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NIT still means  a lot to Flyers

Surprising Flyers surge into NIT semis

By Tom Archdeacon, Staff Writer 12:54 AM Thursday, March 25, 2010

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It reminded you of one of those hallowed-out, sagging pumpkins still sitting on a front porch three weeks after Halloween.

The sea of orange-clad Illinois basketball fans who filled the flying saucer-shaped Assembly Hall sat there stunned, deflated ... quiet. They couldn’t believe what was happening. Earlier in the evening it had been so different.

A couple of thousand of them already were in their seats 90 minutes before Illinois was to meet the Dayton Flyers in an NIT quarterfinal game Wednesday night, March 24, and the Illini players treated it more like a party. They put on dunk exhibitions, hoisted up midcourt shots and had the crowd roaring.

Then the game started, and the Flyers took over the show.

Coming at the Illini in waves — hitting 3s, holding its own on the boards, playing tight defense — Dayton held on to topple Illinois 77-71 and advance to an NIT semifinal at Madison Square Garden in New York City. UD will face Mississippi at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The Flyers are playing some of their best basketball of the season now, having also beaten Cincinnati by 15 two nights earlier.

Wednesday night, UD was led by Chris Johnson with 18 points, Marcus Johnson with 11 and Chris Wright with 10.

“To be on national television two nights this week, that’s something we’ve been striving for for some time,” said UD Athletic Director Tim Wabler. “And now we get to take it to an even greater stage in New York City.

“We spent this year honoring our past — both teams from the old Fieldhouse days and from our Arena years — and from talking to the players, it’s obvious how cherished their NIT memories are. The tournament has been a cornerstone of our tradition and this is a chance to build on that again.”

As Don Donoher — who knows great success in both the NCAA tournament and the NIT — told me: “The NIT might be dwarfed by the NCAA, but still, if you’re in it, it’s big.”

It certainly has become that way with these Flyers, who — after falling short of an expected NCAA tournament berth — are having a real back-to-the-future run.

They are living the script of the 1967-68 Flyers who ended up winning the NIT — dumping Jo Jo White’s Kansas team 61-48 — after having their season painted as a huge disappointment.

After going to the NCAA finals the year before, they lost nine of their first 16 games. Then came 14 straight wins and the upset of the Jayhawks.

As Donoher put it, “We salvaged something out of a gigantic disappointment.”

The disappointment turned to delight as the champion Flyers returned to Dayton just minutes before midnight and were met by 3,000 fans at the UD Fieldhouse. There were celebratory bonfires in the student ghetto, and the revelry went on until dawn.

If these Flyers keep playing like they have the past two games, they may experience some of the same.

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