From here on out, it’s relatively easy to hate on these teams. We’re not so overloaded on hate that thinking becomes hard, as was the case with GW, but our HateMeters are at least registering so we can fully hate on the remaining programs. There’s an almost guilty feeling when you hate on a program like Duquesne, because that time we wasted writing the entry could’ve been spent doing something people may actually care about – debating whether or not Tina Fey is hot.

This week we get the Dayton Flyers, the team with the most delusional fan base in the conference. If you were to poll the fans of the A14, chances are they would agree too. Just for kicks, we invited along The Blackburn Review to provide a counterpoint. On to the hating…

Mascot: Flyers
Founded: 1850
Location: Dayton, OH
Colors: Columbia Blue and Tailspin Red
2009-2010 record: 25-12 (8-8)
2009-2010 vs. Charlotte: (1-0) Dayton 75, Charlotte 47
All time vs. Charlotte: 4-5 (4-6 after this season, since Dayton will never win in Halton)

J Felt: It’s about time we reached a team I love to hate. They’ve had players that annoy you, and the fan base is the worst. Don’t give me that crap about how you’re “the best basketball fans in the country”, if I lived in Dayton I would go to basketball games too. It’s either, go to basketball games or stab myself with a pitchfork, slim pickings indeed.

Dayton Flyers during conference play.

It’s ridiculous that Dayton considers itself to be the birthplace of aviation, hence the nickname, Flyers. The truth is that North Carolina is the birth place of aviation. The first flight took place in North Carolina, not Ohio. There’s a reason the Wright Brothers left Ohio to test their airplane… Ohio sucks. That being said, we really should establish an annual rivalry trophy with Dayton, the “First In Flight” game. Winner gets a trophy, fame, and another notch in the win column. Losers remain losers and live in shame until the next game. If this is put into place the trophy must be better than the Brain On A Stick we fight for against Davidson.

Oh, I’m sorry, you’re looking for actual basketball-related reasons to hate Dayton? How about the fact that they are our conference’s favorite choke artists. Can you name any other team that routinely, year after year, goes into a tailspin once conference play starts? Just last season, they were 11-3 going into conference play, a definite NCAA-worthy team. Then they proceeded to go 8-8 in A14 play, bursting their bubble. For a team that was supposed to be the class of the conference last season, they didn’t exactly live up to expectations.

But that doesn’t stop their fan base from declaring year-in and year-out that Dayton is going to be the team beat, and that this is the year they sweep Xavier. Stop kidding yourselves. And please, stop turning every thread that ever existed on the internet into a “Dayton rules, Xavier sucks” thread. Don’t blame the Musketeers, it’s your fault, every time. The basketball world would be a better place if Dayton fans were given limited access to the Internet.

Cut your damn hair.

Memories? We’ve got them. From the beatdown in the 06-07 A10 tourney, to the Brian Roberts’ late game daggers in 07-08, to the two games in Halton Dayton had no excuse losing,  to the “MopHead” kid that seems to exist every season. (I think Dayton must require that at least one guard on the roster have goofy shoulder-length dreads. Forget towel boys, just turn him over and the sweat disappears.) They absolutely stomped us last year. STOMPED us, literally. Just a few nights after beating up Xavier too. It was starting to look like Dayton was about to go on a tear and win the conference… right? Nope. They proceeded to be mediocre after that. I hate them for that. If you’re going to run us out of the building, at least go on to do it to everybody else. How long has Chris Wright been in school anyway? I thought he was supposed to be a lottery pick by now. Must be that Dayton-hype again.

Hate level? Early on in this column they were on pace for a 9, but in typical fashion they fell off and registered an 8 on the 49erFanatics.com HateMeter.

NLP: The hatred for Dayton started early and came easy when the Dayton Pep Band ran around the Halton track looking like Fire Cracker Popsicles.  I suppose attention-whoring is important when your diminutive coach is the only coach in America Bobby Lutz could have posted up one-on-one, but that was a level of obnoxious rivaled only by Davidon’s high school cheerleaders.  Perhaps the worst part was their hype master director who led the pep band in chants while they were getting absolutely destroyed by Curtis Withers and his 20-20.

What Flyer fans do when they don't have a basketball game.

Their fan base only makes it worse, as J Felt touched on.  Congratulations Dayton, you’ve successfully chosen watching basketball over watching another company packing up its offices and moving to Charlotte.  I really can’t think of anything else to do in the armpit of Ohio, and that’s saying something.  Maybe watching cars rust?  In a lot of ways, they remind me of Memphis.  Every win is exaggerated.  Every year they’re going to win the NCAA, NBA, USBL, CBA, FIFA World Championship, Super Bowl!!!!1111oneoneone.  Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for me, man I love seeing them take themselves apart) it never works out that way.  I guess Gregory hasn’t learned to channel his inner Calipari.  I suppose a lot of it has to do with the inferiority complex that they get with respects to Xavier.  Just mentioning them in this post will probably result in Muddy Waters stroking out over on the A10 board.  I hate that we lose any games to them at all.  Hate!  Fortunately they’re defeated in Halton Arena and I expect it to stay that way this season.  No matter how their season is going to go, they’re going to lose to us in Charlotte.  On the HateMeter I give Dayton a solid 8.

C-PIP: The Dayton Flyers, that’s where it all starts, I have an airplane on my license plate, driver’s license and state quarter and yet this Catholic school in a Cincinnati suburb has the cajones to call themselves the Flyers?  Being raised a Catholic, I have no problem saying that the Vatican has been a resistance to innovation the last 2000 years, how many astronomers lost their head for the name of science and discovery? Too many.  When a school on the other side of town is named after the inventors of flight, which I’m assuming to be true…WRIGHT State FYI, has to call themselves  the Raiders instead of the Flyers, its only wright(see what I did there?) to be perturbed.  How about the Dayton Crusaders, that has a nice ring to it?

He wouldn't have stolen a hat.

Then there is my beef with UD fans, of which I have an anecdote.  In 2009 Dayton came into Halton Arena on the verge of a Top 25 ranking.  There was a promotion with 49er Baseball in which free baseball hats were provided to those in attendance that day.   From outside the student entry doors, we see Dayton fans walk up to our baseball players, and to our disgust, walk away with Charlotte 49er Baseball caps intended for loyal members of Niner Nation.  I cherish every article of 49er gear in my possession as it represents my loyalty to UNC Charlotte and Charlotte 49er Athletics.  Who knows what happened to the hats in the hands of Dayton fans, probably thrown away or placed on a shelf in a How We Pissed Off Opposing Fans Hall of Fame.

I will give props when they are deserved, and thank God Dayton beat UNC-Cheater Hill in the NIT Final last year.  After the Niner collapse, seeing the Tarholes get a consolation banner for their terrible season would have spurned a series of Niner suicides in the style of “The Happening”.  But, because Rhode Island would have beaten them if not for the referees, I can’t give them too much not-hate, so the Dayton Flyers land at a 7 on the 49erFanatics.com Hate’O’Meter.

And now, from our good friends over at The Blackburn Review, our favorite blog for Dayton basketball, reasons NOT to hate Dayton…

Why You Shouldn’t Hate Dayton, by The Blackburn Review:

(1) Pity goes a long way. Going to school in southwest Ohio is no way to spend the best years of your life. The weather is dreary, the locals are hillbillies with nothing to lose and the women come to campus with an unlimited supply of baggy sweatshirts and sweatpants. The plus side, there’s a lot of drinking to drown your miseries and dull your senses. But that just leads to drunken fights and questionable sexual acts.   

(2) As long as you keep it close, we’ll probably collapse down the stretch.

(3) If we are playing in your house, you have a 66% chance of winning regardless of your team’s actual talent level.

(4) How can you hate UD when Xavier is just a few miles down the road waving its dick in your face? Our biggest rival is one of the most successful mid-majors in the country, makes the tournament every year, gets better recruits and has accomplished more in the past decade than Dayton will achieve in the next 50 years. We are a perpetual red-headed stepchild in our own backyard. It’s a cross all UD fans have to bear.

(5) We returned your email.

(6) Our priests give the best hand jobs.

(7) I once saw Chris Burke, Corky from the early nineties sitcom Life Goes On , in a bathroom on campus. He pulled his pants and boxers down past his knees like a four-year old child. There’s nothing like leaving class and using a urinal next to the most famous child actor with down syndrome’s bare ass exposed. He gave me the link to his website when he was done too, it’s pretty fucking cool.