As students return to campus, the biggest surprise might be just across the river at the University of Dayton Arena.

Battered by injuries and inexperience, the supposedly rebuilding Dayton Flyers men's basketball team enters the weekend with a 13-5 overall record, including a 3-1 mark in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Next up for UD is a home game with rival Xavier University (13-5, 4-1) at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, in a game that surprisingly has huge conference implications.

All this comes after just a few months ago, at the beginning of the season, Flyer News published the title "Liftoff" to go along with this year's Basketball Preview. The term was meant to designate the beginning of a rebuilding process under first-year head coach Archie Miller. In that issue's staff editorial, Flyer News said that "UD fans will need to learn about the concept of patience" as the season started.

So how did we get here and what have students missed over the past several weeks? For starters, this is a much different team with the recent loss of redshirt junior forward Josh Benson. After starting the year hot by averaging career highs of 10.9 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, Benson tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee on Dec. 30, 2011, ending his season.

Senior forward Chris Johnson also has been battling concussion-like symptoms over the last two weeks, limiting the Flyers to as few as eight uniformed players. Despite these losses, Dayton has just kept soaring, winning four of its last five games against prominent squads such as Temple University and the University of Mississippi.

The conference schedule will start to get a bit more intense soon, but it all begins Saturday afternoon at UD Arena. And as surprising as it may be, UD students have a chance to help the Flyers "liftoff" with coach Miller much sooner than anticipated.