Why not to worry about Kevin Dillard

Game one for UD went mostly the way game ones go: "Team UD should beat" hangs around for longer than the fans feel like they should, Dayton eventually pulls away in the late first/early second half, loses a significant part of its comfortable margin midway through the second half, and then rights the ship to win by 10ish.

For the most part, yesterday's game against Arkansas State followed the blueprint, the one notable exception being that Arkansas State only came within nine in the second half, where usually those leads drop to two or three. So overall, from a listener's perspective (believe it or not, UD-Ark St. was not on TV in Colorado), it was a pretty successful game.

Most players contributed positively to the winning effort. Even if it was a small presence, like Alex Gavrilovic or Devon Scott (again, from what I could hear), they did good stuff for the team. None of the new guys or returning players had a classic Paul Williams disappearance-type performance. You know what I'm talking about: it goes something like 0-2 shooting, zero points, one rebound, zero assists, three turnovers and 10-12 screams from the crowd to "DO SOMETHING!"

The one thing Tom Michaels and Bucky Bockhorn  kept harping on was Kevin Dillard's off day. And in the first half, I don't think there's any doubt they were right. UD's best player did not play well. From a whole game standpoint, he did not play as well as expected, and my mom (at the game) said he just made several similar bad plays. For UD fans expecting Dillard to be an A-10 Player of the Year-caliber player, it was probably a bit disconcerting to watch.

Here's the thing though: Dillard's final line was 3-13, 12 points, 10 assists, 6 rebounds, 5 turnovers. Yeah, not a great game. But a double-double and then six rebounds from your point guard? From a raw numbers standpoint, that's a strong game. Dillard could easily go 4-6 shooting and put up the same numbers. Knock the turnover numbers down to three let's say, and all of a sudden we're talking about his phenomenal ability to manage the game, his excellent efficiency, etc.

If this is what the Flyers are going to get from Dillard on bad days, there is reason for rejoicing, not bemoaning one game. That means UD has its best player since Brian Roberts, who always found a way to get his, even when the shots weren't falling the way they normally do.

Plus, as mentioned earlier, the other guys stepped up and played well. Vee Sanford had 18 and 7-10 from the field. Josh Benson was 7-9, hit multiple long jumpers (!) and grabbed eight boards. Dillard will be called upon to carry the Flyers to a win more or less on his own in at least a few games this season. But it's encouraging to know when he's a bit off, Dayton isn't necessarily going down.

What happened at UD Arena Saturday?

The bad news: UD is 1-5 in games that I've been able to watch on TV or in person (not actually bad news anymore)

The good news: that one win came against Xavier in spectacular fashion at UD Arena.

So what happened at UD Arena? Dayton had the best two players on the court at any given time in Kevin Dillard and Matt Kavanaugh. I wrote earlier this week that I felt both Dillard and Kav had a shot at matching up and playing well against this particular Xavier team. I would never have taken it as far as a 16 point, nine assist performance from Dillard accompanied by a 20 point, nine rebound performance from Kavanaugh. Dillard went up against one of the premier guard tandems in the country and came out better than both of them. No matter what matchup Xavier threw at Kavanaugh (slow and strong Kenny Frease, or lighter and quicker Andre Walker, he was assertive and dominant on the offensive end. The performances of those two cannot be lauded enough.

But don't let that take away from everyting else that went on in this game. It was perhaps the finest offensive game I've ever seen UD play (I'm known to use hyperbole quicker than most, but this was no doubt a top-3 performance). Whatever Archie Miller saw in Xavier that he wanted to exploit, whatever motivation Jon Gruden's speech gave to the Flyers, however fired up the players were, they came out and delivered a magnificent performance. The ball movement was incredible, as Dayton put in open layups time and again versus a weary and confused X defense. The shot selection (for the most part) was solid; even with several inadvisable three-point attempts, Dayton shot 50 percent from the field. The players aside from Dillard and Kavanaugh also delivered. Chris Johnson only scored five points, but each of his six rebounds was a ferocious board in traffic, the type of vintage CJ rebounding UD fans had grown accustomed to, but had not seen as much of this season. Off the bench, Josh Parker continued his elevated level of under-control play contributing 16 points on 5-7 shooting, all good shots. Perhaps most surprising of all, Ralph Hill, the sophomore who at the beginning of the year was probably not expecting to see a minute in this game, logged four points, five rebounds (in traffic, against bigger, more season Xavier players) and an assist.

In this game, not only did Dayton dominate more-or-less from the tip and take the lead in the Atlantic 10 standings, but it established a blueprint for how to continue winning games. In this game, the desired product of coach Archie Miller's offense was realized. What's more, it didn't even look that difficult. Yes, UD players were knocking down shots, and that will continue to be the most important aspect of any offense, but today, the shots were easy. How hard is it going to be to replicate the performance against X? Very, especially without a raucous crowd backing them. But how hard is it going to be to deliver the same type of effort and ball movement? In theory, not at all. So far, Miller gets props for his coaching in improving his players. He has coached a group of players to a 14-5 record that it is hard to believe Brian Gregory would have at better than 11-8. Now, however, the test really begins. Will he be able to get them to keep it up? Where will the motivation come from when there is no rivalry game, no home crowd, no Jon Gruden? If Miller has the answer to that question, we could be in for a special month-plus of UD basketball.

No point in worrying about all that for now, though. Today, UD basketball beat Xavier. Easily. They made Tu Holloway and Kenny Frease look bad. Today, that's about as sweet as it gets.

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.

UD vs. Buffalo: Ouch

Can you see how PW's not happy? Well that's because UD just lost by 29 at home.

In my last post I touched on how sometimes a team can look really good and despite how excited you might be about how well they played, that will not be case for most of the season. Well, if Wednesday's game against Buffalo (AT HOME) was any indication, then we may have seen the best UD is capable of in the Old Spice Classic Finals against Minnesota. Even if that game wasn't UD's best effort, let's hope this one was the absolute worst.

This game was, in every sense of the word, ugly. Similar to Duke at Ohio State the night before, UD was dismantled and embarrassed in every facet of the game, from start to finish. The only differences between UD and Duke were (a)Duke did close the gap once in the first half, UD didn't, and (b)Dayton got stomped AT HOME.

The Good
Yeah...uh...

The Bad
The defense. UD gave up 85 points to Buffalo. The Flyers gave up 46 points in the second half on 60 percent shooting. They were outrebounded by 21. They gave up 15 offensive boards. They were out-hustled to loose balls. They were lazy all game long, and never got out to defend Zach Filzen, who was on fire, but benefited from having open look after open look.

The offense. Dayton scored 11 points in the first 15 minutes of the game. Kevin Dillard was 4-10 from the field, and he was a bright spot. Matt Kavanaugh went 3-8, Josh Parker 2-8, Josh Benson 1-5, Chris Johnson 4-15 and Paul Williams 0-3 (3 shots! All game! From your starting two-guard!).

Chris Johnson. It probably doesn't seem like there could be any more bad from this game if the offense and defense were bad. That makes up just about the entirety of a basketball game. But CJ is getting special treatment tonight, because I don't know what the hell is wrong with him. He led Dayton in scoring with 12 points tonight, that doesn't sound terrible. Until you realize that he was 4-15 from the field in scoring those twelve points. Which must mean...you guessed it! All of CJ's 12 points came from behind the three-point line. He was 4-10, which is actually an okay percentage (for now let's not worry about the fact that 10 threes is waaayyy too many for him to be shooting in one game, especially if he's not on fire). "But wait," you're probably thinking, "if he was 4-10 from three and 4-15 for the game, that must mean..." Right again! CJ managed to go 0-5 from inside the arc, including a couple missed layups. He's not even getting it done on the glass these days (three rebs against Buffalo), which used to be the go-to part of his game if he was struggling offensively. I can't tell if CJ is just in a funk to start the season, he doesn't like Archie Miller's system and is playing poorly because of it, or has decided that being an English teacher is more interesting to him. Whatever the problem is, CJ's game needs some major work right now. And after watching that performance, so does the entire Dayton team.

UD vs. Wake Forest

In its first game of the Old Spice Classic, UD matched up with Wake Forest, a team from the ACC that has been stuck in struggsville ever since Chris Paul left. And in a very winnable game that would also look decent on a resume for the Flyers (at a neutral site), UD picked up an 80-76 win and improved to 3-1 on the year. It was an important win for Dayton to get, and even had Paul shaking his head afterwards. Is it just me or is it kinda cool that CP3 was watching that game, and still actually cares about what's going on with his former school?

Reaction
This was a big one for UD. After a poor performance in their only game away from UD Arena on the season, I was a bit nervous about what the Flyers might do. What they did was not great, giving up 76 points, but in the end you've got to be happy with a nice win. If UD can consistently beat team's of Wake's caliber, they're going to have a pretty good record come the end of the year and will be top 5 in the A-10. UD outrebounded Wake 43-31, meaning Dayton has won the rebounding numbers in every game this year. That's a good stat to see. Controlling the glass is extremely important.

The Good
Matt Kavanaugh. Who saw this coming? Kav, after being on of the softest, slowest big men I can remember seeing (maybe he would beat Kenny George in a foot race?), has now had two great games this year for UD. He led the way for Dayton today, scoring 15 points and 13 rebounds. He went 3-3 from the foul line. He had three assists to go with three turnovers (not bad for a center). I didn't think Kavanaugh was ever going to be a guy that was delivering significant numbers, but he just may be proving me wrong this year (I hope so). Kav's line against Wake is more exciting than his numbers against Western Illinois, because Wake boasts a bigger set of big men, who would therefore (theoretically) offer up more resistance. But he still delivered.

Paul Williams. P-dub has been UD's best player through its first four games and continued his high level of play. After a forgettable first half, PW stepped up big in the second and started knocking down shots. He finished the game 5-15, but was 0-7 in the first half. So when the Flyers needed him, he was there to deliver. Paul also had three assists to just one turnover, and had two steals to add to his line as well. Without Williams, UD is certainly 2-2 on the year, and the loss to Miami would have looked much worse. If a couple other players (read below) can get up a bit closer to PW's level right now, UD will really start clicking on offense.

Josh Parker only playing 13 minutes. This is an extremely encouraging sign from Archie Miller in the early stages of the season. Simply put, Parker had been the worst Dayton player on the court through three games, so Miller cut his time back. He still managed to go 0-5 from the field in those 13 minutes, so don't expect him to get much more PT anytime soon. And UD will be better off for it.

Foul Shooting. UD went 15-17 from the charity stripe in this game. Wait a second, that can't possibly be correct. Let me check that again (consulting box score...). Huh. Supposedly UD went 15-17 from the foul line in this game. And 2012 is just around the corner? Uh oh.

The Bad
Chris Johnson. I am getting dangerously close to giving up on CJ as a threat to score inside the three-point line. CJ went 3-10 from the field and 2-8 from beyond the arc. How can that guy only be attempting two two-point shots in an entire game? He wasn't in foul trouble, so he got his normal minutes. He went 4-4 from the foul line in this game to get him to 12 points. Why is he only attempting four foul shots in a game?!?! He is a borderline 90 percent free throw shooter in his career, CJ needs to be doing everything he can to get to the line. He can get so many free points there! And I hate to break it to you CJ, but you're going to have to start slashing, cause there just aren't as many shooting fouls on the perimeter.

Not much else bad is coming from this game. The defense of course needs significant improvement, but we've all heard enough about that already. Next up is the semis of the Old Spice Classic, against Fairfield of the MAAC, a pretty weak-looking conference so far this year. Fairfield beat Arizona State in the first round, which is the type of result we can't glean anything from. ASU looked horrible.

A UD In-betweener

A rough weekend work schedule kept me from being able to see Dayton play in their game against UNC-Wilmington. It also kept me from getting much writing in, so I'm not going to focus as much on that game, but more what it could mean going forward for the Flyers.

Reaction
When I got home from work on Saturday after the UD game and spoke to my mom about it (she had attended the game) all she could do was shake her head. Evidently UNCW was about as bad as can be. A look at the box score doesn't make them look much better than she indicated. They scored just 49 points, shot 35 percent from the field, attempted just nine free throws all game, and had 19 turnovers to 11 assists. All this coming against a UD defense that could be generously called a work in progress. So lets get that out of the way first: UD's two wins have been against teams that they absolutely had to beat. And they did. Badly. The encouraging aspect of this game was that Chris Johnson finally showed up, scoring 19 points. Of course, 15 of those 19 points came from beyond the arc, which is not where CJ should be spending most of his time. What was discouraging about this game is that it seems if UD had been able to play as well against Miami as they did against both UNCW and Western Illinois, they would be 3-0 right now. A team has got to be able to bring it's "A" game every time. Especially these Flyers, who are not going to be able to survive in the Atlantic 10 if they turn in lackluster performances on the road.

Looking Ahead
As Dayton moves forward, we ought to get a look at what we'll see the rest of the year. They have a neutral-site game against Wake Forest (very winnable, Wake Forest should be bad again), home against Buffalo (better be a W) and an away game at Murray State (a perennially tough mid-major school that should be a tough test) and then their premiere non-conference game of the year, at home against no. 15 Alabama.

Dayton could easily go 1-3 in that stretch; two games away from UD Arena, and one against a strong opponent they are not expected to beat. The games against Wake Forest and Murray State will be a key primer for the rest of UD's season. Will the Flyers be able to take care of business outside of Dayton? The past couple years the answer has been no, and it has meant mediocre results and disappointment for Dayton. If UD can manage to come away from this four-game stretch with a record of 5-2, then perhaps UD fans will have something to be excited about. If they play poorly like they did against Miami, then things will be set early for Dayton this year: no NCAA, no NIT, no CBI, maybe no A-10 Tournament.

Buckle up, it's going to be a big couple weeks.

UD at Miami (Ohio)

After a pretty damn encouraging win over Western Illinois where a whole lot more looked good than bad, UD made sure not to let any of its fans get their hopes up with a 72-67 overtime loss to Miami.

Reaction
Ugh pretty much sums it up. Despite playing without Chris Johnson for the entire first half, UD was holding a five to seven point lead on the Redhawks for most of the frame. They extended it to five (and trust me, five points felt like a significant amount for some reason) but could not put Miami away. In the end, Charlie Coles and crew got away with a W that should have been UD's by 10 in regulation. Dayton's players and coaches did not execute down the stretch, so they are riding the bus home a disappointing 1-1.

The Good
Paul Williams. The player everyone at UD has been waiting to take off didn't necessarily do so tonight, but he had a great game. Williams was 8-13 from the field and 4-6 from three, with some of those shots coming in big moments in a close game. He finished the game with 20 points to lead all scorers. Perhaps most shocking of all, he was aggressive on offense, looking for his own shot. It was like PW knew the Flyers needed him to carry them, so he obliged. You watch a game like this from Williams and wonder why he doesn't score 14 a game. I know he's not going to go 4-6 from three every game, but the way he went to the basket at times and created open looks for himself on the perimeter? He displayed an arsenal tonight. It would be great if that arsenal didn't just show up every now and again throughout this season.

The Bad
Kevin Dillard after the first few minutes. Yeah, there wasn't much good to this one. Dillard was looking like a star in the early going, converting two and-1s early on and managing the game well. He made a couple nice plays late going to the bucket, but a quick glance at his stat sheet shows that it wasn't Dillard's greatest night. He scored 11 points, but went just 4-12 from the field (two bad shooting nights in a row for him). He had six assists, but six turnovers to go with them (unacceptable for a starting point guard. Even if he had 20 assists, six TOs is too many). Not to mention he made the final turnover of the game, icing it for the Redhawks. I still like this guy, and think he's going to be good for UD, but Tuesday night he brought more negatives than positives to the table.

The big men. Against Western Illinois, Josh Benson and Matt Kavanaugh combined for 36 points and 12 rebounds. Against Miami? 12 and nine. It should be said Miami's big men presented a much bigger challenge for those two than Western Illinois' did. But when a team has two starters combine for 12 points, 9 boards, and have absolutely no answer for the opponents' big man on defense down the stretch, it's time to be worried. Julian Mavunga had a bad game, and still finished with 17. He abused Kavanaugh badly enough to cause Archie Miller to sub him out at the end of the game. When Benson stepped up to guard Mavunga, he was abused as well. Last year Chris Wright guarded Mavunga down the stretch and kept him from scoring for the most part. This time, the Flyers had no one with the right combination of strength and quickness to shut him down. And that's before you factor in the seemingly endless parade of moving screens set by Kavanaugh and Luke Fabrizius. I don't know how a college basketball player can play for 13 years and not know how to set a screen, but neither of those two do.

Archie Miller. Dayton's coach, who I believe has brought a better system into Dayton than the previous one used by Brian Gregory, still made some huge mistakes in the game's final five minutes that could have made the difference in a contest like this one. Dayton got the ball after trading baskets with just over a minute left in a tie game at 59-59, and held onto it for the entire shot clock before not scoring. Miami was able to rebound the ball and then had an opportunity for the last shot of regulation. Miller needed to have his players work more quickly on the possession and put up a shot in the 50-45 second range. That way, UD would be in the driver's seat for the final possession of the game. There is something to be said for getting a good shot, but there's more to be said for your chances of scoring one basket on two possessions instead of one. Then, with UD down two and under a minute left in overtime, Miller was content to play defense. The Redhawks worked the ball to Mavunga, who scored easily and Dayton never recovered. Dayton had to foul in that situation. Up to that point, Miami had been just mediocre from the free throw line. UD could have fouled and forced someone other than Mavunga to beat them. The big man had gotten hot at the end of regulation and in OT, so it was not the right move to allow Miami a chance to give him the ball.

There was plenty of other bad in this game from UD. Chris Johnson was in foul trouble throughout, and limited himself. He can't do that. Not only is he one of UD's better offensive threats, but the team is really poor on the glass without him. CJ needs to be in the game whenever he's not scheduled to be on the bench for a rest. I'd rather the player he's defending score than he pick up a foul to prevent a basket early in a game, like he did Tuesday. Josh Parker continues to be a cancer to UD. He "only" committed five turnovers in this game, but most of his passes were deflected or did not reach the intended target. In an offense that is supposed to flow, Parker brings things to a screeching halt more often than not.

This game was a sad reminder of what UD fans hate to think about: Dayton doesn't have a whole lot to work with this season. Things are going to be tougher than normal for them. In years past, these type of mistakes might have flown more under the radar because UD would have rebounded better or had more players on the bench to step up and contribute. But with so few players available, small mistakes are going to be magnified and more costly. After some high spirits following Western Illinois, it's back to the drawing board after Miami. There is still plenty of time for the Flyers to improve on what they need to, but if they don't improve, that sixth-place preseason projection for the A-10 is going to be way too high.

UD vs. Western Illinois

College basketball season is here! And while I'm sure most of the country is more interested in hearing about North Carolina or Kentucky or Ohio State, I don't care about what they're doing at the beginning of the season. It will mostly consist of dismantling weak teams. No, I'd much rather write about my University of Dayton Flyers, the band of lovable underachievers that have (mostly) tortured me since I decided on attending UD. And while my hope is for UD's early season to consist of mostly blowouts based on the team's they'll be playing, that's not likely. Even if the games do play out well for UD, it will be very interesting to see, because UD is sporting a new coach, new offensive system, and a very different cast of players from what they've had in the past. That's why I'll be writing some sort of reaction to every UD game this season (unfortunately I don't get to attend many of them, so these reactions will occasionally have to be based off the radio casts and box scores). And it began today with an 87-58 win over Western Illinois.

Reaction
The game started with UD looking like typical UD: Sloppy at the beginning of the season, playing down to its competition, not playing great defense, getting involved in a closer game than they should be in. The Flyers trailed for much of the first half, but finished strong and took a 41-38 lead into halftime. Obviously giving up 38 points to Western Illinois is horrible, but Dayton corrected a lot of errors in the second half and absolutely dominated, outscoring the Fighting Leathernecks (awesome nickname, by the way, West Ill definitely beats UD out in that category) 46-20.

The thing that kept running through my mind in the second half was how different this seemed from the way UD usually starts the season. As far back as the daytonflyers.com archives go back on men's basketball (the 2004-05 season), this was UD's highest margin of victory in its first regular season game. UD only beat Wofford by three and East Tennessee state by four in a couple recent season-openers. So as far as starting strong, a job well-done by Archie Miller and crew. Now, let's not get carried away. Western Illinois was picked in the preseason to finish ninth in the Summit League, a conference that will only produce one NCAA Tournament team this year through an automatic bid. So UD should have stomped the Leathernecks. But they did, and there's something to be said for taking care of business.

The Good
Josh Benson and Matt Kavanaugh. Is this the first year since Sean Finn that UD will get good play from its frontcourt? Maybe. Benson and Kav were Dayton's two leading scorers, netting 21 and 15 points, respectively (tying a career high for Kav). What's more, they actually looked pretty good doing it. Both displayed a couple post moves, and Kav was all over the offensive glass. I'm not willing to get too excited about these performances yet because (a) once again, the opponent was Western Illinois, starting 6-7 Terrell Parks at center and (b) Kav scored 15 at Seton Hall and looked phenomenal, then disappeared enough that you might not have known he was on the team the rest of the season. I'm excited for both guys, but a bit more optimistic about Benson, who showed more flashes last season. Maybe the new number he's sporting this year will help transform him into the big man UD needs.

Kevin Dillard. Dillard was only 2-8 from the field, but the Flyers' starting point guard (and probably the biggest key to their success this season) dished out nine assists and had zero turnovers in his 19 minutes. Whenever Dillard was running the offense, he looked like he was in complete control of the game as well. He pushed the ball well, penetrated, looked to set his teammates up, and never really got himself into trouble with the ball. I was impressed. If he can ratchet up his offense a bit and go something more like 4-8 in an average game, and still put good assist to turnover numbers, he'll be giving UD exactly what it needs. I'm excited to keep watching Dillard play.

The new offense. With Brian Gregory gone most UD fans knew that the substitutions would drop off significantly. That was also going to be forced on Archie Miller due to his lower number of players this year. But it was still refreshing to see players play extended stretches in the game, and not have guys get yanked while they're in the middle of a hot streak because its their time in the rotation. Based on game one, it appears Miller is looking to use a core of seven players (Benson, Kav, Dillard, Josh Parker, Chris Johnson, Paul Williams, Devin Oliver) with two others filling the gaps and (hopefully) giving quality minutes and the Flyers a little bit different look (Luke Fabrizius and Alex Gavrilovic). I think that is the right way to go. Gavrilovic's minutes were a bit higher in the first game than I suspect Miller would have preferred, but that was more due to Benson getting in foul trouble. Overall, the Flyers' game seemed to have a bit more flow to it. And the weave at the top of the key was never run. Not once.

The Bad
Josh Parker. UD's No. 1 gunner did not look good in this year's debut, much like he didn't look good for the entirety of last season. He scored 11 points, but went 4-9 from the field and 2-7 from the three-point line (he played the most minutes on the team with 30). He doesn't bring much to the table as a point guard (don't let his six assists from this game fool you, that won't happen often) or on defense, so if Parker is not doing well on offense he's more a liability than anything else. I can stomach a 4-9 from him, if it weren't for the fact that most of the misses came from him jacking up a contested, perhaps off-balance three when there is still plenty of time on the shot clock. It sometimes seems like Parker is keeping a running tab in his head, keeping track of his attempts. "Let me think here, I haven't shot our last three possessions. I just got the ball, and I really need to shoot, so I'm not going to worry about passing or creating offense. Better to just duck and chuck. Brick? O well, at least I scratched that itch."

Chris Johnson. The guy who needs to be leading UD in scoring this year with about 16 a game did not play well to open the season. In 25 minutes, Johnson went 3-8 from the field (2-6 from three) and scored eight points. He still delivered a fantastic effort on the glass, leading UD with 10 boards. The real problem I had with Johnson's game today was that he did not make his presence felt in a big way throughout. He sat around the perimeter for too long (as evidenced by him only attempting two two-point shots). He didn't even attempt a foul shot all game, which is where CJ can really get points because he is so excellent at the line. He's got to be more aggressive than that. My heart skipped a beat at one point in the game when UD threw the ball to CJ in the post, and he made a good pass to an open Benson for a jump shot. The shot didn't go in, but it was good offense, and absolutely the type of thing UD needs to be doing with CJ all season. He's a great shooter, but a better athlete. Get him the ball closer the basket every now and again, where contact is more likely, and let him try to make a play. I liked seeing it once this game, and hope to see it more in the future.

Overall, it was an encouraging way for Dayton to start its season. The Flyers are one-for-one in having walk-ons play this season, which is a good indication that you played well. Next up is an entirely different animal. UD will travel to Miami, who they always seem to play terribly (but usually squeak out a win) against. Miami is not expected to be good this year (preseason fourth place in the East division of the Mid-American Conference), but their defense and dictation of pace in games has consistently given UD trouble. We should learn much more about the Flyers in their second game.

Why you headed there, Wan?

The word has come down, and former University of Dayton guard Juwan Staten has announced where he's headed.

According to the Dayton Daily News, the sophomore-to-be who left UD saying he believed his talents weren't being properly utilized, tweeted that he will be transferring to Penn State University.

If you're like me, you read that and thought, "Huh?" This seems like one an odd decision, so let's run through it.

Staten said he was transferring because his talents weren't properly utilized, but then former Dayton head coach Brian Gregory took off for Georgia Tech. At that point, Staten still had the option of playing at UD. Admittedly, that would have been tough for Staten to do, since he had already said he wanted to leave. But still, Staten insisted Dayton wasn't the right place for him.

But Penn State is? Why is the level of success going to be any higher for Staten there? Yeah, Penn State made the NCAA Tournament this year, but barely, as a 10 seed. This was the team's first tournament appearance since 2001. UD has been to the tournament more often in the past decade (three times) than the Nittany Lions have. So does Staten think he'll have more success with Ed DeChellis than Archie Miller? As far as the programs' two histories are concerned, he's wrong.

Maybe it's about individual glory for Staten. His first year at UD was successful from an individual standpoint, but not phenomenal. He was a good distributor, but struggled shooting the ball from outside the paint. He showed he has the talent to be good, but does he really think he will blossom at Penn State?

Certainly, PSU has a precedent for good guards in the past. Just last year, they were led by Talor Battle, a guard with size similar to Staten's, who was an All-Big Ten Selection for two years at Penn State. But after his junior season, Battle made himself eligible for the NBA draft. He didn't garner much interest from NBA teams. The same will likely be true this year. Battle is ranked 61st by DraftExpress.com among NCAA seniors only, meaning the likes of Kyrie Irving, Derrick Williams, Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones will definitely be in front of him on NBA teams' draft boards.

Does Staten think he will be more successful than Battle has been at Penn State? Battle is Penn State's all-time leading scorer, and led the Big Ten in scoring his sophomore year. He led Penn State in scoring, rebounding and assists his junior year. He is one of the all-time greats at Penn State, and he is almost certainly going to be playing in Europe or the NBA Developmental League.

The likelihood is Staten will not have a better career than Battle did as Nittany Lion. So why is he going to Penn State? On his Twitter account, the Dayton Daily News reported Staten tweeted, "Just an 18 year old kid tryna make my dreams come true." What are Staten's dreams? I figured the biggest one was to play in the NBA. Now I'm not so sure, because the last player Penn State had drafted was Calvin Booth in 1999.

I'm not saying UD is a better place to forge an NBA career. But once Staten decided to transfer, I figured he would give himself a better chance at a pro career in the U.S. So why Penn State? Maybe Staten wants to be broadcast on the Big Ten Network instead of CBS College Sports. Maybe he would prefer to be at a school where football comes first way way way before basketball. Whatever his reasons, I'm scratching my head.