Dec. 23, 2005
The University of Dayton Flyers will complete their games in the Las Vegas Holiday Classic Friday when they face the University of Northern Iowa Panthers at Valley High School. Game time is 5:00 p.m. PST (8:00 p.m. EST). Dayton is looking to bounce back from Thursday's 81-63 third-round LVHC loss to Cincinnati.
The LVHC is a round-robin tournament where the first two rounds were played on campus sites December 17 and 19, and the third and fourth games are played at Valley High School in Las Vegas December 22 and 23. Cincinnati and Northern Iowa are 3-0 entering the final day of play. UD is 2-1, as is LSU. LSU and UC play in the tournament's final contest after the Dayton-Northern Iowa game.
Earlier in the Las Vegas Holiday Classic, Dayton's win Monday over Florida A&M was the 50th win of Brian Gregory's head coaching career. Only Flyer Hall of Famer Don Donoher (63 games) got to 50 faster than Gregory (73) at UD.
The Flyers are 8-4 this season and have won six of their last eight games. Dayton is led by sophomore guard Brian Roberts and junior forward Monty Scott, who are developing into a potent 1-2 punch (or if you go by their uniform numbers, a 2-1 punch). Roberts averages 16.9 points a game, and Scott 11.5. One of them has been UD's high scorer in every game but one this season. Combined, they have made 45 of UD's 65 three-pointers.
Northern Iowa is one of just 33 teams (out of 334 Division I programs) who still have just one loss. UNI's 9-1 record also have them currently ranked #15 in the latest RPI ratings. The Panthers return all five starters from last year's 21-11 NCAA tournament team, and have started the same lineup in all ten games this season. Ben Jacobson leads four Northern Iowa players in double figures (13.2 ppg.). Center Grant Stout leads the team in rebounding (7.9) and blocked shots (2.9) and set the UNI career record for blocked shots on Thursday.
After the Christmas holiday, the Flyers will return to the Arena and close out both the 2005 calendar year and the 2005-06 non-conference season with a game with Vanderbilt on Friday, December 30. When that game concludes, this year's club will have played 14 games -- the most games before January 1 than any other team in UD history. The previous high was 12, which had happened five times. The Vandy game time is 7:00 p.m. EST.
KEEPING BUSY Dayton's non-conference schedule this year consists of nine games in the first 23 days of the season, a week off for exams, then four games in seven days, another week off (thanks to Christmas falling on a Sunday), and one more game on December 30.
SPRINT TO THE FINISH UD's last three non-conference games of 2005-06 are against teams (Cincinnati, Northern Iowa and Vanderbilt) who are a combined 24-4. UC is seventh and UNI 15th in the latest RPI.
DOING IT WITH DEFENSE Dayton has held its opponent under 50 points five times already this season. That had happened a total of five times in Flyer coach Brian Gregory's first two seasons at UD.
SERIES STUFF The series between Dayton and Northern Iowa is tied 1-1. UD won the first matchup, 88-83, at UD Arena on December 5, 1987. Current UNI coach Greg McDerrmott was a Panther senior who scored four points in 16 minutes in that game Northern Iowa beat the Flyers 72-70 in double overtime at the UNIDome on the next season on December 23.
VIVA.... Past fields of the Las Vegas Holiday Classic have included some of the top teams in the country, headlined by last year's NCAA runners-up, Illinois, who finished 37-2 on the year. Other past participants include UC, Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Purdue. Last year's tournament featured three NCAA tournament teams.
GRAD RATES GREAT IN DAYTON The University of Dayton was listed as one of the nation's leaders in the 2005 NCAA Division I Graduation Rates Report. UD's 91 percent graduation rate for its men's basketball program is the sixth-best percentage in the nation, the best in the Atlantic 10 (tied with Richmond) and the best of the schools playing in the Las Vegas Holiday Classic. Last year's report also noted that every one of the 229 scholarship student-athletes that entered UD from 1988-89 to 1997-98 and completed their eligibility at UD have graduated.
HEAD COACH Brian Gregory Third-year head coach Brian Gregory (50-23 overall) 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."
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.
B-ROB B-GOOD Flyer sophomore guard Brian Roberts has led the Flyers in scoring nine of the 12 games this season, including a career-high 34 points at Creighton, and 24 at UC. He scored a then-career-high 28 points in UD's 81-60 win over Tennessee Tech in the season opener and was named this year's first Atlantic 10 Player of the Week. He actually had scored more than his previous career best of 17 by halftime, with 18 points. He made his first career start at point guard against Arkansas-Monticello, and responded with 14 points (12 in the second half) and a career-high seven assists. He took that career-high in the assist column up to eight the next game on Monday against Florida A&M (with 20 points). He scored 21 points (15 in the first half) Thursday against UC. He leads UD in scoring (16.9) and minutes (32.2), and is second in assists (3.3). He has played in 17 games away from UD Arena in his career and has scored in double figures in 11 of them. He averages 12.8 points a game away from UD Arena, and 10.6 at home. In four games away from the Arena this season, he is averaging 23 points.
BRIAN'S BURSTS Brian Roberts has demonstrated a knack for scoring his points in short amounts of time. He has scored at least ten points in nine halves this season (including 15 in the first half against Cincinnati on Thursday). He scored all nine of UD's points in the second overtime at Creighton, and has had seven points in less than a four-minute stretch six times this season, including seven in three minutes in three games (seven in 2:07 vs. Tennessee Tech, seven in 2:46 vs. CMU, and ten in 2:50 vs. Arkansas-Monticello).
