After dispatching the overmatched Lehigh Mountain Hawks, the Flyer Faithful must now endure finals week with no hoops until the next victim appears at UD Arena. And this time it will not be some Ken Pom 250+ “buy game” opponent, but rather the imposing specter of Shaka Smart’s #5 ranked Marquette Golden Eagles.
Let me stop right here and say this:
To me the team from Milwaukee will always be known as the Warriors. You know–Al Maguire, Maurice Lucas, Dean Meminger, Doc Rivers, Butch Lee, Jimmy Butler, Wesley Matthews, Dwayane Wade–those guys.
And when thinking of the Warriors, “FTS” immediately harkens back to the last time these two teams met in 2008 in Chicago, an 89-75 thrashing of the then-#15 ranked squad at the hands of the Flyers.
You can watch the whole tilt here (WARNING: Baggy shorts alert!):
The game was not televised nationally, so hundreds of UD fans had to rely on a Marquette follower named MU Basketball (AKA “The Clapper”). His web stream of the SNY Big East feed on usstream.tv, featuring two Marquette homer announcers was the only way to follow the action live.
“FTS” chronicled the proceedings here:
However, it wasn’t “The Clapper” proclaiming “Boom goes the dynamite” during the contest that makes it so memorable. It was this “You’re gonna see that one countrywide” dunk by Chris Wright:
Here it is with Larry and Bucky’s call:
This season the Flyers have already gone toe-to-toe with nationally ranked big boys UNC, Iowa State and UConn. Let’s hope that this meeting with “The Warriors” is as memorable as the last one!
Elsewhere in Flyerland:
Earlier this year, Jablo published a piece on the Flyers’ most memorable dunks in The DDN and CW’s slam was rated the best ever:
Dayton Flyers history: Looking back on UD’s most memorable dunks
ICYMI, 2025 AG recruits Damon Friery and Jaron McKie did, indeed, sign their LOIs:
Men’s Basketball Signs Two For 2025-26 – University of Dayton Athletics
Mark Titus ranks the Top Ten College Basketball Fanbases:
Finally, an in-depth interview with UD Associate Head Coach Ricardo Greer:
That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You forgot Marquette great Jimmy Boylan via Assumption College in Worcester, MA.
On the subject of team nicknames, I can see where some might be considered offensive, but Warriors isn’t the worst, by far. There have been “warriors” in various cultures for centuries, and usually it refers to groups of fighters whose objective is to conquer the opponent. Translating that to sports, and injecting some civility into the equation, the nickname makes sense.
Also, on the subject of dunks, one that I’ll always remember (as long as I have a memory) is Chris Wright’s dunk against Boston University in a game at The Arena. London Warren was just past the top of the key at the Student end of the court when he rifled a half-court, alley-oop pass to C-Dub, who was running full speed from the right side of the key in front of the Flyer bench, caught the ball in stride, and slammed it home with his shoes nearly hitting the backboard as a result of his momentum. I know UDEE79 caught this one on video from the Pep Band that day. It’s at the end of this highlight reel.
I hope those ‘shorts’ never make a comeback… 😖
I remember back in the Dark Ages of the early 1990s, we had a walkon named Keith Braswell who was only 5’0”. Those “shorts” almost reached the tops of his sneakers. It looked like my 5 year old grandson was wearing my swim trunks.
Jablo in The DDN with a history lesson on the UD/Marquette rivalry: