The Obi Experience
Dayton 76-George Washington 51; 29–2, 18–0
In his last game atUD Arena, Obadiah Toppin had a sequence straight out of Rucker Park. After a Jalen Crutcher run to put UD up by 12, we got a backdown posterization (and subsequent mean mugging) directly followed by a steal and 360 slam. After a GW timeout, layup, and Obi missed shot we got the coup de grace:
The reverberations of the last dunk sent the bench into hysterics, with Cam Greer going full matrix and Zimike Nwokeji literally flipping upside down. I began running around the Bud Light deck like a chicken with my head cut off screaming “O MY GOD” to nobody in particular. The entire crowd could’ve rushed the floor and stopped the game and I don’t think the refs would have done anything. They were shook so badly they made an insane charge call on GW the next possession anyways. As we went to a media timeout the arena vibrated with chants of “O-BI, O-BI, O-BI”
While this was the ultimate Obi experience, similar situations have played out all year. The monster jam vs UNF, the left footed slam vs VCU, the and-one windmill vs URI, the reverse alley-oop followed by two foot windmill vs Duquesne etc. etc. You could go on for days.
These ordeals can only be described by one word: euphoria. Titus compared it to a religious experience, and yeah when a player has two between the legs dunks in his career you can forgive people for thinking he is basketball Jesus. Obi does stuff on a basketball court that makes you feel, and what is the point of sports if not to make you feel something?
Luka Garza hasn’t done anything this year that even comes close to the Obi experience. The whole national player of the year debate has been annoyingly playing out in my twitter feed for the past couple weeks. All anybody wants to talk about are stats and schedules and who is a more complete player yada yada yada. Fuck all that. The stats are more or less the same. The schedule is out of player control. They can both do it all. But only one man is out here getting you closer to God. Only one man causes the masses to stand up and scream “I DON’T BELIEVE WHAT I JUST SAW”. Only one man makes his own fans surrender cobra in disbelief after dunking another team into the ether.
That man is Obi Toppin, the National Player of the Year.
The game. Ah yes there was a game in here. Am I worried about the first 3/4 of this game when GW got out to an early 7 point lead and was still hanging around with 14 minutes left? Not especially. Obi missed a couple of close ones, Trey and Ryan had some uncharacteristic turnovers, Trey bricked a potential posterization, and we missed the front end of two 1-and-1s. With GW having little to no hope scoring the ball inside, they settled for a bunch of threes and managed to hit enough to keep pace. Still, once Crutcher went on his run it felt finished, and once Obi did his thing you knew it was.
Speaking of Crutcher. He did it again. I barely noticed him for a half and then suddenly he was absolutely unstoppable. It was more noticeable this time because Chatman missed a couple driving it to the rim and overall the offense was struggling. I’m trying to focus on this year but I wonder next year what he looks like with around 30% usage. He’s going to be less efficient with teams focusing on him but we could still have back-to-back A-10 players of the year here.
Trey and Ryan. Not their best efforts, but what incredible careers for these two. They were the bridge between the Archie and Grant eras. Both of them could have left thinking Dayton’s best era was behind it. Instead they are the undisputed leaders of the #3 team in America. Trey is a 1st team A-10 worthy and Ryan the best glue guy in the NCAA. These are guys you want to go to battle with. Props to the athletic department for all they did in the pregame ceremonies and postgame tribute and speeches. That was all a very emotional and an exceptional experience.
THE ANTHEM. How much do we have to pay this man to be our permanent anthem singer? (Willie sax anthems are always welcome of course)
18–0 has been accomplished. 21–0 sounds a whole lot better though. Until next time, Go Flyers!
