| The Dayton-Cincinnati game on Saturday at the old Riverfront Coliseum (now Heritage Bank Arena) has extra meaning for me. College basketball is my favorite sport because of my experiences as a UC fan in the glory days of the Bob Huggins era. We started going to games regularly at the old Shoemaker Center (now Fifth Third Arena) in 1992, the same year the Bearcats made the Final Four for the first and last time during Huggins’ reign. My dad is a UC graduate and had taken me to one or two games during the Tony Yates era when the Bearcats played on the riverfront. I don’t remember much about those games, but those were largely forgettable years for the Bearcats. Stepping back a few more years, my first exposure to the Bearcats came when a 6-foot-7 man showed up at our back door on Crawford Day Road in Mount Orab (36 miles east of Cincinnati), asking if he could fish in our pond. My dad recognized him as Derrek Dickey, a former UC star who was in college at the same time as my dad and played six seasons in the NBA in the 1970s with the Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls. His aunt, Daisy, lived one street over Lindsey Road, a gravel road that intersected with our road in Brown County. She had told him about the fishing hole. That’s how I met my first professional athlete and how I got my first autograph. “Best of luck with soccer and school,” Dickey wrote in August 1987 when I was 10. The Bearcats were good when Dickey played but not great as they were a decade earlier when they won two straight national championships and nearly a third. They reestablished their legacy as a national power under Huggins just as I was entering high school and hitting the peak of my sports fandom. We traveled all over to see the Bearcats: Bloomington, Ind.; Chapel Hill, N.C.; Honolulu, Hawaii, for a tournament. We saw them UC win the Great Midwest tournament at old Chicago Stadium and then the Pyramid in Memphis and finally at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee when I was a senior. Who knew I was preparing for a decade (and counting) of covering the A-10 tournament? Nick Van Exel is still my all-time favorite player because of those years. I met Huggins once while covering the Flyers in Puerto Rico and thanked him for the memories. The rise of the Bearcats in the 1990s coincided with the fall of the Flyers, and that translated to dominance by UC in the series, which I chronicled in a story in Friday’s Dayton Daily News. It’s not a pretty history for UD fans. Dayton’s most-lopsided loss ever took place at UC in 1995. I’m sure I was there. We were at every home game back then. But I don’t remember that 53-point UC victory. I’m sure I’ll remember Saturday’s game better. It has the potential to be a fun game. It’s certainly an important one for Dayton. UC will play almost nothing but Quad 1 and Quad 2 games in its first season in the Big 12. Maybe that’s why it has played such a weak schedule, with the exception of a game at Xavier, to this point. UD, on the other hand, might not play another team ranked as high as UC, unless UC falls in the NET and an A-10 team makes a big leap. Fan turnout will be something to watch Saturday Credit: David Jablonski Tickets for the Hoops Classic are not cheap — at least not good ones. You can sit in the upper level for $29.50. Anything closer is going to cost between $44 and $165. The best seat available Friday on Ticketmaster cost $1,000. It will be interesting to see which team has more fans. Cincinnati fans have a shorter drive, though Dayton fans have been known to go to the ends of the earth (or at least places like Maui and Charleston) to outdraw larger fan bases. Cincinnati has averaged 8,308 fans in seven home games at an arena that seats 12,012. Dayton is averaging 13,407 fans. That’s how many seats UD Arena has. UD’s sellout streak will reach 60 games this season. NCAA ruling could have major implications in A-10 Credit: David Jablonski As I wrote today in the preview of the UD-UC game, Cincinnati could see the debut Saturday of a two-time transfer, Jamille Reynolds, a 6-11 forward. He had been ineligible until a federal judge issued a 14-day temporary restraining order this week against the NCAA and giving immediate eligibility to two-time transfers. However, the NCAA ruled athletes could lose a year of eligibility if they play in the 14-day window. There’s no guarantee the athletes would be able to compete after the 14-day window. The ruling and the NCAA’s reaction to it has created confusion across college basketball. If the players do gain their eligibility for the entire season, the ruling could change the direction of the A-10 race in 2024. VCU announced this week Joe Bamisile will make his debut Saturday. Bamisile has played for Virginia Tech, George Washington and Oklahoma in his career. Bamisile could elevate the fortunes of VCU, which was picked to finish second in the A-10 but is off to a 5-5 start. He averaged 16.5 points in his only season in the A-10 but played limited minutes at his other two schools. Fast Break Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans: 🏀 Former Dayton guard Mike Sharavjamts, who transferred to San Francisco last spring, scored a career-high 18 points Wednesday in a 62-59 victory against Seattle. He’s averaging 10.4 points and has started all 11 games for the Dons (8-3). 🏀 Former Dayton guard Jalen Crutcher scored a career-high 39 points on 15-of-20 shooting Monday for the Birmingham Squadron in a NBA G League victory against the Memphis Hustle. He also made a tie-breaking 3-pointer in the final seconds. This is Crutcher’s third season in the G League. What do you want to know about the Flyers? I want to hear from you. Reach out to me directly at [email protected] with your questions and feedback on the team or this newsletter. Also be sure to follow our Flyer Nation Facebook page for the latest news on the team. I’ll have updates, photos and videos on Twitter, as well. | 