Let’s just play basketball. No more investigations, cover-ups, fist fights, or suspensions. No more ACL tears, alcohol awareness programs, campus police calls, or developing rumors. No more four-point losses, moral victories, working-to-improve speeches, NCAA clouds, or second-guessing in the local papers. It’s time to bury the past and start with a clean page inside and outside the Dayton mens basketball program. The events of the past year have been daunting, even upsetting. To most Flyer fans, the U.D. program has been a shining example of everything that is right with college athletics. It still is, but baggage must be carried and explanations offered until the Flyers start winning a lot of basketball games and turn critics into forgetters. There’s no better time to do this than now.

Everything that might have gone wrong last year in fact did go wrong. The only sweet memories are a victory over Xavier and being humbled as Josh Postorino suited up in his last game as a Flyer. The rest can go unmentioned. But there is hope.

Oliver Purnell has pieced together a solid squad that might contribute more to the program than any other since his arrival. Brooks Hall is the coveted breakthrough recruit, and seniors at the point guard and center positions give the Flyers a veteran inside-outside punch. The Flyers’ best talents are underclassmen. While Tony Stanley and Mark Ashman are probably the two best players on the team, the future of this program could be two years away. David Morris is close to being a great A-10 point guard if he develops more confidence and Nate Green is a year older and possesses the body and prowess of an upperclassman. Not to be forgotten, Worthington Christian’s Sammy Smith, a 6-5 185lb wing player, is slated to arrive in 2000-01 and is considered a Top 150-200 prospect.

There appears to be light at the end of the tunnel if the Flyers can piece together a postseason bid this year. The addition of Ron Jirsa, now the lead assistant, should only make us better in the recruiting department. Of recent concern is Dayton’s inability to sign a couple centers in the early signing period. If the Flyers can somehow managed to uncover a diamond in the rough between now and the late signing period, things are looking good. Despite all of the negative banter, question marks, concerns, and apprehensions, 1999-00 could be the year Dayton breaks out and makes noise. Last year was a season of utter misfortune on the court and the law of averages dictate that good luck must be just around the corner. In addition, the other A-10 West teams like Xavier and GW lost major talent to graduation and have many questions to answer in their own right.

Best of all, a solid 1999-00 campaign for the Flyers will make us an easier to sell to the talented HS juniors such as Adam Waleskowski and Mike Sylvester. It’s not where we are now, but where we could be in 18-24 months. Looking at it this way, there’s every reason in the world to be excited. The Dayton program is sitting like a teeter-totter waiting to fall one way or the other. One side is mediocrity and on the other end is national prominence.

Let’s just play basketball and see what happens. We’re undefeated, at least as I type these last words.