BUFFALO — Inside the Syracuse locker room, the final seconds of Mercer Madness was ticking down on Duke on a mounted television in the corner opposite from where Tyler Ennis was standing with a small crowd of media.
Someone asked Ennis if he could believe what he was seeing, and he said: “The game’s not over yet,” and smiled, and shot a glance over his left shoulder at the TV.
“But I mean, yeah yeah, Mercer really took it to ’em. Anything can happen in this tournament.”
And anything sure did. Moments earlier, Dayton’s terrific coach, Archie Miller, had watched most of the final minutes of David nailing Coach Mike Krzyzewki’s Goliaths right between the eyes from a training room near the Flyers’ locker room.
“I think the guys don’t need me to tell ’em what’s possible in the tournament,” Miller said. “Everyone around them, that’s all they talk about is March Madness, the upsets, who’s gonna be the Cinderella and all that stuff so, the less we talk about anything, I think the better for our guys.”
The 11th-seeded Flyers awakened Friday to a Dayton Daily News headline they won’t soon forget in Columbus, where The Ohio State University sits. It read: The University of Dayton.
“I thought it was hilarious,” Jordan Sibert said.
Of course, they know full well that Syracuse and its vaunted 2-3 zone is no laughing matter.
“It’s going to be a struggle, but we got it,” Sibert said.
“It’s still basketball, we still got to put the put the ball in the basket and defend, so it’s the same thing,” Scoochie Smith said.
Deja Hoosiers.
The Atlantic 10 Flyers shrugged at the prospect of the sea of Orange that will greet them Saturday night at the First Niagara Center.
“It’s going to feel like a road game for sure. … I feel like we overcome that kind of stuff pretty well,” Dyshawn Pierre said.
“At the end of the day though, basketball is basketball, regardless if you play with thousands of people in the arena, or if there’s nobody in the arena,” Sibert said. “You want to go out there and just give it your best, and I think we pretty much got that understood.”
You think you can do this.
“Absolutely,” Sibert said. “Besides, our fans will be here, too.”
Ya Gotta Believe.
“We play to win,” Miller said.
Dayton believes.
“I feel we have just as much chance to win as anybody,” Sibert said. “We have a room of fierce competitors, and as long as we go out there and play within our means and do what we do, we can play with anybody.”
Smith, a freshman guard, grew up in Co-op City in The Bronx.
“I’m actually a Syracuse fan,” he said with a sheepish grin. Then he made sure to add: “I was a Syracuse fan until I came to Dayton. I used to root to Syracuse and UConn growing up, so it’s kinda funny. UConn was about an hour away, and Syracuse and St. John’s was big in New York. Mostly St. John’s, but Syracuse was on TV more while I was growing up.”
Syracuse recruited him.
“They didn’t extend an offer,” Smith said.
Syracuse assistant coach Adrian Autry actually recommended Dayton as a good opportunity for Smith.
“Now I’m here, playing on one of the biggest stages in college basketball, which is a blessing,” Smith said.
“I thought that the way they play would be a good fit for him, the opportunity to play,” Autry said. “He’s a kid that has tremendous talent, tremendous upside. He will be one of the better players in that league when it’s all said and done.”
Pierre played AAU ball with fellow Canadian Ennis.
“He’s kinda one of those players you have to keep watching over a couple of games to kinda really appreciate what he does,” Ennis said.
Dayton assistant coach Allen Griffin played on Jim Boeheim’s 2001 NCAA Tournament team, and lost an assistant’s job at Syracuse to Autry.
“He’s one of the up-and-coming young coaches in this profession, but besides that, he’s one of my closest friends,” Autry said.
Sibert was asked if he could imagine going to the Sweet 16.
“Yeah … I can imagine it,” he said. “I want it, we all want it. We sit here, this is what we worked all year for, and we’re hungry to get there.”
Syracuse beware.