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Xavier-Dayton Rivalry-Alive and Well!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/23/2008
For only the second time ever in their long series (145 games dating back to 1919), both XU and UD will be nationally rated when they play Thursday night at Cintas Center. The Flyers on the surface have a more glittering resume at 14-2 with high profile wins over Pitt and Louisville. They have been ranked as high as 14th. Currently, they sit 13 in the RPI, 16 in AP and 19 in USA TODAY-ESPN.
UD has been sitting for 8 days stewing over a home loss to UMass. They also lost pogo stick forward Charles Little after that game (broken foot). He's their 4th leading scorer and best offensive rebounder plus he scored 28 against X in a 75-67 Muskie win at UD Arena last February.
The Flyers had already lost super frosh Chris Wright (their Derrick Brown) to a fractured ankle. He'd been playing with the injury for several weeks.
Dayton has a legit All America candidate in guard Brian Roberts. He's a streak shooter par excellance but XU has made him work for his points in games past defending him with Justin Cage and Stanley Burrell among others. Roberts is bringing the ball up court this season. The goal is to get him to give it up and not allow him to have it back again and/or make him extend his shooting range although he can make them from deep water. Roberts will need to drop a huge number on X to take up the slack for Little and Wright.
UD will have to hope their other perimeter scorers like Jimmy Binnie and Wisconsin transfer Mickey Perry and former Richmond spider Andres Sandoval step up. Soph Marcus Johnson can slash and shoot the 3. He needs to play well.
They are getting strong post play from 6-10 Kurt Huelsman. He was just a rebounder and pick setter as a frosh but now is developing his close-in moves.
Injuries happen at any level. Bottom line-UD is short two key players in their rotation. X beat UD 3 times last season. The Flyers allowed over 70 points each game so finding scoring is just part of the Dayton puzzle.
Drew Lavender sliced and diced the Flyers last season. They tried every defense and match-up known to man and came up empty. Whirling dervish London Warren has the speed but not the experience. Sandoval is too heavy legged. Roberts can't expend his energy on defense chasing Drew.
Coach Brian Gregory may not like the idea but short two bodies and facing Lavender whom he had no answer for last season he may have to slow things down and zone a lot.
X needs to be dynamic offensively again a la Virginia, Auburn, and Kansas State. The "O" has been ordinary to stagnant in the 4 A-10 games so far. The conference record is 3-1 - good enough for first place. Overall X is 15-4,17 in the RPI, 22 in USATODAY-ESPN and 23 in AP.
The defense will set the tone. Make Roberts inefficient! Force Binnie and Perry and company to launch a bunch of 3s. Push Huelsman off his favorite spots down low and stop Marcus Johnson from driving to the basket.
X hasn't lost to Dayton in Cincinnati since 1981 at Riverfront Colesium. That's 22 straight Muskie victories. Sooner or later UD will win one in our town. Their talent is getting better. For this to be the year, the Flyers would have to get some extra-ordinary performances from more than one support player and Xavier would have to play a below average game across the board. Could happen, but I doubt it.
The re-match at UD Arena will be much more challenging especially if Chris Wright and Charles Little are in the line-up.
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