DaytonDailyNews.com

MINNEAPOLIS — The University of Dayton basketball team has done plenty this season, but what the Flyers did just before they left for Minneapolis may tell you more about them than anything they did on the court.

The story is so inspirational CBS broadcasters Gus Johnson and Len Elmore have done some research and may bring it up on their CBS telecast of the Flyers' first-round game against West Virginia today, March 20.

During practice Monday, coach Brian Gregory got each of his players and assistant coaches to join him and sign a basketball for another UD Flyer, one who hangs onto their exploits as a lifeline.

For over 4½ years, Krystal Byrne — a tall, blond UD sophomore who was once quite an athlete herself at Ottoville High School in northwest Ohio — has had a tough fight to stay alive.

She came to UD in August 2004, got a 3.8 GPA, joined the UD dance team and hoped to walk on to the soccer team. But during spring break, she was diagnosed with myeloid and lymphoid leukemia.

She has been in and out of hospitals, had chemo and radiation, a stem cell transplant, suffered debilitating complications and was given last rites.

She finally returned this past fall and lasted two months — during which time she joined the Red Scare — before illness sent her home again. With the help of UD profs, she finished classes and made the Dean's List.

She did force herself back in January, but soon fell, broke her elbow and went back to Ottoville, where she struggled with her health and spirits. The one thing that buoyed her was listening to UD broadcasts on her computer.

She made one game this year and — with face painted red and blue — screamed for the Flyers from the front row of the Red Scare. The trip, though, knocked her out.

Gregory knew of her fight to follow his team:

"My players and I were moved by Krystal's courage and her love for the university. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes the difficult times someone else is going through to realize how blessed we are. And it really does put into perspective what being a Flyer can mean to people."

Late Tuesday afternoon — a day after her elbow surgery — the basketball was delivered to her in Ottoville and soon her smile melted into tears:

"It's the greatest surprise I've ever gotten. With everything that's going on with them now, they managed to do something special for me. It's pretty overwhelming."

She hopes to return to UD in August and Gregory, for one, will be glad:

"I think a great day for her — and for the players, too — would be us winning the A-10 championship next year and our guys going up in the stands again and this time she would be one of the first people giving us a high five."