BEVERLY HILLS (MI) — “From the Swamp” hit the road for the UNC-Wilmington game today, which was a 2:00PM matinee. If you’re wondering why the early tipoff, the radio voice of the Flyers Larry Hansgen had the answer. He told me before the game that if UD has a 7:00PM game in November that would prevent adjoining Welcome Stadium from hosting a HS football playoff game, UD has to pay Dayton City Schools $10,000. That doesn’t explain the 2:00PM tip for the SC Upstate home game on Sunday, December 11th, but whatever.

Got to talk to “The Legend” Bucky Bockhorn pre-game as well and he was hoping for a big game from Chris Johnson. Bucky feels CJ is an important part of the team and he needs to pick it up. We chatted about CJ’s NBA possibilities and Bockhorn said that Chris needs to work on his ball handling and that he “needs to get a right hand” because currently teams play him to go left and force him to use his off hand. “The Legend” said that when he played nobody used their off hand, but nowadays everyone does. Bucky said something the other day during the Miami game that I had not heard before: Paul Williams is a natural righty but broke his hand when he was 9 or 10 and learned to shoot with his left hand – been a lefty ever since!

I asked Bucky what he thought about the NBA players strike and he just shook his head. He’s been told that his NBA pension “is set in stone.” Bucky said that he “doesn’t get much” but that he actually makes more in pension per year than he was paid when he played!

Also got to say hello to UD Director of Media Relations Doug Hauschild. Doug said that Archie has been great to work with thus far. He said that often a young, first-time coach will want every single detail about the program to cross his desk for approval, but Archie has shown surprising maturity in that regard. Archie’s theory is that if it doesn’t involve recruiting, his players or making the players better, he will defer to UD’s very competent staff to handle it.

My buddy Matt Schwade from FlyerHoops.net was a no-show for this contest. Ron Thaman, the excellent photographer for Matt’s site said that Schwade was “sicker than a dog” and was planning to cover the game from home. I was glad to hear that Ron’s wife Joy is doing well.

I’m sitting next to Conrad Klank from Stadium Journey, a sports fan experience website. Conrad said he was at Millett Hall earlier in the week to see the Miami/UD debacle. He had heard their student section was pretty lame, but he was impressed by the big heads of Betty White and others that they featured. You can check out Conrad’s site here:

www.stadiumjourney.com

Normally, I would crank out a running game blog of this tilt, but I am doing this game alfresco without the use of a laptop, so I’ll just give you my impressions:

— I really like the four corner video boards. Also like the relaxed policy about signs, banners, etc. I’m sure the Red Scare will start to show more and more creativity as the season goes on. It will be interesting to see what they come up with for the X game on ESPN 2. Conrad asked me “what’s with the flags in the student section?” and I didn’t have a clue, so what’s with the flags?

— For those of you who care about these things, there is a new “Knee Brace Girl” on the Flyer cheerleader squad…and she’s a ‘ginger.’

— You have to love Archie’s out-of-bounds plays. I have yet to see the Flyers get a five-second call against them this season.

— When is the last time you saw Matt Kavanaugh drain a 20’ set shot? How about today!

— The Flyers are continuing to use the “Karl Hobbs memorial towel exchange” during substitutions that served them well during BG’s tenure.

— Kevin Dillard is the whole package: he can take the ball end-to-end for a layup which he did twice today; get to the rack and hit a very nice ‘floater’; drain a three; dish to his teammates and play some pretty strong defense.

— If Josh Benson is going to get to the foul line as often as he did this afternoon, he really needs to work on his FT form. He is shooting with very little arch and is consistently banging them off the backside of the rim. It’s fixable: watch a video of Derek Fisher shooting FTs and do likewise.

— Walk-on Brian Vonderhaar got some serious, non-garbage time minutes in the second half. Good for him.

— Ralph Hill had an interesting stat line: he air-balled his first three; hit the next; had two pretty assists to Luke and Alex and was guilty of the absolute worst flop I have ever witnessed on a basketball court. One of the UNC-W big guys was backing him down, touched Ralph and he fell down like a bowling pin while yelling “Owwww!” The ref wasn’t buying what Ralph was selling.

— It was nice to be here for a no-doubter for a change, as the Flyers coasted to a 74-49 victory.

After the game we interviewed a few of the players in the hallway outside the media room, a departure from the past. When BG was here, the media, recruits, family and anybody who had a pass had access to the Flyer locker room shortly after the game. I always felt bad for the guys as it seemed like an invasion of privacy. Looks like Archie agrees. CJ said it felt good to get off to a strong start and that the Flyers wanted to set the tone, which they obviously did jumping out to a 15-2 lead early on. Kevin Dillard said he felt that he let the team down and that he owed it to the seniors to play better after his sub-par performance vs. Miami. His strategy was “to attack the gaps” and his stat line of 18 points, 3 assists and only 1 turnover attests to his success. I complimented KD on his floater and he said that he works on it all the time in practice and it shows.

Archie said that it was a good win, but then “All wins are good wins.” He felt that the team had a good mindset after Tuesday’s tough road loss. He was particularly proud of Kevin Dillard’s defense, the way that the team was “first to the floor” and how they worked the ball inside-out for good looks. 17 FTs and only 10 TOs are both improvements. Coach Miller said that the Flyers worked on screening and timing in their practices after the loss to the Redhawks. He was pleased with the way the squad displayed better tempo and drove the paint and passed. I asked Coach about Brian Vonderharr getting some prime time minutes and he said he needed somebody to do a job, looked down the bench and thought that BV was the guy who would be up for the task.

After the formal media session I introduced myself to Coach Miller and told him I used to live in Pittsburgh. I asked him how he was handling being a Steeler fan in the middle of Bengals country and he said “it’s great, because we never lose!” The lone drawback is that the Browns and the Bengals are the only teams that are ever featured on TV.

We are only three games into the “Archie Miller era” at UD and so far, I like what I see.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
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