Just back from Sears Centre...

[chicago92]

just few random thoughts from my first viewing of the Flyers this year.

• Our players are spoiled to play at UD Arena. The atmosphere at the Sears Centre is awful. Maybe tomorrow night the Marquette and UD create a better environement.
• This shooting in this game was the worst I have ever seen.
• Auburn will finish .500 at best this year ( I hope I am wrong)
• We had 60 rebounds. WOW!
• Chris Wright is a great athlete and he plays with incredible energy, but his poor ball handling skills will keep him at UD for 4 years.
• We play with a very high level of intensity and energy which is the only reason we were even in this game tonight.
• ST should be getting more minutes and RL fewer. RL plays like LW used to.
• London Warren is the most improved player on this teams hands down.
• If we do not become better in the half court we will struggle during conference play.
• We have several outstanding athletes but their basketball IQ is lagging behind.
• I love to watch Marcus Johnson play!
• We will not play this poorly tomorrow night, but if we do we could lose big.
• I believe we can compete tomorrow night because we will defend and rebound. On the flip side so does Marquette.

Tomorrow night is a chance for us to shine vs. the big boys again. Lets get Flyered up and kick some Warrior butt!!

[masonflyer]

How did Kurt look because he sounded BAD. Every time I here he has the ball down low I pray that he kicks it out.

[AdamtheFlyer]

Kurt had 8 rebounds, about half of which were strong in traffic down the stretch and in OT. He played good defense inside. That's his role, and performed it well tonight. If you expect him to score on offense, you're in la-la land.

[Avid Flyer]

Most of the fans sitting around me would yell....."don't dribble"....."take it up strong", everytime Kurt had the ball. And of course he would work his way inside then dribble and well......you get the picture.

[masonflyer]

Originally Posted by AdamtheFlyer Kurt had 8 rebounds, about half of which were strong in traffic down the stretch and in OT. He played good defense inside. That's his role, and performed it well tonight. If you expect him to score on offense, you're in la-la land.

I knew he had a lot of rebounds, but wasn't sure if they bounced to him or were hard fought. That's good to know.

[Avid Flyer]

His rebounding and defense is solid but he just needs to take to the hole as tough as he defends, they can't stop him, only he stops himself.

[zmz723]

Originally Posted by chicago92 [*]Our players are spoiled to play at UD Arena. The atmosphere at the Sears Centre is awful. Maybe tomorrow night the Marquette and UD create a better environement.

2 years ago when Illinois and Bradley played at the Sears Centre, the atmosphere was great. The lack of atmosphere tonight was probably because it was only 1/3 full, at the most.

[Tony T 71]

Originally Posted by zmz723 2 years ago when Illinois and Bradley played at the Sears Centre, the atmosphere was great. The lack of atmosphere tonight was probably because it was only 1/3 full, at the most.

If you look at many of these early "tourneys" thats about the average.

[Piqua Flyer '66]

............are tough ways for fans to get fired up for their team.
We are use to - we want - offense to win games.
UD half court offense will not do it this year.
The main reason is KH. He is not a Off threat.
No one will bother to double down on him,
thus there will not be the opportunities for guys to
spot up and have KH pass it for an open perimeter shot.

Def and Rbd can win games, but not championships,
because along the line the good competition will
match up to your Def and Rbd and their half court O will
beat our half court O....and we'll struggle to get into the NCAA
once again. Gotta' have a threat at the 5 spot, and gotta'
hit the mid-range jumpers.

Back in the 60s the Dodgers had great D and great pitching
(Koufax, Drysdale, Sherry, etc)
They lost a lot of 1-0, 2-1 ball games.
Their O was terrible......see how many NL champonships
they won.

Beat Marquette...however we have to do it!!!!

[masonflyer]

Originally Posted by Piqua Flyer '66 ............are tough ways for fans to get fired up for their team. We are use to - we want - offense to win games. UD half court offense will not do it this year. The main reason is KH. He is not a Off threat. No one will bother to double down on him, thus there will not be the opportunities for guys to spot up and have KH pass it for an open perimeter shot. Def and Rbd can win games, but not championships, because along the line the good competition will match up to your Def and Rbd and their half court O will beat our half court O....and we'll struggle to get into the NCAA once again. Gotta' have a threat at the 5 spot, and gotta' hit the mid-range jumpers. Back in the 60s the Dodgers had great D and great pitching (Koufax, Drysdale, Sherry, etc) They lost a lot of 1-0, 2-1 ball games. Their O was terrible......see how many NL champonships they won. Beat Marquette...however we have to do it!!!!

If we get turnovers and rebound and run the O will come. It just won't be in a half court set. You can't fast break in baseball.

[frisco flyer]

Originally Posted by Piqua Flyer '66 Def and Rbd can win games, but not championships

Whatever it is you are smoking, quite immediately!

[Tony T 71]

Originally Posted by Piqua Flyer '66 ............are tough ways for fans to get fired up for their team. We are use to - we want - offense to win games. UD half court offense will not do it this year. The main reason is KH. He is not a Off threat. No one will bother to double down on him, thus there will not be the opportunities for guys to spot up and have KH pass it for an open perimeter shot. Def and Rbd can win games, but not championships, because along the line the good competition will match up to your Def and Rbd and their half court O will beat our half court O....and we'll struggle to get into the NCAA once again. Gotta' have a threat at the 5 spot, and gotta' hit the mid-range jumpers. Back in the 60s the Dodgers had great D and great pitching (Koufax, Drysdale, Sherry, etc) They lost a lot of 1-0, 2-1 ball games. Their O was terrible......see how many NL champonships they won. Beat Marquette...however we have to do it!!!!

How many championships have the Steelers, Ravens, DA Bears, Tampa Bay, etc won with bad O... Villanova, The old Celtic Dynasty... For the record those bad O teams of the Dodgers you speak of won the NL pennant in 63,65,66 and the World Series in 63 and 65 with out that O...

So its all about Kurt? Us being 5-0 because the team tries to do each of their parts.
Can I get some of that weed

Go Dayton Flyers

[MrFlyerFanatic]

We shot poorly from 3.
CW travelled.
If we shoot even 20% from 3, we win by a bunch.
I'm encouraged by how they played in the clutch on their first trip outside UD Arena.

[Canonball]

First off .... DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Doesn't happen without some kind of consistent offense ...... but it is proven that offensive powerhouses, as pretty as they are rarely win championships. PERIOD. You must play defense.

We need more balance between the two sides of the ball. Obviously defense we get. Obviously offense we don't get. When we turn people over and run things open up all is well. If we don't ... we're in trouble. Against good teams we struggle mightily on O. That can't continue.

Second point. For five games now we've been harping on things about this team ... but they keep finding ways to put teams away. Maybe not impressive, but they keep finding ways to put teams away. Defense keeps us in and we find just enough offense to close. Eventually we're going to lose, but I bet we win more than we lose playing this way. We will find offense. Maybe not every night but often we will find offense.

We'll deal with late season ramifications when and if we get there so just let that one die for now.

Effort is there, defense is there, offense .l... sputter sputter.... DEFENSE is there. We'll be ok. Maybe BG needs to find someone who can coach offense and get rid of this weave stagnant bs we play. Because otherwise BG has a great handle on things. Awful offense. Disgusting offense. Give up on your offense BG give up. Let someone else coach the offense.

[frisco flyer]

Our futility from the line made ESPN News.
Crap.
At least they finished the blurb by announcing that we won.
C'mon Flyers, let's shut'em up tomorrow.

[FLYER5]

You're not going to hear me complain about our dubious 3pt record we set tonight. We'll bounce back from that. Its the quick turnaround after a torrid paced defensive struggle that concerns me. I hope we have enough left in the tank to play "our" game against Marquette on Saturday

[Class of 73 Alum]

I agree with everyhting that Chicago said... especially about ST getting more minutes than RL and CW being at UD for four years. CW is a phenomenal athlete but his skill set is not there yet...not even close to being at NBA level. I truly hope he gets there (to the NBA) cause I love the kid and hope that he makes it big someday.

[chicago92]

I am really excited about tonoght's game vs. Marquette. Offensively we could not play any worse than we did last and we were still able to win.

Tonight's game Marquette will be an interesting one if we can:

• Forget last night's offensive performance
• Obviously shoot the ball better so we can get into our defense. This will also slow Marquette's transition offense
• Hold Marquette under 40% shooting
• Out rebound Marquette
• Keep their guards in front of us in the half court. They really like penetrate and kick the ball out to their 3 point shooters.
• Must get better minutes from the bench as our starters played a lot of minutes
• Marquette has been turning the ball over so lets continue our success here.

Flyer fans be loud and be proud!!

[Piqua Flyer '66]

I like Chicago92's input for tonight...........Gooooooooooooooo Flyers!

Guess my LA 1960 memories have been clouded by so many frustrating 1-0 and 2-1 loses during that era!!

I stand on my evaluation of KH.
Tough to win consistently at D1 level with non-D1 #5 man.
Great kid, hard worker, I wish him well.

Go Flyers!

[Fudd]

It is my opinion that KH is trying too many fade away type shots. Go back to the simple half hook shot. He will not get shoved off the blocks tonight, but he will have guys swarming him to strip the ball. Marquette has some vulnerability in the middle if you can get the ball there and hold onto it with the entry pass.

BG managed the game well in the final seconds. The fouling strategy was sound, being up by 3, and the final pass to take 1.4 seconds off the clock was to the other end of the court at the foul line. I love that it was middle of the floor, so it could not roll out of bounds without someone touching it.

I feel good about the game tonight because BG had plenty to rip into the team about. And I just cannot see a 2nd offensive performance like that tonight. Don't expect a breakout on offense though. Marquettes defense reminds me of ours, but with more quickness. Our guards need to protect the ball tonight. This will be an interesting match-up. They were scouting us heavily last night. I hope BG has some new wrinkles.

[Avid Flyer]

KH is very def D1 #5, you can ask Pitt and any other team he's played against. Kurts weakness is his "O", imagine that, and that is exactly UD's weakness. Kurt moves in under the basket backing the big men down and instead of just musceling it up for points he either dribbles, or goes up to soft. If he banged on offense like he does on def then he would get more baskets.

I am encouraged with this team. They were having a bad night as a team, BG knew it, the fans knew it and most importantly the players knew it. As the say, **** happens, but the cream rose to the top and ST, MJ and even CW rose to the occasion when it counted and contributed as only team players can. Amazing ft shooting under presser from MJ.

Looking for a good offensive game tonight, surely we can't go 0-24 two nights in a row. Auburn was a good contest for them to prepare for Marquette. A game against a quality opponent of the SEC, a first road game and first after a holiday of stuffing ourselves. Tonight look for a different team.

[THirt]

My 2 cents after getting some sleep...

This is just about the perfect type of Flyers team. There is nothing the Flyer Faithful love more than a team that plays hard, and this team plays HARD. We do a lot of little things well, we never let up, we crash the boards, we talk to each other on defense, the guys seem to really get along... I really am starting to like this team.

If you were an opposing PG watching film, you'd have to be saying to yourself, "crap, that guy is going to really annoy me for 40 minutes, and when #1 is out, they bring that other dreadlocked dude in and HE will annoy me the rest of the time." LW's defense was awesome. He really bothered their PG last night. I'm excited to see him match up against the overrated James.

Kurt played really really tough. He had a bunch of really good boards in traffic, ripping them away from other guys. Major props to him for that. On offense, he just does not seem to have the lift that would push him over the edge to better scoring. But he played very sound D and came up with some big rebounds for us.

CW plays hard all the time. He looked mad at the world for a good part of the game. And that was definitely a travel with 33 sec to go. He just got to excited. It sucked, too, because he had the ball at the free throw line, and spun over his left shoulder, and was going to have a pretty clear path to the hoop. Of course, he got the advantage by shuffling his feet but still. I love his desire. He takes it strong to the hoop. If he had just made some more freebies, he would have been on his way to a monster game. He really wants it out there.

Marcus is so clutch. He didn't look the least bit nervous knocking down the FT's at the end. He wanted the ball on the inbounds, and we did a good job of getting it to him. He just was a little off on his outside shooting. One weird play was him going in for the dunk/layin and missing late in the game. There was a LOT of contact on that play, but no call, and Auburn made a 3 at the other end. That was a huge sequence. But MJ has heart, and he plays hard. He did have a couple sloppy turnovers early on, but bounced back.

We would have lost that game without Stephen Thomas. He came in, played hard, was not afraid to shoot, and made several key plays in a first half stretch where we desperately needed a spark. He's out there talking to and encouraging everyone else on every play. At the FT line, he'd look at someone, often Devin, and say "Devin, we need this board. This board is yours! We need it!" or something of the like. I like him. Late in the game, when AU got the length of the court pass, ST had just come in, and it was his man, but it wasn't his fault. The coaches were yelling to get his attention, but they were yelling "you're the 1, you're the 1!" telling him he was in at the PG position, not the shooting guard, but nobody noticed the AU player getting back deep. That's not Thomas' fault. That sucked.

Charles Little played hard tonight, too. He got his hands on a number of loose rebounds, to help keep them alive. I just can't figure him out, but I think he tries harder than a lot of people give him credit for.

This was a gutty, gutty win. We did a lot of things wrong, but our toughness and work ethic kept us in the game. We won't win all our games this year, but if we play as hard as we have been, we'll be in every game that we play.

I expect the atmosphere to be far, far better tonight. Most of the Marquette fans didn't go to the UD-AU game, so it will be much more crowded tonight. I think having a game under their belt will help our shooting woes. It's a weird arena to shoot it, especially the open end of the horseshoe - maybe 60 feet of nothing until you get to a black curtain. That was the side we were going in the first half. Marquette plays their games at the Bradley center, the NBA's Bucks arena, so that would seem to give them an advantage in playing in this type of atmosphere. I'm looking for another fun game tonight.

GO FLYERS!

	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.

[Emisar]

Originally Posted by chicago92 just few random thoughts from my first viewing of the Flyers this year. Our players are spoiled to play at UD Arena. The atmosphere at the Sears Centre is awful. Maybe tomorrow night the Marquette and UD create a better environement. This shooting in this game was the worst I have ever seen. Auburn will finish .500 at best this year ( I hope I am wrong) We had 60 rebounds. WOW! Chris Wright is a great athlete and he plays with incredible energy, but his poor ball handling skills will keep him at UD for 4 years. We play with a very high level of intensity and energy which is the only reason we were even in this game tonight. ST should be getting more minutes and RL fewer. RL plays like LW used to. London Warren is the most improved player on this teams hands down. If we do not become better in the half court we will struggle during conference play. We have several outstanding athletes but their basketball IQ is lagging behind. I love to watch Marcus Johnson play! We will not play this poorly tomorrow night, but if we do we could lose big. I believe we can compete tomorrow night because we will defend and rebound. On the flip side so does Marquette. Tomorrow night is a chance for us to shine vs. the big boys again. Lets get Flyered up and kick some Warrior butt!!

Chicago92,

Thanks for the great summary. I love CW, but couldn't agree more that his ball handling and outside game needs to improve or he'll have to stay all four years to have a chance at the next level.

[bcross]

Originally Posted by Piqua Flyer '66 I stand on my evaluation of KH. Tough to win consistently at D1 level with non-D1 #5 man. Great kid, hard worker, I wish him well.

There's just so much wrong with your "evaluation" that I wouldn't even know to begin. Not jumping to KH's defense, but really? Non-D1?? If you really stop and think about that comment you would realize how insane it really is.

[ELDoro]

Originally Posted by Piqua Flyer '66 I like Chicago92's input for tonight...........Gooooooooooooooo Flyers! Guess my LA 1960 memories have been clouded by so many frustrating 1-0 and 2-1 loses during that era!! I stand on my evaluation of KH. Tough to win consistently at D1 level with non-D1 #5 man. Great kid, hard worker, I wish him well. Go Flyers!

I would also disagree with you. I believe KH is a D1 big man...not a dominant one of course but there are many D1 teams that would love to have him. Of course hes not gunna be starting at Duke but hes an upgrade over many D1 centers.

[chicago92]

KH is a solid rebounder and defender but his offensive skills are poor. I know he does a lot of the little things that coaches like but offensively he has not improved as much as I anticipated. He plays like a 6'10" man on defense but he might as well be 6'7" on the offense.

Tonight would be a great night for him to get on track.

[ClearTheRunwayForWLJ]

Wow, that person doesn't know basketball.

Kurt WEARS out opposing centers ... that is why you never see opposing centers score 16-20 points on him.

Kurt grabs probably 6 rebounds a game but creates AN ADDITIONAL 4 for his teammates by clearing the lane.


Kurt had 8 boards and 2 blocks last night, I highly doubt we win without him in that game.


Kurt may only get 4-6 pts a game but his defense and rebounding equal it out.

[singlet_of_truth]

KH, as usual, played solid defense. His rebounding, as usual, was average at best (his numbers were decent but a few balls hit him in the hands and he lost them). His offense, as usual, was very poor. Everytime he touched the ball under the hoop he put it on the floor and was promptly stripped. If he would just go up strong near the basket he would double his points.

Non D-1? Come on guys. He is a big body, moves pretty well and plays good defense. Many D-1 programs would love to have him. He is not elite, but certainly solid. I like what Searcy is starting to show. I think he is going to be good.

[chicago92]

Never said he wasn't D1, I simply said he has poor offensive skills. I would love to see him make anyone of the following moves on a regular basis:

• Jump hook (shoots it but doesn'e make on a regular basis)
• Sikma (inside pivot to a 8 - 10 ft. jumper)
• Up and under when they take away his main move over his left shoulder

This would make him more than a serviceable big man. Right now he is a serviceable big man.

[FLYER5]

I think KH's game is solid. He plays the low blocks well, he boxes out, he's very deliberate with his feet. Yeah, he's a meat and potatoes type of center, never flashy but he's solid. Remember too, that Sean Finn didn't break out til his senior year. Kurt's got a lot of upside, still, imo.

[longtimefan]

We have one guy saying London is not a D-I point guard, now we have a guy saying Kurt is not a D-I center. If we keep this up we'll run out of players!

[daytonflyers]

Flyer5, while i agree kurt is fine, finn is a completely different story. he averaged double figures as a junior and as a senior. he was more of an impact player (at least offensively) as a sophomore than kurt is right now.

also, he didnt play nearly as much in his first two seasons as kurt has. for that reason alone, it is unfair to compare the two.

either way, kurt is solid. lets hope he plays well tonight.