Roberts looked back on the game in an interview with the Dayton Daily News in December. Later the same week, he attended Dayton’s game against another No. 6 team, Marquette, at UD Arena. He sat in the front row opposite the visitor’s bench, taking the seats of UD superfan Ron Morton, who gave him the tickets after undergoing heart surgery two days before the game.
Like everyone else in the crowd of 13,407, Roberts had a great night. Dayton beat Marquette 71-63 to improve to 9-2. Roberts posed for many photos with fans throughout the night and spoke to the team in the locker room after the game.
Much like the game against Marquette, there was plenty of hype around a long-awaited matchup 17 years ago.
“We felt like we had a good team my senior year,” Roberts said. “This was a super big measuring stick to see where we stood. It was an incredible atmosphere that I’ll never forget. I’m sure a lot of the fans and my teammates at the time have never forgotten it either.”
Roberts scored 31 points in an 80-55 victory against Pittsburgh, a team that would finish 27-10, win the Big East tournament and finish 17th in the final Associated Press top-25 poll.
“His performance tonight will certainly go down as one of the best in college basketball this year,” Dayton coach Brian Gregory said after the game. “Against a great team, he dominated the game. And not just with his scoring. Passing, defense, he did everything. I’ve been saying all along he is one of the most efficient guards in the country, and tonight again he proved it.”
That victory ranks among the greatest upsets in UD history, though judging by the rank of the teams at the time of the games, it’s not in the top 10. Here’s a quick glance at 10 games that saw Dayton upset a top-four team:
NO. 1 TEAMS
March 1, 1953: Dayton 71, No. 1 Seton Hall 65
Summary: Dayton has played 13 games against the No. 1 team over the years. It is 2-11 in those games. This was the first. It came in the second-to-last game of coach Tom Blackburn’s sixth season. This was the biggest victory in another wise forgettable season, at least compared to the many memorable seasons of the Blackburn era in the 1950s.
Dayton lost 72-54 at Seton Hall, which was then ranked second, earlier that same season on Jan. 5. Seton Hall entered this game with a 17-0 record. After losing to Dayton, it lost the next day at Louisville but then closed the regular season with a victory at John Carroll on March 4. It then beat Niagara, Manhattan and St. John’s to win the NIT championship for the first time.
Star of the game: Jim Paxson Sr. scored 23 points. He made 7 of 15 field-goal attempts and 9 of 10 free throws.
What Joe Burns wrote in the Dayton Daily News: THE FLYERS DID IT! They did what no other team had been able to do all season! They toppled unbeaten Seton! They conquered the “invincible” team that had accumulated the most successive triumphs in a single season of competitive major basketball!
The biggest crowd ever to see a basketball game here — 6,054 frantic, frenzied folk — was rewarded with the biggest victory ever scored here by a Dayton team.
The final count was 71 points to 65 — but what does it matter? Even the winning coach, Tom Blackburn, wasn’t sure of it after the last sweet siren. The only thing that mattered was that Dayton had won, The Flyers had ended Setonia’s remarkable run of success at 27 games.
This HAD to be the greatest of all UD basketball victories.
At least it was the greatest for this man’s money, and, with the exception of the one at Louisville last year, we’ve seen all the big ones of the Blackburn era, including the two National Invitation tournaments.
Feb. 27, 1954: No. 16 Dayton 64, No. 1 Duquesne 54
Summary: In the last game of the regular season, Dayton beat a No. 1 team for the second straight season. The victory came two days after a 107-73 loss at Bowling Green. The Flyers avenged a 72-54 loss at Duquesne, which was then No. 2, on Jan. 4.
Star of the game: Bill Uhl Sr. scored 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting.
What Burns wrote: The University of Dayton’s fighting Flyers fought and won one of the most noteworthy battles in the school’s annals last night, conquering the nation’s top-ranked collegiate basketball team, Duquesne, 64-54.
It was only the second setback for the Iron Dukes from Pittsburgh in 24 games, albeit their second in two nights, having been upset 66-52 by Cincinnati on Friday.
NO. 2 TEAMS
March 4, 1974: Dayton 98, No. 2 Notre Dame 82
Summary: Notre Dame entered the game with a 23-1 record and a 12-game winning streak. Its only loss was to No. 1 UCLA in January.
Star of the game: After making 3 of 22 shots in a 94-58 loss at Notre Dame the previous season, Donald Smith scored 32 points on 12-of-21 shooting.
What Gary Nuhn wrote: When the world closes down and the noise chapter is written, the noises will rank like so: 1. The Creation. 2. The first explosion of the H-bomb. 3. O’Hare International Airport in Chicago any day at 5 p.m. And 4. Dayton beats Notre Dame 97-82.
Monday night, a record swarm of 13,528 people, inspired by who knows what visions of immortality, turned UD Arena into a seething, echoing, reverberating chamber in which Dayton’s Flyers thrived as they have not for years. And years.
If a crowd, in street language, can be said to go bananas, this one went beyond bananas. This crowd went kumquats ... or zucchini.
Credit: David Jablonski
Nov. 28, 2024: Dayton 85, No. 2 Connecticut 67
Summary: In the seventh-place game at the Maui Invitational, Dayton bounced back from close losses to No. 12 North Carolina and No. 5 Iowa State against the two-time defending national champions.
Star of the game: Enoch Cheeks scored 10 of his 20 points in the last six minutes. He made 8 of 12 field-goal attempts and 3 of 5 3-pointers.
What David Jablonski wrote: Anthony Grant left the Lahaina Civic Center on Wednesday night with his wife Chris by his side. He was the last person to reach the Dayton Flyers bus because he had to attend the postgame press conference before doing a 1-on-1 one interview with college basketball reporter Andy Katz.
Grant wore a Jay’s Light T-shirt, supporting the organization that honors his late daughter, because his players had doused him with water in the locker room after an 85-67 victory against No. 2 Connecticut. The red Dayton shirt he wore during the game was headed to a drying rack — or perhaps to a Dayton basketball museum; that’s how big this win was for Grant’s program.
The seventh-place game at the Maui Invitational might have been a NCAA tournament play-in game for Dayton, which needed at least one win in this tournament to pad its at-large resume for March. It got that and more with a dominant and historic performance, one that started after midnight back in Ohio, where tired fans wondered if they should stay awake or save energy for Thanksgiving.
The ones who made it to the end were rewarded with Dayton’s first victory against a top-25 team since the victory against No. 4 Kansas on the Mustapha Amzil shot in 2022. That was as big as victories get for Dayton in non-conference play, but judging by the Associated Press top-25 poll, this was two spots better.
NO. 3 TEAMS
Jan. 10, 1955: No. 12 Dayton 68, No. 3 Duquesne 67
Summary: After losing 90-75 to No. 8 Duquesne in December, Dayton beat Duquesne twice in the regular season: in this game; and again on Feb. 27 at the Frericks Center. Duquesne then beat Dayton 70-58 in the NIT championship game. Duquesne finished 22-4 and ranked sixth in the final AP poll.
Star of the game: John Horan scored 28 points on 7-of-13 shooting. He made 13 of 17 free throws. Ray Dieringer makes the game-winning shot, making up for a key turnover in the final minutes.
What Burns wrote: The wheel of fortune spins. A fellow pulls the “rock” of the night. Then, with only five seconds left, the same fellow takes his first shot of the night — and makes it. And Dayton’s Flyers win, ending a string of 20 consecutive Duquesne victories at the Gardens here, a string begun after another Dayton victory on the same court — in double overtime-two seasons ago.
A junior guard from Wapakoneta named Ray Dieringer, within less than three minutes makes the transition from bum to hero. His goal pulls the Flyers through by 68-67 and inflicts upon the Dukes their second defeat.
Dec. 20, 1955: No. 4 Dayton 77, No. 3 Utah 73
Summary: This was the sixth victory in a 13-0 start for Dayton. Utah finished 22-6 and ranked 18th in the final AP poll.
Star of the game: Jim Paxson Sr. scored 24 of his career-high 35 points in the last 14 minutes.
What Burns wrote: Thanks largely to Jim Paxson and the University of Kentucky Invitational tournament record he set here last night, by scoring 35 points in a 77-73 victory over previously unbeaten Utah, Tom Blackburn, basketball coach at the University of Dayton, tonight gets the chance to achieve one of the most precious of his almost-200 victories. That is, meet and defeat Adolph Rupp.
Blackburn’s Flyers, a mid-afternoon underdog for their first appearance in Lexington, surged into the final by staying ahead of Jack Gardner’s Runnin’ Redskins from Salt Lake City almost from the tournament’s opening gun, meeting and repulsing every challenge.
Feb. 18, 1984: Dayton 72, No. 3 DePaul 71
Summary: After beating No. 2 Notre Dame in 1974, Dayton had lost six straight games to top-three teams entering this game, and two of those losses were to DePaul. Dayton lost 65-63 at No. 1 DePaul in 1980 and 84-64 to No. 2 DePaul at UD Arena in 1981.
Star of the game: Roosevelt Chapman scored 19 points on 8-of-18 shooting.
What Gary Nuhn wrote: Ed Young.
One second.
Off the glass.
Dayton 72, DePaul 71.
So this is what pandemonium is all about: So this is ecstasy. So this is why James Naismith hung the peach baskets.
Dayton’s Dwarfs, the team Cöach Don Donoher calls, “my little rats,” the team that made “Where’s the beef?” more than a hamburger slogan — yes, that Dayton — chopped down DePaul’s third-ranked Blue Demons as 12,723 people went beyond loud Saturday afternoon at UD Arena.
“Truly amazing,” said Damon Goodwin.
NO. 4 TEAMS
Feb. 26, 1955: No. 11 Dayton 67, No. 4 Duquesne 58
Summary: Dayton took a 10-game winning streak into the third of four games against Duquesne.
Star of the game: Bill Uhl Sr. scored 29 points on 11-of-22 shooting. He made 7 of 11 rebounds. He grabbed 18 rebounds.
What Burns wrote: The Dayton Flyers climaxed their home season last night by defeating Duquesne’s Iron Dukes 67-58 and stopping the champions of the Holiday Festival after they had reeled off 11 straight victories.
March 24, 1967: Dayton 76, No. 4 North Carolina 62
Summary: Dayton beat its third ranked team in a run to the national championship game.
Star of the game: Don May scored 34 points on 16-of-22 shooting.
What Jim Zofkie wrote in the Journal Herald: Don May’s performance was one of the most memorable in the history of this tournament.
The Dayton dynamo missed his first shot from the field and then hit an astounding 13 straight field goals, nine in the first half.
North Carolina coach Dean Smith used three different players and a variety of team defenses in an effort to contain May. Larry Miller did the best individual effort but none really stopped the genuine Dayton all-America forward.
Nov. 26, 2021: Dayton 74, No. 4 Kansas 73
Summary: Dayton lost three straight home games to low-ranked opponents — UMass Lowell, Austin Peay and Lipscomb — and then beat the Miami Hurricanes, Kansas and Belmont to win the ESPN Events Invitational.
Star of the game: Freshman forward DaRon Holmes II led Dayton with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
What Jablonski wrote: Almost 38 years after The Shot by Ed Young and more than seven years after The Kiss by Vee Sanford, Mustapha Amzil added his name to list of memorable shots by the Dayton Flyers with The Bounce — or “The Finnish” as some fans were calling it after the game.
A 6-foot-9 second-year forward from Finland, Amzil collected a rebound in the corner after Kansas forward David McCormack blocked a shot by Dayton guard Malachi Smith. He took two dribbles to left, into the paint, and lofted a shot over the outstretched hand of Kansas guard Christian Braun.
Amzil had not made a shot in 14 minutes. He had made 2 of 4 free throws. This was his first field-goal attempt. The ball hit the front of the rim and bounced high into the air, hitting the backboard above the square before falling through the net as time expired.This was a pure buzzer beater, and there was pure chaos on the court as Dayton celebrated a 74-73 victory Friday over No. 4 Kansas in the semifinals of the ESPN Events Invitational at the HP Fieldhouse.
”It was great,” Amzil said. “I had to watch the ball bounce in and down. It’s hard to describe. It’s surreal. It’s a great feeling. I saw the clock when I was driving. I was about to kick it out, but there was just one second so I just had to take the shot.”
HISTORY LESSON
Dayton has played nine regular-season games against teams that would win the national championship the same season. Here are the results of those games:
Nov. 26, 2021: Dayton 74, Kansas 73
Nov. 22, 2018: Virginia 66, Dayton 59
March 15, 1985: Villanova 51, Dayton 49
March 25, 1984: Georgetown 61, Dayton 49
Jan. 2, 1971: UCLA 106, Dayton 82
Dec. 31, 1962: Loyola Chicago 74, Dayton 69
Jan. 16, 1962: Cincinnati 80, Dayton 61
Dec. 29, 1960: Cincinnati 71, Dayton 61
Jan. 16, 1954: La Salle 82, Dayton 58
ANOTHER LOOK
Upsets are most often mentioned with the ranks of the teams at the time of the game. The list of upsets looks different when the team’s ranking in the final AP poll of the season is considered. Here’s the list of Dayton’s eight victories against teams that would finish in the top five of the final AP poll.
March 11, 1952: No. 11 Dayton 68, No. 5 Saint Louis 58
March 1, 1953: Dayton 71, No. 2 Seton Hall 65
Feb. 27, 1954: Dayton 64, No. 5 Duquesne 54.
Jan. 29, 1966: Dayton 79, No. 5 Saint Joseph’s 76
March 24, 1967: Dayton 76, No. 4 North Carolina 62
March 4, 1974: No. 20 Dayton 97, No. 5 Notre Dame 82.
Nov. 26, 2021: Dayton 74, No. 3 Kansas 73
Feb. 18, 1984: Dayton 72, No. 4 DePaul 71
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