Rose Hill Gymnasium is the oldest, roughest, most cantankerous basketball facility in Division I athletics, but it’s the home to A-10 member Fordham University and it’s much-improved Rams for yet another season of college hoops. Visiting teams don’t spend time in Rose Hill, they survive it — but that used to be easier than suggested — that is until Fordham hired former NBA skipper Bob Hill to return the Rams to winning ways for the first time since the non-scholarship days of the Patriot League. Thoughts of walking into Rose Hill and pasting the home team at the drop of a hat are nearly extinguished as Fordham is creeping from the A-10 cellar and starting to beat quality teams inside and outside the conference. Though this year’s team is still winless in conference play, fans saw enough good basketball in the non-con schedule to respect the Rams as a team who can play well enough to beat just about anybody when things go right.

Speaking of things going right, Fordham has a number of them. Talent on this year’s team is respectable, and Bob Hill has already flexed his coaching muscles by nabbing verbal commitments from several profile HS players — players several A-10 schools like Dayton fought for and fell short on. All the excitement and promise inside Fordham doesn’t necessarily mean plans are on the table to bulldoze Rose Hill and build a 20,000-seat donut with sushi bars and caviar burgers, but it does mean the Dayton Flyers better be ready on Saturday afternoon or things could get ugly. The Cleveland State blowout reminds many fans of what can happen when Purnell’s club doesn’t give a solid effort on the road. This Flyer team isn’t good enough to win on talent alone.

Looking to stop Dayton’s high hopes are several players capable of outperforming better-known hoopsters. Fordham’s backcourt is a good one, maybe second or third best in the entire conference.

At one guard is Jason Harris, 5-9, 175lb, Jr, one of the most underrated players in the league. Harris bumped up his scoring average from 11.3ppg to 16.5ppg this season, but compliments it with 3.1rpg, 2.5apg, and a gaudy 3.3spg. His assist-to-turnover ratio is well above 1:1 as well. Though no one will accuse Harris of being a deadly shooter, his stats indicate he shoots better from the 3-pt line (.388%) than he does from the field overall (.386%). Players like this are career performances waiting to happen, and Dayton’s perimeter defense will need to stay high and tight or Harris might have everyone forgetting about heralded Bevin Robin.

As for Robin, a 6-2, 200lb, Jr, he’s trimming the nets at a team-high 16.7ppg while nabbing 5.1rpg — good enough for second best. He’s also second in assists at three a game. Robin has been downright lethal from behind the arc this year, nailing 36-85 (.424%) while shooting .853% from the charity stripe. Robin likes to go one-on-one if the trey isn’t showing however, and can hurt many teams by getting to the line and dumping easy points on the scoreboard. He’s one of the most complete players in the league and deserves to be on one of the All A-10 teams at the end of the season.

Not to be outdone however is Teremun Johnson, 6-6, 205lb, So., who plays on the wing but dishes out assists like a point guard. Johnson is starting for the second season in a row, and averages 9.3ppg, 4.8rpg, and a team-high 4.6apg, higher than many other A-10 starting point guards. While Johnson is a wing player, he sticks to the medium-range game and lets Harris and Robin concentrate on the long-range stuff. Johnson isn’t without a decent jumper however. For the year, he’s shooting 11-26 (.423%) from behind the semicircle, but more than 75% of his shots come inside the line. Brooks Hall better watch his pocket because Johnson also averages 2spg.

The last two positions are filled with a pair of power forwards. In every sense, Coach Hill runs a three-forward lineup for much of the game, a strategy dealt by circumstance more than clipboard brilliance. Without a true center on the team with experience and a handle for the game, there simply isn’t much choice.

Alejandro Olivares, 6-8, 233lb, Jr, last season’s Chris Daniels Most Improved Player award winner, hasn’t seen the success he had a year ago, but is still capable of causing problems nonetheless. Last season Olivares dropped in 15ppg and 5.9rpg, but those numbers have dipped to 9.3ppg and 4.5rpg in 99-00. The Argentina native can’t seem to find the range, shooting just .419% on the season despite playing in the low post. By comparison, UD power forward Yuanta Holland shoots around .500% on the season despite a shaky jumpshot. What Olivares lacks in God-given ability he makes up for in effort and enthusiasm. If the Rams have a Big Hoss, he’s the closest to it — or is he?

Duke Freeman-McKamey, 6-9, 215lb, So., is outperforming Olivares in nearly every statistical category in just his second season of hoops and first season as a starter. Last year he averaged just 2.9ppg and 2.5rpg, but those have increased to 10.1ppg and 6.7rpg so far this season. McKamey doesn’t pass as well out of the low post as Olivares does, but is a much better shooter (.523%) and does a better job of hitting the offensive glass.

The rest of the roster that sees valuable minutes include Scott Harmatuk, a 6-4, 180lb, Sr., averaging 4.9ppg and 1.9apg, and John Pugh, 6-10, Sr., averaging 5.1ppg and 3.8ppg. Pugh is the closest thing to a true center on the Ram roster, but his game is a far cry from the Ashmans and Cyrus’ of the world. Pugh knows how to stick it in the hole (.527%), but likes to cough of the basketball which the Flyers should seriously consider exposing. As for Harmatuk, he’s a role player at best and has been watching last year’s game film of Edwin Young and David Morris. Harmatuk is shooting just .282% from the field. The only eye-opener is 20-22 from the line (.909%).

Steve Canal, 6-6, 236lb, So., a player who saw some valuable minutes in stretches of the season last year, is warming the pine with the rest of the team.

The Flyers are in for a real test. On paper Dayton has the talent to pull out the victory, but road games against non-glamorous institutions at non-glamorous venues are sometimes the hardest to win. When players start feeling like it’s a pick-up game, they start playing like it. The crowd will be small and the NY newspaper writers won’t be trampling over people to get inside — at least we don’t think so. What is certain is that Purnell’s club will have a large contingent of Flyer fans in the Rose Hill bleachers, as UD boasts a sizable alumni base in the greater NYC area. With the Flyers soaring at 12-2, the turnout to see Dayton could be as large as those stopping by to see Fordham.

If the Flyers don’t win, it makes a victory at UMass even more important — and difficult, otherwise they’ll be returning home with a 12-4 (2-2) record — decent but nothing to set you apart from 30-40 other teams in the country. A 13-3 record is needed, but 14-2 would almost lock up an NCAA birth at this stage of the season as long as the team didn’t execute a nuclear meltdown. Taking care of business — sooner rather than later — will make next week much more enjoyable for everyone. This team has worked too hard and accomplished too much at this stage to stumble and stretch things into the need for late-season heroics.