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Who Are You Gonna Believe?
Who Are You Gonna Believe?
Jim Meadows
Published by Swampy Meadows
03-18-2009
Who Are You Gonna Believe?

BEVERLY HILLS (MI) -- Okay, so the fun stuff is just about over and there are less than 48 hours until it is time for the “Your Team, Your Town” boys to get down to serious bidness. On Friday at 3:00PM EDT, the UD Flyers will square off against Huggy Bear and his merry band of Mountaineers in Minneapolis. So, what can we expect to happen?

Well, if you listen to all of the supposed experts the result could be anything from a total blowout (with the Flyers on the short end) to the beginning of an Elite 8 run by the Gem City quintet (I kinda like that particular prediction myself).

“St. Joe” Lunardi said on Doug Gottlieb’s ESPN Radio show on Monday that “Dayton will get drilled.” He doesn’t have anything good to say about UD in this video preview either:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=398...goryid=3988418

Thanks for the vote of confidence, toolbox…way to support your conference brethren. The worst part of this whole deal is that UD will have to share the NCAA revenue that it generates with the other Atlantic 13, including Lunardi’s employer, SJU. Remind me again -- where is the Hawk flappin’ his freakin’ wings this weekend? Oh, that’s right, he isn’t -- the Hawk done died. Got too much time and a little bit too much Flyer envy on your hands there, Joey?

And then there is CBS Sports.com’s Gregg Doyel, whose parents clearly could not spell names too well, since they put an extra ‘g’ on his first and went all dyslexic on his last. Check out all of the great things that Greggy has to say about the Red and Blue:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebask...story/11506183

He almost put Dayton in his Final Four? You just gotta love a guy who is even more optimistic about the Flyers’ fortunes than any of us on the UD Pride Message Board are!

-- Doyel’s Elite Eight prediction for UD drew the expected response from the WVU Message Boards:

http://westvirginia.rivals.com/showm...id=891&style=2

As for the rest of the mediots:

-- Doyel’s employer provides a nice in-depth profile of both teams, including a side-by-side stats breakdown:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebask...midwest/WV/DAY

The only two areas where WVU has a distinct advantage over UD are in points scored and -- ahem -- FT shooting…big surprise there, huh?

-- Somebody called “Bracket Boy” who writes for the Newark Star Ledger is drinking the same Kool Aid as Doyel, as he picks UD to be in the Elite Eight (could BB perhaps be an embedded Flyer?):

http://www.nj.com/ncaabasketball/bra...he_midwes.html

-- EA Sports NCAA Simulation doesn’t have UD in the Elite Eight…but they do show the Flyers making the Sweet Sixteen:

http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/eas...Sim_FINAL4.pdf

-- The West Virginia Gazette does a surprisingly balanced job of reporting on the similarity in the strengths and weaknesses of both clubs:

http://sundaygazettemail.com/Sports/WVU/200903160794

-- Yahoo Sports has an overall preview and team profiles:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketb...vals&type=lgns

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaab/news;_...ls&type=lgns#6

WVU is underseeded? And UD isn’t?

-- Mike DeCourcy at TSN begs to differ:

Underseeded:

No. 11 Dayton beat Xavier by 13, Marquette by 14 and was 9-4 against the top 100. Six of its seven losses were road games, but the Flyers still were 8-7 away from home. What was the problem here?


-- ESPN.com’s Keith Lipscomb with a possible explanation for UD’s low seeding from his chat wrap:

Dave, Chicago: Did the Dayton Flyers get hosed? 29 RPI, wins at Marquette earlier in the season and vs. Xavier. 3-2 against top 50 RPI and they're the 11th seed against WVU?

Keith Lipscomb: You could definitely say they deserve a better seed than Minnesota, for example, but losing Lowery may have had something to do with the committee dropping them, even though Warren has played well in his stead.

-- Andy Katz doesn’t know what the heck to think:

“Hardest team to figure: Dayton. The Flyers had their moments early in the season and did have the convincing win over Xavier at home in early February. But Dayton flamed out in big games down the stretch, losing at Saint Louis, getting nipped at the buzzer at Rhode Island, getting blown out at Xavier and falling by 11 to Duquesne in the A-10 tournament. “

Linky Wishywashyness:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaato...ndy&id=3983959

-- Neither does The Sporting News:

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn...c.php?t=527968

-- USA Today Dayton Flyers page:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colle...c10/dayton.htm

-- The USA Today College Hoops experts -- Eddie Timanus, Tim Gardner and Jeff Zillgitt -- are not big UD fans:

No. 6 West Virginia vs. No. 11 Dayton

Eddie: The Mountaineers played their way into the field over the last few weeks, while the Flyers nearly played their way out. I'll take the hotter Big East team in this pairing. Pick: West Virginia

Jeff: Both these teams will be dangerous in the second round, espSomeecially because they both play defense. Pick: West Virginia

Tim: West Virginia was very impressive in Big East tournament. It was a side I hadn't seen too much of. A tough side. A toughness that should take down the Flyers. Pick: West Virginia

-- But, then again USA Today’s Mike Lopresti likes at least one Flyer in his column listing 32 reasons to watch the NCAAs:

“West Virginia vs. Dayton. Dayton's Chris Wright is the best dunker you've never seen.”

Some of us have never seen, Mike…some of us.

-- Danny Sheridan at USA Today says the odds that the Flyers win it all are 750:1. Meanwhile, Chattanooga is listed at 5 trillion:1 odds. Yow. Isn’t it worth it to put a buck on the Mocs, you know, just in case? If they won, you would own Las Vegas!

-- The International Herald Tribune (they cover sports?) speaketh thusly (thru the AP):

WEST VIRGINIA (6) vs. Dayton (11) — The Mountaineers like to switch defenses and Dayton won't be able to come up with another close win.

-- InGameNow.com likes the Flyers’ chances:

http://blog.ingamenow.com/2009/03/15...tball-preview/

-- FanIQ.com displays a distinct lack of basketball smarts by asking which player will be the game leader in various statistical categories and including the injured Rob Lowery as a candidate to do so for assists:

http://www.faniq.com/poll/2009-NCAA-...-Dayton-543179

-- UD was included in a Cinderella Poll on SportsbyBrooks.com along with VCU, Arizona and…Louisville?

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/speed-...-madness-22832

UD ended up winning it, garnering 42% of the votes.

-- AwfulAnnouncing.com says that UD is among a select group of fortunate schools to win the “Annual Gus Johnson Lottery”:

http://awfulannouncing.blogspot.com/...nnouncing.html

Don’t forget kids, if you can’t see Gus Johnson’s call of the WVU/UD tilt on TV where you are, all of the games are available online here for free:

www.ncaa.com

-- Then there is the New York Times West, otherwise known as the NebraskaStatePaper.com, picking UD to get past WVU and Kansas to face MSU:

http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews.../49bdec8686554

-- How about “Salary Madness?” It’s a bracket of the 65 teams in the NCAA, facing off based on median salary of the school’s graduates:

http://www.payscale.com/2009-march-madness-predictions

UD makes the Sweet 16!

-- Finally Chick “The Chickster” Ludwig of the DDN predicts that UD will beat WVU:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/con...l_upset_w.html

Game over, Mountaineers…you might as well not even show up on Friday, for “The Chickster” has spoken!

-- In the interest of full disclosure, I must state for the record that my dad was born, raised, went to college and got his Masters degree in the state of West Virginia and my nephew Mike is about to graduate from WVU.

Doesn’t matter:

Dayton’s Fabulous Flyboys 65

WVU’s Moonshine Runners 60


That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: swampy@udpride.com
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  #1  
By Chris R on 03-18-2009, 05:39 PM
swamper my whole mother's side of the family is pureblood west virginia hillrat. i still have some relatives in fairmont and monongahela. where the cool wind sings by a whisky spring.
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  #2  
By Swampy Meadows on 03-18-2009, 05:43 PM
My Dad's family is from Elkins. Still have an aunt and a slew of cousins down there. We visited the Meadows family farm several times when we were growing up. The highlight was bringing back "Meadows Dairy" milk bottle caps and showing them to my friends -- they thought that was so cool.
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  #3  
By Bud Meadows on 03-18-2009, 09:54 PM
Bud Meadows

Swampy forgot to mention the time he jumped off the second story roof of our WV grandparents' house without getting a scratch or even spraining an ankle. When he was a little guy, he had more balls than a cat burgler.
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