So, you think you know University of Dayton basketball. Yeah, yeah, yeah – we’ve heard it all before:

· Your mind is a steel trap for UD statistics.

· As a veteran fan of the Dayton Flyers whose lower-arena seats were preceded by good seats at the Fieldhouse, you’ve seen it all.

· You avidly read every Flyer story in the newspaper, cruise every Internet hoops site and tuck away every fact, figure and anecdote in the far recesses of your memory.

· What you don’t know, you make up for with a vast resource of UD programs, press guides and clippings.

Well, maybe you know it all … or maybe you only THINK you know it all. We’re here, at the dawn of a new season, to put your knowledge to the test. Of the following 20 questions, only a few answers are readily available by scouring stat sheets. To keep you honest, there are a fair number of questions that are anecdotal in nature, some of which border on the downright obscure.

To more accurately and fairly gauge your knowledge of Flyer hoops, we suggest that you take this test unarmed. In other words, don’t consider this an open-book test. To that end, you can grade yourself on a sliding scale:

· Perfect score, you da man! As a Flyer fanatic, you have few peers.

· 16 to 19 correct, you’re a special breed – not quite a fanatic, but close.

· 12 to 15 correct, you’re hoops savvy but clearly have a life apart from UD hoops.

· 8 to 11 correct, you’re a casual fan – on the team but drawing mostly pine time.

· Fewer than 8 correct, you’re an O’Brien – a loser with a capital “L”!

To make it easier on yourself, you might want to print this out. And from our point of view, you shouldn’t need but about 5-15 minutes to take this test. More time than that and you’ve got a nose in the books!

Now that you’ve been prepped, here’s one little detail we forgot to mention: The answers will follow in a subsequent post. Heh heh heh. In the meantime, if you wish, talk amongst yourselves on the message board. Oh, and if you like Flyer trivia tests, say so. We might just do a couple more before the season draws to a close.

Finally, this being an imperfect world and all, if you find something here that doesn’t quite ring true, please call it to our attention. Unlike the record books, memories fade. Answers will appear later in the week.

Ready, set, go …

1. We all know about Wilt Chamberlain choosing Kansas over Dayton. But according to recruiting reports at the time, which of the following future NBA players – Juwan Howard (Michigan), Bernard King (Tennessee), Herb Williams (Ohio State), Duane Causwell (Temple) or Leon Douglas (Alabama) – did NOT have Dayton in their final five before settling on a college?

2. Name the former Flyer whose first name doubles as the title of an Oscar-winning film for Best Picture. And while we’re at it, name the Dayton player whose first name doubles as the title of another movie that celebrates an “athlete” at the school most of you would judge to be our biggest rival in the late 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

3. During the pre-Arena days, late, great Dayton Daily News Editor Si Burick used a medical term as a nickname for the University of Dayton Fieldhouse that was as much a tribute to UD fans as to Flyer basketball teams. Can you name the term?

4. What was historically significant about Roosevelt Chapman’s performance during Dayton’s 1984 Elite Eight run?

5. Which was the final season in which an all-white varsity men’s basketball team suited up at UD?

6. Before Ted Kissell convinced Oliver Purnell to assume the coaching duties at Dayton, he pursued another coach who declined to be interviewed but nonetheless talked up the qualifications of his friend at Old Dominion. Who was that coach? (Hint: He coaches the Owls.)

7. Johnny Davis owns the distinction of being the only Dayton player to leave early for the NBA – the only one, frankly, good enough to do so. Here’s a three-part Davis question: Give the name that fans and sportswriters bestowed upon one particular shot of his; identify the All-American Clemson center and longtime NBA star embarrassed by that shot firsthand; and, finally, tell us how much the Portland Trailblazers reportedly ponied up to sign Dayton’s lone “hardship” pro.

8. When it comes to nicknames, Dayton players have had quite a few good ones – some better known than others. Match the following nicknames to the players who bore them: Velvet, Silky Smooth, Z-Man, Smitty, Special K, the Cobra, Sly and the Blond Bomber.

9. Give the title of the poem written by former Dayton Daily News columnist Gary Nuhn after the Flyers’ 1984 upset of No. 3-ranked DePaul.

10. Which Dayton player was picked highest in the NBA draft following the magical 1983-84 season? What round?

11. Players major in many fields of study at UD, but who is the only 6-9 center to have majored in art?

12. Speaking of 6-9 players, one former Flyer – name him – decided to follow his rainbow from Dayton to where?

13. Once upon a time, Playboy magazine cited good-looking players in its pre-season basketball forecast. A former Flyer once earned a mention, though not a centerfold spread – which is a good thing, since we’re talking men’s hoops . Can you name him?

14. Name the conference the late athletic director Tom Frericks nixed when Dayton was approached nearly three decades ago as a potential charter member.

15. For good measure, can you provide the name of the “series” – as opposed to conference – that united Dayton, DePaul, Notre Dame and Marquette for a short time in the 1970s and ’80s? (Hint: Though it was a mythical league of sorts, we’re not talking about the much fabled Vatican Conference.)

16. Between them, Tom Blackburn and Don Donoher won nearly 800 games over four decades. But in the long and storied history of Dayton basketball, who compiled the best winning percentage of all time?

17. By comparison, Jim O’Brien, salvaged in part by his very successful first campaign, managed a shade under 12 wins a season over his five-year stint as head coach. Of the 17 men’s basketball coaches in the history of the sport at Dayton, where does O’Brien rank with his measly 61 wins?

18. In 1978, three center/forward big men – Mike Kanieski (6-11, 210), George Morrison (6-10, 225) and Mike Gorney (6-9, 225) – enrolled as freshmen. Smoothest of the trio was Kanieski, who saw the most playing time as a starter. Though all three had a combined vertical jump of about 12 and a half inches, each played prominent roles from time to time in a pretty good four-year stretch of basketball. During their senior season, one of the three went to the line in a huge game against nationally ranked DePaul with a chance to steal a win and some national headlines. Instead, he missed his free throws and the Blue Demons won. OK, life goes on. But in the next game at home, this same player somehow had a breakaway dunk and, gallingly, said it was his way of making up those missed freebies. As if! Anyway, which of the three was the culprit?

19. For a few years after the end of his NBA career, Flyer great Don May went into business selling what type of merchandise?

20. We began with a recruiting question and we’ll end with another. A hall of fame coach purportedly went ballistic back in the ’60s when he heard he lost a coveted player out of Chicago – at the time one of the highest-ranked recruits in the country – to the University of Dayton. Name the coach and the player.