You have heard people talking about it. You have even wondered it yourself. “What is wrong with these guys?” What’s happened to the team that beat two nationally ranked teams in Maui? Since that time, we have blown a 13-point lead at home to UC, lost at home to a good but not great Marshall team, got lucky and beat an up-and-down Miami team, struggled against one of the weakest teams in Division I, and survived two 12-0 runs and won by three at St. Louis. Are these the same guys that we had hoped would lead us to the Top-25 and the Sweet Sixteen?

Depending on who you talk to, either a great deal is wrong, nothing is wrong, or it’s somewhere in between. When I put my preseason prognostication together a month ago, I said that we would be 5-3 after the first eight games. We may be 5-3 but the way that we got there is somewhat hard to understand. Blowing the lead to UC and then playing poorly in the next three games has made everyone a little edgy.

Fingers can be pointed in a lot of directions. There are only three players in the nine-player rotation that are making better than 39% of their shots. Brooks Hall has only taken 10 foul shots in eight games, has only connected on five of his two-point attempts, and has more fouls and turnovers than assists. The players that are shooting well have only taken one third of the shots thus far. As a team, we have made 20 more turnovers than assists. We are middle of the pack in almost every statistical category when compared to the rest of the Atlantic-10. We are fifth or worse in the following categories: assists, scoring, FG%, 3pt FG%, block shots, and turnovers. We are also last in the number of steals that we have created. This was supposed to be a good shooting team that was going to create a lot of easy baskets because of the press. What aliens have taken over the bodies of our best players?

The fact that we are 5-3 at this point is amazing. There is only one reason that we have five wins at this point and his name is Oliver Purnell. Before they threw up the ball for the first time this season, we all believed that we would live or die with the shooting of Hall, Morris, and Stanley. Nearly one third of the way into the season, those three are shooting a combined 36% from the field. They also have 61 assists to go along with 61 turnovers. This is not the kind of leadership that wins many ball games. Purnell has been able to utilize all of his personnel to the max in orchestrating the five victories.

As much as Purnell has been spinning his magic, it would have been spun on Sleeping Beauty’s spinning wheel without an unheralded freshman. When Keith Waleskowski agreed to come to the University of Dayton as a red shirt walk-on, most fans believed that this was a move made by Purnell to coax his brother Adam to follow in his footsteps. Adam foiled that plan — if it was ever a plan at all — by committing to Florida State. Keith, on his own, has made Purnell look like a genius before the younger Waleskowski ever steps foot on the floor at FSU. Without Waleskowski, we might be looking at a 2-6 record and a long season.The veteran freshman, as OP likes to call him, leads the team in rebounding and free throw shooting and has scored in double digits in six of the eight games. All of this has been accomplished without one start. The trio of Waleskowski, Holland, and Green is shooting 60% from the field, 74% from the free throw line, and has collected 56% of the rebounds. A team that was to be led from the outside has become a force in the paint. If the perimeter players can begin to play up to their full potential, this is a team that can go places.

The Flyers are at a major crossroads in the season and not because they have a big game ahead of them. They have an opportunity to put themselves in a good position for the postseason in the next month. They play 10 games that range from “just show up”, to very winnable, to downright difficult. But only two or three of those games should fall into the difficult category. This is not the team of five years ago. Going into Louisville or playing at UMass is not life-threatening. These are games that they not only can win, but should. If this team plays the way that it can, they should wake up on the morning of January 22 with a record of 14-4 and flirting with the Top-25 once again. These middle-of-the-road games need to be won so that we are not on pins and needles come selection Sunday.