Two of the area’s best-known college basketball figures — Dayton Flyers star Chris Wright and Miami University coach Charlie Coles — have gotten some high-profile exposure this week:
— The energetic Wright in a colorful, two-page photo spread in Sports Illustrated.
— The irascible Coles on a classic YouTube video that is getting more popular by the hour.
The Sports Illustated centerpiece
While both of the visuals come from losing efforts, neither is anything to hang one’s head about.
Quite the opposite.
The Wright photo came during UD’s second round NCAA Tournament game with Kansas last March.
The Coles video was shot during his press conference following his team’s near upset of No. 5 Kentucky Monday night at Rupp Arena. The Wildcats ended up winning 72-70 on a last-second shot.
The Wright photo — which is the centerpiece of SI’s College Basketball Preview Issue — shows his shot getting altered by 6-foot-11 Kansas behemoth Cole Aldrich. SI calls the Jayhawk’s 10-block effort that day “the most dominant defensive performance in the 2009 NCAA Tournament.”
The Coles’ comments came after his RedHawks nearly pulled off a monumental upset — Miami led by 18 in the first half — only to be done in by a hurried jump shot by Kentucky freshman John Wall. The No. 1 recruit in the nation, Wall — who sat out Kentucky’s first game due to an NCAA infraction — was making his college debut and hit his shot with just .5 of one second left.
An early November spot in the Associated Press’ Top 25 college basketball poll might fuel glittery euphoria for the recognized teams and their fans, but for some that turns out to be nothing but fool’s gold.
Over the past 20 years an average of four teams ranked in the preseason Top 25 poll ended up missing the NCAA Tournament. That bit of hoops research came from the Wall Street Journal last week and the number of ranked teams whose preseason dreams have been dashed over the years surprised me.
Eight teams ranked in the Top 25 in November of 2001 missed the Big Dance, most notably North Carolina , which started the preseason ranked No. 19 and finished the year 8-20.
Six teams ranked in the preseason missed the 1993 tournament.
Five preseason Top 25 teams— in 1990, 1997, 1998 , 2006 , 2007 and 2009 — failed to get NCAA Tournament berths.
Last year the biggest plummet was by Notre Dame, ranked No. 9 at the beginning of the season,. Two years before that, No. 5 LSU took the biggest fall. And in 2006 it was No. 7 Louisville.
So what does that mean this season — especially around here where the Dayton Flyers ranked No. 21 in the preseason have moved up to No. 18?
Well, the spot they moved into was occupied by Mississippi State, whose fans were all giddy until the Bulldogs bombed in their opener, getting trounced by Rider, 88-74, and promptly falling from the polls.
And how about No. 1 Kansas nearly getting knocked off by unranked Memphis Tuesday night?
And then there was No. 5 Kentucky needing a last-second basket to come from behind Monday night — at Rupp Arena, no less — to beat Charlie Coles’ Miami RedHawks team that got 16 points and five assists from Kenny Hayes, the senior guard from Northmont High.
A Top 25 ranking in early November guarantees you nothing — except a bull’s-eye on your back.
This is one of my favorite times of the sporting year.
College football is getting into its most meaningful games, NFL teams are beginning to position themselves for the postseason, the college hoops season has begun — not to mention the NBA and NHL — and then, as a bonus, you get a big-time prizefight like the one Saturday night in Las Vegas featuring Manny Pacquiao, a once-in-a-lifetime fighter out of the Philippines.
Manny Pacquiao
So with that in mind here are a few — strictly personal — awards from a great weekend of sports.
MOST IMPRESSIVE KNOCK-OUT:
1 — Cincinnati Bengals — Thumped the Pittsburgh Steelers for second time this season. In the 18-12 victory, the stripes defense — a bunch of cast-offs who have forged themselves into the backbone of this team — kept Ben Roethlisberger in the pocket, sacked him four times, batted down a few of his passes, held the Steelers to just three third-down conversions in 15 attempts and didn’t allow a touchdown.
2 — UD Women’s Basketball — Dominated No. 10 Michigan State the entire game Friday night, winning 77-74 in a game that wasn’t quite that close.
3 — Manny Pacquiao — Showed why he’s the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing, throwing a whopping 780 punches and landing 336, nearly twice as many as his rugged opponen, two time world champt Miguel Cotto, who Pacquiao stopped in 12 rounds.
4 — UD Men’s Basketball —Although its 90-80 victory over Creighton was impressive, UD didn’t crack the top three only because the under-manned Blue Jays were missing their top rebounder and two key frontcourt back-ups and still managed to control the first half with a compact 2-3 zone defense. And here’s a fact not brought up around here, Creighton has now lost 25 in a row when it’s played ranked teams on the road.
And because the Flyers are a nationally ranked team now — and a very good one at that — the bar is a little higher for them.
BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE:
1 — Bernard Scott — Bengals back-up tailback and new kick returner, scored the games only TD with a 96-yard KO return in the first quarter and then filled in admirably for Cedric Benson, who left the game in the second quarter with a hip flexor.
Devin Barclay
2 — Devin Barclay — Ohio State’s 26-year-old kicker — a former pro soccer player who is filling in for injured Buck Aaron Pettrey — booted the pressure-packed, 39-yard field goal in overtime to give OSU the 27-24 victory over Iowa and send his team to the Rose Bowl.
3 — Todd Brown — Wright State’s senior forward scored 57 points in three games and showed he’s ready to lead his team this season as the Raiders won two of three games in the Athletes in Action Tournament in Seattle.
4 — Chris Johnson — UD sophomore forward came off the bench to score 18 points and grab 15 rebounds against Creighton.
5 — Tie — UD’s Chris Wright had 25 points and eight rebounds against Creighton AND Jonathan Fanene, the Bengals defensive lineman, who sacked Roethlisberger twice. harassed him in the backfield a lot more and batted down one of his passes.
BEST COACHING JOB:
Jim Jabir
1 — Jim Jabir — UD women’s coach has rebuilt the Flyers women’s hoops program, has a team with depth and enough toughness that this weekend it showed it can contend — in back to back games, no less — with some of the best teams in the nation, MSU Friday and Louisville ( a 2-point UD loss) Sunday.
2 — Marvin Lewis — Right now he’s my pick for NFL Coach of the Year. He’s taken a team populated by other teams’ rejects, he’s turned some problem children like Bernard Scott (whose college rap sheet was as long as his stat sheet) into keeping-their-nose-clean, team-first guys and because of it, a Bengals bunch that won just 4 games last year is now 7-2 and has become the talk of the NFL.
MOST COLORFUL ENTERTAINER:
1 — Manny Pacquiao — The Filipino superstar with the massive global following is running for Congress back home, just starred in a superhero movie called “WaPakman” in which he wore a tight red and yellow suit and, after Saturday night’s victory — with his right ear bandaged, but partially hidden by a fedora — he headed to the Mandalay Bay to join his band and sing eight songs on stage.
2 — Chris Wright — UD dunk machine
3 — Chad Ochocinco — Gets a rankling on his body of work though Sunday’s two catches didn’t give him much of a stage.
BEST TEAM TO LOSE:
1 — UD Women’s Soccer — Fell for the first time in 22 games this season, a 3-1 loss to Virginia Tech in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Speaking of another great coaching job, the Flyers Mike Tucker is one of the best in the women’s game.
It looks like Wright State and the University of Dayton will be on the basketball court together this season after all.
Vitaly Potapenko
Well, sort of.
It will happen in Fort Wayne…and places like Erie, Sioux Falls, Austin and Albuquerque.
The two schools, though, will be represented by well-known proxies and they’ll be on the same team.
The Fort Wayne Mad Ants — a farm team of the Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Developmental League — has named Vitaly Potapenko as an assistant coach.
Potapenko
Wright State’s highest profile basketball player ever, Potapenko was a first-round draft pick of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1996, played 10 years in the NBA — with the Cavs, Boston Celtics, Seattle and Sacramento — one season in Spain and has been living in Miami, Florida.
Potapenko was recruited to WSU out of Kiev, Ukraine by then-coach Ralph Underhill. Playing just two seasons for the Raiders, the 6-foot-10 Ukraine Train scored 1,113 points in 56 games and was named first team all league each year.
Sandoval
In last week’s draft, the Mad Ants picked former University of Dayton guard Andres Sandoval, who played for the Flyers from 2006-2008. He’ll join, among others, C. J. Anderson of Xavier, Frank Tolbert of Auburn, Michigan’s Chris Hunter and A.J. Ratliff of Indiana in the Mad Ants preseason camp.
Former DePaul coach Joey Meyer is the Mad Ants head coach. The D League team — along with 15 others spread out from Portand, Maine to Bakersfield, California — begins play Nov. 27.
While the bottom has dropped out of Miami University football — the team is 1-10 this season, has lost 15 of its last 16 games and has won just 11 times in four years — that Cradle of Coaches tag has never proved more true than this season.
Sean Payton
For proof, look at the New Orleans Saints, who are a perfect 8-0 at the midway point of the NFL season.
Five of their coaches — including head coach Sean Payton — have strong ties to Miami University. Another Saints coach began his career at the University of Dayton.
Football fingerprints from this area are all over this remarkable New Orleans team, which already has scored 303 points — the Browns have just 78 — and is on course to shatter the NFL record of 539 points. Meanwhile, the Saints defense leads the league with 16 interceptions has has scored seven defensive touchdowns.
The Saints have had losing records in 27 of their previous 42 years as a franchise, but since Payton got there, things have turned around. In 2006, he guided New Orleans to its first ever NFC title game and ended up being named the NFL Coach of the Year.
He’s definitely one of the front runners for that honor again. As for the other contenders, I’d say it’s between Minnesota’s Brad Childress. the Colts Jim Caldwell and Marvin Lewis of the Bengals.
An assistant coach at Miami in 1994 and 1995, Payton coached the RedHawks quarterbacks and was the co-offensive coordinator.
The other Saints coaches from Miami’s Cradle include:
— Aaron Kromer — The offensive line and running game coach — whose digital video library of nearly every play run in the NFL each season is praised around the league and credited for much of the Saints success — was an offensive tackle for Miami in the late 1980s and twice was named team captain. He then coached at his alma matter — tight ends, H backs, offensive line — from 1990 to 1998. By the way, the guy he credits for much of his successful is Jon Gruden — the former University of Dayton quarterback — who made Kromer an integral part of his staff when he was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay.
— Bret Ingalls — The Saints running backs coach mentored tackles and tight ends at Miami in 2005.
— Dan Dalrymple — The Saints strength and conditioning coach was a two-time, first team All MAC offensive lineman for Miami, was the team captain and has been enshrined in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. After graduation, he spent 17 seasons at Miami where he built the conditioning program for all of the school’s athletes. In 2003 he also was named one of Miami’s assistant athletic directors.
— Mike Mallory — An assistant special teams coach with the Saints, he is the son of former Miami head coach Bill Mallory, one of the most trumpeted guys in the Cradle fraternity.
As for the Dayton Flyers connection to the Saints:
— Joe Lombardi — The grandson of the legendary Vince Lombardi is the Saints quarterbacks coach. His prime pupil, Drew Brees, has thrown for 17 touchdowns and orchestrates an offense that is averaging 37.9 points per game. Lombardi started his coaching career at UD, where he was he defensive line coach for Mike Kelly from 1996 to 1998.
Finally there a Cincinnati Bengals connection, too:
— Adam Zimmer — A defensive assistant working with Saints linebackers, he’s the son of Mike Zimmer, the defensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals.
If I had to pick one player on the Dayton Flyers team this season who I think is going to really blossom — one guy who will step from the cast of talented support players into the spotlight now shared by high-fliers Chris Wright and Marcus Johnson — it would be Chris Johnson.
Although he’s still evolving, the 6-foot-6 sophomore forward from Columbus can soar like the other two and he’s better than them — coach Brian Gregory said — at pulling up on the break and hitting the three. He’s also one of the team’s most savvy rebounders and he’s handling the ball better than last season.
With a cursory glance, his stat line in the Flyers 71-61 exhibition victory over Northern Kentucky at UD Arena Monday night would appear to be pretty ordinary — 10 points, 4 rebounds, a blocked shot and a steal. But in the course of the game you also saw flashes of something greater from him.
When Northern Kentucky took the lead 25-24 with just over 7 minutes left in the first half, he instantly responded — it took just three seconds — and hit a three pointer from the wing to put the Flyers back in front. Soon after, that he hit another three to give UD a small cushion that it would maintain the rest of the game.
“Not only are we just seeing the tip of the iceberg with him, but he’s just realizing how great he can he, too,” Gregory said “He wants to be a great player . A lot of guys talk about that, but aren’t willing to put in the time.
“He’s a guy you can get on and you can tell him he needs to work on something and he is gonna work on it. That’s a great trait.”
After the game, Gregory talked about the back-to-back break-away dunks that Wright and Marcus Johnson had in the second half — the two plays folks will remember most from Monday night’s victory over a very good Division II team — and right away he included Chris Johnson in the conversation:
“If you look at it, with one guy flying on the right wing, and the other flying on the left wing, they’re maybe the two best in the country combination-wise…And then when you add Chris Johnson in the mix — and you’ve got all three of those guys who can run like that — it’s pretty good.”
Johnson — who averaged 6.3 points and 5.2 rebounds a game last season —likely will be named the fifth starter for Saturday’s opener against Creighton.
Speaking of Creighton — a team that blew Dayton out last season, a team that has had 11 straight years with 20 wins and 11 straight postseason appearance — Gregory gave a candid response that drew some chuckles from Monday’s post-game press conference crowd, when asked: “Do you like the fact you’re going to be challenged right away the first game of the season?”
Standing at the podium, Gregory kind of sputtered for a second. then smiled and simply said: “No…I mean…no…. If you think I’m excited about playing the game on Saturday, you’ve lost your mind.”
Soon after, he’d say he had been speaking tongue-in-cheek. He said it should be a great opener. One fans will love seeing.
In the process, they just may see the further emergence of UD’s next star.
CINCINNATI — A greased palm sometimes works wonders. It might get you a table in a crowded restaurant or help you slip around the velvet rope at a trendy club.
But as Chad Ochocino found out Sunday, it won’t help you get a call from an NFL official.
….Now, if it were former NBA ref Tim Donaghy.
But hey that’s another story. And that was serious stuff that got Donaghy exchanging his referee’s shirt for another set of stripes.
What happened Sunday was all tongue-in-cheek fun, though the Cincinnati Bengals receiver likely will end up cutting another check to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who has been padding the league coffers with Ochocinco fines
The Bengals had a 17-0 lead on the Baltimore Ravens in the third quarter of their game at Paul Brown Stadium when Ochocinco made a leaping catch of a 15-yard pass from Carson Palmer right near the sideline.
The side judge ruled it a catch, but the Ravens challenged the call.
As the officials checked instant replay, Ochocinco — having borrowed a dollar bill from a guy on the sideline — playfully sidled up to the refs with the folded bill in his hand, which hung down at his side.
It didn’t work.
The call was overturned. Ochocinco was ruled not to have gotten both feet down in bounds on the catch. With a grin and a shrug, he handed the bill back to the guy on the sidelines and went back to helping the Bengals finish off their 17-7 victory.
In his post game press conference afterward, head coach Marvin Lewis was asked by a reporter: “When you’re talking about a veteran like Ochocinco…”
Lewis started to chuckle: “You throw that term around loosely when you’re talking about 85. I wouldn’t say ‘veteran.’ I think you can start over every day with him.”
Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.
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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.
Latest comment
Coach Coles press conference needs to be in a Coors Light commerical! hahahahahahahahahahahahaha As