Gutsy effort
 

Tough loss at VCU tonight but helluva effort to keep fighting and send the game to OT (after being down 17 with 6 minutes left).

I saw some good intangibles in UD tonight - some things that might have been lacking earlier. Makes me more optimistic this group can be special. Proud of the effort. Chins up and keep grinding.

Hopeful whatever the issue(s) is (are) with the bench guys gets resolved and they make us a stronger team. Tough to win with five playing almost all the minutes.

Definitely. And of the two guys who came off the bench, Svoboda at least gave some effort. All I saw from Crosby was TOs.

I look for a significant change to the roster for next year.

Yes, I think Anthony may already be on the phone tonight calling his contacts around the country. He is sending a strong message - you either play your butt off when you put on the Flyer uniform or you hit the road.

We got 56pts on the road from two true frosh (Crutcher, J. Davis) and what is basically a redshirt frosh (Landers). Landers played just 52 minutes last year -- or slightly more than one full game in uniform. Guys have played more minutes as frosh, gotten injured, and preserved the year of eligibility.

Way too many apple turnovers and missed wide open shots -- inside and outside. We generated the looks you want to get to win on the road even with all the TOs. It was there for taking. Josh cant play D because he is not allowed to foul out. Thats why Tillman abused us. We have no backup for Josh.

Had we given this level of effort in a few other losses this year (Penn, UMass, ??), those Ls would be flipped to Ws on sweat equity alone. In that sense we took a step forward tonight.

This season has been a 3-4 game season in Washington DC for the better part of two months. Ws and Ls matter, but....only so far as we prepare to peak by the A10 Tourney. Our record won't mean squat by then -- other than seeding. And with how we play Im not even sure seeding matters all that much as long as we avoid URI and SJU.

The Flyers don't have the bench to win in DC. Maybe one or two

Our freshman aren't really freshman anymore, not the way they are playing. Barring something ridiculous, we'll be riding these two and hopefully a few others for the next 3 years to many wins.

We had three points from the bench tonight. That will not cut it. In the meantime, Crutcher and Jordan Davis are proving they are warriors who will carry us next year. I will throw Trey Landers in there as well. He is definitely the most improved player on the team.

I don't think we've played two good games in a row all year. The idea of playing four in a row is a pipe dream. I have low expectations, maybe they will shock us all.

Chris R hit the nail on the head. Love the effort, but a missed opportunity. Layups and senseless turnovers cost us. Could have actually won going away.

There are turnovers, and then there are Turnovers. Those caused by good D are bound to happen, but too many of ours were unprovoked, and those are not excusable. Particularly when they come from our few veterans.

There was a stretch where we turned it over like 7 times in a row. That was rough to watch.

Yea, and I think 5 of those were by Darrell. It was as if he had never dribbled a ball before.

Dayton played very exciting basketball against VCU but NOT winning basketball. Anthony Grant’s strategy was NOT appropriare. Grant looked at his chess men and decided to only play the starting five plus very little minutes for two others. That is not the mistake. You earn minutes in practice. The mistake was, in his own words, to come out and play aggressively. If you are to play with a short number of players then you must control the basketball. How to control the basketball is up to the coach. There are many ways to control the basketball. One of the ways is NOT what Grant did. Grant chose to have his team run like crazy people. Run, run and run. Its exciting to watch but not winning basketball. The team was obviously gassed and hit an energy drought wall. All of a sudden, VCU started to roll. Dayton almost got humiliated. But, we got lucky and pulled the game into overtime. We had NO chance in overtime as the team was running on an energy empty situation. This game was lost by coaches decision. This type of loss is very discouraging to team players. I am predicting a poor performance by the team on the road in Faifax Virginia at George Mason. I am not saying that we will lose because George Mason is not very good either.
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AG's plan was to attack. It's how they thumped VCU at home (with a short bench). VCU had just as many hands on knees sucking wind during dead balls as the Flyers, if not more. His strategy was not a mistake. As someone else stated (Chris R I believe). We played 5.5 player equivalents and took VCU to OT. Had we played more, we don't even see OT.

In theory, most would agree. And logic suggests that this is obvious. Add in some fancy fluff about it being exciting basketball but not winning basketball, and it sounds very astute.

But how do you explain that at the 6:38 mark, down 17, when we should be running on empty, that we made our most disparate run of the game? Oh, wait, I see your explanation upon a second read - it was luck.

This game wasn't lost by a coach's decision/strategy, certainly not singularly. The reasons for losing this game are widespread - we have limited senior leadership, our senior had 7 TO's, VCU's all conference senior went for 37 points. We are young, playing on the road. We have a limited bench and do not defend very well. This list can go on.

You can argue the strategy worked against us, that's a plausible position. But it would be just as plausible to suggest that whatever the strategy was, that it worked and worked well. We went on the road to VCU as a pretty big underdog, and had a legitimate opportunity to win the game - which is to say we had the ball on the final possession of regulation with an opportunity to win the game. This after matching them back and forth for the first 30 minutes of the game. We forced OT and fell a little short.

To speak in such an absolute - that a coach's decision lost us that game - is an ignorant statement, with all due respect.

Isn't it great that when a team goes on a run against us its terrible coaching but when we go on a run against them it is pure luck. Sucks to be the other coach to have such bad luck going against him.

I'm glad that we were aggressive and ran right from the start. This team is NOT best when they are in a half court offense so to optimize he had them push the ball which helped us score points.

Agree with everything you said but I think we were a 3.5 pt underdog. Did not cover but it was real close. Makes me think those Vegas guys have some idea of what they are doing when they set a line.

Thank you everyone for the responses. I concur. CTFlyer makes a good point. When Grant looks at his chess pieces, he realizes that Dayton is not good in the half court offense. That must have been the deciding factor. Why is this team not good in the half court? My opinion is because we do NOT have a quality center. Cunningham, bless his heart, is playing way out of position. Maybe next year, we can either develop or get him some help?
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Monday night, Anthony spoke how the team lost its composure for a stretch. VCU is a loud place to play. Their comeback was gritty.

The half court offense is mixed. At times, it is very good. The ball movement during the Duquesne game was impressive. The offense stalls MOST when subs come in the game. Anthony noted that bench players have made negative contributions when they come into the game. That hurts, but it also adds fatigue to the starters.

And of course, the defense is much better, much more physical and man to man, but... still not even close to top tier. They still have communications issues and the defensive results don't reflect the improvement. Early in the year, teams had way tooo many open shots. They have less now, but still not enough stops and rebounds.

The positive is this team is finding it's identity at the right time. We know who we can count on and who not. Svoboda was criticized for letting Tillman abuse him, we I didn't see Svoboda give up 37 points. Svoboda is serviceable and if he could find his touch would make a world of differanc

Dd needs to stay focusec, its like he mentally checks out at times. I'm encouraged with how the 6 or 7 are developing and at the time.