Just around the corner

Welcome back, UD basketball.

You had us fooled for a bit there, what at 4-1 in the A-10 with a beautiful new style of play wins over the other three best teams in the conference. But thank you for setting us straight. For at least one more year, we're going to be treated to mediocrity and inconsistency personified. When you beat Xavier and Temple, you'll lose to St. Bonaventure and Rhode Island.

The only thing that is alarming about Dayton's recent three-game skid is that I didn't see it coming. It happens every year. UD looks good, then its NCAA Tournament chances are gone. Five wins later, maybe we were wrong about them. But sure to follow is a bad non-conference loss, effectively ending that glimmer of hope. After another run of great wins, they are the toast of the town, and sometimes the nation. UD followed the same formula as the last several years: keep the fans interested, barely. And once again, the team had me fooled.

After watching the game (debacle) against Duquesne in person (Flyers still winless with me in the Arena this year, heartbreaking), I'll still be following Dayton basketball closely, but not with the same naive sense of hope. Not the naive hope I somehow got back after they quit in a game and lost to Buffalo by 29. With the loss Dayton fell to 4-4 in the Atlantic 10, with most of its toughest road games still to play. The only way UD could secure an at-large bid at this point is to go 6-2 or better in the final half of the A-10 season. And 6-2 would be pushing it. Teams need to separate themselves from the pack in the A-10 this year to get noticed. And 9-7 won't do that, even if all 9 wins are great ones.

So from here on out, it's put up or shut up time. And after seeing UD do anything but put up in games that should have been easy wins at home against Rhody and Duquesne, my outlook is rather bleak. Dayton gave up a combined 169 points in the two games and was uninterested on the defensive end. Against Duquesne, after the Dukes played the best half of Duquesne basketball this season, UD put up for five or six minutes. They cut a nine point halftime deficit to one, and then shut it down offensively and defensively. Duquesne started getting better looks. UD stopped pounding the ball inside. And, predictably, the game got away from them in the end. Watching it unfold, I couldn't help but be stunned. They had Duquesne right where they wanted them. That was looking like it was going to be a terrific second half capped by a 13-point UD win. Try a 10-point UD loss. And after seeing it in person, I know: for at least one more year, this the still Dayton basketball program that we love, and then hate.