The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Flyers understand tradition of UD-Miami game

Raiders fall in tourney opener
5/25/12
Rough 1st inning sets up Tipp exit
5/25/12
Mesoraco's slam sends Reds over Braves
5/25/12
Local Scoreboard for May 25
5/24/12
Ohio State AD says 12 violations minor
5/24/12
> More sports headlines

By Tom Archdeacon, Staff Writer 2:33 AM Thursday, December 3, 2009

OXFORD — Here’s the way the Dayton Flyers were talking after their game at Miami’s Millett Hall:

Coach Brian Gregory: “I don’t mind only seeing Charlie (Coles) once a year.”

Forward Chris Wright: “This is one of the toughest places to play in the country. And Miami? Well, they ain’t never gonna go nowhere. They’re like gnats at a barbecue.”

Both of these assessments were delivered with admiration — and even a little affection — after the Flyers came from 12 points down to defeat the RedHawks 65-58 on Wednesday night, Dec. 2, in Oxford.

Gregory said that same attitude wasn’t necessarily there when he first took over the team seven seasons ago:

“One of the things that makes our senior class so special is that they really understand the tradition of this game — just how important it is to us — and I’m not sure that was the case when I first got here.

“I think there was a kind of ‘big time’ thing going on ...Miami was in a different league, all that stuff. ... My first couple of years, I felt the guys on the other end of the court, this game was more important to them.”

Miami is Dayton’s oldest rival, going back to 1909. The two teams have played 128 times, and Dayton holds a 67-61 edge.

Although UD has won the last four nail-biters — by a combined 15 points — there were a couple of games right before that span where the RedHawks bullied the Flyers. They won by 16 in Gregory’s third year at Dayton and by 15 three seasons before that when Oliver Purnell was the coach.

Then there was the 2004-2005 season when UD said it couldn’t work Miami into its schedule, and the game was not played.

Everything’s back on track now, and Wednesday night, Gregory noted, his seniors did something no Flyers have done in 30 years.

They topped Miami for the fourth straight year.

“Our players have proved that this game is now as important to us as it is for Miami,” Gregory said.

As for those big-time days?

“That’s not who we’re supposed to be, and that’s not who these seniors are,” he said. “They won tonight in blue-collar, roll-up-your-sleeves fashion. That’s how you need to play against Coach (Coles).”

The change in attitude has to do with the makeup of this team and certainly the background of some of the players.

Especially Wright, who grew up in Trotwood watching Flyers basketball.

“My junior year in high school — I think Monty (Scott) was a junior or senior (at UD) — Dayton got killed here,” he said.

His appreciation is heightened now because RedHawks senior leader Kenny Hayes — who had 13 points to his 14 — is his cousin.

And that led to a special moment when Wright found himself guarding Hayes:

“I flashed to my backyard. He and I would shovel snow to play there. He always thought he was Jordan and I thought I was Shaq.

“The difference tonight though, when he took me to the basket I had four more guys with me. And they all wanted him, too.”

Like Gregory said, this bunch gets it.

Share this article