BEVERLY HILLS (MI) — Who am I kidding, of course there is a game this weekend…and I hope that New England crushes the Ravens to smithereens! Meanwhile, the day before that friendly football get-together, the Flyers square off against their oldest and most familiar foe, the Fightin’ Gangstas of Norwood University for some college hoops goodness on ESPN2. Saturday’s tilt will mark the 156th meeting between X and UD and the good guys hold a 83-72 advantage in the series. The winner takes home the Blackburn/McCaferty Trophy, symbolic of Southern Ohio basketball supremacy.

Until 1:00PM on Saturday rolls around, let there be links!

— One has to wonder how many revolutions Coach McCaferty has done in his final resting place this season over all of this “gangsta” nonsense at the school to the south. Neither “Big Jim” nor Tom Blackburn would have put up with any of that crap for one minute.

— Support Archie by voting for him in the Infiniti Coaches’ Charity Challenge:

http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/infiniti/2012/

— Coach Miller is looking at 2012 SG Jerron Wilbut from Downers Grove (IL) HS, according to Illinois Prep Bullseye:

http://ilprepbullseye.com/Recruiting_Blurbs.html

— Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated had this to say about the Flyers when he included them in his list of “10 teams that helped themselves”:

Dayton (33). The Atlantic 10 looks like it could be a three- or four-bid league, so the Flyers have a chance to ride that wave. They’ll also spend the next two months rooting for Alabama and Minnesota, whom they beat during the first month of the season.

–UD’s victory over LaSalle as reported by Flyer fan Matthew Paul for The Mid-Majority:

http://www.midmajority.com/p/2465

— Arch with a great profile in The DDN of Flyin’ to the Hoop founder Eric Horstman:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/high-school-sports/flyin-to-the-hoop-tourney-president-living-his-dream-1311578.html

— Equally cool piece about Luke’s biggest fan, from The Troy Daily News:

http://tdn-net.com/Main.asp?SectionID=152&SubSectionID=255&ArticleID=120343

— The Flyers get some love from an unlikely source — a college hoops blogger for The Boston Globe:

Dayton: The best basketball fans in the America have to be pleasantly surprised at the Flyers’ 12-4 record plus they opened Atlantic 10 play with two upsets, beating Saint Louis and Temple. Temple was at home and coming a victory over Duke.

— Who knew that Bigfoot grew up in the same town that I did? They produced a TV show about it, so it must be true, right?

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/topstory/ci_19700258

— Your weekly Atlantic 10 Notebook from College Chalk Talk:

http://collegechalktalk.com/conferencenotebooks/atlantic10/1.16.12Nolan

— Your weekly “Checking in on the A-10” column from RushtheCourt.net:

http://rushthecourt.net/2012/01/18/checking-in-on-the-atlantic-10-conference-4/

— The WSJ with The Captain Obvious News Flash: Even the BCS big boys lose when someone puts a gun to their head and they are forced to play on the road:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204257504577153003738561214.html

— To no one’s great surprise, the head of the NCAA thinks that paying college athletes is a bad idea. Of course he does!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204257504577151212467142838.html?KEYWORDS=Emmert

— Ever wonder what college hoops rankings would look like if they did them the same stupid way that the BCS football teams do? RushtheCourt.net has you covered:

http://rushthecourt.net/2012/01/16/rtc-2012-bcs-poll-week-2/

— “The Sweet Tweet of Xavier Week” belongs to 2012 UD Recruit Devon Scott from Columbus Northland HS:

“I hate Xavier.”

— “From the Swamp” prediction:

Flyboys 75

X-men 66

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