Grant cherishes his first victory as Dayton coach

RELATED: Cunningham talks about winning basket

Grant couldn't have scripted a better first game. The Flyers beat Ball State 78-77 on a basket by Josh Cunningham with 0.1 seconds to play at UD Arena. Grant, the 20th coach in UD history, is the seventh straight to win his first game.

“I’m blessed — I really am — every day to get a chance to do what I do,” Grant said. “I don’t take that for granted. It’s a surreal feeling to go out there and see 13,000 strong every night when you come out there. You could feel it at different points in the game. I’ve always said that about the Dayton crowd. They understand it. They get it.

“They were able to spur us when we got down there in the middle of the second quarter and gave us the energy to take the lead and fought all the way through to the end. You could feel the air kind of go out of the building in terms of the disappointment at the end. It looked like it wasn’t going to go in our favor, and then to hear the building explode at the end, I cherish every moment of that.”