MEMPHIS - Dayton players watched Selection Sunday on a couch in Coach Archie Miller's basement, in the man cave of a coach's son, piling on top of him when their name was finally announced. For them, the bracket was one game: beat Ohio State.
Maybe some glanced down the seeding chart, daring to dream, but reality dictated Dayton, an 11th seed in the South region, was not long for the N.C.A.A. tournament. The Flyers were probably not going to beat Ohio State, but if they could pull an upset, they could not possibly hang with Syracuse in the second round. Yet here still they stand.
In fact, they keep advancing. On Thursday night, Dayton outpaced Stanford, 82-72, at FedEx Forum to advance to the program's first regional final in the N.C.A.A. tournament since Roosevelt Chapman led them there, 30 years ago, in 1984.
This time, the Flyers have survived on a well-mixed cocktail of cohesiveness, depth, moxie and coaching, with the boyish-looking Miller leaning on the fundamentals he learned from his father John, a legendary high school coach in Pennsylvania, and older brother Sean, the Arizona coach.
Interactive Feature: N.C.A.A. Tournament: Who Do You Hate (and Love)?They rode here on a wave of momentum after dramatic wins over Ohio State and Syracuse, withstanding buzzer-beating attempts at the end of both games, but the letdown seemed only inevitable, a crash back to reality forthcoming.
They did not have to sweat out the victory in this one, though, and the celebration seemed a formality. The Flyers are getting used to winning.
Tenth-seeded Stanford had a who's who list of notable names sitting behind its bench, including Condoleezza Rice, Richard Sherman and David Shaw, the football coach, but Dayton brought a far larger cheering section, with droves of fans making the 550-mile trek down from Ohio. They were ready to see history.
Both teams got off to a torrid start, combining to knock down 8 of their first 11 field goals. But the pace began to slow. Dayton picked up six fouls in the first eight minutes, and then Stanford's two key big men, Stefan Nastic and Dwight Powell, were forced to the bench late in the first half with three and two fouls, respectively.
Without their interior enforcers, Stanford struggled to stop Dayton from taking it to the rim. The Cardinal's size advantage was expected to be a determining factor for Stanford, but it was beginning to work against them.
Stanford, which finished sixth in the Pac-12 Conference, surged into Memphis after knocking off second-seeded Kansas in St. Louis, shutting down the Jayhawks' scintillating freshman, Andrew Wiggins, and wearing down Kansas with their length and defensive pressure. But curtailing Dayton, a team with a seemingly endless supply of quality players, was going to be a different challenge.
Eight players scored points for the Flyers in the first half, giving them 17 points off the bench, and Dayton found itself with a 10-point lead with 6 minutes 15 seconds remaining in the half.
The Flyers hit 6 of its first 13 3-point attempts and assisted on 13 of its first 15 field goals. When Powell missed a three-foot hook shot at the halftime buzzer, it seemed one final indignity for a nightmarish half for the Cardinal.
Dayton came out of the intermission a little sluggish, however, and Stanford, with Powell and Nastic back on the court, used an 11-2 run to pull back within four. But with 13 minutes remaining, Nastic picked up his fourth foul scrambling after a loose ball and Dayton seized on the momentum shift.
Stanford made another run midway through the half, trimming a 12-point lead down to six, but Dayton continued to score big buckets when they needed. With just over five minutes left, Nastic picked up his fifth, closing the door a little bit more on Stanford's chances for a comeback.
Jordan Sibert and Scoochie Smith, Dayton's inexhaustible backcourt, pestered Stanford's guards all day, and the Flyers managed to harness the Cardinal's explosive guard Chasson Randle to only 5 of 21 shooting from the field with five turnovers.
Four Dayton players finished with double-digits in points, led by Sibert's 18, while the Cardinal shot 37.9 percent from the field
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, March 27, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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