By PAUL GOTHAM
Tuesday’s Atlantic 10 tilt pitting the No. 22 University of Dayton Flyers (21-5/11-3) against Saint Louis Billikens (10-16/5-9) features opponents with two-game streaks going in opposite directions.
With wins at George Mason (79-77) and over Fordham (76-68), Saint Louis will be looking for its first three-game streak in conference play this season. That’s a far cry from the 73-37 drubbing the Billikens took last month against Archie Miller‘s Flyers.
“Any time you approach a game and you look at the first time you play somebody, you’re really dealing with another team the next time you play with them,” Miller said during the A-10’s weekly tele-conference. “You are different. They are different. Saint Louis has continued to grow. Their young guards continue to play really well.”
Dayton, on the other hand, saw its 20-game conference home winning streak come to an end with a 79-72 loss to St. Bonaventure, Saturday. UD fell at Saint Joseph’s, 79-70 earlier in the week.
“I think our players understand after this week and watching film in particular for a long time yesterday it was unacceptable what we did defensively,” Miller stated.
Entering last Wednesday’s game, UD was holding opponents to 40.1 percent shooting from the floor. That number shrunk to 39.5 in conference play. Saint Joseph’s shot 45.3 (29-64) and St. Bonaventure 43.9 (25-57) including 10 of 20 (50 percent) from long range – an area where the Flyers had been limiting opponents to 35.2 percent.
“Our response on Saturday was very disappointing,” Miller commented. “Our defense is not what it’s supposed to be at this time of the year. We got to get back to that. There’s no real reason to dwell. There’s no real reason to panic. We just have to in general right now approach the last two weeks and try our best to get back to basics and do what we’re supposed to do in terms of a standard level of how we have to play. If we do that, we put ourselves in better position.”
Dayton played the last three games without starting forward Kendall Pollard – who Saint Joseph’s head coach Phil Martelli called the “linchpin” of UD’s lineup.
“Kendall’s not coming back any time soon from what I gather,” Miller said after Saturday’s loss to St. Bonaventure. “Right now we’re going to have to find a way to get better.”
Pollard scores 11 a game while grabbing five rebounds and handing out nearly two assists a game.
“Fifteen fouls and basically using up as much as we can. We’re not getting enough out of that spot right now from a production standpoint.”
Saint Louis shot a woeful 15-of-55 (27.3 percent) during the January 27 loss at UD Arena. Led by Mike Crawford, SLU hit 23-of-44 (52.3 percent) in Saturday’s win. Crawford (10.5 ppg) is second to Ash Yacoubou (11.8) in the Billiken lineup, but the junior guard averaged 17.5 last week hitting 11-of-16 from the floor including 7-of-11 from behind the arc.
“They’re putting him in really good position in their offense,” Miller said. “As they call sets and they integrate schemes within their framework, he’s usually a guy that they’re running something for. He’s shooting the ball well. He’s also putting the ball on the floor a little bit. He’s using his shot to get you to close and puts it down. He’s a good player.”
Last week’s back-to-back losses were the first consecutive setbacks in 77 games for the Flyers – the third longest streak of its kind in the nation behind only Villanova and Kansas.
“At the end of the day, we’re 21-5,” Miller said on Saturday. “We’re 11-3 in the league. We won nine games in a row. We’ve tripped up here this week. It’s not the end of the world. We got four games left. We got to find a way to win the next one.”
Big Steve gets back in the starting lineup
After not getting the start Saturday (his 11th consecutive game coming off the bench), Steve McElvene started the second half of Saturday’s game. The 6-11 center responded with six points, three rebounds a block and an assist in 13 minutes of playing time coming out of the locker room. Dayton also looked comfortable running offense through the post with McElvene fanning passes from the low block to perimeter shooters.
“Steve will be back in the lineup starting next game. Try to prevent him from fouling, but he’s too important. We have to get him going.”
An 8 p.m. tip time is scheduled. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
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