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Dayton -11.5 at St. Bonaventure
Play St. Bonaventure +11.5
St. Bonaventure is 6-1 last three yrs when playing at home off of a road loss where they scored less than 55 pts.
Dayton has never won at St. Bonaventure.
Sandwich game---Dayton coming off a win against Xavier and is playing GW this Sat.
1* (1-0)
2* (1-0)
3* (0-0)
Record at Bettors Chat
GL on all your plays
--ASI
Flyers have never won at St. Bonaventure
OLEAN, N.Y. | Fresh from a pivotal victory over Xavier, the Dayton Flyers will try to sidestep a psychological trap tonight when they make their first appearance in four years at St. Bonaventure's House of Horrors, also known as the Reilly Center.
None of the Flyers has ever played at St. Bonaventure, and UD Coach Brian Gregory has never been here. They haven't missed anything, except perhaps a night in The Castle Inn, a motel where the breeze and even some snow used to enter rooms through a
¾-inch gap under the doors.
Teams visiting St. Bonaventure no longer have to stay at The Castle Inn, which has been demolished. That's a good thing because it didn't have the type of meeting rooms in which Gregory likes to conduct his pre-game walk-throughs.
No Dayton team has ever won a game in Olean. In 1948, the legendary coach, Tom Blackburn, took his second UD squad to St. Bonaventure as part of a four-game, nine-day trip to New York and West Virginia during Christmas vacation. The Bonnies beat the Flyers, 51-49, in two overtimes at the Olean Armory.
It was 49 years before Dayton returned to St. Bonaventure as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference. In 1997 the Flyers dropped a 70-69 verdict to the Bonnies. They returned in 1999 and 2001, losing both times. Dayton was scheduled to play the 2002-03 regular season finale in Olean, but the St. Bonaventure players refused to play after it was announced that the team would not be permitted to participate in the A-10 tournament because it had used an ineligible player.
It turned into a public relations nightmare for the school, and Coach Jan Van Breda Kolff was fired.
Anthony Solomon, a 40-year-old University of Virginia graduate who had been on the staffs at Delaware, Bowling Green, Manhattan, Richmond, Virginia, Clemson and Notre Dame, was hired to pick up the pieces and put the program back together. It has been a struggle. The Bonnies had a 7-21 record last year, and they bring a 2-22 mark into tonight's game.
Gregory has warned his Flyers not to take the Bonnies lightly. They won their last home game against Rhode Island Feb. 12 and played well in losses to Xavier and Saint Joseph's last week. Gregory was impressed with how hard they played.
Ahmad Smith, a 6-foot-5 guard from Alexandria, Va., shared A-10 Player of the Week honors after averaging 19.5 points and 11.5 rebounds in the two games. The smooth left-hander had a career-high 24 points and eight rebounds at Xavier and packaged 15 points with a career-high 15 rebounds at Saint Joseph's.
"He scores in every way imaginable," Gregory said. "He can post up and he can make 3s."
Gregory said the Bonnies like to shoot the 3 to stretch the defense and then drive to the basket. "We'll have to play good team defense," he concluded.
"I think Ahmad is one of the most versatile players in our league," Solomon said. "He does a lot for us. A lot of times he defends the opponents' best perimeter player. Right now his confidence is flowing, and he's playing with a great rhythm."
Many teams in the Bonnies' shoes might not be playing hard at this time of the season, but they have not been discouraged.
"Not many people expected us to compete in February, but our young men have hung in there," Solomon said. "We're continuing to compete at a high energy level."
Play St. Bonaventure +11.5
St. Bonaventure is 6-1 last three yrs when playing at home off of a road loss where they scored less than 55 pts.
Dayton has never won at St. Bonaventure.
Sandwich game---Dayton coming off a win against Xavier and is playing GW this Sat.
1* (1-0)
2* (1-0)
3* (0-0)
Record at Bettors Chat
GL on all your plays
--ASI
Flyers have never won at St. Bonaventure
OLEAN, N.Y. | Fresh from a pivotal victory over Xavier, the Dayton Flyers will try to sidestep a psychological trap tonight when they make their first appearance in four years at St. Bonaventure's House of Horrors, also known as the Reilly Center.
None of the Flyers has ever played at St. Bonaventure, and UD Coach Brian Gregory has never been here. They haven't missed anything, except perhaps a night in The Castle Inn, a motel where the breeze and even some snow used to enter rooms through a
¾-inch gap under the doors.
Teams visiting St. Bonaventure no longer have to stay at The Castle Inn, which has been demolished. That's a good thing because it didn't have the type of meeting rooms in which Gregory likes to conduct his pre-game walk-throughs.
No Dayton team has ever won a game in Olean. In 1948, the legendary coach, Tom Blackburn, took his second UD squad to St. Bonaventure as part of a four-game, nine-day trip to New York and West Virginia during Christmas vacation. The Bonnies beat the Flyers, 51-49, in two overtimes at the Olean Armory.
It was 49 years before Dayton returned to St. Bonaventure as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference. In 1997 the Flyers dropped a 70-69 verdict to the Bonnies. They returned in 1999 and 2001, losing both times. Dayton was scheduled to play the 2002-03 regular season finale in Olean, but the St. Bonaventure players refused to play after it was announced that the team would not be permitted to participate in the A-10 tournament because it had used an ineligible player.
It turned into a public relations nightmare for the school, and Coach Jan Van Breda Kolff was fired.
Anthony Solomon, a 40-year-old University of Virginia graduate who had been on the staffs at Delaware, Bowling Green, Manhattan, Richmond, Virginia, Clemson and Notre Dame, was hired to pick up the pieces and put the program back together. It has been a struggle. The Bonnies had a 7-21 record last year, and they bring a 2-22 mark into tonight's game.
Gregory has warned his Flyers not to take the Bonnies lightly. They won their last home game against Rhode Island Feb. 12 and played well in losses to Xavier and Saint Joseph's last week. Gregory was impressed with how hard they played.
Ahmad Smith, a 6-foot-5 guard from Alexandria, Va., shared A-10 Player of the Week honors after averaging 19.5 points and 11.5 rebounds in the two games. The smooth left-hander had a career-high 24 points and eight rebounds at Xavier and packaged 15 points with a career-high 15 rebounds at Saint Joseph's.
"He scores in every way imaginable," Gregory said. "He can post up and he can make 3s."
Gregory said the Bonnies like to shoot the 3 to stretch the defense and then drive to the basket. "We'll have to play good team defense," he concluded.
"I think Ahmad is one of the most versatile players in our league," Solomon said. "He does a lot for us. A lot of times he defends the opponents' best perimeter player. Right now his confidence is flowing, and he's playing with a great rhythm."
Many teams in the Bonnies' shoes might not be playing hard at this time of the season, but they have not been discouraged.
"Not many people expected us to compete in February, but our young men have hung in there," Solomon said. "We're continuing to compete at a high energy level."
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