Barry Sokol on Sports

The Dayton Flyers snapped a 3 game losing streak Wedensday night at UD Arena by crushing the St Louis Billikens 63-36.

After playing the last 2 games without 2 key injured athletic forwards Charles Little and Chris Wright and getting blown out those 2 games on the road to cross-town rival Xavier 69-43 and losing to a second-rate Richmond team 80-63 last Saturday, the Flyers responded well Wednesday night by beating a sub-par St Louis team and giving me a little faith in them.

The last time the Flyers won before going on a 3 game losing steak was back on January 12th at St Louis 68-57 in overtime.

This was a get your confidence back win for fans and players as Andres Sandoval and London Warren stepped up and were leaders for the Flyers.   The win isn’t against a quality opponent, but it at least shows the Flyers can put away a mediocre team and still win without Charles Little and Chris Wright.  If Dayton didn’t win tonight, it would be marked as a bad loss in the RPI and I would start questioning going to the NCAA tournament and start thinking about the NIT tournament.

Dayton’s next game is at Rhode Island on Saturday.  I am predicting a loss by at least double digits.  Rhode Island is a good team, but everyone on the Flyers will have to step up and have great games Saturday to beat Rhode Island.

Well, it wasn’t a surprise to me that Xavier blew out Dayton 69-43 Thursday Night at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati.

I knew and predicted before the game that the Dayton Flyers would lose at least by 15 or more points against Xavier. There are a few reasons why I knew Dayton was going to lose:

1. Dayton has lost the last 22 straight games in Cincinnati to Xavier. 
2. Dayton was playing without 2 key contributing athletic scorers Charles Little (4th on the team in scoring) and Chris Wright (2nd on the team). 
3. I saw before the game started on the UD Pride message board that Brian Roberts had been sick all week.

If you look at the box score, Dayton had terrible stats and Xavier outplayed them in every category of the game. There is no way on a typical night that your going to win when your leading scorer (Brian Roberts) is held to 5 points, you shoot piss poor from 3 for the second straight game (2-of-18 ), and your seniors on the team don’t step up . 

Roberts was held to a season low 5 points and no one else stepped up on the team.  If you look at the post game quotes, Coach Brian Gregory talked about Brian Roberts being sick this week and feeling drained while having cramps throughout the game. UD will continue to lose games until Chris Wright and Charles Little make their return towards the end of the season or someone steps up, especially seniors like Jimmy Binnie and Andres Sandoval.  Neither of them had a field goal in the game just like last game against UMass.

Lets hope Charles Little and Chris Wright have speedy recoveries from their injuries because we really suck without them. Hopefully they will be making their returns in a month when we take on Xavier back at home.

Dayton’s next game is at Richmond Saturday night.

A breakdown of every individual Ohio State Buckeye basketball player that played Saturday afternoon in the 74-69 loss to the #6 Tennessee Volunteers.

Evan Turner - If I had to choose a 2nd player of the game for the Buckeyes it would have been Evan Turner. Turner played a great game having a double-double with 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting and 10 rebounds. Turner started the Buckeyes run at the end of the game to have a chance to make a comeback and win the game. He is definitely playing like a true freshman and will be a phenomenal player for the Buckeyes in years to come.

Othello Hunter - It was hard to choose between Evan Turner and Othello Hunter because both had double-doubles and played well. I chose Othello because of the overall better stats in every category and aspect of the game. Othello Hunter shot 6-of-9 from the field, scored 17 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, including 6 offensive rebounds, had 5 assists, and 3 blocks to have a complete game. Othello really huscled and displayed determination around the basket for the Buckeyes.

Kosta Koufos - Did decent, finished with 13 points and 5 rebounds, but I don’t believe he had any points in the first half. Sometimes I question why is he shooting outside and taking 3 point shots? Then again, in today’s game this afternoon he was the best 3 point shooter - shooting 1-of-4 from beyond the arc - shooting better than the guards or anyone else on the team, making the only other 3 pointer, besides Jamar Butler who shot 1-of-7 from the 3 point line. The Buckeyes shot 2-of-20 from the 3 point line for 10% against Tennessee. As long as Thad Matta is okay with him shooting outside, then he can keep shooting.

Jamar Butler - Poor shooting game, only shot 2-of-10 from the field and 1-of-7 from the 3 point line. Finished the game playing 38 minutes with 8 points and 7 assists. Hopefully he can bounce back and have a good game against Illinois on Tuesday.

David Lighty - He had a decent game shooting 3-of-8 from the field and 4-for-5 from the foul line to score 10 points and grabbed 5 rebounds.

Now on to the the Ohio State Buckeyes bench.  None of the Buckeyes bench players scored any points against the Volunteers.

PJ Hill - Only came in and played 1 minute and the only thing I remember is seeing PJ Hill getting burnt and a Volunteer player going to the line for the and 1. Nada in every statistical category, besides the minute he played. Maybe Coach Thad Matta could try to play him at the 1 and have Butler at the 2 a little bit in games and see if that will let Butler get more shots, instead of having to control the ball and score to take a load off Butler.  Hill seems like the type of player that you a coach wants to come off the bench to help mix things up and use his huscle and defense to change it up out there.  Today, he didn’t do anything in the 1 minute he played.

Jon Diebler - Had a bad game and doesn’t seem to be able to be the type of player he was in high school to be the same type of player at the college level.  He has had maybe 2 or 3 games this season where he had good games and shot well. Lately or in general, every time he seems to get the ball its always a miss and is shooting under 30% in field goal category and 3 point field goal category for the season. In 20 minutes he shot 0-of-5 from the field and 0-of-4 from the 3 point line, had 2 rebounds, 1 turnover, 1 steal, and 1 foul. When will he be able to get the “hot hand” and start knocking down shots.

Matt Terwilliger - In 11 minutes only good contribution was perhaps 2 rebounds. He did have 2 turnovers, 1 foul and took 1 shot that missed.

Dallas Lauderdale, Eric Wallace, and Kyle Madsen should have saw some playing time. We need Terwilliger, Diebler, Hill, and whoever else coming off the bench to contribute in scoring. We need at least 4-6 points from people coming off the bench so we can win games. 

The bottom line: Ohio State’s piss poor 3 point shooting + no bench scoring = loss.

OSU tried to make another comeback at the end, but fell short once again.  This team is young and hopefully will take these games as a learning experience and the team will improve and be a better team and win some games on the road by the end of the season.

The Massachusetts Minutemen stopped the Dayton Flyers 13 game winning streak at UD Arena Wednesday night beating the #14/#18 Dayton Flyers 82-71. 

UMass came out strong from the beginning of the game starting out leading with the biggest margin of the game at 21-7. Dayton would respond by going on an 11-0 run and make it 21-18. Charles Little lead the team at the half with 10 points and finished the game with 13 points and 5 rebounds as the Flyers would go into the half down 36-31.

UMass defense did a good job in the first half double teaming and pressuring Brian Roberts out far from the basket to make him go into the half without a field goal and only 2 points on 2 free throws. Although, in the second half he found a way to score - finishing the game with 21 points, 6 boards, and 4 assists - as the Minutemen played more of a box and one on Brian Roberts.

The key difference in the game was the Flyers poor 3 point shooting. Dayton shot 4-for-25 from beyond the arc for 16%, while UMass shot 13-of-30 for 43%. The other role players for the Dayton Flyer team did not do there job tonight as they shot atrociously from the 3 point line (Mickey Perry 1-of-7, Jimmie Binnie 0-of-6 for 0 points tonight, Andres Sandoval 0-for-2 no field goals in the game).

No one really stepped up in the second half besides Marcus Johnson who had a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Although Charles Little came off the bench and had 13 points, he only had 3 points in the second half.

Every time the Flyers would cut the game to 3 in the second half, UMass would hit a 3 and the Flyers couldn’t answer to make a comeback and win. I think Stephen Thomas should have played a little more and see if he could make any shots beyond the arc since the role players were shooting so poorly.

Dayton drops to 14-2 (2-1) and takes on Xavier in Cincinnati next week on Thursday night.

In a rough and physical game, the Purdue Boilermakers beat the Ohio State Buckeyes 75-68 to end Ohio State’s 19 game Big 10 win streak on Saturday. The Buckeyes last Big 10 loss was at Wisconsin 72-69 back on January 9, 2007.

In the game, two Ohio State players fouled out of the game, David Lighty and Othello Hunter both fouled out. Othello Hunter fouled out towards the end of the game after an illegal screen, and then arguing with an official and getting smacked with a technical foul. Othello Hunter finished the game 2-of-4 with 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 turnovers in 20 minutes of play and David Lighty had a bad game shooting 2-of-12 for 6 points and 6 rebounds.

It was an intense game with Thad Matta calling a timeout in the second half, taking off his jacket just to argue with the officials instead of talking to his players.

After two of the Buckeyes key players fouled out with over 2 minutes to go, it seemed like the game was out of reach, but Ohio State tried to make a valiant comeback down 69-60 with 1 minute to go. The Buckeyes would play with some aggression and play good aggressive defense. After Kosta had the offensive put back to make it 68-70 with 26 seconds to go, the Buckeyes would foul and Purdue made its two foul shots and on the next possession Ohio State would miss and Purdue would make crucial foul shots to seal the game and put the game out of reach.

It is tough to win on the road in the Big 10, but Ohio State needs these kind of wins if they want to make the NCAA tournament. Ohio State dropped to 12-4 (3-1) for the season.

The Ohio State Buckeyes beat the Northwestern Wildcats 62-51 Sunday afternoon.

I was looking at the box score and 2 Ohio State players had double-doubles. The interesting thing is Jamar Butler shot 0-of-7 from the field and scored 0 points, after scoring a career high 32 points against Illinois Thursday night, but still managed to get a double-double with 10 rebounds and 11 assists. Kosta Koufos had the other double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds, including 5 offensive rebounds over the smaller Northwestern squad who played zone throughout the whole game.

It was a decent win for the Buckeyes, and I expected the Buckeyes to win by at least 10, but I think the Buckeyes could have won by a little more, but a win is a win and Northwestern did a pretty good job sticking with the taller Buckeyes for most of the game.

The Ohio State Buckeyes won their Big 10 Opener in Champaign, Illinois defeating the Fighting Illini 74-58. 

Former Dayton Flyer Trent Meacham who transferred to Illinois after his freshman year at UD after the 2004-2005 season - shot a piss poor 1-of-11 from the field and 1-of-10 from the 3 point line for 3 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 turnovers in 33 minutes of  play.  Although Meacham had a terrible game tonight, he is the second leading scorer on the Fighting Illini team with 10.9 ppg and is shooting pretty well with 45.3% from the field and 41.5% from the 3 point line. 

The irony is that Trent Meacham transferred from Dayton to his hometown team in Champaign - which is suppose to be the “better team” - and is now a starting senior guard on this year’s so-so 8-6 (0-1) Illinois Basketball Team, a team that is worse than the current 12-1 #20/#23 Dayton Flyers Basketball team.   It will be truly ironic if Dayton makes the NCAA tournament and Illinois doesn’t make the tourney.

Many Dayton fans and bloggers discussed how the the loss of point guard Trent Meacham hurt the team. Dayton didn’t have a true point guard and fans and bloggers thought Meacham would have made an impact on the team.  Fans and bloggers now have gotten over it and have embraced a talented UD team with a lot of depth,  and have been rejoicing over the Flyers’ success so far this season.

The Dayton Flyers surprised the nationally ranked #6 Pittsburgh Panthers blowing out the 3.5 point favorites 80-55 in front of a sold out crowd at UD Arena.         (Highlights from the Game)

Out of all the seasons and games I have been to at UD Arena, this was by far the best game. Sitting center court, two rows behind the scorer’s table, and the game on national television station ESPN 2, while standing up throughout the game and waving my towel like all the other 13,000 Dayton fans made the game and atmosphere of the arena exciting and memorable.

The win will go down as one of Dayton’s greatest wins over a ranked opponent and Dayton will be in the Top 25 for the first time since 2003 when the new polls come out this week.

I remember my freshman year of high school when I was 14 – it was the year for the Flyers as they won the 2003 A-10 regular season championship and the A-10 tournament and went to the 2003 NCAA tournament as a #4 seed and ending the season 25-6 with exciting and impressive wins that season at UD Arena over #9 Marquette in overtime with NBA superstar Dwayne Wade and beating #19 Cincinnati Bearcats for the first time in 20 years.

Hopefully, this year the Flyers can have a season like they did in 2002-2003. Because I believe this is the year for Dayton Flyer basketball.

Well it might not have been the same players that made up the Florida and Ohio State basketball teams that played in last season’s national championship game, but the Ohio State Buckeyes got revenge against the Florida Gators defeating the Gators 62-49.

The revenge would have been sweet had Ohio State beat Florida in the title game last season in basketball after getting blown out earlier in the season in Gainesville 86-60. Ohio State failed to get revenge at the right time when given a second chance and lost last year in the title game 84-75. The game doesn’t mean much, and the revenge isn’t as great of a feeling other than Florida fans not being able to say we own Ohio State and OSU can never beat Florida.   OSU fans can at least say we beat Florida this year and can hope OSU does better than Florida in basketball this year come March.

Both teams aren’t having their premier years like last year. Neither team came into the game ranked and didn’t have nearly any of the type of hype of last year’s game when they played each other twice last season.

My prediction for this year is that both Ohio State and Florida will at least make the postseason, whether it is the NIT or NCAA tournament.