Why Not Us?!

[flyerfever]

I have been repeatedly spouting off to anyone who would listen regarding the Flyers play at the end of the season, and, particularly in Buffalo last weekend..."Why Not Us?!"

Perhaps the posters here on this forum might be interested in answering that question. I recently saw an interview where Jordan Sibert even said to the reporter, "Why Not Us?!"

I haven't started a topic in a Blue(old unis, Columbia) Moon. Anyone? Join in on this one.

Why Not Us, one asks...because we play as a team, share the ball, execute the staff's schemes more effectively, have developed a mental toughness that prevails when we need a stop, a bucket or a rebound, and most of all...THE FLYERS ARE NOT AFRAID!!

[Swampy Meadows]

Hey, it worked for Curt Schilling and the Red Sox in 2004, so why not us, indeed!

[TA111]

We can beat anyone, period. If we take care of the ball and get good looks we are going to be fine.

[UDBaby]

Agree....they've played every game since St. Joe's in the A10 tourney completely under control and seemingly confident. And they never let the games get away from them when the other team made a run.....couple of vg TO's by AM.

I they shoot it better and play D.....Why The F Not US!!!

[Medford]

There is not a team left playing basketball that the Flyers can't beat.

Unfortunetly, there's not a team left playing basketball that can't beat the Flyers as well.

At times this season, the Flyers have shared the ball on the offensive end as well as any team I've seen, they've made the extra pass to the open man, made the right movements with out the ball, truely played with the "5 as 1" concept. Unfortunetly, there are too many times they've stagnanted, not moved the ball around as well, not moved w/o the ball as well and this has lead to prolonged offensive droughts. If they could consistant move the ball and w/o the ball and play with that "5 as 1" concept a full 40 minutes, they can hang with anyone offensively as long as they don't have a complete off night. They have 3 guys hitting 3 pointers at a 40% clip and another one (Pierre) who is capable of hitting at that clip. They have guys like Vee, Pierre and Oliver that can attack the rim and hit pull up jumpers (Its been a long while since I've seen a college kid with as good a floater as Vee has). They don't have an outstanding post player, but Pierre is often a mismatch on the block for the guy gaurding him, while Oliver is often quicker than the guy gaurding him; the low blocks is the 1 hole for this team, but with the right matchup, they have guys who can take advantage of that, we've even seen Sibert start attacking down there from time to time lately, and he's been very good at it.

On the defensive end, they were like 170ish in the country in defensive effieciency near the start of A10 play. They've cut that down to around the 70 mark. That is a huge improvement and while neither OSU nor Syracuse are to be confused with offensive jugarnauts, UD did an outstanding job limiting the amount of easy buckets to both squads while doing an outstanding job on the glass against teams with more athleticism down low.

Finally, the real kicker of this squad, free throws. There are times they hit nearly everything, and times they really struggle from the free throw line. For the life of me, I can't figure out why Vee isn't better at the charity stripe. Numbers don't lie, but every time I see Pierre's 67% free throw mark I think to myself why that isn't better. Kavs was a better free throw shooter in the past as well. When this team hits 'em, they can get into the 80s, when the miss 'em, they're ripe for a last second loss to Saint Joes.

As long as this team keeps on playing the way they've been playing defensively, they'll give themselves a chance. As long as they embrace the "5 as 1" concept offensively for a full 40 minutes, pass up a good shot for a teammate with an even better shot, they're tough to beat. Combine those 2 things together, and why not them? They don't have to be the best team in the tournament remaining, they just have to better than the 1 opponent they've got in each remaining game. Don't think of the big picture, cut thru the forest and focus on the tree in front of you. Cut down that one, and move to the next one, keep on doing that, and before you know your cuttind down the nets instead. There are 16 teams asking themselves the exact same question, none are an easy out, probably 14-15 of them would be considered more talented, however you don't have the best player, just the best team. Until sometime late Thursday evening, all that matters is being the better team than Stanford, do that and they've got a chance to be the better team in the next round.

Go Flyers.

[FlyingArrow]

I think we're 50/50 versus Stanford. Probably more like 25/75 versus Florida. Based on that, we have a better than 10% chance of making the Final 4. The talking heads talk as if our chances of beating Florida would be the same as a 16 seed. Underdogs, sure. But a win against Florida would only be a surprise - not a shock. And a win against Stanford wouldn't even be a surprise.

[FLYER5]

Why could it be us? Because we'll keep flying under the radar. Anyone else notice how we routinely rate the pace of games? Adapt to what's given up by defenses. We put a head in front like a racehorse, but not much more until the end. That seems to be our trend. The opponent goes into a scoring lull so do we. We need offense we get it. This team is a completely different team in the 2nd half and particularly down the stretch. I am impressed with its ice-water-in-the-veins play. No fear. This is a physically tougher team than the '84 team, imo. Outside of Chapman that is. I would even take this team against that flagrant fouling G'Town defense that beat us down in the Elite-Eight..
I hope it can continue this year past Stanford. Go Flyers!

[forego1]

The wait seems to have a surreal quality. Yeah, it is a spectacularly special thing to wait for. Still, it seems like something else besides that.

You know, things this season went from what seemed aimless to the absurd.

[UD90]

Not to mention the last SEC team we lost to was Vanderbilt in 2005-2006. I'll take a shot at Florida. I am more worried about Stanford.

[anthonycharles]

50/50 against Stanford, but why can't UCLA beat Florida? If so, I'd say 50/50 against UCLA. Why not us?

[UACFlyer]

Why is that? SU is a 10 seed...that suggests that before the Dance SU was not that highly thought of. Neither were we.

It's how you're playing when you need to play very well. Both SU and UD have passed that test.

[vclark34]

I was watching a video on espn (don't have the link but it should be on the Flyers espn page), it was a twenty minute video featuring Myron Medcaff (pardon the spelling) and Andy Katz. Katz was asked to make a bold prediction and he said he expected Dayton to beat Stanford, then went on to say it will come down to the last possession against Florida. Said he didn't expect us to win but he thought it would be close and noted how this team isn't afraid of anyone. Nice to hear him giving us some respect.
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[flyerfever]

Top of thread...the team has taken on the personality of their firebrand coach and staff...WE ARE NOT AFRAID....lace 'em up!

[udx2]

''Every year there's that one team in the like final eight, Final Four that no one expected to be there, and that's been our mantra like 'Why can't that be us this year?''' Kavanaugh said.

At: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/dayton-...17--ncaab.html

[DallasFlyer]

According to this, Dayton does not have a single starter ranking in the top half of all the starting players remaining in the tournament.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebask...-no-80-to-no-1

So I guess according to some pundits the answer to the question "why not us" is that Dayton doesn't have good enough players.

[FlyerinChicago]

I've always dis-liked that saying "why not us?" it's such a defeatist attitude.

Normally fans or players who use the term already know the answer. Sorry, it's always bugged me. Carry on...