Muddy Waters

USC 59, Dayton 55 with 4 minutes left in OT.

Pierre with a 3-pointer !

USC 59, Dayton 58 with 3 minutes left in OT.

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Muddy Waters

USC 62, Dayton 59 with 30 seconds left in OT.

USC has the ball.


USC 62, Dayton 61 with 5 seconds left in OT.

USC has the ball.


Final: USC 63, Dayton 61

Close, but no cigar.

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bprichard

Why is Derenbecker not in the game with Dayton down three with the ball?

owlfan2272

Think they should have called the timeout. USC wins by 2.

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Temple Owls have won a lot.

bprichard

Damn. USC is going to get ravaged in the Pac 10. This loss will look very bad at the end of the year.

El Shaqtus

That's the same thing we're saying at SLU about Washington. Now I'm thinking like Dayton fans?

I should grab a beer after that.

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Mom, thanks for everything.

RIP Coach Rick Majerus 12/1/12. You were the one that said it was OK to think big at SLU. You were right.

KVBL Lexington Kings

bprichard

Hahaha. Well, at least we will have a USC/Washington match up to determine which is worse.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using VerticalSports.Com App

waldo027

We get it dude, Washington was a bad loss. Let it go. I swear you post this every single day between this board and the Billiken board.

AdamtheFlyer

I'm not so sure. It was a bad performance, but if Dayton is on the bubble, I don't think this will be a killer loss. The committee will look beyond raw RPI numbers. USC has played a very tough OOC schedule, and by the end of the year should have an SOS in the top 30, which will keep their RPI under the "awful" level. Had they played the schedule Seton Hall did, which is a complete sham, they would be something like 10-3 and no one would bat an eye with a loss to them. Numbers are wonderful, but basketball people look beyond them.

Dayton actually beat the Vegas spread and the computers all had this as a near pick 'em. It's not like UD lost to NJIT. There are worse things than losing on the road to USC. There will not be a single bubble team without a few losses like this. The annual loss to Rhody that we all know is coming will be much more painful. Losing at home to a very good Illinois State team is probably more painful than this, because a missed chance for a good win will always hurt more than a road loss to a BCS league team. This was just a bad night.

My guess is USC does better in PAC 12 play than people think. They aren't going to win a bunch, but they can go 6-12 or 7-11. RPIForecast has them ending with an RPI of 172. That kind of road loss isn't going to end your hopes. Not to mention, UD will have about 10 chances for really good wins in A10 play. If they can get about half, and avoid multiple bad losses in conference, they'll dance. It all comes down to A10 play, as usual. We'll see if UD is good enough.

The 3 point line cost UD this game. 1-11 in regulation. Looking at the play by play, they scored 4 points on the same possession as a missed 3. So if they shoot their average from 3, basically 4-11, they gain between 5-9 points. I believe in changing something changes the future, so it's not a given, but 5-9 more points probably wins the game in regulation. Shots didn't fall tonight, that's basketball.

Everything else was ok. They shot a better percentage on 2s than USC, and scored 6 more points from the FT line in regulation. They competed on the glass and had fewer turnovers, including more steals (steals are much better than turnovers that create a dead ball scenario). And you really can't say they took too many threes, 11 is a good number. You just have to hit some threes to win on the road in modern basketball. They didn't. There's your game.

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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.

antboy

The oddsmakers were right on it seems. Home court advantage is a big deal. Shame though, would've like to see Dayton pull this one out.

bprichard

I can see where you're coming from. Even with your optimistic assessment, we're talking about a bottom third of a weak BCS conference team that will likely end up with around 20 losses. It's not a season-killing loss or anything, but it's not going to look so good in the final accounting.

xavierhoops

I think the problem for Dayton will be there are really no signature wins. Every win is just kind of meh (the Alabama win is losing it's value by the day. They are sitting at 7-5 and just lost at home to Mercer and Tulane). As you kind of said, losing to Weber St, Illinios St and USC, doesn't give UD a whole lot of wiggle room for any real bad losses in A-10 play (Fordham, RI etc).

And I don't think the A-10 is nearly as strong as people hoped or anticipated 2 months ago. Outside of VCU and Butler, and to a lesser extent St Joseph's, the A-10 has really been quite average (although Charlotte has been playing much better than expected). Certainly not an opportunity for 10 really good wins. Maybe 5.

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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).

z8-Minutemen

Strange. I would have thought that Dayton would have had the court advantage due to not having to deal with the "palpable" pressure of UD Arena....

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Dallas Cowboys- 5 super bowls and counting...

UMass Minutemen- 8 tournament appearances, 1 final four. Alumni: Julius 'Dr. J' Erving, Marcus Camby

Northeastern Huskies- 7 tournament appearances. Alumni: Reggie Lewis, Jose Juan 'JJ' Barea

El Shaqtus

Doesn't change it. Embarrassment.

__________________
Mom, thanks for everything.

RIP Coach Rick Majerus 12/1/12. You were the one that said it was OK to think big at SLU. You were right.

KVBL Lexington Kings