Just a little over two months ago I sat down and put some thoughts on paper concerning what needed to happen this year for Dayton to return to the NCAA Tournament. We are now one third of the way through the regular season and it’s time to take a look at what I thought was important and if we had answered any of the six questions that I posed at the time.

If you ask a typical Flyer fan how the season has gone, I’m sure you will be given a straightforward answer as to just how good or bad they really are. The real problem as I see it is that you might get an answer 180 degrees different depending on which week or day you ask the question. This team has been as up and down as a team could be. With each resulting flip-flop, Joe Fan has gotten whiplash from the team’s about-face. Every UD message board on the planet was putting us in the NCAA after the first two games. Since then, everybody from Oliver Purnell to Mr. Reliable, Keith Waleskowski, has been skewered by the opinion makers.

When I am asked how the Flyers are doing this year, I normally have a one-word answer and it begins with “s”. Before the season, I felt that this team would score well and come out charging. I did not have us losing game three until January 26. Instead, loss number three reared its ugly head on December 5. That, for you non-numbers people, is a whole month and a half ahead of schedule. It is almost always good to be ahead of schedule, but losses is usually not one of those areas that rewards early success. One game they look like world-beaters, the next they look like the world has beaten them up.

It is hard to pin point why they are where they are, but the answers to some of my questions may help us understand what has gone wrong. Now don’t get me wrong, UD is only one game off of my prediction. I had them at 7-2 after Austin Peay, so 6-3 is not the end of the world and if not for a buzzer beater in Philly that 7-2 would be reality. I guess it is how they got to where they are that has bothered me the most.

Will the loss of Tony Stanley hinder this team?

My feelings were that Stanley would be replaced by a committee. Ramod Marshall was to be the chairman of that committee and at least match Stanley’s output. If you look at the numbers, you would have to believe that Marshall has done his part. Ramod’s numbers of 14+ points/game and his 42+% shooting almost mirror Stanley’s production for last year. However, drop-offs by others have made it appear that Stanley may have made a difference.

Green, Waleskowski, Morris and Holland have generally not shown improvement. Hall is definitely coming around and Finn has made a believer of many. Would having Stanley here reduce the pressure on the others? Maybe. Is that a good enough answer? No. Nate Green is turning the ball over once every five minutes. Finn, on the other hand is turning it over once every 22 minutes. Unless he gets his act together, he will not be part of the 7-8 man rotation that will eventually evolve. The other three have shown signs of recovery and even improvement, but it needs to be there on a consistent basis.

Will we go through another season without a true leader in the form of a Jack Zimmerman, Cedric Toney or Nigele Knight?

The answer to this one is a plain and simple, “YES.” Once again, there has been no one that has taken the bull by the horns. Hall has come the closest but not as one would have expected. Instead of leading through scoring, be has become our best rebounder of late. Marshall is about the only player on the court that can create his own shot, but doesn’t handle the ball enough to be the force that we need. David Morris had his best game of the season against Purdue, but we need that to be his average game. He had 7 assists and 10 points against the Boilermakers. That kind of scoring is a must and can only help the assist numbers. If he can average those numbers the rest of the way, we can contend for the West title and as a result have a good shot at an NCAA bid. Against Austin Peay he was 0-4

Will Yuanta Holland finally show up for more than a few games?

10, 6, 19, 7, 8, 5, 7, 5, 20
Those are the points that Holland has scored this season. Only one game over 10 in the last six contests. This is not what I call stepping up and being consistent. This is a player with more ability than he will ever realize. He needs to put it out on the court every time he laces up his shoes. What is frustrating with Yuanta is the knowledge that he can completely dominate matters as he did against Austin Peay. This man is capable of double-doubles every time he steps foot on the court. Nate Green has moved from starting position to third man on the totem pole. Holland needs to take advantage of Green’s slippage and give us the spark that only he can.

Can Sean Finn push Keith Waleskowski into the number 4 slot?

This is the easiest of all of the answers. Not only has Finn moved Keith to the number 4 slot, he has us asking the question, “Why did it take this long?” Although he still gets moved around like a rag doll at times, Sean has proven that he can play this game and really add a presence. When he is in there, shots get changed. As Flyer fans, we are not used to seeing this. Finn has a good chance at eventually holding the blocked shot record at UD. His numbers are not eye popping but that may come.

The question has been asked, “Is he the best true big man since Henry Finkel?” I really think that he can be, but the ability to dominate in the middle is still at least a year away. He is different than most of his predecessors in that he is a true center, unlike Mark Ashman, Mike Kaneiski and even Chip Hare. If he does not average 15 points and 10 rebounds as a senior I will be surprised.

The question that I did not ask was, “How will this affect Waleskowski?” We all assumed that it would be business as usual for Keith, but it has taken him a while to become comfortable in the 4 spot. The results at Purdue and against Austin Peay were what we had hoped for all year. If anyone of us would have been told that Keith would have played 26 minutes in a game and not taken a shot, we would have laughed our brains out. But it happened, just like the four rebounds that he gathered in a combined 48 minutes against UC and Marquette. We can only hope that what we have seen the last two games signal the beginning of a good streak for Keith and not aberrations.

Will the presence of Mark Jones motivate David Morris to be the player we all thought he could be?

Hard to answer this one. Jones hasn’t been good enough to force Morris to be better. Both have been spotty thus far and the result is a 6-3 record. This team will win only when they get better than average point guard play. Morris hasn’t played as well as he has in the past, but in the Purdue game, he showed flashes of ability that he will need to project on an every game basis. If he does, we will be dancing. If he doesn’t we will not. It is a lot to expect Jones to step it up at this point and lead. He has shown that he can run a fast paced offense, but has struggled with the half-court game. He must be able to do both to succeed. If forced to give an answer to the original question, it would have to be, “No.”

Will Brooks Hall take over this team?

We have watch Brooks Hall for 2+ years now and always wonder when he will break out. We are wanting that marvelous high school player to all of a sudden break out of the chamber that he has encrusted himself in since he placed the blue and red on his back. I have come to the conclusion that it never will. What we have in Brooks is a good, not a great player. He does not have the personality to take over this team. What he can do, however, is be a very important part of the overall puzzle.

Brooks knows how to play the game. He knows when to pass and he generally knows when to shoot. He is slowly becoming a complete ball player in that he now goes to the hoop with more authority and has challenged the big guys for the lead in rebounding. He leads the team in steals and has the best assist to turnover ratio.

Hall will rarely ever lose a game. The question is, “Will he win enough games?” He is a good piece to the winning puzzle; just don’t expect him to win it on his own. If there is anyone on the team that will do that it is Ramod Marshall. By the end of the season, he will have his scoring average close to 17 per game. It has been some time since we had anyone with that type of average. Look for him to take over some games and win them when it looks like they cannot be won. He scores his points very quietly. He will win games the same way.

I made the following statement in the earlier article: If the above questions are answered with a no, no, yes, yes, yes, yes you can bet we will be dancing come March. If many more than one of those is answered in a different way, it may not be fun around Flyerville.

At this point, they would have to be answered with a no, yes, no, yes, no and no. As a result only two of the six have been answered in the right way. That is not enough to get us to where we want to go. That is why we still don’t have a good feel what this team is all about. That is why we are 6-3. They still have a long way to go and might even get their record to where it needs to be by Selection Sunday. The above questions will need to have different answers for that to happen. We can only sit back and hope that Purnell can weave some magic and give us far more Purdue games and fewer UC and Marquette disasters.

It appears that the 9-10 man rotation is on the same track as the Edsel. It makes sense to use that many players if you are running up and down and pressing baseline to baseline. That is not what Purnell does and it appears that he has completed his evaluation of personnel. Although things can change during the course of the season, it looks like the rotation is set for the time being. Match-ups can change everything and Finn’s propensity for fouling can throw things a kilter, but playing time appears to have been decided.

The starting line-up may not change for the rest of the season. Morris, Marshall, Hall, Waleskowski and Finn look to be entrenched. Holland, Stelly and Jones appear to be the replacements. With the flexibility that Marshall (PG, SG), Hall (SF, SG) and Waleskowski (PF, C) give Purnell, there is little reason that Green and Smith need to see the floor. The Oliver Purnell Flyers of 2001-2002 do not play a great deal differently than the Don Donoher Flyers of 1971-1972. They look inside first and then shoot from the perimeter when necessary. They press on occasion when it makes sense, but typically play man to man in the half court. Playing 35 minutes in a game should be the standard and not the exception. Ten man rotations are nice on paper, but give me 5 outstanding starters and adequate backups for the remaining 5 minutes and I’ll show you a winner.

Let’s see if some of the wrong answers can be changed over the next two thirds of the season.