DarkFlyer

With what I saw last weekend, the Flyers will be fine in the front court. With Gavrilovic, Devon Scott, Benson, Jalen Robinson, and Oliver all worthy of minutes in the 4/5 rotation Kavanaugh's minutes won't be tough to absorb.

Kavs had a few attributes that will be missed: leadership, hustle, and free throw shooting. Having a center who can shot over 80% from the free throw line would be a real asset on this year's team.

I don't think this impacts my win expectation for the Flyers one iota. I'm proud of my University for decisive (and not hasty) action, and I'm proud of the fellow Flyer posters who haven't decried UD's actions.

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In Dillard we trust.

AdamtheFlyer

Archie himself mentioned it in the press conference today. I don't know much about mono, but from what I hear it's not as bad as it could be. When Devin Oliver had it, he was a walking zombie for over a month, and lost like 20lbs. It doesn't seem to be that bad for Gavrilovic. I've heard they think it will be a couple of weeks, and it's been a week since I heard about it. I would suspect he will start the season playing fewer minutes, perhaps even missing some early game, but I don't think it will linger into the heart of the season.

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Sure, I've been called a xenophobe, but the truth is, I'm not. I honestly just feel that America is the best country and the other countries aren't as good. That used to be called patriotism.

Bill Russell

The trouble with these open scrimmages is that your players match up with... your players. Every fan in America raves about players A, B, and C on his team. Until the bell rings, one cannot know. It is known, though, that Kavanaugh was a serviceable post player in this league. This is significant.

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AdamtheFlyer

I think you have a pretty dense view of things. No one is saying a freshman can automatically come in and replicate Kavanaugh's production. People are saying there is enough talent around to cover the loss. That is very true.

Let me interject with something here: No one has made anything but cautiously optimistic hopes for any of the freshmen. We all know not to take a scrimmage too seriously. That said, we all saw them play in person. Their talent is real. They most certainly have a chance to be very good, and soon. It may happen, it may not. But don't dance around making "unknown" another way to say "unable". Unknown is unknown. They are just as likely to succeed expectations as they are to fall short.

Kavanaugh was a good player, but not great. People wondered how Chris Wright would be replaced. Turns out he was replaced by Benson and Kavanaugh, and while they were together UD had much better post play than the year before. Even after Benson got hurt, post play was still pretty solid.

Not only that, but the production and role doesn't even have to be filled by a traditional big. Devin Oliver is 6'7" with very long arms. He is capable of guarding many PFs, and can create mismatches with PFs guarding him. Derenbecker has some size to him. They can go "small" at times, and still have enough to play "big" as well. Losing Kavanaugh last year would have been too much. This year, the team is in a much better place depth wise.

Don't overstate the issue just as someone else understated it. This is real adversity for the team, but not something that cannot be overcome. I have faith. Matt Kavanaugh was pretty good. This team is full of pretty good. Not having him should not be a major issue as the season goes on. It's something they have to work toward, but it's not exactly a branch that can only be reached with a 25 foot ladder. As has been the case all along, this team will go as far as Kevin Dillard takes it. It's his show. Could be a two man show if the glimpses Josh Benson showed are real and he is ready to go full bore from game 1.

The good news is, they have two exhibitions and nearly 3 weeks of practice before they play a real game. It's not like they are playing games that count starting tomorrow.

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Sure, I've been called a xenophobe, but the truth is, I'm not. I honestly just feel that America is the best country and the other countries aren't as good. That used to be called patriotism.

DarkFlyer

This really can't be disputed. That said, Benson (5th year Senior), Gavrilovic (Sophmore) and Oliver (Junior) are all "knowns". The freshmen aren't going to be asked to log any more than 25% of the available minutes to start the season. It certainly appears they are ready.

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In Dillard we trust.

xavierhoops

I really wanted to compile a long, lengthy, detailed post that lists any and every article written regarding this embarrassing situation, as Muddy does on a daily basis with Xavier.

Unfortunately for me, there doesn't seem to be a whole heck of a lot of interest in it from the national media. ESPN is headlining a BYU player's injury, Minnesota asst coach getting arrested and Murray St player being suspended. Even doing a google search, there's not much out there from outside the Dayton area.

I guess that says everything you need to know about the UD program in a nutshell.

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Chris Mack in 3 years at Xavier has had twice the NCAA wins (4) of the entire Dayton coaching staff in the modern era of NCAA basketball (2).

SpiderDave19

And that post says about everything we need to know about you in a nutshell. Though it's nothing we didn't already know.

Bona84

As does the signature line.

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Bona84

tman

WHAT!
How can anyone claim that this isn't a major loss for Dayton?

The team last year without Kav on the floor was a different team. And I don't mean in a good way.
And don't give me some crap about a freshmen and a scrimmage game.

This is a mighty blow.
This changes everything.
I thought this team would surprise everyone.
All bets are off.

At Dayton you can't lose a co-captain, starting senior center without really feeling it.
The Flyers were very poor last year defending the interior.
This isn't going to help.

Any thought of this team having a quality finish in the league and possible NCAA tourny invite, is greatly diminished.
DAMN!

Knobby

You know Dave, I generally like your perspective on all things A-10. I think you bring a level of sanity to offset much of the insanity that exists on this board.

My general persona is usually not vidictive and I am not normally a see I told you so person. I can usually get along with just about anyone, but some of the crap that has been thrown out by "Crazy Dayton Fan #1" does warrant a level response. This is a simple case of people living in glass houses. You would have thought that Dez perfomred a public rape televised on national TV the way it was dissected, hashed and rehashed, and rehashed some more. Now a Dayton player gets removed from the team and it's "oh no don't talk about it".

Once again - it is strangely quiet from the basement offices in downtown Dayton now that the other shoe has dropped.....

The lack of personal responsibility on this thread (and the one way street of criticism) says a lot about the biggest instigator and troll that is allowed to post on this forum.

All I can say is Whattayaknow - I guess things happen at Dayton too...... Shocking!

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Well, we were smaller, but at least we were slower!

paulxu

You know, he really only was commenting on the same thing you did a while before...should there be a lengthy post on all this stuff.

We endured a lot of crap after Dez; under the bus, questions of character etc. Including these notes:

Since Kavanaugh wasn't indicted, just like Wells, we might say the same thing you did about X, that Dayton sucks for throwing him out. But you don't see that from any of us. Both schools have an honor code which worked in these situations...for better or worse.

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...he went up late, and I was already up there.

King Joseus

As an outsider who pops in from time to time, I do find it odd that we haven't heard from certain Dayton fans. I'd have expected to have seen a few more links at this point too.

Given my marginal (at best) interest in college basketball/A-10, I'd say I'm not really qualified to remark on how this affects Dayton this year. I wouldn't hesitate to guess, however, that losing a starting, senior center is a bad thing.

This board's almost made me wish I cared more about the CBB/A-10 just so I could participate in all this riff raff. Anyhow, carry on.

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hawkhill

Maybe Temple "compromised" in the Wyatt situation?

Bill Russell

This is my line of thinking. If anyone is "dense", it is he who convinces himself that a senior captain who averaged almost 10 and 5 in a tough league won't be very difficult to replace. Maybe Robinson and Scott will really impress, but it's hard to make that assumption based on press clippings and a controlled scrimmage.

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UMass87

I think the fact that Dayton fans were very happy to talk explicitly about the Wells incident but in veiled terms about this incident speaks volumes. Also notice how limited the Xavier posting is. My personal opinion, and I think Muddy can get my back here, is that this won't really be a significant loss for Dayton because Dillard will elevate the play of his young teammates sufficiently to overcome the loss.