Just when you thought everyone was healthy at One Reilly Center Way, Osun Osunniyi suffered a concussion against UMass in the Flour City and that really cooked our chances of winning at Virginia Cacophony University. Although, sources also tell me that someone on the VCU bench was banging a trash can to let the defense know when Lofton was going to drive on a pick-and-roll. That source may or may not be Shaka Smart's niece. Either way, it sounds like Osun won't be at Dayton for Wednesday's game.
I really gotta do this whole thing for THIS game, huh?
Make fun of Dayton fans, their history and drop in unnecessary political jokes every now and then. How could I possibly sit here and trash the #7 team in the country, when deep down, I know the Flyers will probably obliterate the 15.5-point line the Vegas set? Should I give UD fans a bunch of bulletin board material that will get inevitably thrown back in our face at approximately 7:08 p.m. Wednesday?
YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I WILL.
This supposed 10-week coronation of the Fayers as THE GREATEST TEAM IN A10 HISTORY will be hilarious after their inevitable choke job in Brooklyn on Friday at noon against some trash team like George Mason or La Salle. Daytona could go 18-0 and be #3 in the country, but you know what will happen in that 1-9 game at the tournament. Choke city. The two teams to go undefeated in A10 play (the 03-04 Saint Joseph's Hawks and 05-06 George Washington Colonials) both lost in their opening round A10 Tournament game.
Because the two highest rated TV shows on TruTV are filmed in UD Arena every year during the First Four, Fayers fans would have you believe James Naismith hung the first peach basket in a warehouse along Keowee Street. Daytona didn't invent basketball. The most famous inventors from The Gem City are the Wright brothers, two men so desperate to get out of there, they got a bunch of 2x4s and literally invented flying.
With all the resources and 13,000+ sweater vests packing their arena every night, you know how many A10 titles UD has to show for it? One. One tournament title since they joined us in 1995. Even in 2014 when they made the NCAA Elite Eight, they couldn't even make it out of the A10's Elite Eight, falling against St. Joe's in the quarterfinals. Losing to St. Joe's in the 2014 A10 Tournament is absolutely embarrassing, folks...
Speaking of those damn sweater vests, they may actually give the B*ndwag*n posters a run for their money on being stuck in the past. It makes sense that the red vests are the same shade as a MAGA hat. I think the real reason Hillary didn't campaign enough in Ohio in 2016 is so she didn't have to hear about how underrated Brian Roberts was as a point guard.
The Fayer fan I talked to about this game is not exactly in the sweater vest demographic yet. Sully is one of the main contributors for The Blackburn Review, a site for all things Daytona Fayers. He's also a co-host of the site's podcast, which this week includes a hilarious breakdown of his experience at that wild Arch-Baron Cup game in St. Louis on Friday. Really, I'm only plugging it because SBUnfurled and I were on this week to talk about how awesome Bonaventure is. Click here to check it out.
Sully first made a bold statement about where Bona's is located, especially because Dayton is located in the clearly more exciting area of western Ohio.
The average Dayton fan is under the impression that no one actually lives in Olean. More specifically to basketball; the UD impression is that we dont have to worry about Bona much, because history has told us so, given that the Flyers are 23-9 against the Bonnies since we joined the A10, including 20-6 in the regular season.
Of course, he couldn't forget the classic Fayers game that gave us the gif above that we all love so much. It was also our only win in Daytona since 2002.
Frankly, the most memorable game for most Dayton fans involving the Bonnies was the UD home game in 2016 that propelled you to the shared league championship. That was a gutsy win by Adams and Mobley that really personified that team in a 40-minute nutshell.
I had to find out about the origin of the sweater vest, even though I already knew old, pudgy white people from the Midwest aren't exactly part of the zeitgeist of fashion.
Because of how old UD Arena is (opened in 1969, nice) the majority of people down low have had season tickets for decades, which, naturally means they skew a bit older. For one reason or another, the "old guy outfit" at Dayton has also been a red sweater, or a red sweater vest with a collared shirt underneath. So over the years, its kinda become UDs own "OK Boomer" if you will, its just a moniker to distinguish young fans from old.
He hasn't been to the RC before, but for all the shit we get about location, a lot of people want to visit. It's almost as if a college that literally has its own interstate exit isn't as tough to get to as people say.
As a person who runs a podcast in this conference and loves yukking it up with other fans, making it to the Reilly Center has been on the list for a long time. One of my best friends from HS was a baseball player at Bona, and my cousin actually lives about a half hour away from Olean. So all things considered, it wouldn't even be that much of a stretch for me to show up for a game as long as I had the time to drive 8 hours from Chicago on a winter weekend.
Finally, even though the Fayers have been equally as tough as Virginia Comptroller University, there doesn't seem to be as much Bona-UD animosity.
The Bona fanbase and Twitter crowd has always been extremely kind and welcoming to me, and I remember being 100% pro Bonnies (much like the rest of the Arena) during the First Four in 2018. I think there's a mutual respect between our programs and fanbases, that's helped because no real God's honest rivalry has ever caught momentum. I like to say UD has a couple "friendly foes" in the conference like Richmond, GMU and UMass, and Bona certainly falls directly into that category as well.
Seven Steps to Victory
Obi Toppin could declare for the NBA Draft any day now. I'm just saying... *extremely OJ Simpson voice*
Jon Gruden is a Daytona alum, so watch out for Crutcher to run Spider 2-Y Banana for Mikesell along the baseline on offense.
Defend the three. We didn't against VCU.
The Fayers could already be looking ahead to the big game against Fordham on February 1st.
Marianists don't have cool brown robes like Franciscan friars.
If we only lose by 6, KenPom should really just give us credit for a win, folks.
Daytona is now ranked #7 in the AP poll, a notoriously unlucky number.
BonaCommenter's Score on #a102k20: Bona's 90, Fayers 87
Unrealistic 2k Stat of the Game: Other than playing with Osun in this, Boca Bobby drained a roughly 70-footer at the end of the first quarter, which turned out to be the difference.
Bonnies A10Talk.com Forum Quote of the Day: "If having the opportunity to play a highly ranked opponent on their home floor doesn't move your pecker even a little bit, then man: something is wrong with you. No matter how a season is going, or what our last game looked like: it's impossible to not get up for these games. Hope the guys feel the same way, take things personal, and come out looking like we belong on the same floor."
Dayton Message Board Quote of the Day: "Bonnies are more than capable of coming into the Arena and walking out with a W. Helped in part if UD decides to stroll. The higher you're ranked, the more that is asked of you to justify the recognition. I remember JR Bremer putting up about 37 points in a game once. He had about 25 at halftime and sank a 35 footer at the halftime buzzer just to put an exclamation on things. They walked the dog start to finish."
I just hope we don't get neutered.