“It’s certainly the loudest arena that we play in in our conference. It’s not even close,” Mack said Friday. “Part of that is because we have a Xavier uniform on. How it affects how I coach — do I hear things? Well, sure, I’m a human being. I hear things. But I worry about coaching our team on the floor.
“Generally when there are dead balls ... it’s not as loud and you can get your message across to your players in terms of what to run, what match-ups are. We haven’t had an issue with that. The issue is when they make a big run, when they hit a couple 3’s in a row, being able ... to withstand that run.”
Coaching buddies: UD coach Archie Miller and Mack have a long friendship since Mack worked for Sean Miller, Archie’s older brother, as an assistant at Xavier before succeeding him.
“We’ve shared a lot of phone calls. We were both under Sean’s leadership at different times in our career, so we would bounce things off of one another,” Mack said.
“When he was at Ohio State, we went to the same high school games, and so (there’s been) a lot of stories, a lot of Xs and Os and just a genuine friendship.”
Getting ready: The Red Scare, UD’s boisterous student group that numbers about 1,800 members, has a tradition for the Xavier game of meeting at the Frericks Center on campus for food and a pep rally and then marching en masse to UD Arena.
“Actually, it’s almost a half-jog to the arena,” said Dan Cox a junior from Centerville. “We’ll all be chanting. It’s a great time.”
The students are allotted 1,269 tickets each game. UD also provides them with funds to create signs, which have been allowed in the arena for the first time this season. Poster-sized head shots of Miller, former coach Tom Blackburn and UD grad and ex-NFL coach Jon Gruden have popped up, along with signs saying, “Archie’s Army.”
“Most students don’t come to Dayton for the sports,” said Red Scare president Bill Kingsolver, a senior from Mason. “But once you become proud of your school and figure out Dayton has a huge presence on the national scene, it’s easy to be involved.”
In the clutch: UD forward Luke Fabrizius made two free throws with 5.8 seconds left to beat Xavier, 68-67, in the A-10 quarterfinals last year. He was feeling a little woozy after taking a blow to the head, but teammates Chris Johnson and Paul Williams helped him regain his senses.
“I remember C.J. and Paul looking at me and saying, 'You’ll be all right. Knock 'em down,’ ” Fabrizius said. “It was something I didn’t worry about. I took two deep breaths and made them.”
It was the Flyers’ first win over Xavier away from Dayton since 1981.
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