Welcome to the 8th installment of The War Room for the off-season of 2009. As always, I'll begin this session with the ground rules for those that may be new. Everything that is reported in The War Room must stay in The War Room. Sometimes the info is sensitive enough that it simply doesn't need to be passed on beyond the doors of this message board thread.
This is a special feature for our subscribers only. The reason why it is posted on the premium board is because that's the only way to ensure that the info stays exclusive to Dayton Flyer fans. Thanks for your cooperation. Here it is, the 8th edition of The War Room for the 2009 off-season:
Baseball Flyers
Tony Vittorio's team won 9-5 yesterday in the Quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament at Fifth Third Field. Hobson gave them 7.2 solid innings and the offense gave him some more insurance in the bottom of the eight as they held on for the four-run win. Vittorio will throw Quinn Haselhorst for the 1 seed Dayton as they face the 2nd seed Rhode Island. During the regular season, the Flyers were swept by Rhode Island in Kingston, and Haselhorst threw a complete game in a 4-2 loss. He went 8.0 innings, scattering 10 hits, walking 1 and striking out two. Haselhorst has an 8-4 mark on the season and regularly was the Saturday starter behind Hobson during the conference season. If the Flyers defeat Rhode Island, they will move on to the Winner's bracket final where they will have to be beaten twice on Saturday. Should they lose, the Rams would be in that spot and Dayton would have to win this evening and then defeat Rhode Island twice tomorrow. Head over to Fifth Third Field today at noon to root on the Flyers!
ZzZ zZz ZzZ
I'll start off the basketball recruiting talk with a bit of bad news, but I think it was expected news. Trey Zeigler, who told me previously he would like to visit Dayton during the month of June said he won't likely do so now. Not too many thought that the Flyers had a shot anymore after UCLA came out and offered (the likely favorite at this point). Perhaps Dayton is now focusing their attention on other prospects that they feel they have a better shot at because he hasn't talk to them in a "while".
OK, a lot might have been hopeful, but realistically, probably wasn't going to happen anyways. So on the long list of 2010 shooting guards, you can cross off now Geron Johnson and Trey Zeigler now. It still leaves an abundance and we'll talk about three of them now.
X-man
Dayton is in good with Xavier Jones from Gary, Indiana. "X" reportedly has a strong relationship with the Dayton coaches and as reported earlier this week, are in Xavier's top four schools. -- along with Virginia Tech, Marquette, and Indiana.
But here's the big news regarding "X". He might be transferring out of Gary West High for his senior year. His head coach (John Boyd) is leaving for the Michigan City job, despite Gary West being Boyd's alma mater.
How does that affect Xavier Jones? Well, don't be surprised if Jones plays his senior year somewhere other than Gary West. Jones is said to be really disappointed in Boyd's decision and is possibly looking to finish his high school career at a prep school.
Spearit Week coming up
A couple weeks away from Brandon Spearman's unofficial visit on campus. I spoke with Spearman the middle of this week and he told me that he has three new schools that are showing him interest. Those schools include Hawaii, Providence, and Oklahoma State.
He told me no schools lead at this point, but I think that could change after his Dayton visit. He also told me, "I can't wait to get down there and meet everybody." So far the Flyers have made an outstanding impression on Spearman and I think the thought of playing with an "Oak Hill" backcourt teammate excites the Illinois shooting guard.
Steele of Approval
As you probably read earlier in the week, I spoke to Jalen's uncle Howard earlier this week. While I originally felt like he might be standing in the way of Jalen committing to Dayton, I think he is finally coming around to the idea. I asked him if the plan was still to make a decision by the time Jalen starts his senior year, and he told me "No, it could be sooner than that." He added that he thinks by the end of July, we should know where Jalen is going.
Not expecting this.. I asked Howard is there a 3 or 4 schools that kind of lead Jalen's list, Kimber said no there is not. So I was thinking maybe he meant that they are ranking each school about even right now, when he continued by saying, "There's just one school that is above everyone else right now and that's Dayton. " That's when he went on to tell me that they've been there from the beginning and they've put in the work. A couple of weeks ago, I would have told you that I thought the chances of Steele ending up in a Flyers uniform was fading fast. Now I think those chances have improved to where we thought they were just after Dayton finished their season. Now I am not sure if they would take both Steele and Spearman, but to me, I think they would like to get a commitment out of one of these two.
Closing
That does it for this edition of the War Room. I want to thank everyone for their continued support and a special thanks and welcome to those that have just signed up in the last week. Those in Dayton, please try to get over to Fifth Third Field today at noon as Dayton eyes their first Atlantic 10 crown. I'd be there today, but I am out of town on a project. If they make it to tomorrow, I will be at Fifth Third Field for the Championship. Enjoy your long weekend everyone!
This post was edited on 5/22 10:49 AM by Matt Schwade
This is a special feature for our subscribers only. The reason why it is posted on the premium board is because that's the only way to ensure that the info stays exclusive to Dayton Flyer fans. Thanks for your cooperation. Here it is, the 8th edition of The War Room for the 2009 off-season:
Baseball Flyers
Tony Vittorio's team won 9-5 yesterday in the Quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament at Fifth Third Field. Hobson gave them 7.2 solid innings and the offense gave him some more insurance in the bottom of the eight as they held on for the four-run win. Vittorio will throw Quinn Haselhorst for the 1 seed Dayton as they face the 2nd seed Rhode Island. During the regular season, the Flyers were swept by Rhode Island in Kingston, and Haselhorst threw a complete game in a 4-2 loss. He went 8.0 innings, scattering 10 hits, walking 1 and striking out two. Haselhorst has an 8-4 mark on the season and regularly was the Saturday starter behind Hobson during the conference season. If the Flyers defeat Rhode Island, they will move on to the Winner's bracket final where they will have to be beaten twice on Saturday. Should they lose, the Rams would be in that spot and Dayton would have to win this evening and then defeat Rhode Island twice tomorrow. Head over to Fifth Third Field today at noon to root on the Flyers!
ZzZ zZz ZzZ
I'll start off the basketball recruiting talk with a bit of bad news, but I think it was expected news. Trey Zeigler, who told me previously he would like to visit Dayton during the month of June said he won't likely do so now. Not too many thought that the Flyers had a shot anymore after UCLA came out and offered (the likely favorite at this point). Perhaps Dayton is now focusing their attention on other prospects that they feel they have a better shot at because he hasn't talk to them in a "while".
OK, a lot might have been hopeful, but realistically, probably wasn't going to happen anyways. So on the long list of 2010 shooting guards, you can cross off now Geron Johnson and Trey Zeigler now. It still leaves an abundance and we'll talk about three of them now.
X-man
Dayton is in good with Xavier Jones from Gary, Indiana. "X" reportedly has a strong relationship with the Dayton coaches and as reported earlier this week, are in Xavier's top four schools. -- along with Virginia Tech, Marquette, and Indiana.
But here's the big news regarding "X". He might be transferring out of Gary West High for his senior year. His head coach (John Boyd) is leaving for the Michigan City job, despite Gary West being Boyd's alma mater.
How does that affect Xavier Jones? Well, don't be surprised if Jones plays his senior year somewhere other than Gary West. Jones is said to be really disappointed in Boyd's decision and is possibly looking to finish his high school career at a prep school.
Spearit Week coming up
A couple weeks away from Brandon Spearman's unofficial visit on campus. I spoke with Spearman the middle of this week and he told me that he has three new schools that are showing him interest. Those schools include Hawaii, Providence, and Oklahoma State.
He told me no schools lead at this point, but I think that could change after his Dayton visit. He also told me, "I can't wait to get down there and meet everybody." So far the Flyers have made an outstanding impression on Spearman and I think the thought of playing with an "Oak Hill" backcourt teammate excites the Illinois shooting guard.
Steele of Approval
As you probably read earlier in the week, I spoke to Jalen's uncle Howard earlier this week. While I originally felt like he might be standing in the way of Jalen committing to Dayton, I think he is finally coming around to the idea. I asked him if the plan was still to make a decision by the time Jalen starts his senior year, and he told me "No, it could be sooner than that." He added that he thinks by the end of July, we should know where Jalen is going.
Not expecting this.. I asked Howard is there a 3 or 4 schools that kind of lead Jalen's list, Kimber said no there is not. So I was thinking maybe he meant that they are ranking each school about even right now, when he continued by saying, "There's just one school that is above everyone else right now and that's Dayton. " That's when he went on to tell me that they've been there from the beginning and they've put in the work. A couple of weeks ago, I would have told you that I thought the chances of Steele ending up in a Flyers uniform was fading fast. Now I think those chances have improved to where we thought they were just after Dayton finished their season. Now I am not sure if they would take both Steele and Spearman, but to me, I think they would like to get a commitment out of one of these two.
Closing
That does it for this edition of the War Room. I want to thank everyone for their continued support and a special thanks and welcome to those that have just signed up in the last week. Those in Dayton, please try to get over to Fifth Third Field today at noon as Dayton eyes their first Atlantic 10 crown. I'd be there today, but I am out of town on a project. If they make it to tomorrow, I will be at Fifth Third Field for the Championship. Enjoy your long weekend everyone!
This post was edited on 5/22 10:49 AM by Matt Schwade
