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Swing And Miss
Swing And Miss
Published by Swampy Meadows
12-31-2017
Swing And Miss

PITTSBURGH (PA) -- The University of Dayton Flyers opened their A-10 slate on the road and faced the improving Duquesne Dukes in the always challenging confines of the on-campus Palumbo Center.

It did not go well.

With students off on break, one can see why Duquesne AD Dave Harper, the former former UD VP for Advancement, opted to play the game here rather than paying rent for the spacious PPG Arena.

As always, a road game vs. Duquesne affords Mrs. Swampy and I the chance to revisit her hometown and see our alma mater square off vs. that of her father, who attended Duquesne Prep, University and Law School. We took full advantage. After a stop in Erie, the snowfall capital of the United States, we headed straight to Danny's Pizza for an oven baked hoagie. An overnight stay in Greentree was followed by some snowy selfies up on Mt. Washington; a drive along Carson Street in the rejuvenated Southside neighborhood; a purchase of some Nevin Robinson pen and ink sketches of the city at Station Square and an excellent lunch at the Grand Concourse.

As we pulled into the parking lot, we could see a Buckeye Charter bus parked outside and that meant that UD drove here as opposed to a charter flight. Doug Hauschild confirmed that fact when I chatted with him, saying that since the concern about players missing classes before or after the game was not a factor, it's was just as easy to bus vs. fly.

Had a chance to visit with Larry Hansgen before the tip and let him know that I had recently spent time with Mark Adams and that Coach had told me how Larry was instrumental in his start in the broadcast biz, hosting "Flyer Feedback." Larry said that is exactly how it happened. "The Voice of the Flyers" is hoping for a big UD crowd today, as he is concerned about UD opening A-10 play here, especially without the services of John Crosby, who is out with a concussion.

The crowd before tipoff appeared to be about 50/50 DU vs. UD. Thankfully, the press row is at the opposite end of the floor from the Duquesne Pep Band.

Keith Dambrot, the former Akron mentor has five transfers sitting out as well as five incoming freshman, so the Dukes team we see next season will be radically different than the one that is taking the floor today.

As the title implies, the game was one of swings and misses for the Red and Blue, not the least of which was the skirmish between Kostas and Chas Brown of the Dukes, after Antetokounmpo dunked in his face and woofed about it, as seen here:

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/947223261242318848

While no punches were thrown, Kostas needs to cut that BS out of his repertoire and act like he has been there/done that before. Kostas is not his brother Giannis and there is some doubt as to if he will ever approach his level of play.

AG played for Don Donoher. I guarantee you that Mickey would have had Kostas' butt on the bench in a nanosecond -- I saw him do it with Erv Giddings when Erv dunked on Detroit and Dickie V, back when jamming was illegal.

AG left Kostas in the game.

The refs called a double tech. The Dukes converted their two FTs; Trey Landers missed both of his.

Swing and miss.

The result of the above lunacy was that it awakened the up-until-then mostly quiet DU partisans. The Dukes fans even managed to drown out the Flyer Faithful attempting to co-opt their "Let's Go Dukes" cheer with "We are UD."

Swing and miss.

UD managed to pull off a modified version of the "home run ball" inbounds play, hitting Jordan Davis for a breakaway layup. Later Jordan had a similar situation and somehow managed to fail to draw iron. Duquesne came back down and hit a transition three, for a five point swing in matter of seconds.

Swing and miss.

Later, Davis was open for an uncontested three, a shot that is rapidly becoming his trademark. He airballed it, much to the delight of the Dukes crowd.

Swing and miss.

I don't know how many times Han Solo said "I've got a bad feeling about this" in the four Star Wars movies in which he appeared, but it was a lot. Like Han, I have a bad feeling about this.

UD will not go 18-0 in conference play, of that we are sure. Will they go 0-18? Of that we are not so certain, all of a sudden.

They will if they continue to swing and miss.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: swampy@udpride.com
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