BEVERLY HILLS (MI) — The Dayton Flyers returned home after a hard fought W over SLU and woke up Thursday morning in a four-way tie for 1st place in the topsy turvy A-10. All of a sudden, the conference crown that Shaka Smart and company had been fitted for back in October was up in the air and there for the taking. UD has a 2 game homestand with a sold-out matinee contest vs. the Bonnies on Saturday and St. Joe’s on Thursday before hitting the road to face the Duquesne Dukes in Da Burgh the following Saturday.

Seven games left…win ’em all and leave no doubt!

— CBS Sports believes that the Red & Blue will do just that or close to it in predicting UD to eventually win the A-10 regular season title:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/25066806/how-should-you-handicap-the-atlantic-10-race-going-forward

— One reason the A-10 standings are so jumbled right now — the Bonnies knockling off VCU on a Marcus Posley last-second layup:

http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2015/02/07/st-bonaventure-beats-no-18-vcu-buzzer-beater-highlight-marcus-posley

— VCU’s Briante Weber woulda, coulda, shoulda been the NCAA D-1 all time steals champ, but his ACL injury prevented him from doing so. Ken Pomeroy has the story:

http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/entry/briante_weber_steals_king

— College Chalk Talk’s A-10 Tempo Tuesday still shows UD as #1 in Offensive/Defensive Efficiency Margin:

http://collegechalktalk.com/2015/02/10/atlantic-10-tempo-tuesday-ram-tough/

— Home court advantage ain’t what it used to be, according to Ken Pom:

http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/entry/road_teams_are_winning_more_often_in_college_too

— And the nominees for “Dunk of the Year” are:

Willie Cauley-Stein of UK:

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/02/10/posterized-willie-cauley-stein-dunks-on-jordan-mickey-four-times-videos/

Kendall Pollard of UD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL4F_V1u39Q

John Brown of High Point:

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/02/06/john-brown-with-another-ridiculous-one-handed-alley-oop-dunk-video/

William Lee of UAB:

http://national.suntimes.com/college-basketball/7/72/602832/william-lees-dunk-highlights-uabs-blowout-win-over-louisiana-tech-video

— The NCAA will experiment with a 30 second shot clock in this year’s NIT:

http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2015-02-06/experimental-rules-be-used-during-2015-nit-include-30-second

— How Bill Raftery became “The Governor” of college hoops:

http://nypost.com/2015/02/05/how-bill-raftery-became-the-governor-of-college-basketball/

— The late Dean Smith was into utiliizing analytics and statistcs long before they became fashionable:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/sports/smiths-innovations-included-an-early-zeal-for-statistical-analysis.html?_r=0

— How not to recruit:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2015/02/06/late-coaching-changes-expose-flaw-in-early-signing-period/23001757/

— Red Sox free agent signee Pablo “Kung Fu Panda” Sandoval is pretty good at basketball, too:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12242301&ex_cid=espnapi_public

— My UD roommate Steve Downes is hanging up the headphones after 44 years in the radio biz, the last 14 as morning man at “The Drive” in Chicago:

http://www.robertfeder.com/2015/02/06/steve-downes-to-exit-the-drive/

— A sequel about Ted, the potty-mouthed talking teddy bear from Boston? Sign me up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxuMC2pt3LI

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: [email protected]