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Flyers showed no fear in Cincinnati

By Tom Archdeacon, Staff Writer 12:43 AM Tuesday, March 23, 2010

CINCINNATI — This was the equivalent of pounding a stake into the heart of a vampire or drilling a werewolf with a silver bullet.

That’s how you kill monsters, and no place has been more horrific to Dayton Flyers players and coaches than this town and especially this basketball building.

But that’s all ended now as the Flyers outshot, outrebounded and outhustled the Cincinnati Bearcats, 81-66, in the second round of the NIT at Fifth Third Arena on Monday night, March 22.

Playing one of its best games of the season — in front of a considerable contingent of Flyers fans who made the trek down Interstate 75 and a national ESPN-TV audience — UD led the Bearcats for all but about the first three minutes of the game.

The stars were many — Rob Lowery, Mickey Perry and, most of all, Paul Williams made one 3-pointer after another — but really everyone from a marquee player like Chris Wright to 12th man Matt Kavanaugh made their presence felt against UC.

The 22-12 Flyers now will play at Illinois in an NIT quarterfinal game at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Before this game, UD had played at Fifth Third Arena — then known as the Shoemaker Center — eight times and lost seven. I saw every game.

I was here in late February 1994 when Jim O’Brien’s Flyers lost to the Bearcats by 39. Three days later — after winning just 10 games in two seasons — he was fired, but still had to coach his team back here in the Great Midwest Conference tournament. And 12 days after that drubbing, his career at UD ended with a 34-point loss to St. Louis.

Immediately after the game — stunned and bitter — he stormed out of the Flyers dressing room, blew off his postgame radio show, ditched his seat in the team bus and roared off into the darkness in a private car with his wife.

Oliver Purnell’s debut here was just as rude. The Bearcats routed his Flyers by 53 points.

And then came that night in 2003, when UD and UC — both unbeaten and nationally ranked — squared off in what ended up an 82-53 UC victory.

Afterward, UC players treated Dayton coach Brian Gregory like a piñata.

“Their coach wasn’t looking at their team warm up, he was looking at our team. And he was looking pale,” said Bearcats forward Jason Maxiell at the time. “Their coach looked scared before the game, and if your coach looks scared, you’re gonna play scared.”

You can imagine Gregory’s reaction. He gritted his teeth and was ready to fire back, then calmed and later on even found some humor: “Pale? I’m always pale. That’s my Irish blood. You should see me in the morning if you think I was pale tonight.”

I saw Gregory’s team snap the Bearcats’ 15-game winning streak against UD in Cincinnati in 2005 — the last time the two teams played — but this victory carries far more weight.

This was the Flyers team everyone was dreaming of seeing early this season and did see some games. It wasn’t as dominant of a performance as the 25-point drubbing of Xavier at UD Arena, but — considering the place and the opponent — it wasn’t far off.

I can tell you one thing.

If you see Gregory this morning, I bet he’s smiling.

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