I’m back at CMH this morning, preparing to board a 6:30 a.m. flight to Chicago. Then, after a ride on the Orange Line from Midway Airport, I’ve got a lot of time to kill in the chilly Windy City. The Dayton Flyers (18-8, 8-5) play Loyola Chicago (17-9, 8-5) at 7 p.m., or 6 p.m. if you’re going to the game at Gentile Arena.
I have to step carefully to get out of the house this early in the morning to avoid waking my wife and son — spoiler alert: I was not successful. The dogs add a layer of difficulty because often one of them, Fergus, will follow me downstairs. Every step sounds like a rock concert in the nearly 90-year-old house. I don’t shower. I don’t even brush my teeth. I get dressed downstairs, where I left my clothes the night before, and sneak out into the darkness.
***
This is my fourth trip to Chicago in the last three seasons. This will be Dayton’s third game at Loyola since it entered the league in the 2022-23 season. There was also a game at Northwestern early last season.
Dayton and Loyola met late last season with second place on the line, but both still had hopes of winning the Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season championship. Loyola beat Dayton 77-72 and shared the title when Richmond lost its final regular-season game to George Mason.
Neither team has title hopes entering this game. They’re four-games back of first-place George Mason (21-5, 12-1) with five games to play. George Mason plays second-place VCU (21-5, 12-2) on Saturday at VCU’s Siegel Center.
George Mason could still share the title even if it loses at VCU. It has an easy road in its final four games, playing home games against Fordham and La Salle, the two teams at the bottom of the standings, and road games against Duquesne and Richmond, two teams under .500 in A-10 play.
VCU’s biggest test comes in its final regular-season game against Dayton on March 7 in Richmond. The Flyers could be trying to lock up a top-four seed that day. They could also get the chance to play spoiler.
If VCU wins the title, it will be the fourth time it has won or shared the championship in 13 seasons in the A-10. George Mason would finish first for the first time in 12 seasons. The big prize, of course, is the A-10 tournament championship because of the NCAA tournament berth that comes with it, but the regular-season championship is a bigger accomplishment.
Another strange ending for Dayton
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Chase and I have a game we play when we’re in the hot tub in our backyard. We finish a can of Coke, or whatever, and toss the empty can into the branches of the honeysuckle bush next to the hot tub. The goal is to get it stuck. It’s basically Plinko, the Price is Right game.
Plinko is a game of chance. Randomness determines winners. And the more I’ve watched college basketball over the years, it seems randomness is a deciding factor more often than not.
The Flyers, for example, beat Duquesne 77-76 last Friday because of the decision by Duquesne’s Cam Crawford to intentionally foul Dayton’s Malachi Smith with six seconds remaining in a tie game. Crawford obviously thought Duquesne trailed and needed to stop the clock. His decision saved Smith, whose turnover seconds earlier led to Duquesen’s game-tying basket.
“Hey, this is basketball, and sometimes there’s endings like that,” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III told TribLive.com. “Today we were a part of it.”
Dayton had luck on its side against Duquesne just as it did in its previous home victory against Davidson when a technical foul against Davidson’s Hunter Adam in the final minute led to a five-point possession for Dayton and turned the momentum at the crucial moment.
Dayton will need more luck in March at the A-10 Conference tournament. Anthony Grant referenced that after the Fordham game on Feb. 12.
“You want to put yourself in the best position, to be playing well and to be as healthy as you can, and you’ve got to have some luck on your side,” he said.
There are often random winners in the A-10 tournament. The No. 6 seed has won three of the last five tournaments.
The seed hasn’t mattered so much for Dayton. It has earned the top seed, the bottom seed and almost everything in between over the last 20 tournaments and hasn’t won the event since 2003. Dayton fans will have that fact in the back of their minds when the tournament begins in three weeks, knowing it’s going to take a lucky bounce or 10 to get Dayton to the NCAA tournament.
Trip to Rhode Island looms for Dayton
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Next week, I’ll be on the road again. Dayton plays at Rhode Island on Wednesday.
Rhode Island (17-8, 6-7) has improved its overall win total for the third straight season under former Dayton coach Archie Miller, whose first two teams finished 9-22 and 12-20. It’s also on track to improve its A-10 record after finishing 5-13 and then 6-12. However, it has not been a factor in the league race for the seventh straight season.
Dan Hurley was the last Rhode Island coach to lead the program to the top of the standings in 2018, his final season before taking the job at Connecticut, where he has won the last two national championships. Hurley started his tenure with two losing seasons but finished 23-10 in his third season.
The third season is often when fans want to see results. Grant’s third team won 29 games, for example.
Rhode Island is 1-5 on the road in A-10 play and plays at Saint Louis on Saturday after two straight home victories against St. Bonaventure and La Salle.
Fast Break
Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans:
🏀 The Oregonian published a two-part story this week about former Dayton forward Toumani Camara. The headline was: “Toumani Camara’s unlikely journey to becoming a rising defensive NBA star: ‘He embraced all of it.’”
The story quoted Grant.
“I thought his senior year, he really evolved into a really good leader,” Grant said. “A guy that the guys all trusted. They knew they could talk to him. They knew they could come to him. He held them to a high standard. He held himself to a high standard. He bought it every day.”
🏀 Former Dayton forward DaRon Holmes II, who tore his Achilles tendon last summer in his NBA Summer League debut, participated in parts of practice for the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday, Nuggets coach Michael Malone told reporters. Holmes still will miss the season but has continued to progress in his recovery.
“Just being able to see all the plays and stuff has been great,” Holmes told the Denver Gazette earlier this month. “That’s what’s been the biggest thing for me. What I can do now is use this year to my advantage for next year when I’m a rookie, technically.”
🏀 Former Dayton forward Moulaye Sissoko, a sixth-year center at North Texas, scored a career-high 27 points Wednesday for North Texas in a 63-44 victory against Tulsa. He’s averaging a career-best 8.1 points in his third season at North Texas after three years at Dayton. North Texas is 19-6 and one game behind first-place Memphis in the American Athletic Conference standings.
🏀 What do you want to know about the Flyers?
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