UD at Murray State

I can remember in my freshman year of playing intramural basketball I put together a team of high school friends and a couple guys on the floor. We were not very good, but signed up for the non-competitive league and I figured we'd be a .500-ish team with a shot at winning a game or two in the tournament.

When the season started, things weren't going well. We were a decent enough defensive team (with a little trouble on the glass due to lack of size) but beyond poor offensively. It stemmed from the fact that we were shooting something like 18 percent from the field on the season (if you can believe it, we did not have a statistician on the bench keeping track of things, so I'm guessing at the exact percentage). Sometime during our third or fourth game, Big Rob came up to me and posed the question, "Nate, what can we do man, what can we change up?" To which I responded with something like, "Well, we've got to start hitting some shots, and if we can do that, we'll be okay." This answer aggravated Big Rob, because he had heard it from me more than once before. He told me that there had to be something else, I couldn't just keep blaming our inability to score on our poor shooting. I couldn't come up with anything else good for him on the spot there, because, plain and simple, in basketball, if you aren't getting good shots and just not making them, there's not much to be done about it, I thought. Later on I came up with the brilliant solution: stop shooting. Take it to the hole, try and post up some, maybe get a foul call (an excellent idea in intramurals especially, whose officials are dreadful). Did we end up winning the championship that season? No, not even close. But with an offense that scored every now and again, we were competitive in our games and enjoying ourselves. All because of a simple thought: teams that don't shoot well shouldn't shoot the ball.

I couldn't help but revisit this thought as I watched Murray State pull away from Dayton in the second half of their game Sunday. As UD put up brick after brick (with a few airballs sprinkled in for good measure), it became painfully obvious what needed to happen; Dayton needed to have been goign to the hoop all game long. By the time anyone figured that out (Josh Benson), it was too late. Thanks to another poor effort defensively, Dayton went down badly on the road, 75-58.

The Good
Josh Benson. The big man was the only positive to take away from Sunday afternoon's game. Not even the blue away jerseys could make up for what was happening on the court. But Benson played a nice game, and had an especially good second half. The redshirt junior was 8-8 from the field, 1-1 from the foul line and finished with 17 points and six boards. Benson did most of his work around the rim, but also stepped away from the basket and hit a couple mid-range jumpers. He was the only Dayton player that had an interest in going inside, which was a good thing, because Benson knew he had a mismatch in the paint. Murray State is a good team, but severely lacking in size, and Dayton needed to take better advantage of that throughout. Benson did, so he gets some kudos. UD will need Benson to be aggressive on offense like he was in this game, but to be able to do it against better big men as well.

The Bad
Chris Johnson. One of Dayton's biggest problems as a team right now is that it only has nine scholarship players. That means that guys who are doing nothing on the court, like Luke Fabrizius, Josh Parker and yes, CJ, still have to get some playing time for sheer lack of bodies. I don't even recognize Chris Johnson anymore. He isn't shooting well, only shoots threes (1-8 from the field Sunday, 0-6 from three with an airball), does not hustle like he used to, does not rebound like he used to, isn't getting to the foul line, and when he does, not shooting them as well as he has throughout his career. It's mind-boggling. Really, it's sad, because CJ was one of my favorite Dayton players ever. Great athlete, hustles like crazy, decent scorer, makes plays all over the court that take your breath away (I never said "wow" about somebody's rebounding til I saw CJ. I imagine him at UD was like watching Rodman in the prime of his career on the glass), plays with no regard for his own body and is a quiet guy who is not looking to show the other team up when he makes a good play. Aside from the quiet part, CJ is none of those things anymore. I don't know what to do about it. I hope Archie Miller has a good idea soon.

The Defense. UD gave up 75 more points. They've now let up 75 to Murray State, 70 to Minnesota, 72 to Miami, 76 to Wake Forest and 84 to Buffalo. Part of Sunday's problems came from the fact that the Racers were on fire in the second half. But UD's defense was bad all the same. They didn't hustle to get out on shooters, and they got buried by long-range shooting in the second half. The real problem is that this seems to be the rule rather than the exception. UD's defense is just not very good, and the players aren't talented enough on offense to consistently score in the 70s and 80s. If the D doesn't improve, UD's losing streak will grow.

The Coaching. In the first half, the Flyers were a not-too-shabby 10-22 from the field. They were 2-10 from the three point line. That means they were 8-10 from inside the arc. How did Archie Miller not show that stat to his players in the locker room at halftime, circled about 1000 times, and scream, "Get the damn ball inside!"? I'll never know. What I do know, is that UD decided to take that information and shove it right in our faces, as they came out and put on a clinic in the second half, going 1-11 on three-pointers. This is a very simple concept. When you aren't shooting well, you don't keep shooting. Dayton hasn't been poor from beyond the arc this season, but its last several games have started a declining trend in shooting percentage (only against Minnesota has Dayton shot three-pointers well in its last four games).

Quitting? While watching Murray State pull away in the second half, I started rationalizing out loud with my dad. Murray State is a pretty good team, after all. They will have a great shot at an NCAA Tournament berth out of the Ohio Valley Conference, like they do every year. It was an away game, and UD is typically bad away from home. And Murray State shot well, making this a loss that was not really unexpected. It still didn't feel good, but I could understand it. Then, as Murray State scored an easy basket to make its lead 17 or 19 in a game that still had about eight minutes left, my dad muttered, "This team quits." Those words have been killing me since. Is he right? In the last two games, he has been. UD quit in the first half against Buffalo, and definitely shut it down in the second half at Murray State. In case you didn't know, that's not a quality to be excited about. It's a quality to be abhorred. The Brian Gregory/Chris Wright version of Dayton basketball had tons of flaws, but heart was never one of them. I'm not willing to say this teams lacks heart already, but that thought has entered my mind (thanks, Dad). Next time UD has a slow stretch that ends up in a big lead for its opponent, keep your eyes peeled. Dayton didn't care for the final 10 or so minutes against Murray State. That kind of shit can't ever happen again.