It seems as though every fan of every sport always wants his team to go to that “next level.” Rarely is that “next level” ever defined. They just seem to want them to get there. We, Dayton Flyer fans, continually talk about getting to the “next level.” Like all other fans of sports, we want to be better that what we are, no matter how good we are.

You have to ask the question, “Do Duke fans ever use the term, next level?” My guess is that there is no next level when you are talking about Duke. Yet, even they don’t win a national championship every year. In fact, over the last 20 years, there have been 17 times when the Dukies went home without the big trophy. This begs the question, “Are fans ever happy? Is it ever enough?”

The term, “next level” seems to be more of a college athletic term, but do Yankee fans ever feel like the team needs to go to the next level? Again, I doubt it, but we are talking about New York.

This brings me to the pressing question that is brought up after every UD loss, “Can Oliver Purnell get us to the next level?” I’m not sure that question can be answered unless some parameters are placed around what that “next level” really is. There can be several answers to that question. Again, the real answer comes with the knowledge of were your team is when you ask the question. Below are some typical “next levels”:

A. Reaching .500 on a consistent basis.  UD hasn’t been bad enough for this to be the next level since Tom Blackburn coached his third team. We ran through a bad streak with O’Brien but even then Purnell got us back to .500 fairly quickly.

B. Being able to win against good teams at home.  Again, UD has been able to win against most of the league at home for some time.

C. Being able to win games on the road with some level of consistency.  UD has been close to .500 for a number of years.

D. Make continual post-season appearances.  UD will be in their fifth post-season tournament in the last six years.

E. Year in and year out contend for the division title.   Purnell has been able to win one division title and has finished second more than once.

F. Make the NCAA field at least two of three years.  Clearly, Dayton is not there yet, but could be in the next several years.

G. Win the division title on a consistent basis.  Certainly not there yet, but it seems like there is more of a problem there because of Xavier than UD’s inability to win.

H. Consistently be positioned in the Top 25.  Not there yet, but huge strides have been made this year.

I. Contend for a National Title.  Not there yet and maybe never will be. The one year that we made it to the Championship game, we were never in the Top 25. It just might have been a fluke. For this to occur, the ability to recruit top 50 players must be in place.

When Oliver Purnell came to the University of Dayton, victories were hard to find. UD was in over its head being a member of the Great Midwest. In Purnell’s first season, they laid a goose egg, 0 wins and 14 losses in the league. It wasn’t long and we were booted and looking for a new home. When we showed up in the A-10, UMass was fighting for a national championship and for a brief period, .500 in the league looked good.

We find ourselves today feeling like the NCAA is a good bet. Depending on how things fall for the rest of the season, UD could have its highest seeding ever in the tournament. Has Purnell gotten us to that “next level.” I say no, not yet.

Just like the 11-17 season was a few years ago, could this year be an aberration? I think not. The loss of the three seniors will be felt. However, they are not irreplaceable. We will lose one starter in Brooks Hall. There are some who would say that Brooks is the best player on the team. Some would say that he takes a dive every time we play someone good. It is my belief that he is much closer to the former than the latter. Brooks Hall does all of the little things that make this team good, yet they still win when he doesn’t have a big hand in things. Will Stelly, Green and Hall be missed? Certainly, but there is enough left in Purnell’s toolbox to continue to be successful.

The success of this year’s team will help determine the course of the program over the next decade. We all want to believe that high school basketball players are much smarter than they really are. We want them to come to the University of Dayton because of its level of education, atmosphere and support. Well, guess what, even though some do care about those things, more often than not, those players really just want to be on TV and play in the NBA. The thing that they want to do is to play on a team that will help them showcase their talents. You do that by winning. Being on SportsCenter is probably more important to some than what they got in Biology that day.

If Purnell is to be able to recruit the same kids that go to the top BCS schools, he needs to continue to win. He can start that ball rolling by making it to the Sweet Sixteen this year. He will be replacing this year’s junior class (Finn, Waleskowski, Igoudala and Marshall) with next year’s high school seniors. The fate of the program will probably rest there. There are a ton of question marks associated with his last three recruiting classes. Jones is the only remaining member of the first of those classes. The next group has hardly played and the other is still in high school. They will have to be the core that keeps us afloat until next year’s group comes in.

There are a number of names floating around concerning next year’s recruiting class such as Terwilliger, Morrissey, Butler, Roberts, Duncan, Lyles, Agnew, Orr and Gorney. They are watching how we do this year. A 17 year old can only remember back so far. The present is extremely important when you are that age, not what happened 30 and 40 years ago. With the right recruiting class, Purnell can move closer to being mentioned with the Donohers and Blackburns.

Have we gone to the “next level?” I’m not sure I can answer that. UD is certainly moving in the right direction and getting to level H (consistency in the Top 25) is certainly a possibility over the next couple of years. I think that most of you would be happy to say that we had gotten to that “next level” when Dayton is always being mentioned on Sports Center highlights with a little number less that 26 attached to our name.