THURSDAY’S GAME
Dayton vs. Nebraska, 8:30 p.m., ESPNU, FM 95.7, AM 1290 WHIO
Sophomore forward Ryan Mikesell has played only one season and three games with the Dayton Flyers, but he knows the drill when it comes to holiday tournaments in sunny locations.
“Is Archie going to let you guys go to the beach?” some asked him Monday.
“Business trip,” Mikesell said.
That attitude has served the Flyers well throughout coach Archie Miller’s tenure. They may not have much fun off the court, but nothing is more fun than winning. They’ve done plenty of that in the last five seasons.
Dayton is 11-4 in November tournaments under Miller. They won the Old Spice Classic in 2011 have finished 2-1 at the Charleston Classic, the Maui Invitational, the Puerto Rico Tipoff and the Advocare Invitational the last four seasons.
Dayton is 2-0 on Thanksgiving Day in that span and plays again on the holiday this week, facing Nebraska (3-0) at 8:30 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the Wooden Legacy at Titan Gym on the campus of Cal State Fullerton.
Dayton will play No. 14 UCLA (4-0) or Portland (3-0) in their second game at the Wooden Legacy. The Flyers will play at midnight Friday (9 p.m. Pacific time) if they win Thursday or at 9:30 p.m. Their possible opponents in the final game Sunday are: Texas A&M (2-1); New Mexico (3-0); Virginia Tech (3-0); or Cal State Northridge (2-2).
The Flyers (2-1) have a direct flight from Columbus to Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon. They’ll escape the clutches of Ohio weather for temperatures hovering right around 70 degrees all week.
“We’re obviously excited to go out to California to get away from this weather we’re having,” Mikesell said. “It’ll be a nice change of scenery. Obviously, we’re still down guys, but we’re going to continue to improve and do what we do with the guys we have. We can’t make any excuses. It’s going to be like this for a while, so we’ve just got to deal with it.”
Dayton lost sophomore forward Josh Cunningham for at least three months when he tore a ligament in his ankle after a dunk at Alabama on Nov. 15. Miller doesn’t expect senior forward Kendall Pollard to play in California. He remains sidelined with a thigh bruise.
“He’s just trying to get better,” Miller said. “His activity level, from what I heard over the weekend, is going to be picked up a bit in terms of his moving. I suspect he’ll be out probably through Anaheim and maybe even into December.”
Without Cunningham and Pollard, the Flyers have nine scholarship players. Eight of them played Saturday in a 61-57 loss to Saint Mary’s at UD Arena. Miller expects the ninth, freshman guard Trey Landers, to see action this week because the Flyers will play three games in four days.
“I suspect Trey will start to get in there a little bit,” Miller said. “I wanted to get him in there Saturday and probably should have, looking back on it, gave him a couple reps so he can get more comfortable.”
The Wayne grad Landers has seen his role change with the injuries to Cunningham and Pollard. When he does play, he’ll be asked to guard bigger players. At 6-foot-4, 219 pounds, he has the type of body to do that. Landers has been learning that new role in practice.
“It wasn’t really fair to Trey to let him go out there and play in that type of game when he hasn’t had the opportunities to practice the right way,” Miller said, “so this will be a big week for Trey.”
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