Everyone on this board knows what we expect from out basketabll Flyers. But, could it be that we're kidding ourselves?....living in the past? Could it be that our expectations are no longer realistic?......that perhaps what we want is much harder to obtain than we think it is?
I'm beginning to wonder.
There are 341 schools playing Div 1 basketaball. Of that number 73 are in the six power conferences (the football conferences)...the elite. The vast majority of those schools are large public universities. For sure, not all 73 have basketball programs as successful as Dayton's. Nonetheless, all 73 count themselves as being among the "big time" programs; and they won't play in our arena.
So let's look beyond the power conferences and consider the other 268 programs. How many of those schools produce teams that consistently attain the level of success that we covet? I can think of only three, Memphis,
Xavier and Gonzaga. Remember, I used the word "consistently". Surely Memphis is just about always among the best. But, Memphis, a large public university, is hardly a UD peer institution. Xavier and Gonzaga are considered to be among basketball's elite, consistently. They play the OOC big boys, they make the Dance and when there they perform well. Xavier and Gonzaga are UD peers and can be used as a fair measure of Flyer performance. Their success shows that it's possible.
But, that's only two schools out of 268. Not all 268 strive to reach the heights to which we aspire. But, many, many do and are trying just as hard as Dayton; and many have far greater resources.
I am not at all sure what accounts for the consistent success of Xavier and Gonzaga. But it certainly appears that a UD coach could simply be told, "beat Xavier" (consistently) and the rest will take care of itself.
