The University of Dayton Flyers take a 15-3 (5-1) record into the City of Brotherly Love on Saturday night to face the St. Joseph’s Hawks on venerable Hawk Hill. Phil Martelli’s squad, two games above .500 so far this season, have played a brutal schedule that ranks among the nation’s toughest — and have a few scars to show for it. Like all Martelli teams however, this one is beginning to gel at midseason and play some excellent basketball. While the Flyers ride a three-game winning streak, so do the Hawks. It’s a game that could propel Dayton into the national rankings if things go right, or simply give doubters more ammunition to point out why the Flyers don’t belong among the country’s elite teams of 1999-00.

The Hawks are always tough in their tiny, dilapidated gym that wouldn’t pass for a practice facility at an Indiana high school. Maybe that’s why it’s always a challenging road game. Facilities aside, the players do most of the talking and Martelli has plenty of talent to compete. Nationally-ranked Tulsa, 20-1 on the season, bested the Hawks by merely a couple baskets. Tim Brown, a 6-3 160lb senior, runs the show and makes things happen. Were it not for Temple’s Pepe Sanchez, everyone would be raving over Brown, a jet-quick player who holds an astonishing 2.73:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. That’s 60 assists and only 22 turnovers through 16 contests. A 2:1 ratio is considered All-Conference material. Brown averages 9.9ppg, 2rpg, and a team-high 3.8apg, the latter being relatively conservative for a point guard with such a fine handle. Brown’s strengths are decision-making, but he can also shoot the ball, netting .455% from the field and .450% from the 3-pt line. The only trouble spots are FT shooting and a tendency to not follow his own shot.

Marvin O’Connor, a 6-4 190lb transfer from Villanova, has been a major surprise for Martelli. Though O’Connor played in most of the games at Nova in his first season, his numbers were nothing to brag about and left a lot off the table for coaches looking to accept his transfer. The former Honorable Mention HS All-American has answered the bell in his sophomore season, averaging a team-high 16.9ppg to go along with 4.4rpg and 3.1apg. Curiously, O’Connor does his best work inside, but he has a habit of relying on the 3-pt shot like Tony Stanley. Over half of his attempts this year are from behind the arc, hitting a mediocre .343%. He makes up for it by getting to the foul line – more than any other player on the team. At .733% he’s been fairly solid.

Along with O’Connor, N’aim Crenshaw, a 6-5 180lb junior, can play either the two-guard or the wing forward position. Crenshaw averages 12.1ppg, 3.9rpg, and 2.8apg, further outlining the team concept of the St. Joe Hawks. Crenshaw, like nearly every major contributor, does a little of everything to help the cause. His 2.25:1 assist-to-turnover ratio gives Martelli another solid ball handler on the court – with or without Tim Brown. Crenshaw doesn’t blister the nets with dead-eye shooting (.386%), and he’s no better from behind the arc, but he likes to play north-south and do the mid-range work. In the frontcourt, the Hawks boast three players who consistently cause problems for opposing teams.

Andre Howard, a 6-7 215lb senior, averages 8.6ppg, a team-leading 6.8rpg, and 1.6apg at the power forward slot. Howard has never been a superstar on Hawk Hill, but he’s the kind of player Martelli can build a compliment of players around and trust to execute the chalkboard diagrams. Howard shoots .430% from the floor and though he’s roughly the same size as Cain Doliboa, he does all his work near the basket. Howard is also one of the better FT shooters on the team, clipping the nets at .776%.

Another option is Bill Phillips, a 6-9 225lb sophomore. Phillips posts numbers almost identical to Howard — 8.6ppg, 5.7rpg, and 1.8apg. A 6-9 however, Phillips isn’t shy about stepping out behind the 3-pt point line and knocking down a few long balls. Overall, he’s shooting .474% from the field and just over .300% from treyland in 33 attempts — 32 more attempts than Howard. Phillips has better hands than Howard and is more successful in finding the open man when players try to double-team down low. He’s also less prone to the turnover bug. Not many players his size have an assist-to-turnover ratio of better than 1:1 (29:26). Phillips also leads the team in blocked shots (15).

The last major threat Damian Reid, a 6-9 240lb sophomore who is the closest thing to a true center Martelli has — at least as close to an effective one. Reid has all the tools to be the next great Atlantic-10 big man, but needs to assert himself more and start trusting his skills. Reid averages 6.9ppg and 5.9rpg while shooting a team-best .539% from the floor. The only dry spot on Reid’s resume is weak passing which tends to allow opposing defenses a chance to double-team down low without worrying about Reid’s ability to make them pay dearly for it. Ironically, Reid does a nice job of getting to the offensive glass, an area that he leads the team in (40). Reid’s best games are still ahead of him, but even the likes of Mark Ashman need to respect him and expect a tough game.

Other contributors on Phil Martelli’s squad include Frank Wilkens and Robert Haskins. Wilkens, a 6-9 200lb sophomore, averages 4.1ppg and 1.7rpg in spot duty off the bench. He doesn’t shoot well, doesn’t rebound well, doesn’t shoot the trey well, and doesn’t shoot free throws well, but he does a decent job of spelling the starters and generally staying out of the way. Haskins, a 6-8 225lb senior, averages 3.4ppg and 3.4rpg and is taking on the same role this season as Wilkens. All other contributors are game-to-game types who see the floor based on circumstances.

The Flyers have the tools to beat St. Joseph’s and improve to 16-3 (6-1), but I’m getting the impression that the Flyer contingent isn’t taking this game as seriously as they should. If the fans are any barometer of the team, this one has felt like a cakewalk since the victory over LaSalle on Tuesday. The fact is, Dayton is on the verge of their toughest road game since Kentucky and no one seems to notice. This is a pendulum game. A win and the coveted national ranking that everyone has been begging for may finally be a reality. A loss and the peanut gallery starts making noise again. With the Muskies just over the horizon, the Flyers face a difficult task — stealing a win on the road at either St. Joseph’s or Xavier. So tough it is that it might be the toughest two-game stretch of the season so far. The odds seem to favor Dayton against the Hawks more than the Muskies. Expecting a road win in the next two games might be too much to ask, but if the Flyers pull it off, the only opponent left who can keep them from winning the A-10 West and earning an NCAA birth is themselves.