Nov. 21, 2005

Complete Notes in PDF Format

The University of Dayton men's basketball team, fresh off a season-opening win Friday at UD Arena, will take to the road for the first time in 2005-06 season Monday, November 21 when the Flyers visit the Miami RedHawks. Game time is 6:30 p.m. EST.

Dayton began the year with an 81-60 win over defending Ohio Valley Conference regular season champion Tennessee Tech on November 18. Sophomore guard Brian Roberts scored a career-high 28 points to lead UD. Junior forward Monty Scott (a pre-season First Team All-Atlantic 10 selection) added 16 points and a game-high eight rebounds, and senior point guard Warren Williams had his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 11 assists.

Miami put a big scare in 14th-ranked Alabama in last Tuesday before falling 64-58 in Tuscaloosa on Tuesday. MU trailed by one (59-58) with 2:08 remaining, but the Crimson Tide scored the last five points of the game (three from the line). The RedHawks are the defending Mid-American regular season champion, finishing 12-6 in the MAC and 19-11 overall. Miami returns eight letterwinners and three starters from that team, including sophomore Doug Penno, younger brother of Dayton senior Jeff Penno.

UD was 18-11 last year. One of the youngest teams in the nation (six freshmen averaged at least 11 minutes a game), the Flyers were also tied for second in the Atlantic 10 West Division, behind eventual A-10 champion George Washington. Dayton returns four starters and ten of the top 12 scorers from that team, including MVP and All-Atlantic 10 performer Monty Scott.

After Miami, Dayton will return home to face Morehead State on Wednesday, November 23. That will be UD's third game in the first six days of the season. The Flyers will begin the 2005-06 season with seven contests in the first 16 days of the year, and nine in the first 23.

SERIES STUFF Dayton leads the series with Miami 63-59, and won the last meeting by the score of 67-61 at UD Arena on December 3, 2003. In fact, the Flyers have won four of the last five games in the series, but that lone exception was the last contest played in Oxford -- a 78-63 RedHawk win on December 4, 2002.

2005-06 FLYER OUTLOOK

After getting off to the second-best two year start in University of Dayton history, head coach Brian Gregory and his Flyers are ready to go bigger and better in the 2005-06 season.

Gregory's two-year record of 42-20 is second only to Don Donoher's remarkable 45-13 record in his first two seasons. Dayton was 24-9 in Gregory's first season winning the EA Sports Maui Invitational (Gregory is the only rookie coach to win the prestigious early-season tournament) at the beginning, and winning the Atlantic 10 West at the end.

After taking a veteran team to the 2004 NCAA Tournament, Gregory guided one of the youngest teams in the country (six freshmen averaged at least 11 minutes a game) to an 18-11 record, finishing tied for second in the A-10 West. CBS Sportsline.com and collegeinsider.com chose Gregory as their 2004-05 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year.

As UD enters the third year of the Brian Gregory era, the Flyers return 10 of their 12 top players. Included in those 10 players are last year's top three scorers (Monty Scott, Brian Roberts and Norman Plummer), top three rebounders (Scott, Plummer and Chris Alvarez), the team's assist leader (Warren Williams) and the top four FG shooters (Plummer, Roberts, Scott and Alvarez).

Seven of the 12 scholarship players on the 2005-06 roster have been recruited to UD by Gregory and his staff. That includes the most productive freshman class in school history, and two heralded recruits. The 2004-05 freshmen scored 51.4% of the team's points, grabbed 50.3% of the rebounds and shot 55.5% of the free throws.

Considering the state of the program, it's no surprise that Gregory enters the 2005-06 season with a new contract in hand. The length of the contract, however, might be surprising. Gregory and the University agreed over the summer to a new contract that runs through the 2012-13 season. It reflects increases in length and compensation over his original contract, which was a five-year agreement that he signed when he was named UD's head coach on April 9, 2003.

The two incoming freshmen are 6-6, 220-pound forward Charles Little and 6-9, 270-pound center Desmond Adedeji. Little was a finalist for the Tennessee Mr. Basketball Award, and once scored 49 points and grabbed 26 rebounds in a high school tournament game. Adedeji, Maryland's #1-ranked center, is one of a handful of players to letter four seasons at storied DeMatha High School. DeMatha was the seventh-ranked high school team in the nation in 2004-05.

Those seven Flyers will combine with five veterans -- Scott, Bennett, Williams, Logan White and James Cripe -- who now have two years in the Gregory system under their belts. Scott was named the winner of UD's White Allen MVP Award and All-Atlantic 10 after leading UD in scoring and rebounding. Williams started every game at point guard and was named the 2005-06 winner of the Uhl Family Scholarship. And Bennett is a two-time UD Best Defender Award winner.

HEAD COACH Brian Gregory Third-year head coach Brian Gregory is off to one of the best coaching starts in UD history. His 42-20 record after two seasons was the second-best-ever at UD. He led a veteran team to a 24-9 record and the 2004 Atlantic 10 West Division Championship in his first season. Last year, with one of the youngest teams in the country (six freshmen averaged at least 11 minutes a game), he guided the team to an 18-11 record. The young Flyers were in the race for their second straight division title right up to the last weekend of the regular season. For his performance in 2004-05, he was named the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year by CBS SportsLine and collegeinsider.com. Gregory is the only coach to lead his team to the Maui Invitational championship in his first season as a head coach.

COMMITMENT EQUALS CONTRACT Just after practice began in October, UD Vice-President and Director of Athletics Ted Kissell announced that the University and head men's basketball coach Brian Gregory agreed to a new contract that will run through the 2012-13 season. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed, but it reflects increases in length and compensation. "This new contract includes incentives for performance and longevity. It is not just based on what Brian has accomplished in his first two years as our coach, but also for what we believe is to come," Kissell said at the announcement of the new contract. "Brian Gregory is the right man to move our men's basketball program to a position among the nation's best."

MAUI MEMORIES The Maui Invitational signals the start of the college basketball season for purists the way that Opening Day in Cincinnati does the same thing for baseball fans. With that thought, it's worth noting that UD coach Brian Gregory is the only first-year coach to guide his team to the tournament championship. Gregory took the Flyers to the tournament title in 2003.

MEET THE STAFF Brian Gregory has a tremendous staff working with the Flyers again in 2005-06. Billy Schmidt has been with Gregory since he came to UD three years ago, joining the Flyers from the University of Michigan. Schmidt has also coached in the SEC and Big East. The other two coaches on the staff are new to UD, but hardly new to the profession. Reggie Rankin comes to Dayton from Nebraska, with previous experience in the SEC, WAC and MAC. Bob Beyer's last coaching stop was with the Toronto Raptors, and his stops before the NBA included the Big 12 and the SEC.

ROBERTS NAMED A-10 PLAYER OF THE WEEK Flyer University of Dayton sophomore guard Brian Roberts has been named this season's first Atlantic 10 Player of the Week. He scored a career-high 28 points in UD's 81-60 win over Tennessee Tech Friday, and had a new career high by halftime, with 18 points (previous high was 17 set vs. Duquesne last year). It was the most points in an opener since Mark Ashman had 30 vs. Kent State. SCOTT NAMED FIRST TEAM ALL-ATLANTIC 10 Junior forward Monty Scott was named First Team All-Atlantic 10 Thursday at the league's pre-season media day on November 3. Scott, UD's 2004-05 MVP, led the Flyers in scoring (11.1) and rebounding (4.6) last season. Dayton freshman forward Charles Little was named to the A-10's All-Rookie Team. The Flyers were picked to finish fifth in the pre-season poll of coaches and media. This year's basketball magazines place UD as high as second, and predict Dayton will be in post-season play.

GREAT SCOTT Monty Scott is blessed and cursed with the talent that creates expectations that a 16-point, eight-rebound effort like the one he had against Tennessee Tech is almost commonplace. So be it, but one number on his stat sheet jumps out -- five free throw attempts. A concerted effort is being made to have him be more aggressive with the ball, and get him to the line more often (where he is a career 78% FT shooter). Last year he averaged just 1.6 FTA a game.

DUBYA-DUBYA'S DOUBLE-DOUBLE UD point guard Warren Williams opened the year with his first career double-double in the Tennessee Tech win, scoring 10 points and passing for a career-high 11 assists. Most important, he had just two turnovers in 32 minutes against a pressing team, that head coach Brian Gregory said "...was in his shorts every minute he was out there." Williams' previous high was nine against La Salle at home last season.

LETHAL WEAPONS THREE UD's starting perimeter players -- point guard Warren Williams, two guard Brian Roberts and small forward Monty Scott -- combined to score 54 of the Flyers' 81 points in the opener. But it wasn't all from the outside as Dayton outscored Tennessee Tech 36-18 in the paint.

NO LITTLE THING Freshman forward Charles Little came off the bench with a solid performance in the Tech win. Despite being (in coach Brian Gregory's estimation) no better than 85% and three weeks behind due to the hamstring injury he suffered in at the start of practice, Little scored eight points and grabbed two rebounds in 14 minutes of action.

BINNIE OFF THE BENCH Sophomore forward Jimmy Binnie did a little bit of everything in 21 minutes in the win over Tennessee Tech. He scored seven points, grabbed five rebounds and had two assists. Ironically, the one area he did not perform up to his stats was three-point shooting. A 38% shooter from beyond the arc last year, Binnie was an uncharacteristic oh-for-three in the game.

THE MAYOR Sophomore center Chris Alvarez's outgoing personality may get him elected to office someday (if he decides to run for office, that is), but for now he is campaigning for votes as the team's most improved player. In the TTU win, the number three came up big in his performance. Alvarez scored three points, had three assists, had a career-high three blocked shots and showed his versatility by guarding all three Golden Eagle frontcourt positions at different times during the game.

FLYERS SIGN FOUR IN EARLY SIGNING PERIOD Flyer coach Brian Gregory and his staff landed another impressive group of recruits during the early signing period that began Wednesday. The four players who signed are another highly-touted class. The newest official members of the Flyer family - 6-9 center/forward Kurt Huelsman of St. Henry (OH) High School, 6-3 guard Marcus Johnson of Akron (OH) St. Vincent/St. Mary's High School, 6-4 guard Andres Sandoval of Winchendon High School (Milford, MA)/Santa Fe (FL) Community College and 6-2 guard London Warren of Jacksonville (FL) Raines High School - are collectively ranked tied for the nation's 33rd-best, according to HoopScoop Online. All four committed verbally to UD this summer after getting scholarship offers from schools that included members of the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.

NOW THAT'S A PEER GROUP HoopScoop Online ranks seven Atlantic 10 schools in its Top 50 rankings of early recruiting classes. In addition to UD, they are Charlotte, Duquesne, La Salle, Rhode Island, Richmond and Saint Joseph's.

SPEAKING OF NEW GUYS An unfamiliar face with a familiar name to long-time Flyer fans can be found on UD's bench. Monroe Douglass, Jr., son of SLU star Monroe Douglass, is now on the team as a walk-on. It has not yet been determined if the sophomore guard will be in uniform for any games.

A DIVERSE DAYTON ROSTER The Flyer basketball program boasts (counting the fall signees and Monroe Douglass, Jr.) 19 players from nine different states. Eight UD players hail from Ohio, and two each are from Florida, Maryland and Massachusetts. Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Tennessee have one.

TURN ON, TUNE IN A total of 18 games will be televised in the 2005-06 season, not counting games in the Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship. The Flyers will appear on ESPN2 twice, Time Warner Sports three times, the Atlantic 10 Television Network four times, and WHIO-TV nine times.

THE A-10 HEADS FOR THE AC The Atlantic 10 announced on Thursday, November 10 that the 2007 and 2008 Men's Basketball Championship will be played at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This season's tournament will be played for the second straight year at US Bank Arena in Cincinnati. The A-10 tournament set attendance records when it was at UD Arena in 2003 and 2004.

TRAVELING IN STYLE Once again this season, the Dayton Flyers will be flying charters to the majority of its road games. Last year, for the first time, Dayton traveled to all but two of its away games by charter to limit the amount of time spent away from campus and missed class time.

GRAD RATES GREAT IN DAYTON The University of Dayton was listed as one of the nation's leaders in the 2004 NCAA Division I Graduation Rates Report. UD tied for 15th nationally in the four-year average at a rate of 81 percent. Dayton was also tied for 19th in the one-year average with an 84 percent graduation rate. The report also noted that every one of the 229 scholarship student-athletes that entered the UD from 1988-89 to 1997-98 and completed their eligibility at UD have graduated.

TOURNEY TOWN The NCAA Division I Tournament will make its start at UD Arena this season for the sixth year in a row. The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee has announced that the University of Dayton Arena will host the NCAA Opening Round Game in 2006. UD has hosted the game since its inception in its current form in 2002. Dayton will also be a First and Second Round site for the 2006 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. When the 2006 NCAA Tournament is over, UD Arena will have been an NCAA site in 20 of the last 37 years and will have hosted 72 NCAA Tournament games. That will make UD Arena the third-most prolific NCAA Tournament venue behind Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City (83) and the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City (81). The Arena is also one of four 2008 NCAA Division I NCAA Women's Regional tournament sites.

THREE-POINT STRING UD has made a three-pointer in 495 straight games, which is the ninth longest streak in Division I. Through games of November 20, UNLV has made at least one in its last 602 games, followed by Vanderbilt (601), Kentucky (576), Duke (553), Arkansas (546), Western Kentucky (538), Princeton (524), North Carolina State (503), Dayton (495) and Charlotte (491). Only Vandy, UNLV and Princeton have hit a trey in every game since the three-point line was added in 1986-87.

WHAT THE BEST-DRESSED STUDENTS WEAR IN `05 As a thank-you for their support and for nearly doubling student ticket reservations from last year, UD coach Brian Gregory bought the red t-shirts that were handed out to every student who attended the Tennessee Tech game. The front of the shirt says "Dayton Basketball" and the back says "They Come To Play, We Come To Win."

FLYER FAITHFUL For years, UD has claimed it has had the best fans in the nation. In 2001, The Sporting News conducted an unscientific poll of college basketball coaches, media and SIDs. In the January 8, 2001 issue of the magazine, UD's fans were tabbed as college basketball's best. Close to 300 of the "Flyer Faithful" made the trip to Maui last season to watch UD win the Maui Invitational. Duke's Cameron Crazies got a taste in 2002-03 when about 500 Flyer fanatics followed the team to Durham, the most visiting fans at Duke in more than 20 years. At Duquesne last year, UD had easily half the crowd as Pittsburgh was turning its attention to a Steelers-Jets playoff game later in the day. UD Arena has 75 sellouts in its 34-year history. UD's last 88 regular season home games have had an attendance of at least 11,000 fans. In the last 13 years, 99% of UD's home games have drawn at least 10,000 (326 of 328), including the last 126 regular season games. For the entire 2004-05 season, Dayton averaged of 12,569 fans per game, which was ranked 18th nationally. The year's opening night attendance of 13,040 was UD's largest first-game crowd in five years.

DID YOU KNOW ? UD won more games than any other school in both the 1950s and `60s. UD won 435 games between 1950 and 1969 and ranks among the top teams of the 1950s and 1960s in Division I history. The Flyers' .763 (228-71) winning percentage in the 1950s ranks fifth in the decade. Their .729 (207-77) winning percentage ranks eighth in the 1960s.

LAST GAME -- UD 81, TENNESSEE TECH Sophomore guard Brian Roberts scored a career-high 28 points to lead Dayton to a season-opening 81-60 decision against Tennessee Tech Friday night in front of 13,040 fans at UD Arena. Senior point guard Warren Williams handed out a career-high 11 assists. Monty Scott added 16 points and a team-high eight rebounds as the Flyers shot 55.8 percent as a team and held Tennessee Tech to 36.2 percent from the field. Roberts was 10-of-13 from the field, including four-of-seven from three-point range, while Scott was six-for-10 and two-of-four from behind the arc. Chris Alvarez's three blocks were also a career high. Scott scored Dayton's first five points, but three three-pointers and a tip-in gave Tennessee Tech and early 11-7 lead. Roberts got hot by scoring 10-straight points for the Flyers, and a steal by Warren Williams and ensuing lay-up put UD up 19-16 with 8:35 to go in the first. UD surged to a 35-22 lead just before half. But the Eagles answered with five consecutive points to cut the margin to eight before Dayton's final possession of the half. Roberts sliced through the lane with three seconds to go to restore a 10-point lead, 37-27 at intermission. Roberts shot six-of-eight in the first half for 18 points, which alone topped his previous career high of 17 (versus Duquesne, January 5, 2005). In the second half, Scott and Roberts continued to find the bottom of the net, as UD pushed out to a 47-32 lead. Jimmy Binnie scored five-straight UD points, including an acrobatic drive to the hole while being fouled to give UD a 56-39 midway through the second half. Roberts drove the lane for two as the Flyers and followed that up with a triple to push the lead to 68-44 with 5:53 remaining. The closest the Eagles would come the rest of the way would be 19 with 1:07 remaining.