As the players numbly made their way through the handshake line with the Sooners and then headed toward their dressing room, the Flyers fans who had turned Nationwide Arena into a UD Arena East – complete with the partisan loudness and love – began to chant:
“Day-ton … Flyer-ers! … Day-ton … Fly-ers!”
What they were really saying was, “Thank You!”
“Thank you for taking us on a ride like no other Flyer team has ever done. Thank you not just for what you did – 27 wins, advancement in the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row – but for the way you did it.
“Thank you for the hard work, overcoming all obstacles and playing for each other.”
Afterward Archie Miller touched on that same theme: “I’ll remember this team for as long as I live regardless of how long I coach. There will never be a team of seven people to duplicate what we did, win 27 games with six scholarship players, a freshman and three sophomores. It will never be done again.”
Besides the six scholarship players, there was just elevated walk-on, Bobby Wehrli. No one was over 6-foot-6. There was only one senior – Jordan Sibert.
“We did the best with what we had,” is the way Wehrli summed it up.
And that made them better than most teams in college basketball. They made it to the championship game of the Atlantic 10 Tournament. They beat Boise State and Providence in the NCAA Tournament.
And that had Oklahoma down by nine – 49-40 – with just over 12 minutes left. Then they ran out of gas.
And yet even though it was their sixth game in 10 days, you couldn’t find one Flyer afterward who said they were tired or had no legs.
Some players were adamant that was not the case.
“It was just basketball,” Sibert said. “Sometimes the ball goes in for you, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Miller though fessed up a bit afterward: “Fatigue played a role. I think at the start of the game (when UD went down 9-0) our legs weren’t under us.
“But part of not acknowledging it is they were not allowed to acknowledge it all season. We didn’t let any outside words or noise or excuses creep into the team.
“That’s what I’ll remember most. This team made no excuses. Never. They never asked for anything. They went about their business in a very professional manner for a young team, especially a freshman (Darrell Davis who had 15 points Sunday) who was playing his best game in college on the biggest stage. We had a lot of guys step up all year.
“No excuses. They made none. I think that’s why we had the opportunity we did. That’s why were successful.”
And with last year’s run to the Elite Eight and now these two NCAA Tournament wins, this bunch had carved out their own niche in Flyers’ basketball history.
“I think this was the first time in 48 years that a Dayton team has won and advanced in the (NCAA) Tournament in back to back years,” Miller said.
Yet, when it comes to this season, it’s not so much what will go down in the record books as what went on behind closed doors – in in the dressing room, on the practice floor and when the team was together off the court.
Junior Dyhawn Pierre hit on the perfect legacy as he sat at his locker afterward and spoke in little more than a whisper:
“Remember us as a tough team. We overcame a lot of obstacles. We did it for each other. We really worked hard for each other. We want the best for each other. We wanted to win for all the other guys in here. And that, that’s why this hurts now.”
That’s why Dayton Flyer fans from all over migrated to Nationwide Arena this past weekend. It’s why Roosevelt Chapman, one of the greatest Flyers ever, left the Indian reservation in South Dakota where he teaches school and was sitting court side Sunday.
Almost 31 years ago to the day, he had one of his great moments ever against a powerful Oklahoma team in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
He scored 41 and helped the Flyers edge the powerful Sooners, 89-85. Another win over Washington put that 1984 team in the Elite Eight.
“This team reminds me a lot of our team,” Chapman said. “We only played about seven guys and one night one guy would step up ad one night it would be somebody else.
“I love this team’s grit and toughness. And I like the way they play for each other.”
You saw that one last time in the dressing room where Kyle Davis sat quietly in the corner.
“This hurts, but we’re not gonna piggy-back on that,” he said. “We’re looking forward to next season. We’ll have a lot of guys and the foundation has been built. And that‘s because of Jordan Sibert.
“He play wonderful this year. He was just wonderful. … I’m just gonna miss him.”
And with that Davis put his head down and raised a hand to his face to hide the coming tears.
Dayton interpretation?
He too was saying “thank you.”
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