Rubber Match

BEVERLY HILLS (MI) — So it all comes down to this, eh? Whichever squad is left standing after Eggsavior and UD square off in their rubber match at 6:30PM on Friday night in AC gets to play on and retains bragging rights. The loser gets to go home to Ohio, just when things start to get interesting.

If you consult every paper-writing HS student’s best friend Wikipedia, it will tell you that a “rubber match” is defined thusly:

“In boxing, mixed martial arts, and other combat sports, a rubber match is the third fight between two fighters after the first two matches have been split.”

Very apropos, wouldn’t you say?

I really have to chuckle at all of the Eggs knuckleheads proclaiming Eczema the “2010 Atlantic 10 Champion” on any message board that will have them, including ours here at UD Pride.

Excuse me?

What about Temple?

The Owls finished 14-2 just like the Mouskies did, but more importantly, Temple beat Eggs in their lone head-to-head meeting.

Which means that if anyone is the “regular season A-10 winner” it is Temple and not the Musties.

That’s why they call it a tie-breaker and in this case, the Eggs get cracked and cooked over-easy.

The whole “regular-season champs” claim is total BS anyway, since the Atlantic 10 has always considered the winner of the post-season tournament to be the official Atlantic 10 Conference Champion.

And in order to make that claim, the school to the south will first have to go thru Dayton to get there.

Which is as it should be.

Speaking of Championships, there is one claim to fame that the Dayton Flyers can make that their intrastate rivals cannot:

The University of Dayton has played in the NCAA National Championship Game.

Xavier University has not.

I can hear the howling emanating from Norwood already:

“Yeah, but that was 43 years ago, so what?”

“Yeah, but…yeah, but…yeah, but.”

Well, I was alive then and yes, it was a very big deal. Led by All-American Don May, the “Cinderella Flyers” faced off against, arguably, the best college team, player and coach in NCAA history: the UCLA Bruins, led by Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul Jabbar) and coached by the legendary John Wooden.

When you walk into the north side of UD Arena there is a picture of Dan Obravac, UD’s unheralded sophomore center, winning the opening tip of that game from Alcindor. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of the game for the Flyer Faithful, but who cares? The fact remains: they were there.

X fans can complain all they want, but nothing they say will ever alter the fact that the Dayton Flyers have played in the ultimate college basketball game and their team never has.

Okay, so let’s take a look at the first two meetings this season between the combatants, shall we?

— X beat UD at the Sphinctas Center by 4 in a game in which the Mouseketeers were out-rebounded, out-hustled and out-played, with a couple of answered prayers by Jordan Crawford providing the difference.

— In the rematch at UD Arena, the Flyers blew their rivals out of the building and into the Miami River by 25, a game in which even Chris Smack had to admit that his team got out-played and out-coached.

So, let’s assume that UD’s home court advantage at UD Arena is worth 10 points.

25 (UD margin of victory) minus 10 equals 15;

15 plus 4 (X margin of victory) is 19;

Divide by 2 (for the number of games) and you get 9 ½.

“From the Swamp” prediction:

Flyboys 73 ½

Norwood U 64

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
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