The Greatest Season

[FlyingArrow]

This was Dayton's greatest season. I hope we have an even better season someday, but it would not surprise me if we never do (at least in my lifetime). For 40 minutes we played the consensus #1 team to a tie. On top of that, we were undefeated in regulation, undefeated on the road, and undefeated at home. Regardless of what the polls say, we were #2 in the country this year. Obi's final home game and his dunk-show is immediately an all-time classic.

The cancellation of the A-10 tournament and the the NCAA tournament was disappointing, but the silver lining is that there was no loss to ruin the ending of a glorious season. With the way that expectations were built up, it would be hard not to be disappointed. An A-10 championship was the expectation. And then followed by at least an Elite 8 appearance. If we didn't win the A-10 championship, then we'd need to at least make the Final 4 to make up for it. That's just to meet expectations. At that point, anything less than the championship would hurt. And if we didn't meet expectations... or even worse a loss in round 2... that would have been soul-crushing. (With a 1 seed, a round 1 loss would have been nigh impossible.)

I know this year was different from every other year, and we had a legitimate chance to win the whole thing, but we still were most likely not going to win it all - several teams had a legitimate chance. After so many years of having high expectations crushed (only about 4 or 5 seasons out of the past 30 that didn't end in disappointment), and this year raising expectations even higher, in a way it's nice that The Greatest Season didn't end in a loss.

[Smitty10]

Originally Posted by FlyingArrow This was Dayton's greatest season. I hope we have an even better season someday, but it would not surprise me if we never do (at least in my lifetime). For 40 minutes we played the consensus #1 team to a tie. On top of that, we were undefeated in regulation, undefeated on the road, and undefeated at home. Regardless of what the polls say, we were #2 in the country this year. Obi's final home game and his dunk-show is immediately an all-time classic. The cancellation of the A-10 tournament and the the NCAA tournament was disappointing, but the silver lining is that there was no loss to ruin the ending of a glorious season. With the way that expectations were built up, it would be hard not to be disappointed. An A-10 championship was the expectation. And then followed by at least an Elite 8 appearance. If we didn't win the A-10 championship, then we'd need to at least make the Final 4 to make up for it. That's just to meet expectations. At that point, anything less than the championship would hurt. And if we didn't meet expectations... or even worse a loss in round 2... that would have been soul-crushing. (With a 1 seed, a round 1 loss would have been nigh impossible.) I know this year was different from every other year, and we had a legitimate chance to win the whole thing, but we still were most likely not going to win it all - several teams had a legitimate chance. After so many years of having high expectations crushed (only about 4 or 5 seasons out of the past 30 that didn't end in disappointment), and this year raising expectations even higher, in a way it's nice that The Greatest Season didn't end in a loss.

NO, NO, NO No matter how you twist and turn things to help you sleep at night, this season of all seasons was the very worst of any to end with no conclusion. Couldas, wouldas, shouldas are not good to live with. Again, I'd rather have lost early in the tournament than to not know. If we lose, we obviously had some flaws that didn't show up during the season and I could live with that. Now all I can do is wonder. We are always craving national attention and while we got a lot of it during the season, we would've gotten it on steroids while we were in the tournament.

We had our first legitimate chance of winning a national championship taken away, how is that good? I'll answer that for you, it's not.

[Runnin' Rebel]

Originally Posted by Smitty10 NO, NO, NO No matter how you twist and turn things to help you sleep at night, this season of all seasons was the very worst of any to end with no conclusion. Couldas, wouldas, shouldas are not good to live with. Again, I'd rather have lost early in the tournament than to not know. If we lose, we obviously had some flaws that didn't show up during the season and I could live with that. Now all I can do is wonder. We are always craving national attention and while we got a lot of it during the season, we would've gotten it on steroids while we were in the tournament. We had our first legitimate chance of winning a national championship taken away, how is that good? I'll answer that for you, it's not.

Second legitimate chance of winning a national championship... 1967

[Smitty10]

Originally Posted by Runnin' Rebel Second legitimate chance of winning a national championship... 1967

first, that team had no chance of beating Alcindor. Donoher will tell you that.

	Don Donoher DON DONOHER Legendary Flyer men's basketball coach who guided Dayton to 435 victories in 25 seasons (1964-1989) including the 1967 NCAA Runner-Up. Took over the program after the passing of Tom Blackburn and earned many NCAA and NIT bids over his career, including five Sweet-16s, one Elite Eight appearance, and the 1968 NIT Championship. Groomed All-Americans Don May and Jim Paxson, along with all-time leading scorer Roosevelt Chapman. Coached UD as they joined conference affiliation for the first time (Midwest Collegiate). A graduate of UD, Donoher played for Blackburn and credits much of his coaching success to his mentor's teachings: defense, ball protection, patience, and unselfishness.

[UD62]

Originally Posted by Smitty10 first, that team had no chance of beating Alcindor. Donoher will tell you that.

But we had a much better chance of beating them in the NC game than any other D-1 team.

[Smitty10]

Originally Posted by UD62 But we had a much better chance of beating them in the NC game than any other D-1 team.

We had a better chance of winning it all in 1984 and 2014 than we did of beating that 1967 UCLA team. This was the one year we didn't see that brick wall waiting for us to run into Whether that turned out to be the case, we'll never know. But it's also the only year we went into it rated #3 and arguably could've been #2 and with an overtime loss to #1. This season was different. We weren't Cinderella.

So what I'm saying is we had a better chance of winning 6 in a row to win a National Championship this season than we did of winning that championship game against UCLA.

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by Smitty10 NO, NO, NO No matter how you twist and turn things to help you sleep at night, this season of all seasons was the very worst of any to end with no conclusion. Couldas, wouldas, shouldas are not good to live with. Again, I'd rather have lost early in the tournament than to not know. If we lose, we obviously had some flaws that didn't show up during the season and I could live with that. Now all I can do is wonder. We are always craving national attention and while we got a lot of it during the season, we would've gotten it on steroids while we were in the tournament. We had our first legitimate chance of winning a national championship taken away, how is that good? I'll answer that for you, it's not.

How about best REGULAR season ever?

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by Smitty10 first, that team had no chance of beating Alcindor. Donoher will tell you that.

The game that went to 3OT's? That's a statement that's (at best) interesting to reconcile.

[Lifelong Flyer Fan]

Originally Posted by Jeff The game that went to 3OT's? That's a statement that's (at best) interesting to reconcile.

The triple OT was 1974. Bill Walton was the UCLA center then.

[Smitty10]

Originally Posted by Jeff The game that went to 3OT's? That's a statement that's (at best) interesting to reconcile.

Seriously?

A history lesson for you : And merciful Bruins coach John Wooden pulled Alcindor and the rest of his starters out of the game with five minutes remaining and UCLA 25 points ahead. Don May led the outmanned Flyers with 21 points.


Please note Dayton's leading scorer was Don May not Mike Sylvester.

[Smitty10]

Originally Posted by Jeff How about best REGULAR season ever?

Not sure of what you're asking?

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by Lifelong Flyer Fan The triple OT was 1974. Bill Walton was the UCLA center then.

My bad, switched the games

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by Smitty10 Seriously? A history lesson for you : And merciful Bruins coach John Wooden pulled Alcindor and the rest of his starters out of the game with five minutes remaining and UCLA 25 points ahead. Don May led the outmanned Flyers with 21 points. Please note Dayton's leading scorer was Don May not Mike Sylvester.

Please forgive me.

[ud69]

What I will take away from this past season is just the ultimate joy watching this team play. Home or away, I could not wait for game day. As all Flyer fans will understand, before each game there was a nagging thought in the back of the mind - is this the game we lay an egg? Yet, we never did.

Then to watch this team play, the unselfishness, the camaraderie, the joy on the floor, the beauty of the offensive flow - it was magical. We may have good teams down the road, but none will ever capture Flyer fans like this team.

[Fudd]

I found the season deeply satisfying. After Maui, you began to get a sense of how good we were. Many long-time Flyer fans were still skeptical and would give you the side-eye when you started to talk about being contenders for the National Championship, but by the end of the year, even the deeply jaded were entertaining the possibility.

And it was not just die-hard Flyer fans who were thinking the team was "legit". It ended up being most of the media punditry, writers, etc.

Fun season.

[CE80]

Originally Posted by Jeff Please forgive me.

Say five Hail Mary's and five Our Father's.

[San Diego Flyer]

Being caged at home, I can't get enough of the replays of Flyer games. There are some games that are just priceless. We were so efficient and together for long stretches. Reminds me of some of those really good Celtic and Lakers teams.

One aspect of their play that was awesome was that any player who drove the lane knew exactly where his bail-out man was stationed. Some times when Crutcher, Obi, Chatman drove the lane, Trey, Ryan, Ibi ran to their spot.

Listening to the Richmond Coach try to describe the Flyer attack was like music. He could barely find enough words to describe what he witnessed. And Richmond is a pretty good club.
The Senior Night game, second half against GW was my favorite. The cameras gave the Flyer Faithful loads of screen time.The first 10 minutes against URI, 17-0 ---priceless.
How about the 27 point beat down of V Tech. Were we even favored? Perfect.

I'd rather watch the 2020 Flyers on replay than Michael Jordan narrating something from 30 years ago, or Barcelona soccer.

	Flyer Faithful FLYER FAITHFUL Best college basketball fans in the country. Knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and loyal. Help to create one of the toughest home courts in the nation at UD Arena. Over 12,000 fans a game put the Flyers in the Top-30 nationally in attendance. Fan spirit and support growing to other UD sports and athletic programs as well.

	Richmond UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND Founded in 1830, the private liberal arts university in the Commonwealth boasts 2,800 students in 57 majors within its picturesque 350-acre campus. The Robins School of Business is one of the Top-20 business schools in the country. Nickname is the Spiders and are fellow A10 Conference members.

	Rhode Island RHODE ISLAND The University of Rhode Island was chartered as the state's agricultural school in 1888. The school became the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in 1892. Located in southern Rhode Island, URI is a quintessential New England campus - rural in feeling yet close to the city of Providence, the state's capital. Linked to the city, the beaches, and nearly every corner of the state by both rail and public transit, the campus is easily accessible from Boston and New York URI currently offers 100 majors in seven degree-granting colleges. There are more than 12,000 students on the Kingston campus, about 3,000 in Providence, and a complement of about 700 faculty. Fellow members of the A10 Conference. Nickname is the Rams.

[Fudd]

On our bad days, we were good enough to beat decent teams, even on the road. On our good days, we just dominated good teams. There were a lot of good days in 2019-2020.

[San Diego Flyer]

Originally Posted by Smitty10 We had a better chance of winning it all in 1984 and 2014 than we did of beating that 1967 UCLA team. This was the one year we didn't see that brick wall waiting for us to run into Whether that turned out to be the case, we'll never know. But it's also the only year we went into it rated #3 and arguably could've been #2 and with an overtime loss to #1. This season was different. We weren't Cinderella. So what I'm saying is we had a better chance of winning 6 in a row to win a National Championship this season than we did of winning that championship game against UCLA.

I agree with the probable outcomes. But all it takes is one key injury, like Alcindor sprains his ankle early and comes out of the locker room in a warm up jersey and a boot. Game on.
Now let's talk about what is possible in that scenario, not impossible.

That feeling of the air going out of the Arena when Obi went down with a turned ankle is hard to overlook. Maybe that turns out to be a stress fracture. We never get to play 6 in a row, much less run the table.

[Runnin' Rebel]

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball...season-was-cut

"Alone, Ryan Mikesell keeps another dream alive after Dayton’s magic season was cut short"

[MemTGRS]

I totally admire the season you guys had and been meaning to note that.

And I am jealous that the A-10 has you guys and VCU. Wish we (AAC) had y'all.

[big jordan]

The NCAA tournament is the most fun thing in sports. It’s also a terrible way of crowning the best team as champion

It’s not called March madness because the favorites always win. So it was pretty easy for me to get over The idea that Dayton was going to win the title or even make a final four, because the odds were still against it

My only disappointment is that I wasn’t able to see the team in person again. No way we ever have a team so enjoyable to watch offensively. Grant was truly the perfect coach for Obi’s talents and the small ball style that fit the roster
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