Barry Sokol on Sports

My prediction was right about how the Dayton Flyers would do in the A-10 Tournament.  After pulling out an overtime win against the Saint Louis Billikens Wednesday afternoon, the Dayton Flyers advanced to play Xavier Thursday afternoon. 

It was deja vou for me and the Dayton Flyers again.  Just like last year, I listened to the Dayton Flyers lose to the Xavier Musketeers on my computer before I took my last final before Spring Break.  Last year, Dayton lost to Xavier 72-51 in the A-10 quarterfinals.  This year they did a little better and  gave a good effort, but came up short and lost 74-65 Thursday afternoon in the A-10 Quarterfinals.  Xavier has now beat Dayton the last 6 times in a row.

Dayton finished the regular season 21-10 (8-8) and will have to wait for Selection Sunday to see if they get the bid or not to the NCAA tournament.  Dayton has about a 15% chance of making the NCAA tournament. 

The A-10 seems to be a 2 bid league. Good news for Flyer fans, UMass who is projected to be the other A-10 team to make the NCAA tournament lost in the quarterfinals today to Charlotte. UMass finished the season 21-10 as well, but RPI has dropped. Dayton has a solid RPI and SOS as of now and the second best RPI in the A-10. If Xaiver wins the tournament, ironically it might help Dayton’s chances of making the NCAA tournament because the A-10 seems like at least 2 teams will go.  However, if Xavier loses and some other team wins the tournament just like last year, Dayton will not go.  All Dayton can do now is cross its fingers and hope it hears its name called on Selection Sunday.

Ohio State increased its chances of making the NCAA tournament as an at large team after upsetting #18 Michigan State Spartans 63-54 Sunday afternoon to close out the regular season.

Ohio State was down 31-23 at half.  Michigan State outrebounded Ohio State 30-18 and 11-5 on offensive rebounds and got a lot of easy 2nd chance points from Ohio State doing a poor job of boxing out.   The game seemed like it was going to be one of those close games where Ohio State would make a good effort and come close, but fall short and lose to ranked teams like they had been doing all season.    However, the Buckeyes didn’t let that happen and found a way to comeback and played tough to defeat Michigan State on senior day.

Jamar Butler, Matt Terwilliger, and Othello Hunter were seniors playing their last home games as Buckeyes.  Matt Terwilliger got to start and scored 4 points in 22 minutes.  Othello Hunter played 31 minutes, scored 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting and grabbed 4 rebounds, all rebounds were offensive rebounds.  Jamar Butler had another good game leading the team with a game-high 20 points and 4 assists playing the whole game. 

The #5 seed Ohio State Buckeyes will play the # 4 seed Michigan State Spartans in the quarterfinals on Friday at 2:30 PM in the Big 10 Tournament.  It will be part 3 of the teams playing each other this season.  Michigan State won at home 66-60 back on Janurary 15th and Ohio State got revenge and beat Michigan State on Sunday to close out the regular season.  The winner of Friday’s game will play in the semi-finals on Saturday at 1:40 PM against the winner of the #1 seed Wisconsin vs #8 seed Iowa/#9 seed Michigan game.

If selection Sunday was today, the Buckeyes would have about a 70% chance of being selected to play in the NCAA tournament.  A win against Michigan State on Friday will put the Buckeyes at 20 wins and definitely mark them down as an at-large team given their recent success in March.

The Dayton Flyers closed out the regular season at home on senior day with a 79-67 win over St Josephs Saturday afternoon.  The 3 seniors playing their last game at home - unless Dayton happens to make the NIT and play at home - were Jimmie Binnie, Andres Sandoval, and Brian Roberts. 

Five Dayton Flyer players scored in double digits, including all 3 seniors.  Marcus Johnson lead the team in scoring with 17 points and 7 rebounds.   Brian Roberts scored 15 points and had 6 assists and Jimmie Binnie scored 12 points and grabbed a game-high 8 rebounds.  Andres Sandoval scored 12 points and Charles Little added 11 points and 7 rebounds as well. 

All 3 seniors had good games and can be proud of their final performance at home in the regular season.  Dayton shot well in the game shooting 26-of-53 (49%) from the field for and 9-of-18 (50%) from the 3 point line.  Dayton also outrebounded St Joseph’s 39-23.

This game was defnitiely a must-win game for both teams because they are both on the bubble of making the NCAA Tournament.  If the Flyers would have loss to St Joseph’s, their at-large hopes of making the NCAA tournament would have been eliminated. 

The win helps Dayton’s at-large chances as they finished the regular season 20-9 (8-8) as they head into the A-10 Tournament play in Atlantic City Wednesday afternoon.  The Dayton Flyers take on St Louis Billikens Wednesday at noon.  If they win, they face Xavier in the quarterfinals on Thursday. 

My prediction is the Flyers will beat St Louis, but lose to Xavier in the quarterfinals just like last year and end up playing in the NIT tournament.  Dayton needs two more wins to make the NCAA tournament, and a win against Xavier will defnitely put the Flyers in the at-large category because of their RPI and wins against quality teams.  Hopefully the Flyers will suprise me and my prediction will be wrong and Dayton will make the NCAA tournament.

The Wright State Raiders lost to Valporaiso 72-67 in a close game in the Horizon League Quarterfinals on Friday night.

It was the 3rd meeting of the season between the 2 teams and Wright State loss all 3 times. Valporaiso played Wright State in the regular season twice. Valporaiso defeated Wright State 71-66 at home back on December 6th and then Wright State played at Valporaiso on March 1st and lost in overtime on a last second shot 75-73.

Wright State’s season may or may not continue depending on if they get invited to the NIT or not. Wright State has a solid criteria by having at least a 20 win season and an overall 21-10 record and a 12-6 second place tie with Cleveland State in the conference. The only thing holding Wright State back from playing in the NIT maybe there RPI. Wright State is 84 in the RPI and they have a SOS record of 148. However, they do have some quality wins over good teams such as Butler, Miami, CSU Fullerton, Belmont, and Cleveland State.

I think the Wright State Raiders are a little underrated and they deserve to play in the NIT.  We shall wait and find out soon.

The gray out worked at home Tuesday night as the Ohio State Buckeyes kept their NCAA hopes alive by defeating first place Big 10 conference leader nationally ranked #15 Purdue 80-77 in an overtime thriller .   My friend and I made predictions on who would win and by how much before the game started.  My friend predicted exactly right on how much the Buckeyes would win by, saying Ohio State would win by 3, while I predicted the Buckeyes would win by 1.  (If you look close enough at the gray out picture, you can see me at the top of the picture).

Senior point guard Jamar Butler lead Ohio State with a game-high 25 points.  Butler scored only 2 points in the first half, but really stepped up in the second half scoring 23 points including some crucial shots during crunch time.  Butler shot 6-of-8 from the field and 5-of-6 from beyond the arc, as well as 8-of-8 from the foul line.  It was about time the senior leader step up and help lead the Buckeyes.  Senior forward Othello Hunter had 15 points and freshman guard Evan Turner had some nice drives and had 15 points and 8 rebounds. 

The Buckeyes have 1 game remaining in the season as they take on another nationally ranked opponent #18 Michigan State at home Sunday afternoon.  A win on Sunday will definitely put them back on the bubble of making the NCAA tournament, a loss will mean winning the whole Big 10 Tournament.   Lets hope the Buckeyes can finish the season out at home on a positive note and send the seniors out smiling with a victory over #18 Michigan State on Sunday. 

Well, its that time of year again.  Its March!  That can only mean one thing for college basketball, March Madness!  Here is a breakdown of the Ohio State Buckeyes, Dayton Flyers, and Wright State Raiders basketball teams.

The Ohio State Buckeyes are currently tied for 5th place with Minnesota in the Big 10 Conference Standings with a 17-12 (8-8) record.  The Buckeyes are currently 55 in the RPI and have two games left against two great basketball teams - 1st place Purdue who is 28th in the RPI and Michigan State who is 14th in the RPI. 

In Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology on ESPN.com, as of February 29th, he has OSU as 1 of the 4 teams that are on the bubble and in the last 4 out category.  Unfortuantely, that isn’t updated and doesn’t include the recent 71-57 loss at Minnesota this past Saturday.   The loss against Minnesota was the Buckeyes fourth straight loss and definitely took them away from making the NCAA tourney.  However, if the Buckeyes can win their two remaining games, that would be huge and defnitiely put them right back on the bubble of making the NCAA tourney.  If the Buckeyes can win against Purdue and Michigan State, and at least get to the Big 10 Semi-finals, then my predicition is they will make the NCAA tourney.

The Dayton Flyers are currently tied for 12th place with Duquesne in the A-10 Conference with a 18-9 (6-8) record.  The Dayton Flyers are currently 35 in the RPI. The Flyers are currently projected to be NIT bound.  The Flyers need to win their two remaining games and win at least 2 games in the A-10 Tournament in New Jersey to have a chance of making the NCAA tourney.  Even though they have done sub-par in the A-10, their 14-1 start and being nationally ranked for 4 weeks in a row and 2 great non-conference wins against Pitt and Louisville makes it possible for the Flyers to make the NCAA, assuming they win at least 4 games in a row.

The Wright State Raiders are currently in second place of the Horizon League with a 20-9 (12-6) conference record.  Wright State is 72 in the RPI and should make the NIT, unless they lose their 1st game in Horizon League tournament and their RPI plummets, then they probably won’t have to much trouble getting into the NIT.  The only way they can make the NCAA tournament is if they win the whole Horizon League Tournament.  There maybe a slim outside chance Wright State could suprise us all and win the Horizon League tourney, while Dayton and OSU are playing in the NIT. 

I think all 3 teams will at least make the NIT.  It will be interesting to see and watch as March Madness starts.

Free throws are key during crunch time. Dayton suffered the consequences Thursday night.

The Flyers had their biggest lead of the game in the second half by as much as 12 points. Dayton was up 65-62 with 24 seconds to go in regulation as Andres Sandoval missed the the first shot of 1 and 1. LaSalle would take advantage of the missed free throw on its next possesion by missing a 3, getting an offensive rebound, and then calling a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, LaSalle hit a 3 with 6 seconds left to tie the game at 65. Dayton had a chance with 6 seconds left, but Jimmy Binnie missed the 3 as time expired.

It was deja vou all over again in overtime for the Flyers. Dayton looked like it had the game in its hands after a Brian Roberts 3 pointer made it a 78-73 lead with 53 seconds left in overtime. LaSalle responded on its next posession by hitting a 3 pointer with 40 seconds left. On Dayton’s next possesion, Brian Roberts was fouled - the Dayton Flyers best player and best free throw shooter on the team shooting 87% for the season - and would shoot the 1 in 1 for Dayton. Brian Roberts, was only human and missed the foul shot as LaSalle rebounded the ball and hit a 3 with 14 seconds left. Brian Roberts missed a jump shot on the next possesion and LaSalle was fouled with 4 seconds left as they made both free throws to make 81-78 with 4 seconds remaining. Brian Roberts missed the tieing 3 point at the buzzer.

Dayton shot an embarassing 4-of-10 from the foul line which cost them the ball game Thursday night.

It was another heartbreaking and disappointing loss for the struggling Flyers to make it the 7th loss in the last 10 games.

The Dayton Flyers once again couldn’t execute on the road and put away a second rate team Thursday night. This loss really brought down Dayton’s confidence and chances to make the NCAA tournament.  Dayton takes on cross town rival #10 Xavier at home Sunday afternoon.

The #13 Indiana Hoosiers defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 59-53 in Columbus, Ohio Sunday afternoon. Every time throughout the game when the Buckeyes would cut the lead and get the crowd going, the Hoosiers had a response every time for the Buckeyes and were able to pull away.

The two man duo of DJ White and Eric Gordon was too much for the Buckeyes as DJ White had a double-double with 21 points and 13 rebounds including 6 offensive rebounds and freshman phenomenon Eric Gordon had 15 points. The two combined to score more than half of the Hoosiers points scoring 36 of their 59 points.

Kosta Koufos lead the Buckeyes with 18 points and 9 rebounds and Jon Diebler added 14 points off the bench. Jon Diebler had a good game and stepped up for the Buckeyes shooting 5-of-11 from the field and 4-of-10 from beyond the arc.

It was disappointing to see David Lighty and Jamar Butler have sub-par games when this was a big game and they didn’t step up for the Buckeyes. David Lighty had 0 points on 0-of-4 shooting and 3 turnovers in 26 minutes of play. Jamar Butler had 4 points on 2-of-8 shooting and 6 assists playing all 40 minutes.

Ohio State will get another chance at Indiana on February 26th. The Ohio State Buckeyes next game is at Northwestern on Wednesday night.

The Dayton Flyers made a late second half rally to defeat Charlotte 49ers at UD Arena Wednesday night 69-64. This game reminded me of last season’s meeting at UD Arena when Brian Roberts made the 1,000 point mark that game in points for a Flyer and scored 24 points to lead Dayton in the comeback win to beat Charlotte 66-63. (I have a souveneir towel from last year’s game and have it marked as Brian Roberts 1,000 career points as a Flyer).

Unlike last year’s game, Brian Roberts was scoreless until the last 5 minutes of the game and scored his points when it was critical and mattered most to help make a comeback and finished the game with 9 points on 3-of-9 shooting and 4 turnovers. This obviously wasn’t one of Brian Roberts typical good games, but he did contribute tonight when it mattered most and played more of a role player tonight and stepped up in the clutch on a sub-par game to help get the win for the Flyers.

Dayton handled the ball pretty poorly, turning the ball over 19 times. It was a suprise to me that the Flyers pulled it out and won, especially when Brian Roberts had a sub-par game and Charles Little fouled out at the 5 minute mark and Kurt Huelsman fouled out before Charles Little did.

Kurt Huelsman didn’t play so well scoring 6 points, 5 turnovers, 5 fouls, and 5 rebounds in 14 minutes.

His second game back since the ankle injury, Charles Little lead Dayton with 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting and 4-of-5 from the foul line before fouling out for the second consecutive game since hes been back.

Other players really stepped up and helped out Brian Roberts tonight.  Jimmy Binnie added 15 points and 7 rebounds making some key 3 pointers and having one of his best games of the season. London Warren made 2 crucial foul shots and had a key block at the end and finished the game with 8 points. Andres Sandoval finished with 10 points, including a big dunk during the comeback run.

Dayton improved to 16-5 (4-4) for the season and will play at George Washington on Saturday.

This Saturday the Wright State Raiders, Dayton Flyers, and Ohio State Buckeyes basketball teams all played on the same day, except only 1 of the 3 teams came out victorious.

The Wright State Raiders were the only team to win defeating Wisconsin - Milwaukee at home 53-51 on a Vaughn Duggins last second shot with 0.4 seconds left to give Wright State the win. Wright State is 66 in the RPI and on a 5 game winning streak with a tie for 3rd place in the Horizon League with a 14-6 (7-4) record.

The Dayton Flyers lost at Rhode Island 82-70.  Even with Charles Little making his first return from an injury only scoring 5 points and 3 rebounds in 19 minutes of play before fouling out, other players stepped up and were leaders for the Flyers with 5 players scoring in double figures including London Warren who had a double-double with career highs of 13 points and 10 rebounds.   However, the difference in the game was the Flyers poor 3 point shooting (2-of-15) compared to Rhode Island’s (11-of-26) shooting.  London started again and has seen more playing time and has really stepped up and been a leader.  Dayton is 13 in the RPI while struggling lately losing 4 of its last 5 games with a 15-5 (3-4) record.

The Buckeyes suprised me by losing at Iowa 53-48. The first time the Buckeyes played Iowa at home they blew them out by 31 points 79-48. This is a bad loss for the Buckeyes and it is the first bad loss of the season. Ohio State is 25 in the RPI and currently 5th in the Big 10 with a 15-7 (6-3) record.