As my college career is coming to a close I'm making the move to pick up my independent version of "Spack on Sports", as I will only be writing for the Flyer News version just a few more months. And what a time to restart.
On a day that is serving up 151 college basketball games and also happens to be the eve of the Super Bowl, I'm saying hello again to my band of loyal followers (ha).
As I'm writing this, the Dayton Flyers won their game at LaSalle, a nice road win that has been near impossible to come by for this year's team. Unfortunately, it feels like too little, too late. And that is the very depressing thing about this college basketball season: I don't have as much to root for with 7 games still to play.
In my first three years at UD, the Flyers made the NCAA Tournament only once, in 2009. But the other two years, they were very competitive and looked like they had a shot at a berth at this point. With nine conference games under their belts in '08 and '10, the Flyers had disappointed a bit, but were still competitive in the conference, had some good wins to show from the season, and, if they finished well, would be in the tournament. Unfortunately, in 2008 they were derailed by injuries and last year they collapsed, both at the end of the season, and in their A-10 Tournament game against Xavier.
This year is different. Nine games in, UD is 5-4, a picture of mediocrity. They haven't won a single big game, and they've lost a home game already. They can't beat the better teams in the league, and they can't go on the road and beat the UMasses of the conference. They've been bad enough that even winning out would not put the Flyers into the tournament. They've got one way in: win the A-10 Tourney, and that's not happening.
I know, I know, I'll still have Duke to root for all season. That's valid, but it's not the same. Dayton is the team I go and watch every home game, they are the team I live and die with. Right now, I basically feel about UD the way I felt about the Mets last season by the time game 70 rolled around: they're done. And now I've got a bunch of season left, and nothing to cheer for (as a side note, I'm sure that's the way I'll feel about the Mets again this year, this time by about game 25.)
It's pretty sad, really. I guess I'm just not that accustomed to UD being out of the race so quickly. I'm definitely used to them disappointing me, which has happened again this year (ahem, losing to ETSU at home), just not with so many games to be played.
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