March 2, 2007
Complete Release in PDF Format
The University of Dayton says "good-bye" to a pair of graduating seniors and "welcome back" to the team that reached the NCAA championship game forty years ago when the Flyers play the Saint Louis Billikens Saturday night. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EST. UD (17-11, 7-8) is looking to even its league record and take some momentum to next week's Atlantic 10 tournament. SLU (18-11, 8-7) has won three of its last four games (including a 66-56 win over UD on February 21). Saint Louis is seventh and Dayton eighth in the 14-team A-10.
THE FLYERS The Flyers will honor graduating seniors Monty Scott and Nick Stafford in pre-game ceremonies. Circumstances could be more ideal. Stafford is recovering from a case of the flu so bad that he spent Wednesday's game at Temple in the locker room under a pile of blankets. Scott's career ended on February 18 when he tried to play through a torn patellar tendon against UMass. But they are not being recognized for what they can or cannot do on Saturday, but for their entire careers, and the fact that they could be counted on to represent the Flyer basketball program the best they could every day.
The University of Dayton's 1966-67 basketball team went as far as you can go in the 1967 tournament, losing to the first of UCLA's three Lew Alcindor-led national championship teams. The Flyers knocked off Western Kentucky (in overtime), Tennessee (by two), Virginia Tech in overtime and North Carolina (by 14) en route to the finals. Nearly all players on that team will be in attendance, including all five starters and head coach Don Donoher.
THE BILLIKENS Saint Louis is led by its "big three" of sophomore guards Tommie Liddell, Kevin Lisch and senior center Ian Vouyoukas. The last time the two teams met, just ten days ago, they combined for 45 of SLU's 66 points. Lisch, the son of former Notre Dame quarterback Rusty Lisch, scored 22 points; Vouyoukas had 12 and Liddell added 11 (UD's Charles Little led all scorers with 23 points). Lisch has scored at least 20 points in three of the last four games. On the year, Liddell leads the team in scoring (15.7), followed by Lisch (15.1) and Vouyoukas (11.6).
SERIES STUFF The series is tied 18-18. SLU's 66-56 win at the Scottrade Center ten days ago snapped a three-game Dayton winning streak in the series. Last year, Dayton swept the two games with a pair of two-point wins.
UP NEXT Dayton is at the Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship in Atlantic City. The tournament begins on Wednesday and concludes on Saturday.
SECRET SMILES AUCTION A BIG SUCCESS UD coach Brian Gregory's dedicated cause is a charity called "Secret Smiles," a program that delivers beds and bedding to children of families who cannot provide for them. Since 2002, Secret Smiles of Dayton has assisted more than 600 families in living up to their slogan "Because Every Child Needs A Bed." After UD's win over GW, Gregory participated in Secret Smiles' sixth annual "Flyer Feedback Auction" live on WHIO Radio. This year, the auction raised $19,000. UD's spirit group, "The Red Scare" also supports Secret Smiles with Drive 75, an on-campus competition to see what organization can raise the most for charity. This year's Drive 75 collected 3,402 pounds of food, along with $1,214.15 in cash donations for Secret Smiles.
HOME SWEET HOME Dayton won its first 14 home games this season, the second-best streak in University of Dayton Arena history. Here are the best Arena win streaks: 15--December 17, 1984 to March 3, 1985 14--November 11, 2006 to February 18, 2007 13--Twice
TOUGH ROAD UD's nine road losses are against teams who have won 74.0% of their home games (91-32) through Friday.
B-ROB B-GOOD UD junior guard Brian Roberts is enjoying one of the finest seasons in Flyer history. One of the premier players in the Atlantic 10 Conference, Roberts leads UD in scoring (18.3), assists (2.7), minutes (35.5), three-pointers per game (2.6), FT% (.909, 120-132) and 3-pt. FG% (.448, 73-163). If the season ended today, only 24 UD players would have averaged more in a season, and his scoring output would be the highest at Dayton since Chip Jones averaged 20.2 points in 1990-91. Roberts would also rank third in FT%, third in minutes played, seventh in 3-pt. FG% and fifth in three-pointers made on the Flyer single-season charts. Roberts has scored double digits in 24 of the 28 games this season. He got his first career double-double (17 points, 10 rebounds) in the Western Carolina win. He was Pre-Season All-Atlantic 10 Second Team in a vote of the league's coaches and selected media. Last year, Roberts was the first Dayton basketball player to be named All-Atlantic 10 (second team) and Academic All-A-10 (first team) in the same season. UD's 2005-06 MVP led UD in scoring (16.0), minutes (33.4) and was seventh in the A-10 in scoring.
THE TOLEDO RIFLE Brian Roberts moved into the Top 25 in Dayton career scoring during the UMass game. He is currently 23rd with 1,273 points. Roberts is the only UD player in the school's top five in career 3-pt. FG% and FT%. His .425 (182-428) from behind the arc is third on the Flyer career lists and his .844 FT% (245-290) is third.
ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END Brian Roberts' streak of 34 consecutive free throws made that ended at St. Bonaventure tied the second-best run in UD history (Bobby Joe Hooper also made 34 during the 1965-66 season) and was just two away from the school record of 36 by Damon Goodwin in 1983-84.
BRIAN'S BURSTS Brian Roberts has demonstrated a knack for scoring his points in short amounts of time. He has already scored at least ten points in a half 23 times this season.
MR. ROBERTS=MR. EFFICIENCY Brian Roberts scored his 34 points in the La Salle game in just 28 minutes of playing time, and he did it by taking just 14 shots from the field. He was 9-14 from the floor (including 5-8 from three), and made a career-high 11 free throws (in 12 attempts). In the GW win, Roberts scored 23 points with only nine field goal attempts. He was 6-for-9 from the floor, 4-for-4 from three-point range and seven-for-seven from the line. Against UMass, he was 7-for-12 FG, 6-for-8 from three-point and 5-for-6 FT.
MONTY, MONTY, MONTY An MRI examination has revealed that University of Dayton senior forward Monty Scott has a partial tear in the patellar tendon of his right knee, ending his playing career with four games left in the regular season. Scott underwent successful surgery to repair the injury on Thursday. A typical rehab program for an injury like this is four-to-eight weeks. Scott initially injured the knee in practice leading up to Sunday's game against Massachusetts. After responding to treatments, he was able to start against UMass, but as the game went on it was apparent Scott could not continue. He was limited to a season-low 19 minutes on Sunday, scoring just three points, although he did grab four rebounds and block two shots. Scott had started all 25 games for the Flyers this season up to that point, averaging 10.0 points and 4.4 rebounds a game. He was UD's second-leading scorer (11.2) and rebounder (4.3) in 2005-06, despite missing six games and being limited in practices and games for much more than that with a stress fracture in his left foot. He was UD's MVP and an All-A10 selection two years ago.
CLIMBING THE CHARTS Brian Roberts became the 39th Flyer to reach the 1,000 point mark in his career in the Charlotte win. He now has 1,273 points (23rd) and is 50 behind Chip Hare. Monty Scott became the club's 40th member at Xavier and is 36th with 1,054 points. Roberts is fifth in career three-pointers (184). Norm Grevey is fourth with 208. Scott is tied for sixth (158).
LITTLE BIG MAN At 6-foot-6, 244 pounds, sophomore Charles Little might be the most inaccurately named player in the country. With the news that senior Monty Scott's career was over due to a knee injury, Dayton was in desperate need for a second scorer to take some of the pressure off All-Atlantic 10 performer Brian Roberts. Enter Charles Little. On February 18, he had no double-doubles on his college resume. In the last four games, Little has averaged one (20.3 points and 10.5 rebounds). After scoring career-highs in three straight games, he had two double-doubles and he missed on his third Wednesday in the Temple win by one point, but raised his rebounding career-high to 16. He had a career-best-tying 21 points and career-high 10 rebounds against UMass, raised his career high in points to 23 at Saint Louis, and then raised it again with 28 points (with 10 rebounds) against Xavier. He has raised his scoring average to 10.4 and his rebounding average to 5.1, and leads UD in FG% (.524, 122-233). CHARLES IN CHARGE Little's 31 dunks (29 in the last 20 games) are more than twice as many as anyone else on the team, and more than half of UD's 52 dunks this year. He had his first double-double against the A-10's most intimidating front line in the UMass game, tallying career highs in points (21) and rebounds (10).
BEING "KURT" TO THE OPPOSITION Freshman Kurt Huelsman is the only player to start every game this year for the Flyers. He averages 3.8 points and 3.6 rebounds, and is second on the team in blocked shots (0.6). He tied the UD freshman record for blocked shots in a game (and the most in a first game as a Flyer) when he swatted four in the Austin Peay win. Huelsman tied Keith Waleskowski, who had four against George Washington on February 17, 2001 during his redshirt freshman season. Huelsman was the primary defender in holding Pittsburgh's seven-footer, Aaron Gray, the preseason Big East Player of the Year, to a season-low five points. In two games against Gray and North Carolina All-American Tyler Hansbrough, Huelsman had 12 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
WE LIKEUS MARCUS Marcus Johnson has scored in double figures seven times this season, including 23 points in his first game as a Flyer, the most by a Dayton player in his debut game. He also had 11 at Temple, 13 (and a game-high eight rebounds) at SBU and 14 at North Carolina. He had his first double-double (11 points/10 rebounds) in the Yale win. In the win over Western Carolina, Johnson scored 13 points (5-6 FG) and grabbed six rebounds. He also had two assists, a steal and a blocked shot and drew the primary assignment of guarding Western Carolina's leading scorer, Antonio Russell. Russell came into the game averaging 17.9 points and shooting 57% from the field, but finished with five points, and a percentage-killing 1-for-14 from the floor. For the season, Johnson is shooting .433 (71-164) from the field, but inside the arc he is shooting almost 50 points higher (.475, 58-122). He played just five minutes against UMass due to a knee injury, but came back for 64 minutes in the last three games. He is one of five Flyers averaging over six points a game (6.6), and one of six averaging at least three boards a game (3.6).
THE JACKSONVILLE JET Freshman point guard London Warren (a.k.a. the "Jacksonville Jet," as dubbed by the WHIO Radio team of Larry Hansgen and Bucky Bockhorn) has come on at a time when most freshman guards hit the wall. In the last nine games (beginning with the first Xavier game), he has 35 points and 29 assists (against 16 turnovers), while shooting .538 (14-26) from the field. Prior to that, he shot .250 (8-32) from the floor in the first 19 games. He scored a career-high 10 points at SBU with two assists and no turnovers. In a start against Saint Louis, he had a career-best six assists with five points. He leads UD in steals (0.9) and is third in assists (2.4) in just 13.5 minutes a game.
STORMIN' NORMAN Norman Plummer is second on the team in rebounding (4.8) and FT% (.770, 57-74), third in FG% (.461, 76-165), and is fourth on the team in scoring (8.4). He led all scorers with a season-high 20 points off the bench at Temple. He scored a game-high 19 points (6-8 FG, 7-8 FT) in the Holy Cross win and a team-high tying 13 (5-7 FG) in the Creighton win. He had 11 rebounds in the Miami win. In the Charlotte win, he had 11 points, a game-high seven rebounds and was five-for-five from the line. Last year, he was UD's leading rebounder (6.5) and was third in scoring (10.0).
BIG START BINNIE A strong contributor off the bench for most of the season, junior forward Jimmy Binnie has started the last 11 games and has scored UD's first three-pointer in six of them. In those 11 games, Binnie is averaging 5.6 points and shooting .421 (16-38) from three-point range. In the Richmond game he outscored the Spiders in the first half (9-8). He scored the first six points of the game and finished with a season-high 12 points. Against Louisville, he had eight points (two more than he had in the previous four games combined). In the Creighton win, he had eight points, three assists and two rebounds in 13 minutes. He matched his career high in rebounding with nine at Saint Louis. After shooting .241 (7-29) from three-point in non-conference (including missing his first ten shots), Binnie is hitting .400 (18-45) in A-10 play.
HERE COMES THE SAND MAN Junior point guard Andres Sandoval had a career-high 21 points (previous UD high was nine, and Richmond high was 15) and adding six assists and six rebounds in the win over George Washington. He was expected to be out 4-6 weeks with a broken bone in his foot, but apparently he didn't get the memo. He was back on the court exactly 19 days after his surgery to place a titanium screw in the foot. He played nine minutes in a shakedown cruise against South Carolina State on November 28, and has averaged 22.1 minutes since then. At Rhode Island, he scored nine points, had five rebounds and four assists off the bench. At Duquesne, he scored seven points (4-4 FT) and tied his college career high with seven assists. He had ten points in the Xavier game in Dayton and nine at Temple. On the year, he is second on the team in assists (2.6) and third in steals (0.78).
EYE 75 ON THE SCOREBOARD The Flyers are 18-3 under head coach Brian Gregory when they score at least 75 points.
DOING IT WITH DEFENSE Earlier this season, the Flyers held six straight opponents to 55 points or less, the first time that had happened at UD in 56 years.
OUT OF THE BLOCKS UD's 10-1 start matched its best start to a season since the Flyers won their first 14 games in 1955-56. UD's 10-3 non-conference record marked just the third time in school history the Flyers have reached 10 wins before January 1.
GRAD RATES GREAT IN DAYTON Dayton was listed as one of the nation's leaders in the 2006 NCAA Division I Graduation Rates Report. The Flyers' GSR is 96, up two points from last year and 18th out of 320 schools Division I school rated. UD's 91 percent graduation rate for its men's basketball program is best in the A-10. Men's basketball is one of 15 (out of 17) Flyer athletic teams with GSR's of 90 or better. Last year's report also noted that every one of the 229 scholarship student-athletes who entered UD from 1988-89 to 1997-98 and completed their eligibility at UD graduated. The A-10 was fifth as a conference. Nearly two-thirds (303 of 473) of all Flyer student-athletes carry a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.
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 2007. UD has hosted the game since its inception in its current form in 2002. When the 2007 NCAA Tournament is over, UD Arena will have been an NCAA site in 21 of the last 38 years and will have hosted 73 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 2007 NCAA D-I Women's Regional sites.
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. And they prove it to everyone the Flyers play. UD Arena has 77 sellouts in its 34-year history, including the Xavier game. UD's last 119 regular season home games have had attendance of at least 11,000 fans. In the last 13 years, 99% of UD's home games have drawn at least 10,000 (337 of 360), including the last 155 regular season games. UD averaged 12,422 last season, 2,500 higher than any other A-10 team and 23rd in the country.
THE COMPANY YOU KEEP UD recruit Chris Wright is one of the best 20 high school basketball players in the country selected to play in the 2007 Jordan Brand All-American Classic on Saturday, April 21 at Madison Square Garden. It will be shown on ESPN2. Among the players selected to this year's game are O.J. Mayo, Derrick Rose and Eric Gordon. Recent participants include NBA stars Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Amare Stoudemire, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul.
FLYERS LAND TOP A-10 CLASS UD landed what Scout.com considers the top recruiting class in the Atlantic 10 on November 8 with the signings of 6-8 forward Chris Wright of Trotwood-Madison (Trotwood, OH) High School, 6-9 forward/center Devin Searcy of Romulus (MI) High School, and 6-1 guard Stephen Thomas of Indianapolis Cathedral High School. As a group, the newest Flyers chose UD after getting scholarship offers from schools that included members of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Atlantic 10. Considered one of the top candidates for Ohio's Mr. Basketball, Wright will be the second member of his family to play at UD. His uncle on his mother's side, J.D. Grigsby, played at UD from 1971 to 1973. A consensus top 50 player, Scout.com has named him the top player in the A-10 for this recruiting class. Searcy is another recruit who will put the "Fly" in "Flyers." Not only is he an athletic 6-9, he has a 37-inch vertical leap and a seven-foot fingertip-to-fingertip reach. He is the fifth Romulus player in the last four years to earn a Division I scholarship. A heady player with a classic Hoosier-guard outside shot, the Indianapolis Star named Thomas one of its two annual Players of the Year. Thomas was the Indianapolis Player of the Year, and national player of the year Greg Oden was named Marion County Player of the Year. The Bob Gibbons All-Star Report has three Top 150 players heading to the A-10 from the fall signing period, and two (Wright and Thomas) are future Flyers.
AND THAT DOES NOT INCLUDE THE LATEST ADDITION Phillip "Mickey" Perry transferred to the Flyers from the University of Wisconsin on January 8. Perry, a 6-2 guard who graduated from Proviso East High School in 2005, will become eligible to play at UD after the fall 2007 semester. He will have two-and-a-half seasons of basketball eligibility remaining. After averaging 20.0 points, 7.1 assists and 5.0 rebounds a game as a senior at Proviso East, Perry redshirted the 2005-06 season at Wisconsin. In seven games this season for the Badgers, he averaged 3.0 minutes, and 1.0 points a game.
GAME #28 -- DAYTON 73, TEMPLE 65 Norman Plummer's 20 points led a balanced Dayton attack to lift the Flyers over Temple 73-65 in a game played Wednesday night in Philadelphia. Brian Roberts (13 points) and Marcus Johnson (11) joined Plummer in double figures, and Charles Little, Andres Sandoval and London Warren had nine points apiece. Plummer's season-high 20 points included a perfect eight-for-eight from the line. Plummer paced an 84% night at the line (21-24) for UD. The Flyers out-rebounded the Owls 43-35, led by Little grabbing a career-high 16 boards. The Dayton D held Temple to just 38.7% shooting from the field. TU had won its last four home games by shooting over 50% and scoring an average of 89.3 points a game. The Flyers never trailed in the game, and opened the scoring with an alley-oop dunk from Roberts to Little. After Temple tied it 2-2, Little made one of two free throws give Dayton the lead for good. The Flyers closed out the first half with a 5-0 run to lead 31-21 at the break. Temple scored a trey to open the second-half scoring, but UD responded and pushed its leading margin to 17 (48-31) with 11:46 to go in the game. The Owls would not go away, however, and the Flyer lead dwindled to six (64-58) with 1:23 left. Eight straight free throws - four by Plummer, two by Johnson and two by Sandoval - restored Dayton's lead to double figures. A Temple three-pointer with 12 seconds left, and a Sandoval free throw with eight ticks remaining brought the final score to 73-65.
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.
