer Aroldis Chapman - when the bullpen door opens in centerfield and he appears at the top of the ninth inning the sight of him fills Greater American Ball Park with a shiver of excitement&amp;#133;.except, of course, in the opposing dugout where the Reds hard thrower brings air-whiffing frustration if not outright dread.  He&amp;#8217;s thrown 9.1 innings and has an 0.96 earned run average.

4 - third runner up - Third baseman Todd Frazier - his clutch hitting (team-leading 5 home runs, 17 RBI, .373 on base percentage )  is trumping the play of departed veteran Scott Rolen.

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<dc:subject></dc:subject>
<dc:date>2013-04-22T17:59:02-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<title>Boston Marathon Bombing: Similar to Atlanta Olympics and WTC attacks...and in our  resolve</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/04/17/boston_marathon_bombing_simila.html</link>
<description>Moments after the Boston Marathon blasts (Associated Press photo) The Boston Marathon bombings were the deadliest terrorist incident in the United States since the September 11 attacks in 2001. But they are more similar to the Centennial Park bombing at...</description>
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<![CDATA[Moments after the Boston Marathon blasts (Associated Press photo)

The Boston Marathon bombings were the deadliest terrorist incident in the United States since the September 11 attacks in 2001. But they are more similar to the Centennial Park bombing at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996.

While it appears no Miami Valley runners were seriously injured Monday in Boston  - where the two blasts near the marathon finish line have claimed three lives and injured more than 170 - we did have people from here who were seriously hurt and killed at the World Trade Center in 2001 and Atlanta five years before that.

Six University of Dayton grads - Kristy Irvine Ryan (1993 grad), Mary Lenz Wieman (&#8217;80),  Al Niedermetyer II (&#8217;83), Joe Zuccala (&#8217;68), David Wiswall  (&#8217;69) and William Even Wilson (&#8217;65) - were killed when the planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

In the Atlanta bombing - which caused two deaths and injured 110 - two of the people who suffered the most serious injuries were a pair of friends from here: Lynn Smith, the former Yellow Springs athlete, college coach and later an Olympic coach of note, and Eric Johnson, a top Yellow Springs athlete himself once, who then lived in Dayton and worked at Lexis-Nexis.

Kristy Irvine Ryan

I covered both the Atlanta and the World Trade Center attacks for this paper and wrote many stories about the events and our victims, especially Kristy Irvine Ryan and Mary Lenz Wieman, as well as Lynn Smith and Eric Johnson.

I&#8217;ve reprinted the story I did from Eric&#8217;s bedside at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta the day after the Olympic bombing. Many of those scenes and feelings eerily resonate through the events in Boston now. 

Before you get to that story though, a couple of points stand out from those past stories - points I hope come into play again now.

While the bombs severely injured and killed some of us, the &#8220;heinous and cowardly act&#8221; - as  President Obama so rightly called it - will not blow apart our society, who we are, what we believe and how we live our lives. 

Whether the terrorists turn out to be domestic - as was the case in Atlanta and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 - or foreign forces as were the attackers in 9/11, they should not and will not force us to cower behind closed doors and hide. That is the way they operate. They hate are open society. 

From my stories, two incidents come to mind. 

Although he was badly injured in Atlanta and it took in a long time to mend - physically and otherwise - I remember standing there with Smith that day in 2008 at the Beijing Games when he finally stepped inside an Olympic venue again.

Lynn Smith in the front row of the Olympic Stadium at the Beijing Games in 2008

The 1996 bombing had happened just a few hours after he had gotten to Atlanta so - except for a Dream Team basketball game and Centennial Park - he never really got to experience the Olympics.  But in Beijing, there he was in the front row at the Olympic Stadium. He was the coach of Hyleas Fountain , the then Kettering resident, who would win the silver medal in the heptathlon.

Until I brought it up, he said he had never thought about the day in terms of reclaiming what had been stolen from him in 1996.

&#8220;I&#8217;ve just been living my life, doing what I love,&#8221; he said.

Mary Lenz Wieman with her three kids before she was killed

I remember a similar sentiment coming from Marc Wieman - Mary&#8217;s husband and himself a UD grad - when I talked to him again in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the WTC attacks.

&#8220;Everybody has tragedies in their lives,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Ours isn&#8217;t any more tragic than yours. It&#8217;s just more public. We don&#8217;t want anybody&#8217;s pity, but prayers? They are always welcome.&#8221; 

And then he told me about some outside advice he gotten, advice he and his kids try to follow every day: 

&#8220;Somebody I know told me, &#8216;You have to learn to live with the grief, not in it.&#8217; That&#8217;s what we are trying to do.&#8221; 

Xxxxxx

Here is my story after the Atlanta Olympic bombing:

INJURED FAN ASKS: &#8216;WHY?&#8217;

He lay on his side, his fingers limply wrapped around the metal railing of his hospital bed, plastic tubes running into his nose, abdomen and arms.

&#8220;It hurts when I breathe,&#8221; Eric Johnson whispered drowsily, his eyelids drifting nearly shut, then opening again. &#8220;I got shrapnel from the bomb in my stomach and colon &#8230; It hurts so much.&#8221; 

The former Yellow Springs High basketball player who now works for Lexis-Nexis south of Dayton slowly extended his fingers. He wanted to touch the hand of someone from home. Anything to regain a familiar feel. 

Beyond the window of his sixth-floor room at Grady Health Systems hospital - out there in that gray, rainy day that fit the mood of this city in shock - a big billboard beckoned: 

&#8220;Hello World.&#8221; 

It was a joyous greeting to the Olympic Games of Atlanta. Johnson couldn&#8217;t see it from his bed, and it was just as well. 

The message had little meaning to him. The Olympic welcome he got nearly killed him. 

Johnson and Lynn Smith, who also grew up in Yellow Springs, were seriously injured when a pipe-bomb blast ripped through downtown Atlanta&#8217;s crowded Centennial Olympic Park at 1:25 a.m. Saturday. 

Alice Hawthorne, 44, of Albany, Ga., died in the blast and 40-year-old Turkish TV cameraman Melih Uzunyol died of a heart attack as he ran to film the scene. At least 100 people were injured, with Johnson and Smith two of the most seriously wounded. 

Johnson had stomach surgery and Smith, one nurse said Saturday afternoon, had lung injuries and still was in the operating room. 

As for official word on the condition of the two Miami Valley men, hospital administrators said no information will be released. Police and security guards had set up a perimeter that kept an international media horde beyond the hospital doors. 

&#8220;We&#8217;d been out in the park not even two hours,&#8221; Johnson said quietly. &#8220;We were having a good time.&#8221; 

The USA Dream Team basketball game with China they attended at the nearby Georgia Dome had ended 90 minutes earlier and much of that crowd had poured into the already crowded Centennial Park, where the Jack Mack and the Heart Attack band was giving an outdoor concert. 

It was a beautiful night, cooler than usual, with a big round moon above. As had been the case since the Olympic Games opened, the mood in the new 21-acre park was festive. 

Ringed by tall, gleaming office buildings and Olympic arenas, the park - with free concerts, brightly lit corporate pavilions and that decorative fountain where people danced in the refreshing spray - had become the centerpiece of Atlanta&#8217;s Summer Games&#8217; celebration. 

Unfortunately it was an area where security was weakest. Unlike the Olympic venues or the massive media center across the street, people entered the park without having their bags X-rayed or hand-checked. No access badges or tickets were needed to come in. 

&#8220;It was one of our greatest gathering places for the Games,&#8221; said Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell. &#8220;That has been dampened&#8221;. 

The bomb apparently was hidden in a leather bag left at the base of a light tower near the AT&amp;T Global Village stage. A threat was called into a 911 operator from a bank of phones two blocks away. Before the bomb could be defused, it went off, sending nails, screws and other metal flying. 

Confusion soon turned to panicked chaos and many in the crowd of some 30,000 tried to flee the park. Authorities and park revelers tried to help the injured who lay crumpled, dazed and bloodied in the area. Once rescue squads - lights flashing, sirens wailing - made their way into the congested area, many of the injured were transported to Grady. 

With dawn&#8217;s first light, it was evident that these Olympics were suddenly cast in darkness. The pipe bomb may have been a crude device, but it managed to greatly wound the Olympic spirit. 

Where once there had been music, food and frivolity, there now was yellow police tape, armed soldiers and security men and everywhere grim faces. 

&#8220;There is no today to compare to yesterday,&#8221; Paul Larsen, who runs a souvenir tent just outside Centennial Park said as he looked at the empty street in front of him. &#8220;Yesterday is gone &#8230; for good.&#8221; 

Saturday morning&#8217;s explosion tapped into a deep sense of uneasiness that has settled over America lately. After the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings - and the downing of TWA Flight 800 - comes a strike that the FBI is calling &#8220;a terrorist attack.&#8221; 

Although competition continued Saturday - &#8220;The Games WILL go on,&#8221; an ashen Francois Carrard, director general of the International Olympic Committee announced around 4 a.m Saturday - the damage was done. 

Atlanta now looks like Beirut. 

&#8220;These are now the tainted games,&#8221; Matt Ghaffari, the American silver medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling, said Saturday. &#8220;Now when people say 1996, they&#8217;re not going to remember the medals we won. They&#8217;re going to remember this is the place where they had a terrorist attack.&#8221; 

Campbell admitted, &#8220;That was our one greatest fear. It&#8217;s a terrible tragedy that casts a long shadow over our celebration.&#8221; 

Because of the violent times in which we live, Atlanta Olympic organizers privately worried about someone commandeering the Games&#8217; world stage to advance their own bloody agenda. 

It had happened at the 1972 Games in Munich when Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes. 

This past April, there were reports that members of a Georgia militia group who were arrested for allegedly building a cache of pipe bombs had their sights set on the Olympics. 

And at the Opening Ceremonies nine days ago, a man wearing a bogus security uniform and carrying a .45-caliber pistol and 11 rounds of ammunition eluded security and sneaked into the Olympic Stadium, where thousands of athletes and several heads of state, including President Bill Clinton, were in attendance. The guy was arrested. 

Campbell admitted that since the Games began organizers have received several threats. All, he claimed, had been checked out and found to be mere rhetoric. 

Atlanta Olympic chief Billy Payne even boasted that his city would be the safest in the world during the Games. And much was made of the 30,000-member security force and the advanced security devices. 

Yet, nine days into the Games, many in the media can tell you of times they were permitted into venues without a bag being checked or when a trading pin rather than a ticket gained passage. 

Such breaches are being addressed and the IOC said security changes will come in order for the Games to go on. And they must go on, say many involved. 

&#8220;To walk away from these Games now and let the ass who did this get away with it cannot happen,&#8221; said Dream Team basketball player Charles Barkley. &#8220;This is the greatest sporting event in the world. We can&#8217;t let whoever did this hold us hostage&#8221; 

Ghaffari agreed: &#8220;I can&#8217;t tell you how sad I am. I&#8217;m ashamed as a person, as a human being. I&#8217;d like to kick the guy&#8217;s butt who did this.&#8221; 

Rick Janus, a sales representative from Mt. Laurel, N.J., showed up at Centennial Park - which was closed Saturday - with his wife and two young daughters: 

&#8220;I was here by myself earlier last night and saw the way Centennial Park was and what a great, warm feeling you got. I couldn&#8217;t wait to get my children here to see it.&#8221; 

His voice trailed off as he looked at the barricades blocking their path: &#8220;I&#8217;m afraid they won&#8217;t see it that way &#8230; ever again.&#8221; 

A few blocks away - in a hospital surrounded by police - Eric Johnson lay in a quiet room. Hooked up to tubes, his midsection bound in bandages, his Olympic dream numbed by pain killers, he looked up sadly and whispered one word: 

&#8220;Why?&#8221;
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<dc:date>2013-04-17T12:06:27-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<title>Reds&apos; Nemesis  with Dayton Ties: &quot;Pray for Boston&quot;</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/04/16/reds_nemesis_with_dayton_ties.html</link>
<description> In the second inning Monday night, the Cincinnati Reds&amp;#8217; Jay Bruce and Todd Frazier were done in by a guy with some storied Dayton ties. Phillies centerfielder Ben Revere - who has shown himself to be a human highlight...</description>
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In the second inning Monday night, the Cincinnati Reds&amp;#8217; Jay Bruce and Todd Frazier  were done in by a guy with some storied Dayton ties.

Phillies centerfielder Ben Revere - who has shown himself to be a human highlight  reel on defense the past couple years - robbed the Reds of a sure run when he all but turned into Superman and   flew through the air to catch a ball that was hit into the gap far behind him.

His lunging catch of Frazier&amp;#8217;s hit stunned Bruce, who had been on first base and was already motoring on toward third when Revere did his head- first dive toward the wall in Great American Ball Park and caught the ball. After that he quickly popped up and threw to first to double-up a dumb-founded Bruce.

The Reds did go on to win 4-2. 

Revere&amp;#8217;s athletic genes are rooted in Dayton. His dad, John Revere, was a star athlete at Patterson Co-op, as were his uncle.  His mom, the former Brenda Daniel, is also from Dayton.

John Revere has coached football for 36 years, the past 16 at Eastern Kentucky University, his alma mater. The running backs coach at EKU was named the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision  &amp;#8220;Assistant Coach of the Year&amp;#8221; last season by the American Football Coaches Association.   Eastern Kentucky student-athletes dedicate more than 600 hours of community service projects each year under Revere.

Ben Revere&amp;#8217;s glove in dugout Monday night

Some of John&amp;#8217;s empathy and worldly embrace show up in his son, as well. 

If Ben didn&amp;#8217;t win you over with his glove work Monday, he certainly would have with his glove, Before the game he pasted a piece of white athletic tape to the back of his mitt and then wrote all of our sentiments on it:

&amp;#8220;PRAY for Boston.&amp;#8221;

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<dc:date>2013-04-16T12:57:14-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<title>Cam Burrows: Trading Trotwood prom for OSU pads</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/04/14/cam_burrows_trading_trotwood_p.html</link>
<description>CINCINNATI - While the rest of his classmates at Trotwood-Madison High were making plans for their senior projects, the upcoming prom and graduation, Cam Burrows was lining up as a starting cornerback for the Scarlet Team in Ohio State&amp;#8217;s annual...</description>
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CINCINNATI - While the rest of his classmates at Trotwood-Madison High were making plans for their senior projects, the upcoming prom and graduation, Cam Burrows was lining up as a starting cornerback for the Scarlet Team in Ohio State&amp;#8217;s annual spring football game at Paul Brown Stadium Saturday.

Cam Burrows

Burrows - who had been a five-star recruit on Coach Maurice &amp;#8220;Mo &amp;#8220; Douglass&amp;#8217;s Rams team - picked  the Buckeyes over Michigan, Alabama, LSU and Wisconsin last year, finished up his high school classwork this past December and enrolled at Ohio State in January.

That made him eligible for spring practice and Saturday&amp;#8217;s intra-squad game, most of which he played.

&amp;#8220;Coach kept asking me if I was nervous and I said &amp;#8216;No.&amp;#8217; I was ready,&amp;#8221; Burrows said afterward. &amp;#8220;Surprisingly, I didn&amp;#8217;t feel any butterflies at all.&amp;#8221;

He registered one tackle for the day and wasn&amp;#8217;t noticeably beaten by any of the OSU receivers he faced. 

&amp;#8220;I didn&amp;#8217;t expect to be a star today, but I think I met my expectations,&amp;#8221; he said.

As for leaving school early, he called it &amp;#8220;a very smart move. The only thing I&amp;#8217;m going back to Trotwood for (this spring) is graduation. That&amp;#8217;s it.  I&amp;#8217;m trying to adjust to college now.&amp;#8221;

Douglass watched him from the sidelines Saturday and was beaming afterward.

&amp;#8220;This was special today,&amp;#8221; Douglass said. &amp;#8220;It&amp;#8217;s a great opportunity for him. He&amp;#8217;s been preparing for this the whole time he was in high school. When he was in ninth grade he knew where he wanted to go and we started laying the groundwork for him so he&amp;#8217;d be able to go to college in the winter of his senior year.

&amp;#8220;We&amp;#8217;re going to try to do this for Ashton (running back Ashton Jackson) as well next year. We&amp;#8217;ll try to get him out early and get him the exposure and opportunity. I think it helps some kids develop their freshman year (in college). Guys who are more mature are able to make that jump and I think it&amp;#8217;s good for them.&amp;#8221;

Douglass - who played 11 seasons in the NFL for the Chicago Bears and New York Giants - sees a great upside to Burrows: 

&amp;#8220;If he stays healthy, he could be playing on Sunday&amp;#8217;s one day - the Lord willing. But the best thing is that he&amp;#8217;s just such a great kid. We&amp;#8217;re just so proud of him at Trotwood.&amp;#8221; 

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<dc:subject></dc:subject>
<dc:date>2013-04-14T11:37:27-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<title>Brittney Griner to NBA -- &quot;A sham?&quot;</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/04/06/brittany_griner_to_nba_a_sham.html</link>
<description>(Associated Press photo) Not to sound like a caveman, but I fully agree with Geno Auriemma. The fabled coach of the UConn women&amp;#8217;s team said that while Brittney Griner certainly has transcended the game of women&amp;#8217;s basketball, should she get...</description>
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(Associated Press photo)

Not to sound like a caveman, but I fully agree with Geno Auriemma.

The fabled coach of the UConn women&amp;#8217;s team said that while Brittney Griner certainly has transcended the game of women&amp;#8217;s basketball, should she get drafted by a NBA team it would be &amp;#8220;a sham.&amp;#8221; 

&amp;#8220;If Brittney Griner tries to make an NBA team I think it would be a public relations thing,&amp;#8221; Auriemma  whose teams have won seven national titles and are shooting for an eighth at this weekend&amp;#8217;s Final Four, said in a conference call the other day.&amp;#8221; It would be a sham. The fact that a woman could actually play right now in the NBA and compete successfully against the level of play they have is absolutely ludicrous.&amp;#8221;

His opinion is supported - in part - by women&amp;#8217;s hoop pioneers Nancy Lieberman and Ann Meyers Drysdale .

&amp;#8220;There&amp;#8217;s not a man who would sell his soul and let her come down and dunk on him - they are going to knock her on her ass,&amp;#8221; said Lieberman, who was the first woman to play on a men&amp;#8217;s pro team when she suited up in the USBL in the 1980s.

(AP photo)

Lieberman said there is &amp;#8220;no way&amp;#8221; the 6-foot-8, but rail-thin Baylor sensation - who plays inside - could compete with NBA players. 

Conversely, Lynette Woodard, the Hall of Fame player from Kansas who was the first woman to play with the Harlem Globetrotters, thinks Griner could make an NBA roster.

The whole debate began when Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said  he would consider drafting Griner in this year&amp;#8217;s NBA draft.

Never one to shy away from self-promotion and selling wolf tickets, Cuban could simply be orchestrating a publicity stunt, some think. 

Auriemma gave props to Cuban as a financial guru, but said his &amp;#8220;genius would take a huge hit if he drafted Griner.&amp;#8221; 

It should be noted here that Auriemma has high praise for Griner and in this week&amp;#8217;s Sports Illustrated he compared her to Kareem Abdul Jabbar when he played in the men&amp;#8217;s college game as Lew Alcindor.

&amp;#8220;She&amp;#8217;s probably, in the women&amp;#8217;s game, what he was in the men&amp;#8217;s game where there was just no other person like that,&amp;#8221; he told Emma Carmichael,  the Deadspin editor who wrote for SI this week. &amp;#8220;So you can&amp;#8217;t go into any game and feel there&amp;#8217;s anything you can do to neutralize her , as I&amp;#8217;m sure Coach Wooden had with Lew Alcindor at the time: Every game we go into we have an advantage that no one could match.&amp;#8221;

Certainly there&amp;#8217;s been no one like Griner in the women&amp;#8217;s game. She has huge hands, a 7-foot-4 wingspan and standing on the floor she can reach up to 9-foot-2. 

AP Photo

It&amp;#8217;s no wonder then that she blocked 748 shots in her college career - more than any other man or woman in the NCAA annals. She scored 3,283 points, the second most in the women&amp;#8217;s college game to Jackie Stiles and she had 18 dunks. Often she played against double and triple team defenses.

Her Baylor team - which won the national crown last year - was upset last Sunday by Louisville, 82-81. In the loss, she had a subpar game.

Meyers Drysdale  the UCLA and WNBA Hall of Famer who was the first woman ever drafted by the NBA -sthe was chosen by the Indiana Pacers, but didn&amp;#8217;t make the squad - is now the vice president of the Phoenix Suns and the WNBA Phoenix Mercury. She also was skeptical of Griner&amp;#8217;s chances in the NBA:

&amp;#8220;She is 6-8 but with a small frame compared to a man&amp;#8217;s frame in that position.&amp;#8221;

I think she would be overpowered inside - tell me she&amp;#8217;s going to be dunking on the likes of Kevin Durant, Lebron James, Dwight Howard of Tim Duncan - and I don&amp;#8217;t think she has the ball handling skills to move her game out to a wing in the NBA. 

Lieberman though did encourage her to give it a try and Cuban reiterated his stance to Kelly Whiteside of USA Today:

&amp;#8220;Nothing harms an organization or company more than a closed mind. I have no problem giving her that opportunity. I hope she gives it a shot.&amp;#8221; 

For her part Griner is eager for the chance. As she tweeted: &amp;#8220;@mcuban so when do I show up for the tryouts!!!&amp;#8221;

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<guid isPermaLink="false">17418817@http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/</guid>
<dc:subject></dc:subject>
<dc:date>2013-04-06T10:32:07-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<title>Cincinnati Reds: Choo Can Do</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/04/02/cincinnati_reds_choo_can_do.html</link>
<description> CINCINNATI - While manager Dusty Baker sang his praises, the record-crowd sang his name: &amp;#8220;Chooooooo.&amp;#8221; No one got more of an Opening Day embrace Monday than Shin-Soo Choo who was making his debut with the Cincinnati Reds. He&amp;#8217;s the...</description>
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CINCINNATI - While manager Dusty Baker sang his praises, the record-crowd sang his name:

&amp;#8220;Chooooooo.&amp;#8221;

No one got more of an Opening Day embrace Monday than Shin-Soo Choo who was making his debut with the Cincinnati Reds. He&amp;#8217;s the team&amp;#8217;s new lead-off hitter, its center fielder and maybe the answer to the question mark that has hung on the top of the Reds&amp;#8217; batting order for a few years now.

Even though the Reds lost their opener to the Los Angeles Angels, 3-1, at Great American Ball Park, the crowd of 43,168 - a regular season record for GABP - had one guy to cheer. 

A year ago the Reds had one glaring hole in their otherwise successful offensive season. Cincinnati lead-off hitters had a combined .254 on base percentage. That wasn&amp;#8217;t just the worst mark in Major League Baseball last season it was the lowest percentage of any team in 31 years .

While seven different players tried their hand at the leadoff spot, Stubbs spent the most time there and floundered. He hit .213 last season and got on base just over 27 percent of the time.  The year before he led the Major Leagues in strikeouts with 205.

The Reds orchestrated a three-team, multi-player trade in the offseason mainly to land Choo, who came from the Cleveland Indians in exchange for Stubbs. 

(Associated Press photo) 

Choo has a .381 career OBP. It&amp;#8217;s hoped he&amp;#8217;ll hold down the position this season - he&amp;#8217;s under a one-year $7.4 million contract - until heir apparent  Billy Hamilton, the wonderkid with 155 minor league steals last season, makes his way to the big team.

While Cincinnati fans all but salivate at the thought of seeing Hamilton create havoc on the base paths in a Reds uniform, they showed Monday they&amp;#8217;re already connecting to Choo now. He got the same kind of elongated salute that Jay Bruce gets when he comes to bat and the place erupts with &amp;#8220;Bruuuuuuuce.&amp;#8221; 

No matter how much Choo is finally trumpeted here, it will be nothing like the following he has back home in South Korea. 

Every Reds game will be shown on South Korean TV because of him. He&amp;#8217;s something of a national hero back there.

Although he&amp;#8217;s only the third Asian to play for the Reds - the other two were pitchers Jung Keun Bong and Sun-Woo Kim - he&amp;#8217;ll quickly become a favorite son if he continues to have games like he did Monday. 

He got on base three times with a double, a single and was hit by a Jered Weaver pitch.  He scored on a wild pitch in the third.

&amp;#8220;Choo was outstanding today,&amp;#8221; Baker said. &amp;#8220;We only got three hits and he got two of them.  That&amp;#8217;s why we brought him in here. He played a very good game.&amp;#8221;

The biggest concern with him coming into the season  was whether he could handle centerfield after being a right fielder for the Indians for six seasons. Former Reds star Eric Davis worked with him in spring training to help him make the conversion.

Choo handled everything that came his way Monday, except one deep fly ball in the 12th by Angels pinch hitter Peter Bourjos  that sailed over him, bounced off the center field wall and caromed back onto the field for a triple. 

Whether Choo should have had that shot is a point for debate. So is any speculation that the fleet-footed Stubbs would have caught up to that fly ball.. But it&amp;#8217;s doubtful Stubbs would have equaled Choo at the plate Monday. And he certainly would not have gotten the same full-throated salute from the fans. 

Afterward Choo admitted he had known little about Opening Day in Cincinnati, but now was quite impressed: &amp;#8220;Usually it&amp;#8217;s just introduce the players, play the game. But here it means something. It&amp;#8217;s part of the city. The fans love baseball here.&amp;#8221;

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<guid isPermaLink="false">17418698@http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/</guid>
<dc:subject></dc:subject>
<dc:date>2013-04-02T02:02:50-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<title>WSU&apos;s Grant: CBI &quot;one of the best things we have ever done &quot;</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/03/28/wsus_grant_cbi_one_of_the_best.html</link>
<description>FAIRBORN - Bob Grant didn&amp;#8217;t mince any words when it came to Wright State playing in the College Basketball Invitational - the post-season tournament simply known as the CBI and a pay-as-you-go distant cousin of the much-trumpeted NCAA tournament &amp;#8220;It&amp;#8217;s...</description>
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FAIRBORN - Bob Grant didn&amp;#8217;t mince any words when it came to Wright State playing in the College Basketball Invitational - the post-season tournament simply known as the CBI and a pay-as-you-go distant cousin of the much-trumpeted NCAA tournament

&amp;#8220;It&amp;#8217;s one of the best things we have ever done - absolutely,&amp;#8221; said the Wright State athletics director. &amp;#8220;This has been the crowning moment to a great season and a really great month for us. The buzz around us now is as much of a buzz as we had in 2007 when we made the tournament run (winning the Horizon League Tournament and its automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.)&amp;#8221;

Grant was sharing his views late Wednesday night as he stood courtside at the Nutter Center after WSU had lost to Santa Clara, 81-69, in the semifinals of the CBI.

The loss had ended a year of overachievement for the young Raiders, a team that has no seniors and had added seven new players this season. They had been picked in a preseason poll of league coaches, school administrators and media to finish dead last in the conference, but instead went 23-13. That&amp;#8217;s 10 more wins than they had a year ago and it equals the Raiders mark for most wins in a season as a Division I school.

They made it to the finals of the Horizon League tournament and then won their first two games in the CBI, trouncing Tulsa by 20 points eight days ago and pushing past Richmond by six on Monday. 

The debate about the CBI&amp;#8212;and the similar College Insider Tournament - isn&amp;#8217;t just that it&amp;#8217;s a third -fiddle postseason tournament behind the NCAA and the NIT,  it&amp;#8217;s  the fact that technically you must pay five figure fees for each game you  play.

Wright State managed to work out some deals for rounds two and three because the CBI ran into some serious scheduling issues, but the Raiders did have to pay $35,000 for their first game against Tulsa. 

&amp;#8220;My commitment to the CBI was just to pay for the first game,&amp;#8221; Grant said. &amp;#8220;And we covered that. We had two donors who gave $5,000 each. We got a sponsor for another $5,000 and Dan Abrahamowicz  of Student Affairs gave us $10 for each student ticket and we had 500 students so that was $5,000.&amp;#8221;

Although the Raiders hosted Tulsa on the same night a pair NCAA Tournament First Four games were being played at UD Arena, they drew a crowd of 2,507 and Grant said those gate receipts and the night&amp;#8217;s concession sales  helped WSU break even on that $35,000 expenditure.

&amp;#8220;The CBI got themselves in a pickle from an availability standpoint after that,&amp;#8221; Grant said. &amp;#8220;A lot of the big boys who offered to host the whole way got bounced out of the tournament - teams like Texas, Wyoming and Purdue.&amp;#8221;

Other schools - like Richmond, the Raiders&amp;#8217; second round foe - found their own arenas were booked for other events so they had to play on the road.

That&amp;#8217;s when Grant said CBI officials inquired:  &amp;#8220;&amp;#8216;Bob, could you guys host again?&amp;#8217;

&amp;#8220;I said, &amp;#8216;We can, but we can&amp;#8217;t be financially hurt by it.&amp;#8217; So we brokered  with them and got some future considerations and agreed to share some of the gate with them. That protected our financial exposure.&amp;#8221;

Grant sought some ticket selling help from the First Four committee last week and the Raiders drew 3,741 to see the Richmond game. Wednesday night 3,188 fans showed up.  

Had the Raiders won Wednesday night they would have met George Mason in a best-of-three  games championship series. To play for the title, though, each team must pay $75,000, something they agree to when they first enter the tournament,

In years past, WSU has had the opportunity to play in this tournament and for a variety of reasons - academic standing of players, injuries, the will of a team to keep on playing, as well as the stiff financial commitment  that&amp;#8217;s required - opted to skip the CBI and CIT

This year the situation was different. The Raiders had an enthusiastic  group that wanted to keep playing, a public that wanted to embrace them and a coach and AD who saw the benefits of giving a young returning team experiences that could pay dividends down the road,

&amp;#8220;This could be a great tool for building a young team,&amp;#8221; Grant said. &amp;#8220;There&amp;#8217;s no other way you can recreate this one-and -done experience for your student athletes.  Billy (Coach Billy Donlon) can use this as a teaching tool for years to come.

&amp;#8220;This also gave our fans a chance to love on this team a little more. We&amp;#8217;ve got a great bunch of kids. They get credit for what they do on the court, but they are just as good in the classroom and community. They&amp;#8217;re some fine young men, the type you&amp;#8217;d like your son to hang out with or your daughter to date. 

&amp;#8220;And on the basketball floor, they did so much for us this year. But their fine run through the (Horizon League) tournament ended on the road at Valpo (Valparaiso,) so this was a way our fans could embrace them once more at home.    

&amp;#8220;Another cool thing was the exposure. We had a Conference USA team here (Tulsa,) an A-10 team  in Richmond  and a West Coasty Conference school in Santa Clara. They never would have come here any other way. They would have laughed at our offer, but now Santa Clara knows where we are and what the school has to offer.&amp;#8221;

Grant believes all that made the deal worth it, especially when you consider how much the Raiders - not to mention other schools - pay to get teams to come into their arena to play:

&amp;#8220;Remember, in the whole scheme of things we&amp;#8217;ve paid as much as $55,000 - $60,000 for buy game here at the Nutter Center. And there are programs all around the country  - some nearby - that pays $75,000 to $90,000. 

&amp;#8220;If we would have made the championship series, that (coming up with $75,000) would have been a nice problem to have.  We would have found a way.

&amp;#8220;We treat men&amp;#8217;s basketball very well here - whether it&amp;#8217;s a summer trip to Italy like a couple of years ago, the Setzer Pavilion/Mills Morgan Center facilities, the way we travel  or the way we gear guys out.

&amp;#8220;Basketball is going to lead us to new heights and we need it to. So we give them every tool we possibly can.&amp;#8221;

The CBI wasn&amp;#8217;t just another tool, it was&amp;#8212;as Grant said - &amp;#8220;one of the best things we have ever done - absolutely.&amp;#8221;  

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<dc:subject></dc:subject>
<dc:date>2013-03-28T04:20:27-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<title>Jabir: &quot;None of this happens this year without Sam MacKay.&quot;</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/03/27/jabir_none_of_this_happens_thi.html</link>
<description>QUEENS, N.Y. - One of the most touching scenes I saw Tuesday night after the Dayton Flyers had lost to Kentucky, 84-70, in the second round of the NCAA women&amp;#8217;s tournament came outside the UD dressing room deep in the...</description>
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QUEENS, N.Y. - One of the most touching scenes I saw Tuesday night after the Dayton Flyers had lost to Kentucky, 84-70, in the second round of the NCAA women&amp;#8217;s tournament  came outside the UD dressing room deep in the bowels of storied Carnesecca Arena.

Coach Jim Jabir and Sam MacKay were about to be escorted through the labyrinth of hallways to the post-game press conference, but first the tearful senior point guard &amp;#8212; who had just played her final game as a Flyer &amp;#8212; tried whispering an apology to her coach for not playing better against the swarming, physically aggressive Wildcat defense that has been aptly dubbed &amp;#8220;40 Minutes of Dread.&amp;#8221;

MacKay had had a career-high eight turnovers, but Kentucky guard Jennifer O&amp;#8217;Neill had had eight, as well. It had been that kind of frenzied, give no quarter game. The difference was O&amp;#8217;Neill  had other people to help her handle the ball against Dayton. For the most part, MacKay had to mostly go it alone.

Kentucky threw on a nearly game-long press that constantly targeted MacKay with a double team. No other Flyer could really handle the constant pressure out front &amp;#8212; nor seemed to want to &amp;#8212; so it was up to MacKay, who had waited four years to start, who at 5-foot-8  is undersized out there and who had admitted herself the day before the game that she was probably slower than everyone on Kentucky&amp;#8217;s bench.

And yet Tuesday night she never backed down a second, kept trying to work her way through the a buzz saw defense manned by bigger, quicker more athletic Wildcats and succeeded most of the time. 

As MacKay tried to shoulder the blame, Jabir would hear none of it. He wrapped an arm around her and gave her a heartfelt squeeze.

&amp;#8220;I&amp;#8217;m proud of you,&amp;#8221; he said.

Late,r he explained.

&amp;#8220;I have chewed her butt out more than any other human being on the planet,&amp;#8221; he said with a smile. &amp;#8220;And yet every single time she keeps coming back. I don&amp;#8217;t know why her mom and dad even talk to me. Some of the things I&amp;#8217;ve said to her are amazing. But she puts on a smile and a smirk and comes back for more. I give her the death stare over the years and now. in her last semester, she gives it right back.

&amp;#8220;At the end of the day I want to feel the University of Dayton can walk onto the court with any BCS school and beat them - that&amp;#8217;s  our goal.&amp;#8221;

Five times this season - against DePaul, Vanderbilt, Arizona State, Michigan State and St. John&amp;#8217;s  here in the first round of the NCAA tournament Sunday - UD did just that. In fact, the loss to Kentucky was the first this season to a power conference school  by the Flyers.

In those games. MacKay had 12 points and six assists against DePaul, eight assists against Vanderbilt, 17 points and five assists versus Arizona State eight points, four assists against MSU and 14 points and six assists while playing all grueling 50 minutes in the double overtime win over St. John&amp;#8217;s.

Tuesday night she 12 points against the Wildcats. 

&amp;#8216;We don&amp;#8217;t do any of that this year without Sam MacKay,&amp;#8221; Jabir said. &amp;#8220;None of that happens this year without Sam&amp;#8230;I&amp;#8217;m really, really proud  of her and what she&amp;#8217;s done with what she has. She&amp;#8217;s a tough, tough person. I really love that kid and I think its mutual.&amp;#8221;

The 18th ranked Flyers were led Tuesday night by forward Andrea Hoover, who had 22 points. Cassie Sant had 13 and Ally Malott had 10.

Guard A&amp;#8217;dia Mathies, the co-Player of the Year in the SEC - had 34 for the seventh-ranked, 29-5 Wildcats.

Initially Kentucky looked like it was going to unravel UD totally. The Flyers had 10 turnovers in the first 11 minutes of play. But then the Flyers settled down in the second half and finished with 23 turnovers, compared to 16 by the Wildcats.

Even though they had the sixth youngest team in the nation this season, the Flyers were nationally ranked every week since November and ended the season 28-3.

&amp;#8220;I hate losing, but I&amp;#8217;m going to get on that plane tonight and feeling like the luckiest coach in America,&amp;#8221; Jabir said. &amp;#8220;I love our players. They just fight and fight and fight. To finish 28-3 with a bunch of babies really, I&amp;#8217;m just so proud.  

&amp;#8220;We&amp;#8217;re trying to build our program kind of like Butler&amp;#8217;s men&amp;#8217;s program, where we can go out and beat anybody. Right now there&amp;#8217;s nothing but good things happening. We&amp;#8217;ve got a good class coming in and I hope to be back here or someplace just like it next year, but after a W  where we&amp;#8217;re going to the Sweet 16. That is our goal.&amp;#8221;

And if the Flyers make that next step as a program, Jabir will be the first to tell you that Sam MacKay was a big part of building that foundation. 

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<dc:date>2013-03-27T02:22:21-05:00</dc:date>
<dc:creator>tom.archdeacon@coxinc.com</dc:creator>
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<title>Wabler:  UD will do everything it can to keep Jim Jabir</title>

    

    


<link>http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/03/26/wabler_ud_will_do_everything_i.html</link>
<description>QUEENS, N.Y. - University of Dayton athletics director Tim Wabler and Flyers women&amp;#8217;s basketball coach Jim Jabir both confirmed late Tuesday that they will be meeting soon after the season ends to address upgrading Jabir&amp;#8217;s contract with the university. &amp;#8220;We&amp;#8217;re...</description>
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QUEENS, N.Y. - University of Dayton athletics director Tim Wabler and Flyers women&amp;#8217;s basketball coach Jim Jabir both confirmed late Tuesday that they will be meeting soon after the season ends to address upgrading  Jabir&amp;#8217;s contract with the university.

&amp;#8220;We&amp;#8217;re all over it,&amp;#8221; Wabler said. &amp;#8220;He&amp;#8217;s a hot commodity now and I know someone will make a run at him. We want Jim Jabir to be at the university for a long time to come. He&amp;#8217;s just a perfect fit.&amp;#8221;

Jabir led the No. 18 ranked Flyers - the sixth youngest Division I team in the nation this season - to a 28-3 record and into the second round of the NCAA tournament, where they lost, 84-70, to seventh-ranked  Kentucky Tuesday night at Carnesecca Arena in Queens.

It was UD&amp;#8217;s fourth straight trip to the NCAA tournament. Over the past six years, the Flyers have won 143. This season they had been nationally ranked since mid-November.  

One looming coaching vacancy is at Ohio State, where Jim Foster was let go - &amp;#8220;terminated without cause&amp;#8221; is the way the university worded it - last week.

In 11 seasons with the Buckeyes, Foster went 279-82 - that&amp;#8217;s a 72.2 winning percentage - and took his team to 10 straight NCAA tournaments . He was named Big Ten Coach of the Year four times in that span , his teams won six regular season Big Ten titles and four Big Ten tournaments and his players won eight straight Big Ten Player of the Year awards (Jessica Davenport won three, Janel Lavender won four and Samantha Prahalis one.) 

But his teams had a lot of early exits in the NCAA Tournament. Three times they lost in the first found, four times in the second and none ever made it beyond the Sweet 16.

When the Bucks went 18-13 this season and failed to get an NCAA bid, Foster was forced out. 

If OSU would show interest in Jabir, I think he would certainly look at the job. It&amp;#8217;s one of the best in the country, offering both more pay and exposure than does UD. 

And yet I&amp;#8217;m not sure Jabir would take it if it were offered. I don&amp;#8217;t know - especially after dealing with some health issues  a while back - that  he wants to jump back into that meat grinder that the Buckeyes&amp;#8217; job now is.

OSU has made it clear it expects its women&amp;#8217;s team to go deep into the NCAA tournament and make some Final Fours. Anything less would be considered a failure and the same fate would  befall the new coach that did in Foster.

Jabir made a wrong career decision once before. After winning at Marquette, he jumped to Providence because it was a Big East school, but the program was underfunded and had second citizen status and he didn&amp;#8217;t have success. He ended up canned. 

After a season as an assistant at Colorado, he took over the Dayton program in 2003 and resurrected  a moribund program. Before Jabir got to UD, the Flyers women had had one winning season in 10 years.

In August of 2010, UD ripped up a five-year extension Jabir had just signed the year before and gave him a new six-year contract. At the time Jabir said the deal put him in the middle of the Atlantic 10 in annual salary.

That&amp;#8217;s about to change. 

He has built a perennial winner at UD and his teams are garnering more national publicity for the school than any other squad on campus. He&amp;#8217;s one of the best coaches in the college game right now and on top of that he&amp;#8217;s as good of a man as you&amp;#8217;ll find.

He is a perfect fit at UD and Wabler said he will be offered a contract upgrade that recognizes that fact.  

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<dc:date>2013-03-26T18:47:41-05:00</dc:date>
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