Miami Proves It Belongs
By Hal McCoy For all those who insisted that Miami does not belong in the NCAA tournament: Do you prefer Scotch tape, electrician’s tape or duct tape to cover your mouth? The much-maligned RedHawks were forced to participate in a play-in game at UD Arena Wednesday as 7 1/2-point underdogs despite their 31-1 record. Southern […]
Flyers Fall In Final, 70-62
By Hal McCoy Pittsburgh, PA. — When it comes time for the University of Dayton Flyers to play Virginia Commonwealth University in the Atlantic-10 Conference tournament championship game, it’s The Great Wall of China, the end of a long road, turn out the lights, the party’s over. It happened again Sunday afternoon, as it always […]
Flyers Stop Saint Louis
By Hal McCoy Pittsburgh, PA. — The final 26 seconds was played like a recorded television show on fast forward. A blur. Some plays that had everybody saying, “What just happened. . .oh, wait a second, now what happened?” Even the University of Dayton’s final hero, one hero among several, couldn’t recall exactly what happened. […]
UD Flyers Find A Way
By Hal McCoy Pittsburgh, PA. — There is Johnny-on-the-spot, but for the University of Dayton basketball team it is Javon-on-the-spot. Whenever the Flyers need a lift, they dial ‘0,’ Javon Bennett’s uniform number and he answers on the first ring. And it happens game after game after game. Who ya gonna call? Javon Bennett. It […]
Some Sunday Observations
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave and when it was 78 degrees last week I considered traipsing into the backyard to toss the ol’ horsehide around. Then I remembered I’m 85 and the only thing I’d toss is my cookies. —WHY NOT BOTH?: During a spring training interview with baseball writer Gordon […]
A Gritty Win For UD
By Hal McCoy Richmond, VA. — Once again, Grant took Richmond. This time, though, it wasn’t U.S. Grant and the Union Army, it was coach Anthony Grant and the UD Flyers. For the fifth time during his University of Dayton tenure, Grant took a team into the University of Richmond’s Robins Center and for the […]
UD Survive Rumble In D.C.
By Hal McCoy Washington, D.C. — In the end, it was a street fight, a barroom brawl, a throwback to the Gillette Friday Night Fights. The University of Dayton Flyers finished with a couple of black eyes, but with a will to win they survived with a 68-66 victory over George Washington Friday night in […]
Flyers Reap Revenge on Saint Louis
By Hal McCoy Dayton, OH. — As they say, payback can be hell. Saint Louis University sashayed into UD Arena Tuesday night, scoffing at the idea that the place was the self-proclaimed, “Epicenter of College Basketball.” What it was for Saint Louis was hell on a hard wood floor as the University of Dayton reaped […]
How Baseball Has Run My Life
By Hal McCoy Most of this happened between 65 and 75 years ago, before there was a McDonald’s in every neighborhood, when television screens were black—and-white and the size of the glass door on a dryer. And I rode around in my dad’s Henry J, then his Packard, then his Mercury, then his Edsel — […]