So the day for me started with learning my flight to Columbus — it’s cheaper than flying to Dayton, there are more options and the drive isn’t that bad – had been cancelled and I was going to have to connect through Chicago.

Then SLU gets a new AD and my mail box is filled with soccer fans wanting to know if Philadelphia is going to beat out St. Louis for an MLS franchise. (That’s for a different blog.)

As for Chris May, the new AD (as of March 1), I don’t know how you can assess that. He seems to, as Majerus would say, check a lot of the boxes. He’s done marketing, he’s done fundraising, he knows Division I basketball. Yes, Colorado hoops aren’t a big deal, but that’s I think that’s systemic. SLU needs someone to sell the program and needs someone to bring in some money. I spoke briefly to May on Wednesday night — he called just as I was turning into the parking lot at the UD Arena and he didn’t want to say much in advance of the press conference on Monday — but he said he was excited about the job and wanted to help the program grow. (He also said he’d been reading my stuff; smart thing to say, Chris.)

I don’t know yet what swung the deal in favor of May over the other finalist, Bill Scholl of Notre Dame, but Scholl had some different issues: His children are older and one is going to Notre Dame and another is about to start. I’m assuming Notre Dame has a tuition plan where employees’ kids go for free, so if he left for SLU, he’d suddenly be on the hook for their tuition, which is a lot of cash. I don’t know if that’s a factor or not, but it would certainly complicate the decision.

As for the Dayton game, it looked really promising for a while. The first 9 minutes made it look like SLU would give them a game, but it didn’t work out that way. When SLU scored only four points in the last 11+ minutes, it was shades of some stories we’ve seen before. The thing that stood out to me was that Meyer had just one shot — which he missed — in the first half. He wasn’t getting the ball in places where he could be dangerous.

Majerus’ game plans are based on playing the percentages. Andres Sandoval and London Warren aren’t big scoring threats. You give them more room to shoot while you close down on Brian Roberts. Which as it turns out is what happened. Sandoval and Warren went nuts — Warren got an awful lot of bounces at the end of the first half — and blew the game open. Roberts made seven of eight shots, below the number of shots he usually takes, but, in the word most often used to describe him, very efficient.

Doug Hauschild of Dayton was telling me after the game that one way he looks at a team’s focus is to see how they shoot from  the free throw line. Even if a team is losing, if they’re into the game, they shoot well at the line. SLU was 5 of 12 at the free throw line. That’s not good, and in the closing minutes of the second half, they missed almost everything.

SLU was outrebounded by 18 (in the first game, Dayton outrebounded them by 15). That’s the biggest gap for SLU in at least the past three years. SLU’s big men — Husak, Knollmeyer and Eberhardt — had six rebounds. That’s not good. (And if you include Meyer, who plays at the 4 position, they had seven.) Husak and Knollmeyer each had one, and Husak played 16 minutes.

Knolllmeyer started again, but Husak started the second half. Knollmeyer didn’t play at all in the second half. I don’t know what that means for the next game.

Part of the team went home by bus after the game, but the starters stayed behind Dayton and will fly home on Thursday morning so they can get a good night’s rest.

SLU had a great assist-turnover ratio against La Salle. Not this time: 7 assists, 11 turnovers.