I try to do something new on every trip. That’s easy in New York City. I also visited the Museum of the City of New York, just off Central Park, on the way north to the Bronx.
Fordham’s Rose Hill Gym, where the Dayton Flyers played on Wednesday night, is a museum, too, in many ways. It turned 100 years old this season. According to the Fordham website, “on January 16, 1925, the Rose Hill Gym officially opened with a basketball game between Fordham and Boston College in a game officiated by Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch, aka The Fordham Flash.”
Kareem Abdul Jabbar played his final high school game at Rose Hill. Bronx native Scoochie Smith won a game there every season he played at Dayton. Two years ago, Dayton’s three most recent draft picks were all in the house as Obi Toppin came to watch Dayton, which had Toumani Camara and DaRon Holmes II on the roster, play Fordham.
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While I had some new experiences in New York City, I didn’t see anything new at Rose Hill — just another Dayton victory. I wasn’t there in 2021 because of pandemic-related travel restrictions when Dayton lost to Fordham. I’ve never seen Dayton lose at Fordham. It’s the only A-10 school where I’ve never seen a Dayton loss.
Dayton gave up 48 points in the first half, the most Fordham has scored in the first half this season, but scored 48 itself.
“We’ve just got to take more pride on the defensive end early in the game,” Dayton guard Javon Bennett said. “Forty eight points is kind of unacceptable.”
The Flyers played better defense in the second half. Eventually, the score became what you expect when Dayton plays Fordham — a 93-76 victory. The Flyers, who had fallen apart in the final minutes in their final two games against Davidson and Virginia Commonwealth, dominated the final minutes.
A frustrating night at UD Arena
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Anthony Grant was his typical self in my postgame interview with him Wednesday at Fordham — calm, cool, cordial, collected. Even after the worst of losses this season — George Washington, Massachusetts and St. Bonaventure, for example — he answers questions the same way and doesn’t display the frustration you know is lurking inside. I typically talk to Grant right after he talks to the Voice of the Flyers, Larry Hansgen, on WHIO Radio.
Grant’s performance at the press conference last Friday after a 73-68 loss to VCU at UD Arena was a different story. The frustration was evident. He was in no mood to take questions.
At one point, I brought up VCU’s full-court pressure defense. Grant stopped me and said, “Is there a question in there?” I said, “Yes,” and then asked the question I had been about to ask.
About two minutes into the press conference, I tried to ask a question about why Grant took Zed Key out of the game in the final minutes and replaced him with Amaël L’Etang, who committed a crucial turnover that led to VCU’s game-tying basket, before quickly being replaced again by Key. I didn’t get to ask the question.
“Zed gave you some better minutes tonight,” I said.
At that point, Grant cut me off.
“We have to be better,” Grant said.
“He came out ...” I said.
Again, Grant cut me off.
“We have to be better,” Grant said. “I’m not going anywhere else with that. We lost the game. We have to be better. Zed has to be better. Everybody on the team has to do their job better.”
I could have kept at it, but I let it go and the press conference ended. We see clips of coaches getting upset in press conferences all the time. I had never seen Grant in this state. He’s had a few rants, for sure, but he has never shut down a press conference in this way.
I don’t think he was angry at the local media in the room or the questions because we didn’t even ask many in the short press conference, but blowing another game against the one Atlantic 10 Conference program that has outperformed Dayton over the last decade had to have affected Grant’s mindset at that moment.
The loss pretty much guaranteed Dayton will fall short of its goal of winning the A-10 regular-season championship for the seventh time in Grant’s eight seasons. The Flyers had slim hopes going into the game. They are minuscule now. The game against Duquesne on Saturday at UD Arena and the five that follow will be about Dayton improving its seeding for the A-10 tournament, where it will get one last chance to turn this season into a success.
Brian Roberts starts a podcast
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
I’m typing this at a Starbucks near our house. Chase, my 6-year-old son, is sitting across from me. It’s the start of a five-day weekend for kids in the Bexley school system.
Chase is playing Minecraft while I work.
“Dada, watch this,” Chase says, over and over again.
Chase loves to skip wherever he goes. He’s a pretty happy kindergartner. We’re going to take a one-night vacation to Cincinnati next week while he’s off school.
Minecraft is Chase’s preferred form of entertainment these days. Mine is podcasts. They get me through many 75-minute drives to UD Arena. I just subscribed to a new one: The Frequent Flyer w/ B. Rob. It’s available on YouTube.
Roberts talked to former Dayton teammate Nick Stafford in the first episode last week. They were roommates together for three years at UD. Stafford played three seasons (2004-07) at UD. He had one more season of eligibility but graduated in 2007 and decided not to return to college basketball.
“I gave my heart, sweat and tears into the program. But talking to the coach and my family, it’s the right time to graduate,” Stafford said in 2007. “I want to explore what’s out there in the world for Nick Stafford.”
Stafford has worked in the development field in fundraising and has worked at the University of Minnesota and University of Cincinnati. He also worked as director of major gifts and legacy planning at the Basketball Hall of Fame in his hometown, Springfield, Mass.
Looking back on his decision to attend UD, Stafford said, “I’m big on history. Going to that arena and hearing you’re going to get 13,000-plus fans every night, no matter if you win or lose, that was attractive to me.”
On the second episode this week, Roberts again brought on Stafford and the two talked to Matt Farrell, of Dayton 6th. The wide-ranging conversation talked about the latest changes coming to college athletics. Schools will be able to pay athletes directly starting in July.
“We’ve got a lot of changes coming,” Farrell said. “I think some of those changes are going to bring stability to the system. I think some of the changes are going to introduce a little bit more chaos in the near term while things settle out over the longer term. I think the thing that I talk to a lot of fans in this community about is, ‘You might not like it, but it’s here.’ A lot of folks ask me, ‘Matt, with a contribution to Dayton 6th, what can you promise?’ My answer is very simple: ‘I can make no promises on what a contribution to Dayton 6th gets.’ But I can promise what the inverse of that looks like. The lack of support for NIL, the lack of support for our players, I know what that outcome is. That’s an outcome no one wants to see. I think we as a community have stepped up in a big way.”
Fast Break
Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans:
🏀 St. John’s coach Rick Pitino caught the attention of Dayton fans with a rant about the future of the Big East earlier this week. He wants the Big East to merge with the Atlantic Coast Conference and add other teams as well — including Dayton.
“We can’t see that there’s a lot of money to be made down the road if we form a Super League. Because we all don’t have football, we’re basically all Catholic schools with the exception of UConn, the bottom line is there. They’re just thinking of today. I wish they would add Dayton, Memphis, combine with the ACC and just have a super basketball league.”
🏀 Xavier, Cincinnati and Ohio State have all struggled at times this season, but are all still in the mix for NCAA tournament berths, according to the latest Bubble Watch story from The Athletic.
🏀 Former Dayton forward Zimi Nwokeji now has more points this season (235) at Jacksonville than he did in four seasons with the Flyers (224). He’s averaging 9.8 points in 21.3 minutes per game and has started 14 of 24 games. Jacksonville (15-9, 9-3) is one of four teams tied for first place in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
🏀 What do you want to know about the Flyers?
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