As they say, " ... and it wasn't even that close."

This was a serious thrashing.  To give you some idea of how this one went, Dayton hit 6 of their first 8 three-pointers and didn't have their first turnover until there were 9 minutes left in the first half (and as a matter of fact, deep into the second half, Dayton only had two).  At one point, Dayton led 22-7, and then it got really ugly.  The Flyers led 45-28 at halftime and stretched the lead to 60-34 at the first radio timeout in the second half.  At that point, the Flyers called off the dogs.

Dayton is an interesting story.  If I'm remembering what Bill Roth said correctly, in the last 13 years, the Flyers have only three games with crowds of less than 10,000.   That's remarkable, when you consider that the Flyers have had only one NCAA team in that stretch.

The Flyers feature senior Ryan Perryman, but to Tech fans, their most interesting player may be guard Tony Stanley.  Stanley is famous for verbally committing to Tech and then backing out of it and signing with Dayton.  This was in 1996, and Stanley didn't play last year (I believe he redshirted), but he is tearing it up this year.   He had a decent game against Tech, scoring 11.

The Hokies were never in this one.  They scored the first bucket of the game and then gave up the next nine points to the Flyers.  By all accounts, it was one of those nights where the Hokies were flat and a little uncertain, and the opponent was rocking and rolling from the opening tip.

Bobby Hussey said after the game that yes, Dayton did shoot the ball well, but he said it was the worst defense he has seen from Tech in his six years here.  He said the Hokies were mentally out of the game from the start and totally out of synch on both offense and defense.  The only bright spot he saw in the game was the play of Brendan Dunlop, who provided leadership and played well on the road (perhaps Brendan will start the next game opposite Jenis Grindstaff?).

Bobby sounded pretty upset after the game, saying, "I expect a young team to compete, and tonight, we absolutely did not compete."

From here, the Hokies don't get any breaks.  Tech's next game is Saturday, on the road against nationally-ranked Xavier, who smoked the Hokies by 35 in Cincinnati last year.  Then it's another road game against nationally-ranked Rhode Island, followed by a home game on Saturday the 24th against (soon to be nationally-ranked?) UMass.

In the old days, young'uns learned their lessons by getting spanked.  These may be modern times, but these Hokie young'uns are getting their lessons the same way.   They're struggling right now, and at this point, all we can do is look for improvement from here on.

USA Today Game Summary (includes stats)