Dayton's Historic Weekend in Chicago

Not only did the Dayton Flyers collect some big early wins for an NCAA Tournament resume in winning the Chicago Invitational Challenge by knocking off Marquette in the final 89-75, but they made history in the previous game. The Flyers went 0-24 from the 3-point line. It topped a previous 0-22 record set by Canisius in 1995. Congratulations.

Not surprisingly, that 0-24 shooting killed the shooting percentage of the Flyers. Inside the arc, Dayton shot 50% (24-48). The problem was they took 1/3 of their shots from the perimeter. The players for both teams tried to blame the poor shooting on the ball, not their aim.

"We have some junior-college players, and they were saying it was the junior-college ball," Auburn guard DeWayne Reed said. "It felt like a rock. We were trying to get used to it in warm-ups and the shoot-around."

UD players didn't like it any better.

"It was real hard," forward Chris Wright said. "Sometimes when you'd catch it, it'd jam your fingers. But both teams had to use it."

Use it. Abuse it. Whatever it was, it wasn't pretty. Dayton Coach Brian Gregory dismissed the blame on the ball outright.

Even with that kind of ineptitude, Dayton still won the game. They beat a continually rebuilding Auburn team 60-59 in overtime. Something that at a school that actually cared about basketball would see as a major strike against Coach Jeff Lebo's efforts to date. Instead, merely another loss.

Back to Dayton, they are now 6-0 with wins over Marquette and another early season surprise team, Mercer. They are doing it despite the graduation of Brian Roberts. Last year, Dayton started the season 13-1 with wins over Pitt and Louisville and ranked in the top-15. Injuries and insufficient depth took away the NCAA hopes. Chris Wright is healthy this year, and there is no reason for them not to challenge Xavier in the A-10.