My good friend John Churan recently wrote of being in a “funk” — of being a bit more skeptical, maybe even jaded regarding the prospects of this year’s hoops team. And who can blame him? Truth be told, the Flyers were within a victory or two of the NCAA tournament the past couple of years, and the NIT was NOT a fitting consolation.

But that’s where The Fly parts company. I can be as cynical as the next guy (and no John, I’m not calling you a cynic), but I’m very optimistic about Oliver Purnell’s ninth team. And here are a half-dozen reasons why:

1) EXPERIENCE. John has never been more correct when he points out this is a “nice,” rather than “overpowering” team. But in an age when overpowering upperclassmen no longer play college basketball — they’re in the NBA — we’re well-armed with the antidote. We have oodles of juniors and seniors, most of whom have been starters or have contributed significant minutes. Frankly, I’ll take experience anytime over raw athleticism. Our last NCAA entry won precisely because it was a senior-dominated team, with Edwin Young and Mark Ashman leading the way, followed closely by junior Tony Stanley. But does anyone think for a moment that trio overpowered anyone? No, they won because they had an effective inside-outside game and because they were fundamentally sound.

2) FUNDAMENTALS. How’s that for a segue? If an Oliver Purnell team has any single characteristic that stands out, it’s that they’re fundamentally sound. That’s not to say they don’t turn the ball over or make mistakes, but they play within themselves. This is a team that runs ONLY when it has the opportunity. This is a team that squeezes the most out of a tiny lead in the waning moments. This is a team that rarely lapses into one-on-one showmanship, buying instead into the concept that team play wins games.

3) THE ATLANTIC 10. The Flyers are stocked with experience at a time when most of their league counterparts are not. With the notable exceptions of Xavier and Richmond, most teams in the A-10 are rebuilding. Clearly, the Muskies, with West, Sato and Chalmers, are the class of the league and CAN overpower most teams both with athleticism and experience. Richmond is much like Dayton, boasting experience and enough bench prowess to realistically go seven or eight … even nine deep. In the East, Temple must replace Lynn Greer, Kevin Lyde and Ron Rollerson; St. Bonaventure loses J.R. Bremer; LaSalle is without Rasul Butler; and St. Joe’s lost four starters, two of them fifth-year players. You think UMass isn’t salivating at its prospects over there? In short, this is not your father’s Atlantic 10.

Nonetheless, this league has recruited well and it’s poised for a bounce-back year. Short of Xavier, though, no team is better positioned than Dayton to take advantage of the league’s overall inexperience. Even in Richmond, we benefit from a team breaking in a new coach and learning a new system. That was no impediment to Thad Matta, but ask Steve Lappas and Karl Hobbs and Danny Nee if rebuilding is an overnight task. Heck, ask Oliver Purnell.

4) THE SCHEDULE. As much as I agree with John’s assessment that we’re no longer invincible at home, there’s no reason we can’t be. For my money, the single most important game in the non-conference is Cincinnati. The Bearcats always get better as the year progresses, but this is just the third game of the season. Besides, they have some serious holes to fill, having lost Steve Logan to the pros, Donald Little to jail and several others of note. To beat UC at home would not only get a long-time monkey off this team’s back, it might well set a take-no-prisoners tone. It’s impossible to sell short the confidence our Flyers would get from a win in that game. And of the four biggest non-con games — UC, Marquette, Villanova and Duke — we’re blessed that three are at UD Arena. In Ryan Perryman’s senior year, the Flyers didn’t lose an A-10 game at home — and that was a MUCH better year for the league, sending five teams to the NCAA. It isn’t impossible to believe this team could defend its home court just as successfully. And remember that point come A-10 tourney time when even if Dayton’s a bubble team (say, 18 or 19 wins), we’ll have a legitimate chance at winning our way into the Big Dance on comfy Blackburn Court.

5) TALENT. John acknowledged that this team has the talent to win, even without a bevy of Top 100 recruits. And I agree. But I’ll go a step further: My biggest complaint over the past few years has been that Purnell (or, at least, the university) seemed unwilling to take a chance on academic risks that might improve our overall athleticism. A couple of things have happened in recent years that are encouraging. For starters, we’ve not turned a blind eye to JUCOs. D.J. Stelly, by all accounts, is both a good kid and an athletic slasher. JUCO walk-on Frank Iguodala may well be a marginal player, but his athletic bloodlines are beyond challenge. My sense is he may surprise a lot of us. And non-qualifier (but IN school) Doug “Monty” Scott, of course, is a year away from perhaps being our first real impact player since Brooks Hall. There are others I could mention, but the point is the same: The level of athleticism on this team is slowly but surely improving. I’m not one to say our freshman class will set the world on fire, but I firmly believe all have the potential to contribute heavily to the program. And I continue to say Warren Williams will have all of us wondering how we managed to land him come his junior season.

Beyond that, the returning players are solid, particularly up front with Sean Finn and Keith Waleskowski. I’m not saying it will happen, but I personally believe Hall is ready for a breakout year. At the least, I expect from him the kind of quiet leadership Perryman delivered in 1997-98. John rightly questioned Mark Jones’ ability to step into David Morris’ shoes, and to be sure those are big shoes to fill. But I also remember us wondering if Morris could adequately replace Young, yet his sophomore season was sparkling. Jones clearly needs to make better decisions and play better defense, but this much we already know: We at least NOW have another scoring option in our point guard. For all of Morris’ talent, he never shot the ball well, and that allowed opposing defenses to sag and limit our interior options. I think Jones (and Williams) will be an upgrade. And that’s without even mentioning Ramod Marshall as an option at the point.

6) OLIVER PURNELL. Some of you, no doubt, think Purnell has done as much as he can for the program and are ready to thank him for restoring respectability, wish him well and then hire another coach to take us to that mystical “next level.” And sometimes, during moments of frustration, I’m with you. But here’s what I really think: We’re darn lucky to have him. Not only is he a good bench coach, he’s good PR for the university. This is a clean program run by a bright guy cut from the same cloth as Don Donoher. But as with Donoher, we often get less than we want on the court. Our expectations are high because, even if rarely, we’ve sniffed NCAA success. More maddening, we see annual Top 40 success just 50 miles to the south in a program that’s a virtual mirror image of our own. All that said, Purnell has the makings of a pretty solid two-year NCAA run at a minimum. Finn, KW, Marshall and Jones will be back next year. That’s two years of returning four starters. It’s not too much to expect NCAA invites both years. And frankly, that’s what it will take to get more than lip service from some of the Top 100 prospects who now, at least, give us an audience from time to time. Purnell deserves some credit for opening those doors, even if he isn’t sealing the deal. But now is the time to capitalize on his nine-year tenure, second longest in the league. He milks a lot out of his talent, keeps us in most games, has improved our road record, gets his teams to buy into headstrong defense and the team concept. He’s also produced some of our most memorable wins (Kentucky, UConn, Maryland) in the new millennium. Still, Purnell is at a point where our expectations NEED to be met. And I’m willing to give him the next two years to do just that. My guess is he expects no less of himself than we expect of him. I’m on the side that says he’ll deliver.

So, after all is said and done, are John and I that far apart on where this team is heading? No, I don’t think so. John’s just in a funk because most of us feel the team has underperformed the past two seasons. I’m more from the camp that says we got about all we could expect given our talent level — but yeah, a win here or there could have made all the difference. And that can be maddening.

So, this season, let’s have NO distractions (the name Sammy Smith comes to mind here; hope all is well there). Let’s have NO significant injuries. Let’s have NO letdown in confidence. Let’s adopt a killer mentality in late-game situations. Let’s make the Arena rock and play the proverbial sixth-man role to the hilt.

Above all, let’s consider this the NO MORE EXCUSES campaign, the year we break the door down. As John said, it’s time to get it done.

And as an optimist, I say we will.