Dayton Flyers at Saint Louis Billikens

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Flyers seek seventh straight win vs. SLU



About Dayton: Dayton shares first place with Virginia Commonwealth in the Atlantic 10 with six games to play. ? Dayton?s senior class has won 97 games. It will break the school record for wins in a four-year period if it wins this game. ? KenPom.com gives UD a 90 percent chance of winning and predicts a 70-56 score. ? Pollard has led the Flyers in scoring five games in a row. ? Smith averaged 7.2 assists in the last five games. It?s the most productive five-game stretch of his career in that category. ? The Flyers outscored Rhode Island 69-60 with Smith on the floor Friday. With backup point guard John Crosby in the game, they were outscored 13-6. ? Of the lineup combinations that have been on the court for at least 30 minutes together, the group of Kyle Davis, Smith, Cooke, Pollard and Xeyrius Williams has the best plus-minus ratio. It has outcored opponents by 58 points in 57 minutes. The starting lineup, with Darrell Davis and Ryan Mikesell replacing Kyle Davis and Williams, has outscored opponents by 21 points in 80 minutes.

About Saint Louis: The Billikens are tied for 10th with Fordham. Saint Louis has beaten one team in the top half of the standings, George Mason. It beat George Mason twice: 63-56 on the road on Jan. 14 and 76-74 in double overtime on Feb. 1. ? Dayton ranks 28th in the RPI. Saint Louis ranks 246th.

 

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A-10 schedule brutal on Dayton Flyers



The Dayton Flyers (19-5, 10-2) have done a fine job navigating the Atlantic 10 schedule. That doesn?t mean it has been easy. That doesn?t mean coach Archie Miller likes it.

After a 75-74 victory Friday at Rhode Island, Miller said, ?The league schedule and what they?ve handed us has been absolutely brutal on our guys.?



On Monday, during the weekly Atlantic 10 coaches teleconference, hours before his team was scheduled to fly to Saint Louis for an 8 p.m. Tuesday game, Miller said, ?We feel like an NBA team. We fly out every couple of days.?

This is the third time this season Dayton has played back-to-back road games in conference play. It played two games in four days in January and then two games in five days the last two times. Last season, the Flyers twice played back-to-back road games, and yet each time, it was two games in six days.



Dayton?s games are all over the calendar. It plays on every day of the week in A-10 play except Monday. Miller said the coaches are learning how to adjust on the fly.

?As a coach, as a staff, we?re trying to figure out how to get better,? Miller said. ?But at the same time, we have to deal with our players. It?s the mental fatigue as much as the physical this time of year. We?re playing on the oddest nights maybe in college basketball. I?m not sure there is a league in college basketball that can literally play on the days of the week we do. It?s challenging. It?s really challenging to practice.?

Dayton flies straight home after most road games on charter flights. It couldn?t leave Providence on Friday night because of snow and flew home Saturday instead. They practiced hard Sunday, Miller said, and will practice again Monday.

?Today we?re going to have to be really smart because we?re flying out to Saint Louis,? Miller said. ?I?m thankful we have a couple older guys who have been through the league. they understand how important this time of the year is. They also understand you have to continue to stay in the moment, continue to work hard. You can?t get lethargic. I think that?s a big thing for us right now.?

 

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Billikens are working to 'protect the home court'



The level of glee in St. Louis University?s postgame news conference in the wake of a win over Duquesne was above and beyond anything seen in the last three seasons.

Winning more regularly was helpful, and winning at home with some consistency was a definite change of pace for players who had experienced losses at Chaifetz Arena to Samford, Morehead State, Tennessee-Martin and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in recent years.

?We kept yelling ?Protect the home court,?? guard Davell Roby said. ?We just got through yelling that.?

SLU has a four-game home winning streak, something the Billikens haven?t achieved since their last NCAA Tournament season. That success will be challenged Tuesday night by Dayton, which is tied for first place in the Atlantic 10.

Once a strong homecourt advantage, Chaifetz has been anything but a comfort zone as losses have outnumbered wins since the start of the 2014-15 season. The problem came to a head in January with four consecutive losses by an average of 18.8 points.

?It?s something we started talking about four games ago because we didn?t think we were playing very well at home,? coach Travis Ford said. ?We thought we were playing better on the road than at home. We had a long talk and talked about things we need to get off to better starts. You start well by playing hard, diving on the floor, taking charges, getting some deflections ? all things you can control.?

That discussion apparently paid dividends as the Billikens have played better to start games, and that has translated to wins over Massachusetts, George Mason, North Carolina A&T and Duquesne.

The proof is in the numbers. In four home games before the streak, SLU trailed by an average of seven points after 10 minutes and 19 at halftime. In the four wins, the Billikens have led by an average of six after 10 minutes and six at halftime.

Was it the conversation? Was it the natural process of improving? Was it the arrival of a new Billiken mascot, which is undefeated since his unveiling? Guard Mike Crawford doesn?t care why.


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?We needed to start doing that. We have to protect the home court,? he said. ?Coach always talks about that. The fans have been great supporting us, and we?re finally playing good basketball.?

Although on pace for the lowest average attendance in the arena?s history, SLU ranks fourth in the A-10 at 5,572 fans per game. SLU has used its improved play to move into a tie for 10th place.

SLU has a nine-year record of 118-58 at Chaifetz, but there is a clear delineation between the first six seasons and the last three. The Billikens started 94-31 in their new building and are 24-27 since the fall of 2014.

They have been outscored by 130 points at home during that stretch, with 17 losses by double digits and four by 20 points or more.

?I?ve had teams play better on the road because they feel too much pressure at home,? Ford said. ?I don?t think that?s the case for this team. But I think we took a little for granted sometimes. You?ve got to fight as hard at home as you do on the road, and our focus has been much better.?

The Billikens were 9-9 at Chaifetz in 2014-15 and 7-11 in 15-16. Now 8-7, they have a shot at a winning home record with games remaining against Dayton, St. Joseph?s and La Salle.

Where SLU finishes in the conference could come down to how they fare in those games, along with a road trip to Fordham. The Billikens and Rams are tied for the spot that would allow one of them to avoid a play-in game in the A-10 tournament.

SLU had a nine-point lead at home against Dayton last year with seven minutes remaining until some unusual strategic moves led to a loss in overtime.

 

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About the Billikens: Davell Roby has hit double figures in scoring in the last six games, averaging 16 points in that stretch. He is averaging 11.7 for the season. ... Aaron Hines has made at least one 3-pointer in the last 13 games. ... The 12 3-pointers SLU made against Duquesne were a season high. ... Jalen Johnson played 40 minutes against the Dukes, the first time he has played an entire game. ... The Billikens have topped 75 points in three of the last four games.

About the Flyers: Dayton leads the A-10 in scoring defense, allowing 64.3 points per game. The Flyers have held SLU to 46, 49, 37, 44 and 45 points in the last five meetings. ... Dayton has won 46 of its last 58 regular-season A-10 games. ... Kyle Davis leads the conference in field goal percentage at 62.7 and 3-point percentage at 59.1 in league games. ... The Flyers have been outscored in the second half in only two of 24 games this season.