Dayton, I'm Coming for You

Actually I'm not Dayton, Ohio. You dodged a bullet. Due to my ineligibilty to play this season, I will be watching the Dayton game from home Saturday afternoon. It's too bad because I probably would have sent shockwaves through the University of Dayton Arena with my incredible leaping ability, my defensive prowess, and my knack for hitting clutch shots in front 13,000+ people. So congrats, Brian Gregory, you lucked out.

After doing some extensive research (just basically what I think I know about Dayton), I've concluded they like headbands and dunking all over your face. So do I Flyers, so do I. In all seriousness, Dayton is a good team. They wouldn't be nationally ranked if they weren't, so we'll have our hands full. However, we're an extremely talented bunch and I have the upmost confidence we'll go in there and perform well.

Dayon, Ohio is basically a poor man's Omaha. (Every city is though in my book.) It's got a respectable skyline, a private university of Catholic association in the middle of the city, and a solid mid-major basketball program with a good fan base. Dayton also lays claim to the Wright Brothers, Rob Dyrdek, Roger Clemens, and Rob Lowe. Interesting group. I thought Dayton would give me more than that when I typed in Dayton, Ohio into Wikipedia.

Omaha, like Dayton, has a respectable skyline, a private univeristy of Catholic association in the middle of the city, and a solid mid-major basketball program with a good fan base. However, Omaha also has Warren Buffett, Conor Oberst, 311, Nick Nolte, Gabrielle Union, Big Fred's, La Casa, and an Indie Scene that will make you want to buy the latest pair of skinny jeans, an acoustic guitar, and some Marlboro Lights. Owned.

Anyways, now that we have settled that Dayton is far inferior to Omaha, we can get down to business. As I said in my last post, I'll be playing a hefty amount of strictly defense in this week's practices. Today's practice was no different. Myself and three other of my fellow walk-ons played multiple possessions of halfcourt defense with our grad assistant and former Euroleague stud, Mike Jones. Let's just say Mike bailed us out more than once. But you don't want to hear about me shutting people down sans Bruce Bowen, you already knew I could do that. The frustrating part of today's practice came at the very end, when we had to run a "10." A "10" is basically exactly what it implies. You have 60 seconds to run down the court ten times. (Down is one, back is two, down again is three, you get the picture.) Although I'm extremely physically gifted, I'm no Usain Bolt. I had been sitting on the sidelines for about 40 minutes straight while the main ten guys scrimmaged, so my legs were shot by the time Coach Altman told us to "get on the line." Coach Altman said he wanted the "tough" guys up first, and while that certainly does not apply to myself, I shuffled up there anyways because I wanted to get done faster. The shotclock was set at 30, so I had originally thought we were just going to run a "suicide." As everyone in my group took off downcourt, I had stopped at the free throw line, thinking we were doing a suicide. Coach Altman informed us after we had taken off that we were, in fact, running a "10." Phenomenal. So my original thinking that we were running a suicide coupled with the fact that my legs felt like my great aunt's peach-flavored jello put me way behind, and at that point, there was no catching up, trust me. I ended up making the 60 seconds, but not before looking like an unathletic bafoon in the process. (Sigh.) Such is life.

A couple of tidbits here: We're going to start featuring a quote from Creighton's very own Josh "I am going to say literally anything that pops into my head, I have no filter between what my mind wants me to say and what I actually should say" Jones in each entry from now on. Love ya Josh. Also, Matt's first entry is coming soon, I promise. Believe the hype.

Simple plays, fellas, simple plays.