Sports Today: Raiders begin two-game swing in NE Ohio

Looks like winning is a habit the Dayton women’s basketball team just can’t break.

The Flyers passed their toughest test yet Wednesday night, downing Duquesne 79-70 at the arena to take sole possession of first place.

Dayton is 10-0 in league play while the Dukes fell to 8-1.

UD has won 10 games in a row while pursuing a second straight Atlantic 10 title.

» RELATED: 10 things to know about winning streak

If the NCAA tournament started today, ESPN projects the Flyers would be a 10 seed.

This is certainly a program with a lot of momentum these days.

What Jim Jabir started, Shauna Green has continued.

These Flyers certainly know how to play the right way.

If Green can parlay her now two-year hot start into even more recruiting wins (and signing some highly regarded players has been part of the winning formula already, make no mistake) this could be a run that extends for a long time…

The area’s other conference-leading basketball team, the Wright State men, begin a two-game northeast Ohio swing tonight at Cleveland State

The Vikings are pretty bad, but WSU can’t afford to take any nights off as they hold a one-game lead over Northern Kentucky in the Horizon League standings.

If styles make fights, this one could be ugly.

Wright State is the No. 21 defensive team in the country according to KenPom.com while CSU is the lowest-scoring team in the Horizon.

Writes Jay Morrison:

With Mark Hughes handling the lock-down duties on the opponent's top scorer and those around him defending batter, Wright State has limited opponents to 37.6-percent shooting and an average of 61.2 points the last five games.

Prior to this stretch, the Raiders were allowing opponents to shoot 42.7 percent while averaging 66.5 points.

After tangling with the Vikings, Wright State takes on Youngstown State on Saturday. The Penguins are also among the HL’s struggling clubs, but WSU coach Scott Nagy doesn’t want his team to take anyone for granted.

“We’re inexperienced in a lot of ways. No. 1 of being in this position (in the standings), and No. 2, the youth on our basketball team.”…

Today in useless clickbait (non-political category), ESPN reports LeBron James "could take a meeting with the Warriors" in the offseason. 

This has touched off the type of social media hysteria that is not warranted but sadly can’t be avoided I guess.

I say not entirely sarcastically he could take a meeting with any of the teams in the league. He could take a meeting with the organizers of the top leagues in Europe or China to see about trying his hand as the world’s first player-commissioner, too.

Seeing what works and what doesn’t in all those places would make sense as he charts the rest of his career path, but I don’t see him actually joining any of those organizations.

Of course, one of the hallmarks of James’ career has been avoiding challenges whenever possible, so I guess signing with the Warriors would make sense on at least some level.

Plus it wouldn’t hurt his chance of catching Michael Jordan as the NBA’s all-time greatest player since that is already at zero given his Finals failures.

RELATED: LeBron declares he has nothing left to prove; he’s right

Then again, if James did team up with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, I would be interested to see how his apologists would find ways to pretend they aren't as great as we once thought since that's been the treatment the other stars on LeBron's previous super teams have generally gotten.

Anyway, whatever happens next with LeBron — I happened to buy the sentiment he expressed in his “Coming home” letter to Cleveland even if it was also clear the Cavaliers offered one of if not the best basketball circumstances at the time — I hope we end up with a more interesting title race than we have now.

(Obviously that wouldn’t be the case if he signed with Golden State, but he’s not going to.)

I’d also like to see everyone appreciate what a great player he is without over or underrating him, but we all know that’s impossible…

Lastly, the legend of Vincent Edwards continued to grow last night. 

The Middletown High School grad played through illness to help Purdue beat Maryland 75-67.

Via the Indy Star:

With his stomach lurching throughout the game, sending him running up the tunnel in the first half to avoid throwing up in front of the crowd of 14,804, Edwards led the Boilermakers to a 75-67 victory against the Terps. Playing on rubbery legs and unable to get the normal lift on his jumper, Edwards scored just eight points on 3-for-10 shooting but controlled the defensive side with nine of his game-high 11 rebounds, and dictated the offensive flow with a team-best five assists.

The paper also notes this is not Edwards’ first “flu game.”

He put up 33 points in a game his junior season at Middletown while feeling even worse than he did last night (he says), but this one came on a bigger stage.

Edwards is putting together an All-American season for the Boilermakers, who are Final Four contenders thanks in no small part to the former Middie.

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