After what can easily be labeled as the greatest loss in its history, the school struggled to produce important wins. There was only one 20-win season and no trips to the NCAA. Despite the talents of such players as Jim Paxson, Erv Giddings, Jack Zimmerman, Mike Kanieski and Roosevelt Chapman, Donoher could not get back to the level of greatness that had become expected. As the years went by, the vultures began to circle.

It got so bad that in 1980, Don Donoher began to think the unthinkable. Could there be life in basketball after the University of Dayton? “I looked at Navy two different times because I was about ready to be let go here, so it was more in self-defense, especially after 1980. There were a few times in the ’80s that I felt that way. Both times Navy wanted me, but it ultimately came back to the decision that I was very comfortable here and this was home. I just didn’t think that it was the best time for Sonia or me. My son Paul was over at the Academy the first time. I came much closer the first time than the second time (1986). My situation was much more grave the first time. To this day I don’t regret staying put.”

In 1980, Donoher was able to recruit an All-American talent from Brooklyn that had fallen off most charts because of a knee injury suffered during his junior season. Roosevelt Chapman, or Velvet as he was called, came to UD with the smoothness of a gazelle. Like many talented players that find their way to UD, the big boys missed him because of his knee. In his four years at UD, he easily became the all-time leading scorer, passing the likes of Don May, Henry Finkel and Bill Uhl. All of that meant little to him, because the team just couldn’t get over the hump and get into the NCAA tournament. That was about to change his senior year.

Although they had averaged 19 wins during the previous three years, only the NIT had come calling. And it certainly didn’t look like things were going to get any better during the 1983-84 season. After starting out the season 7-7, it looked like even the NIT might be difficult to attain. They then won 7 of 8 and had the No. 3 team in the country, DePaul, coming to the Arena. In one of the more remarkable comebacks in UD history, UD managed to reduce a double-digit lead down to one with but a handful of ticks left on the clock. A DePaul miss on a one-and-one and the Flyers were off to the races.

Larry Schellenberg did what every good point guard should do and that is get the ball into the hands of your best player with enough time to take the winning shot. The only problem was that it didn’t stay in his hands long enough. “I felt good when the ball was in Chapman’s hands with enough time that he could create a shot. When it all happened, there wasn’t enough time to think. When you go back and look at the tape you have to think, ‘What a bad decision.’ Ed just turns around and just plunks that thing in.”

“We were one shot from going to the NIT. We made some good plays in the DePaul game, but they helped us. It was the same kind of pass that Donald Smith made in the UCLA game at the end of the second overtime. We had them by the throat and Donald is isolated without the benefit of a timeout and he goes up again and I thought, ‘He isn’t going to miss two in a row.’ Then I’m looking over the heads and no ball. He had passed up to the top of the circle and Walton intercepted. I really didn’t want Chap to pass in that situation.”

But pass he did and “The Shot” will be forever remembered as the most revered shot in the history of the program. After Young’s shot, we all saw a Don Donoher that few realized even existed. As excited as he could be, Donoher jumped for joy as he ran to the locker room, slapping his son Brian’s hand in wild celebration. Mickey, himself, was surprised at his reaction. “I really don’t like to see coaches be demonstrative like I was after that game. Tom Blackburn, again. But there were a lot of times that I would go into the locker room and put on a show and do that kind of stuff, but only in the locker room. I’d whistle, yell, high five everybody. I’d just let my hair down and celebrate. I did that after a lot of big wins. This time I couldn’t withhold it 15 feet. I remember saying, ‘I can’t believe that we won this game.’ It was a thrill. We had a lot of fun in the locker room that day.”

It was still only the middle of February and there weren’t any invitations given out that Saturday. The Flyers played well enough to get in, but only won three of five down the stretch, “We were lucky to be in the tournament. I remember being at the TV station and Tom called and said that we were in the tournament. During the selection show I remember them making the announcement that we would be on the CBS 11:30 telecast.”

UD played an ugly game against LSU to start the tournament, but played well enough to make it to the next round. A ten seed, UD was not expected to give two-seed Oklahoma much of a contest. Led by Waymon Tisdale, Oklahoma was a scoring machine. Just a few years later, Billy Tubbs and his Sooners extracted a share of revenge by defeating UD 151-99 in Hawaii at the Chaminade Christmas Classic. Before the game, Chapman made his infamous remark concerning Tisdale and questioning just who was the real All-American.

None of that got in the way of the Flyers, however, and they won a shootout, 89-85. “I was wired after the Oklahoma game. They were a two seed and we were a ten seed. We got a break in that game because Tisdale tweaked his ankle.”

Another ranked team stood in the Flyers way with No. 15 Washington up next. Although much smaller, the Flyers took it to them and walked away with a 64-58 victory. Up next, Georgetown. “We didn’t have much tape for Georgetown. We had enough time to get ready. We just didn’t execute very well against them. We didn’t hit the shots that we needed to hit. Retrospectively, we could have done some things defensively, more so than offensively. It was a winnable game. We didn’t deserve to win. We didn’t come close to winning, but that was a team we could play against.”

Although Chapman graduated, Donoher had another good team on his hands the following year. They started out 12-3, but limped home 7-6. Despite, the sub-par finish, they again found themselves in the NCAA Tournament. As was allowed at the time, they not only were in the tournament, but playing at UD Arena. “We were disappointed from the get-go when we were sent to play in Dayton. I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t care where we went. I just don’t think that psychologically it was good for us. We had such a good experience the year before. We stayed at a hotel by the traffic circle and kids are running into class the next day. It just was like playing in the UDIT. Villanova was a good team, although people didn’t give them much credit at the time. It was a game we should have won.”

Bobby Knight was selected to coach the 1984 Olympic team that year and chose Donoher as one of his assistants. It gave Don an opportunity to coach a level of player that generally only plays in Dayton in road uniforms. “The Olympics was a great experience, it was pretty neat. We had Jordan, Ewing, Chris Mullin and Tisdale. We had a good team, but a number of those guys had holes in their game. We caught a break in that the Russians didn’t come. Bobby thought that if the Russians had come, with it being in LA and the adrenaline pumping, we would have thumped them. He might be right and he might not be, they were so good. Strength, experience and big. I had scouted them in Europe. That would have been a test. Michael was not a great shooter at that time, but athletically he was there. He was the best player on the team by a mile. We had a number of players on that team that were not good shooters. Sam Perkins was solid. Tisdale was overweight, couldn’t defend, he couldn’t move his feet. We didn’t feel that we were a dominant team. It was a good bunch of guys, a great memory.”

The next season brought an invitation to the NIT and a somewhat lopsided loss at McNeese State. It was the beginning of a very slow and painful death for Donoher’s career at UD.

Continue on to Part VII.