Thursday

[Franchise]

Two for me...Different from my initial thoughts

UW +4' vs Cal 2 Units
Oregon +7 vs Arizona 2 units

glta

[TheBeholdah]

gl tonight franchise, i lean cal in that game but probably wont play it.

[Nigel Tufnel]

GL, Franchise....and just what the hell has exactly gotten into your Flyers? Jesus....I thought they'd beat X by double figures, but they doubled my prediction with a 25 point throttling. Last night, I thought they might have a bit of a letdown. Its hard to keep up that kind of intensity two games in a row....I THOUGHT....Good God, man...follow up the X beatdown with 28 point win against Charlotte. Back to back 25+ wins against two first place teams in the A10. Impressive.

Question is....is this the Dayton team that everyone was expecting this year? Or have they just caught lightening in a bottle for a couple of straight huge home games? My thoughts are that they are playing slightly above the preseason expectations the last two...but this is closer to what I was expecting at the beginning of the year for a team that brought everyone back.

I'll reserve judgment until after they go to SLU this weekend. UD has historically played well against SLU, but SLU has come on strong of late and they are generally pretty tough at home. While SLU might be in the middle of the pack in the A10 right now, I look for them to play a major role in the final league standings. I think SLU has home games left against UD, XU, Temple and URI. Mark my words...someone who is in contention for the regular season A10 Championship will have their hopes dashed by the Billikins...I just hope its not X.

As for UD...man, they don't have it easy away from the Arena the rest of the way out...@ SLU, @ Duquesne (the Dukes should have won @ UD Arena this year...lost by missing two free throws with no time in regulation which forced a UD win in OT), @ Temple and @ Richmond.....YIKES!! At the same time, if the intensity from the last two games can translate on the road, watch out for UD. It hasn't happened in the past, but if its going to happen, this is the year with the experience UD has.

[FlyersFan]

ur a good capper and i have to say i hated to see you on the other side today as i had a big ML parlay of CAL/UAZ. gave me a quick second thought

get 'er back tomorrow...

[Franchise]

Thanks guys...Clearly I missed the ball on the two Pac 10 games. That conference is a mess and I'll stick to home teams there. A slow day without a lot of games seems to have clouded my judgement.

As for the Flyers, I have been really impressed with shot selection the last two games and I think that has really helped their offensive efficiency. They have avoided their scoring droughts which was typically their problem, without sacrificing defensive intensity. But their two big wins were at home and even in the past few years they have gotten big wins their over better teams like Pitt and X by large numbers. The difference this year is there isn't a team that came into the Arena that was more talented and when you get a top performance by one team and not so much by their opponent you can get those blowouts.

As far as performance going forward I agree that the SLU game will tell a lot. So far UD has won their last 5 A10 games by 15+ and getting a DD win in St. Louis would cement that level of play as something to look forward to as they close the season. All season it felt as if while UD was winning they didn't really have anyone other than Chris Johnson and Fabrizius playing at their expected level of play. Maybe Huelsman and Warren were as well, but in the last month they have really stepped up their play and Warren is just destroying opposing point guards while also scoring enough baskets to keep teams honest. And Marcus Johnson has stepped up his play, since he volunteered to go to the bench, which was down since the end of last season and Rob Lowery has stopped being a minus and committing 4 TO's per game.


As far as what to expect, the key for Dayton will be avoiding the long scoring droughts. If you look back to their losses they typically have 2-3 scoring droughts totaling 12-15 minutes where they score no points. From my perspective they typically occurred when CJ and CW weren't on the court and Lowery was at the point. In their best games both this year and last year that wasn't as big of a problem because Lowery was providing a positive influence at the point and Marcus Johnson was providing another scoring option. Since Marcus moved to the bench he has helped to balance the scoring on the first and second units. There are more shots available for him as part of the offense when he is on the court without CW and CJ. Plus teaming him with Lowery keeps two capable (although streaky) 3 pt shooters on the floor. While Paul Williams who doesn't take as many shots has become a part of the first unit and there are more shots available for CJ and CW. The next test for this team will be how they perform in their next tight game. The last few close ones they seem to stop playing offense in the last 4-5 minutes of the game and seem to just try to run out the clock and stone the other team. As happened with Jordan Crawford and URI that doesn't always work.


As far as the finish to the championship I think it is going to be a great stretch run. And I'll be in AC for that weekend and I can't wait. I actually have a couple of extra tickets in the lower level if anyone is looking. As for the title I think their are going to be multiple teams tied with 4 losses. I would like to see all 6 make the tourney so I hope they all finish with the W's they need to get that done.