It was only five short months ago that the Dayton Flyers were looking forward to a basketball season to remember. After completing their first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 10 years last season, just getting into the Tournament was not going to be good enough in 2000-01. The only acceptable outcome for this season would be to win at least one or two games in the Big Dance and continue to make the move toward the elite in college basketball. The Flyers had come a long way during Oliver Purnell’s tenure and there was no reason to believe that the success would not continue.

There were some that believed the loss of Mark Ashman — who started 120 consecutive games during his career — would be too much for the young Flyers to overcome. There were a few that believed UD would miss the leadership of Edwin Young at the point. There were some that believed that last year was a fluke and even with those players back, the NCAA wouldn’t be reachable. But these naysayers were in the minority. What did they know? Tony Stanley would have a breakout year and the incoming players would more than fill in the blanks.

Selection Sunday has come and gone and the only mention of the University of Dayton occurred when TV analysts said we’d be hosting the opening and first and second rounds of the tournament. There is nothing like tuning in to CBS on Selection Sunday and anxiously awaiting the call of just who, where, and when you will be playing. We all felt the agony last year as team after team got called until the final pairing was revealed. If your home was anything like mine, the yelling did not stop for several minutes.

Competing in the NIT is no longer a real reward for this program. What it will allow us to do is to get a little more experience and maybe be seen on ESPN by the handful of people that actually tune in to the Not Good Enough Tournament. Is it better than sitting at home? Yes. Is it good enough? No.

Maybe some of us had our sights set a little too high. Maybe this isn’t a backward step, but just a bend in the road. Whatever it is, it is something that will eat at the players until the tipoff of the first game next season. Something was missing this year. It isn’t easy putting your finger on it, but the same level of confidence just seemed to be lacking. Last year when the game was close, we, as fans, seemed to know the Flyers would win. This year, that feeling escaped us. If you look at the raw numbers, there is not a huge difference. If you look at the players’ numbers, there is not a huge difference. However, there is a difference in how we played the game.The season can be summed up in three games. We lost three of our biggest home games this year, all of which Dayton could [should] have won. Win those three games and Selection Sunday has a whole different meaning. Yes, the Old Dominion and Marshall games hurt, but the season was lost when we couldn’t beat UC, Temple, and St. Joseph’s at home.

The RPI doesn’t care who you beat; it only cares how many games you win. Yes, it cares about who you play, but where the wins come from is superfluous. The problem with our season is exemplified by those three games. Between the win against Maryland in game three and the win against Xavier in game 29, there was a huge hole in the season. The NCAA looks for quality wins and during that extended period of time. There were none.Dayton lled UC by 13 with 13 minutes remaining. During those final 13 minutes, we were outscored 39-19. Against Temple, we owned a 47-35 lead with 14:46 remaining. During the next seven minutes we were outscored 16-3 and eventually lost by 10. Although the St. Joseph’s game fit a different pattern, the same problem was evident. The Hawks completely dominated the first 18 minutes of the game and build a commanding 43-20 lead. The Flyers mounted a thrilling comeback to eventually tie the game, but ran out of gas in the end. St. Joseph’s was reeling, but UD just couldn’t sustain their hot hand.Although these were the three most important losses during the season, they are no more than an example of what has happened time after time. There were stretches in virtually every game where the Flyers couldn’t buy a basket and allowed the other team to reel off 10 unanswered points. Even against the weakest of teams on our schedule, this happened. In a game that almost brought back memories of the Jim O’Brien years, Prairie View A&M completely owned parts of the game. Even in our lone A-10 tournament win, Rhode Island scored 10 unanswered points.

This was a scene that we witnessed time after time this year. When we needed a defensive stop and a good offensive set to stop the onslaught, it just wasn’t there.This team had a tendency of hanging their heads on defense after a few bad trips on the offensive end. It didn’t matter who was in the game, it became contagious. Against St. Joseph’s, Marvin O’Connor, at times, could have signed autographs before he actually had to take one of his killing three pointers. This was a team that was going to live and die by the ability of its outside players to shoot from the perimeter. Instead, they died by their inability to defend. This was a team that missed the defensive abilities of Edwin Young far more than they ever would have imagined.There isn’t a player on this team that wouldn’t admit that they couldn’t have played better. The only consistency that we had from game to game was the play of Keith Waleskowski and I’m sure that he wishes he would have gone stronger to the hoop on numerous occasions.The players are not solely at fault.

This is a team that is without a defensive presence in the middle. One would have to question Oliver Purnell’s reluctance to give Sean Finn more time on the court early in the season. We saw both the good and bad from Sean. There were times when he looked like a deer caught in headlights. On the flip side, there were times that he looked like he could dominate. Three examples would be his six rebounds in six minutes against Prairie View, six rebounds in seven minutes against Duquesne, and seven rebounds in eight minutes against Rhode Island. Given his overall season average, he would grab over 10 rebounds per game if given 30 minutes of playing time. I realize that many of his minutes were against weaker teams, but the numbers don’t lie. He would have stumbled and perhaps cost us a game, but the difference that he might have made will never be known. His development is essential for our future success.This season has not dropped us to the depths that we felt just three years ago. This was a season of learning for every player and coach on the team. What they do with that knowledge will either drive us to greater heights next season or keep us in the middle of the pack. The off-season will be a time of thinking and training. The attitudes that will persist during those six months will shape the future of the program.

Next week I will give my thoughts on what will need to happen for the Flyers to return to the NCAA Tournament in 2001-2002.