Three takeaways from the Mocs’ 61-59 win at Dayton on Saturday, which ended the Flyers’ 26-game home court winning streak – the seventh-longest such streak in the country:
1. The environment? Drink it up: The only game I’d ever covered which rivaled it was a Tennessee-Florida game I covered as a member of the Cleveland Daily Banner in 2007 – former Vol Dane Bradshaw’s Senior Night. I’ve got a friend, Charles Little, from my hometown of Cleveland that played at Dayton from 2005-09. He told me a couple weeks ago that it was going to be one of the best college basketball environments I’d ever been in, and he wasn’t wrong.
Saturday night, the fans were engaged, loud, and the pregame atmosphere was electric. The Atlantic-10 Conference has solidified themselves as a top-6 college basketball conference in the country – only the ACC, Big 10, Pac 12 and Big 12 are better, possibly the new-look Big East – and the Dayton fans embody that.
2. Heart and desire for Jones: I was asked numerous times by Dayton beat writers and others before Saturday if the Mocs “stood a chance” against Dayton with Friday’s loss of Casey Jones to an ankle injury. I’d respond by saying yes, but honestly? I wasn’t 100 percent sure, but UTC played Saturday like a bunch of guys that had a level of confidence instilled in them throughout the preseason that they could win anywhere, at any time.
The Dayton win showed that Jones’ contributions on the court were an addition. His loss is not so much a subtraction as much as an opportunity for others to step up in his place. Greg Pryor said it best postgame: “That’s our brother. We love our brother, and we wanted to show we could still win this for him.”
3. The similar trek to success: I was at the Georgia game. I was not at the Illinois game, but watched and followed it online. The Dayton game on Saturday felt very similar to both of those in that the Mocs jumped out to a lead, took a punch from the opposing team and found a way to win in the end. There is a level of resiliency with this team that, at this point, can’t be denied and will only bode well with four non-conference games remaining before the Southern Conference slate begins.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.