I’m sure some of you will gasp with disbelief when I make my next statement, but I’m going to do it anyway. I think that the current group of Flyers may be one of the top teams that we have ever seen play at the University of Dayton. The numbers that you are trying so desperately to think of are 9-1-1. “Yes, the boy has finally lost what little brains God has given him. He must be insane.” I can hear the cries now.

How can this grouping of players that doesn’t even have a 14 points per game or 10 rebounds per game player compare to the great Blackburn and Donoher teams of yesteryear? I know that this team has only played 22 games and we still have nearly a dozen games left before the end of the season, but if things fall correctly, this could be a team of destiny.

Let’s take a look at some of the great Flyer teams of the last 50 years.

1950-51 (27-5 NIT Runner-up) This was a good solid unit and the first of Blackburn’s close but no cigar NIT finishes. It was lead by Monk Meineke (20.6 ppg /11.3 rpg). Junior Norris, Chuck Grigsby, and Dick Campbell were the other mainstays. This was a team that played a very limited schedule in that they played the likes of John Carroll, Anderson, Chattanooga, Muskingum, Berea, and Baldwin Wallace. This team won three games against Top-20 teams including Toledo twice. They were not ranked until the end of the season and finished at #13. Although a good team, it is unlikely that this team could even stack up with Blackburn’s best.

1951-52 (28-5 NIT Runner-up) Pretty much the same team with a young Jim Paxson, Sr., and John Horan thrown in. Played a similar schedule and had a 2-2 record against Top-20 teams, one of which was Murray State. They peaked at the right time and won two more games against #5 St. Louis and # 15 St. Bonaventure in the NIT. This senior laden team featured four double-digit scorers and would have to rate a notch above the previous year’s team. This team rose as high at #11 in the country.

1954-55 (25-4 NIT Runner-up) This was a team that featured Bill Uhl, Sr., John Horan and Jack Sallee. No longer were the Flyers content to just play teams in their backyard as they scheduled teams such as Seton Hall, Memphis, Oregon, Villanova, Pacific, and UCLA. This was a team that got all the way up to #4 before back-to-back losses. They finished at #9 and had a 6-3 record against ranked teams.

1955-56 (25-4 NIT Runner-up) This team featured Uhl, Paxson, Bucky Bockhorn and Jim Palmer as double-digit scorers and Uhl and Palmer as double digit rebounders. This team was never rated lower than #7 and as high as #2 for five weeks. They were probably best known for their victory over Kentucky in the finals of the UKIT. Few realize that they were the higher rated team going into that game. They were 4-3 against Top-20 teams with all three of the losses coming against Louisville — including the finals of the NIT in New York. This could have been the best team that Blackburn ever put together.

1957-58 (25-4 NIT Runner-up) The ’57-’58 was very similar to this year’s team in that it did not have a big gun but had four players average in double figures. Frank Case, Bucky and Terry Bockhorn, Don Lane, and Jack McCarthy led this team to a 1-1 mark against ranked teams. They did not get into the Top-20 until late in January and rose as high as #8.

1961-62 (24-6 NIT Champions) Blackburn finally won his NIT championship just as the better teams were moving to the NCAA Tournament. The Flyers were never ranked but could have been one of the best teams in the country if Roger Brown had not been banished from school. Bill Chmielewski averaged a double-double in his only season in a Flyer uniform. Gary Roggenburk was right behind him coming just 0.7 rebounds per game short of the double-double. Also starring on this team were the Hatton brothers and Bill Westerkamp. This was a good team that rode Chmielewski’s coat tails to the championship as he averaged nearly 30 points per game in the tournament.

1965-66 (23-6 NCAA Sweet 16) According to Don Donoher, his best team ever. It was his feeling that if Dennis Papp hadn’t gotten injured before the start of the season, they would not have lost to then #1 Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament. This was a team that featured Henry Finkel, Don May, Glinder Torain, Gene Klaus, and Bobby Joe Hooper and finished 1-3 against Top-20 teams including back-to-back losses in the NCAA Tournament. May and Finkel both averaged over 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.

1966-67 (25-6 NCAA Runner-up) Again a team that wasn’t ranked the entire season yet somehow managed to almost win the National Championship. Don May and company was just 0-2 against ranked teams during the season but, like the NIT Championship team, got hot at the right time. During the tournament they went 3-0 against Top-10 teams before losing to #1 UCLA. Most feel this was the best UD team of all time, but that certainly is helped by the fact that they made it all the way to the Finals.

Other Pretenders (1973-74 20-9 NCAA Sweet 16; 1983-84 21-11, NCAA Elite 8; 1989-90 22-10, NCAA Second Round) These were all good teams, but could never be considered among the best in that there were 30 defeats between them. They all got hot at the right time of the season after sluggish starts and made everyone walk away from the season with a smile on their face. They were good, with some very good players, but the only reason that we talk about them today is the lack of real success over the last thirty years.

2002-03 (18-4 NCAA ???) This is not a team that sparked a great deal of interest before the season started. They were coming off another 20 win season, but for whatever reason just couldn’t beat Xavier and ended up losing in the third round of the NIT. Yet, after a slow (4-2) start they have won 14 of 16 games only losing to then #1 Duke and #20 Xavier both on the road. They have beaten three Top-25 teams with a fourth being a possibility on Saturday.

The current team is not a flashy group of players. They do what is necessary to win and not a great deal more. They do not win by 30 and rarely get to relax on the court because of their tendency to lose 15-point leads. This is a team without a star. How can you even think about calling this team one of the best when they don’t have a go-to-guy, you may ask. That, in itself, is why this is such a good team.

There is not team that can point at one or two guys and say that if they stop them they can win the game. There isn’t one guy that if he gets in foul trouble will cause us to lose the game. There isn’t a player on the team that will take 18 shots when he is only making two. This is a team that will lead all other UD teams in floor burns. This is a team that spends more time lying on the floor diving for loose balls that any I can remember.

This is a team that looks a lot like many of the Donoher teams of the past but with much more athletic ability. There are seven key players and there never seems to be a drop off in performance when any grouping of those seven are on the court together. This is a team of 12 individuals that know what their rolls are and don’t complain. They do what is asked of them and only worry about the next opponent.

I really feel that this can be one of the top five teams all time at UD because they are indeed a team. There is not an anointed one that will lead us to the Promised Land. They are all there to do what they can to win that next game no matter how good the opponent is. Should they get very far in the Tournament, we will look back at this team as one of the best.

Purnell could not have picked a better year to put together his best team. Aside from the fact that Xavier is still a constant pain, the schedule could not have been set up much better. With Marquette, Villanova, Cincinnati, and St. Joe’s all at home, UD was primed for a big season. Nationally, we catch another break. For once, there does not seem to be a truly dominant team. Kentucky and Arizona currently seem to be on a different plain that the rest of the 320+ Division I teams, but even they are beatable. There are potentially a dozen teams that could win it all this year. There is no reason to believe that UD, when hitting on all cylinders, is not good enough to be one of those twelve.

With any luck, Dayton will be placed in the Midwest Regional while Arizona will be placed in the West and Kentucky in the South. This immediately improves any hopes of making it to the Final Four. The two attainable best spots for landing in a bracket would be at either a three or six seed. This would keep them away from the number one seed until the Elite Eight and the number two seed until the Sweet Sixteen. We could play the first and second rounds as close at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis with the Regionals in Minneapolis. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

You may still want to call 9-1-1 but only because of the level of excitement that we may all be facing over the next six weeks.