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UD NOTES
UD, OSU playing again a long shot
Thursday, March 27, 2008
COLUMBUS — Ohio State coach Thad Matta may not be keen on initiating a home-and-away series against Dayton. But if he ever warmed to the idea, he'd have his administration's full support.
"We have moved to having more in-state games in football, and we'd like to at least look at doing the same thing in basketball," said OSU senior associate athletic director Michelle Willis, who coordinates basketball scheduling. "I don't know if it would be an every year thing, every other year or an every four-year thing, but we would be willing to take a look at it.
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"It's something that would be in both schools' best interest, to look at doing this on occasion."
But when asked this week about playing Dayton, Matta responded by saying scheduling is a more complicated process than folks realize (translation: thanks, but no thanks). And while he doesn't have autonomy in deciding who the Buckeyes face, he does have veto power.
"We wouldn't schedule a game Thad wouldn't want to play," Willis said.
The Flyers have some constraints — the Atlantic 10 forbids its teams from taking one-way, pay-out games unless they're on national TV — but UD would happily return to the Schottenstein Center in exchange for the chance to host the Buckeyes.
"There are a lot of external factors related to our scheduling, not only with the Atlantic 10 with us, but I'm sure with the Big Ten and Ohio State," said Tim Wabler, UD's associate vice president for athletics.
"That said, obviously, we'd be very interested in playing a home-and-away series with Ohio State. That would be great for our fans."
Defense standard
Brian Roberts broke the UD career record for 3-pointers with four against the Buckeyes. He finished with 293, two more than Tony Stanley.
With 20 points on 8-of-20 shooting, Roberts tallied 1,962 career points, passing Jim Paxson for fourth on UD's all-time list.
The 6-foot-2 guard didn't attract any extra attention from defenders, something that's happened only a few other times this season. The Buckeyes instead played a variety of match-up zones, keeping long-armed defenders close to the basket.
Wright makes impact
Chris Wright entered the game with 12:29 left in the first half and drove to a smooth left-handed layup about a half-minute later.
In another short stint later in the half, Wright juked Othello Hunter, almost causing him to fall down, and dunked over him.
The 6-foot-8 freshman finished with 12 points in 18 minutes, but his rust was evident while committing five turnovers.
Game notes
•Marcus Johnson made 10 of his previous 13 three-pointers going into the game and connected on his first try against the Buckeyes. But he picked up his third foul with more than 18 minutes left in the game and promptly took a seat.
• Every NIT quarterfinal road team, save the Flyers, advanced to the semifinals: Mississippi, Florida and UMass.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2125 or dharris@DaytonDailyNews.com
