
University of Dayton
It pains me to show Dayton fans, like myself, what a simulator tells us who would’ve won the national championship if coronavirus didn’t take out the NCAA Tournament. The simulator, run by CBS partner SportsLine, had Duke vs. Dayton and Florida State vs. Gonzaga in the Final Four with Dayton vs. Gonzaga for the national championship and my Dayton Flyers cutting down the nets in the Mercedes Dome. I’m about to cry right now. Seriously.
Those of us who grew up in Dayton heard all the stories about the 1967 Dayton Flyers NCAA tournament runner-up team. That was the team that lost to Kareem and UCLA at Freedom Hall. Those stories were beaten into our heads as kids. And now this happens in 2020. Absolutely crushing.
FWIW: @SportsLine took @jppalmCBS’s final projected NCAA Tournament bracket and simulated the games. Here are the results:
FINAL FOUR: Duke vs. Dayton, Florida State vs. Gonzaga.
TITLE GAME: Dayton vs. Gonzaga
CHAMPION: Dayton pic.twitter.com/QAH2FucYrm
— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) March 13, 2020
There will be the typical Kentucky fans, already in the comments, telling me how Dayton was overrated. How Dayton wouldn’t make the tournament if they played in a real conference. How Dayton wouldn’t make it to the Sweet 16. What’s interesting is that college basketball is more of a level playing field that it has been in like forever, yet I’m supposed to believe that a team with a lottery pick and No. 1 seed in the Sportsline bracket was a pretender because they don’t play in a real conference?
Dayton Flyers basketball over the last decadeNever forget Obi’s season, which will go down as the best in Flyers basketball history:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ffbfQhSCf/