The light was the fact that after a long season of travel — from Maui to Kingston, R.I., and so many places in between — this would be my last flight out of Columbus this season. Any trips after this weekend, if the Dayton Flyers advance in the National Invitation Tournament, will be drivable. Dayton would play at UD Arena in the quarterfinals next week and at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis in the semifinals and championship game.
I’m sitting at the airport in Detroit as I write this after that 6:30 a.m. flight. Chattanooga, Tenn., is the next stop.
Two Dayton fans I met on the flight — one a senior at UD — have the same itinerary. They hoped to travel somewhere for the NCAA tournament this week and thought about making the trip to Boca Raton, Fla., for the game at Florida Atlantic on Wednesday but jumped at the chance to go to Tennessee when they found a good itinerary.
I’m excited to see Chattanooga after driving past it so many times on trips to and from Florida. I thought I would have to drive there for this game and dreaded the idea of 14 hours in the car, there and back, but I found a Delta flight for under $300. The only downside was getting up before 5 a.m. for the third day in a row.
***
Dayton plays Chattanooga at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. That’s pretty much the least favorable date and time for the Flyers considering Chattanooga played on Tuesday 90 minutes from home while Dayton played on Wednesday night in South Florida. But I know coach Anthony Grant and the players wouldn’t complain — at least publicly. They’re happy to still be playing basketball.
I’ve seen all the moaning from some UD fans who say they don’t care about the NIT and wished Dayton had declined a bid. That was never going to happen. Players want to play. Coaches want to coach. They can monitor the transfer portal and start building the 2025-26 roster while playing in the NIT. They’ve got a big enough staff and plenty of resources to do both at once.
The Dayton fans who attended the game in Boca Raton had a great time. They saw the best performance by a Dayton guard in the postseason since Roosevelt Chapman scored 41 points against Oklahoma in the NCAA tournament in 1984. Javon Bennett scored 30 points, making 8 of 12 3-pointers, in Dayton’s 86-79 victory.
I didn’t take too much of Bennett’s time after the game Wednesday. He’s an Orlando native, so his parents, grandparents and a couple uncles, among others, were waiting for him.
Dayton needed every one of Bennett’s 3s as Florida Atlantic mounted a late comeback. Bennett’s previous best game came in his freshman year at Merrimack when he scored 26 points. He had never made more than five 3s in a game.
“He was going crazy,” Dayton guard Enoch Cheeks said. “If you give him space ... we all know he’s a great shooter. He shoots like that in practice all the time.”
Another bad day in March Madness for VCU
Members of Dayton’s 2014 Elite Eight teams can pop the cork on the champagne bottle. They’re still the last Atlantic 10 Conference team to reach the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight.
The A-10 had slim hopes of ending that drought this season with only Virginia Commonwealth receiving a NCAA bid. VCU didn’t even make it past the first round, losing 80-71 to Brigham Young on Thursday.
BYU ended the first half on a 12-2 run to build a 39-28 lead. VCU did not make a serious run in the second half.
With that loss, the A-10 has failed to advance a team to the second weekend in 10 straight tournaments. VCU has lost in the first round in its last five appearances and suffered an even worse fate in 2021 when it didn’t even get to play, withdrawing from the event because of positive COVID-19 tests.
The game might have been the last at VCU for coach Ryan Odom, who has been rumored to be the top candidate for the open position at Virginia. If he leaves, VCU will be looking for its eighth new coach in this century. Dayton, by comparison, has had four coaches in the same span.
Yet no one will be surprised if the next VCU coach keeps the momentum going. Since 2007, VCU has not failed to make the tournament in back-to-back years.
Odom did not want to talk about his next move after the game.
“Obviously your name has come up quite a bit in other jobs. Are you open to those conversations?” he was asked in the postgame press conference. “Have you had any yet?”
“I’m happy to answer any questions about the game or this team or anything,” Odom said. “I’m not going to answer any questions about that. Thank you.”
Who to root for on Friday
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
My 6-year-old son Chase asked me to put the Dayton-Florida Atlantic game on the TV on Thursday. You can find the replay on ESPN+, so I turned it on. He wanted to see me on the sideline.
It was easy to find me in my blue Dayton Daily News shirt. Chase then said — falsely I might add — “Daddy, I saw you picking your nose”
Chase hasn’t learned to read yet in kindergarten, but I’m proud his sense of humor continues to grow.
Dayton fans will not be tuning into college basketball games today in search of nose-picking photographers. They have no shortage of people to root for on the second full day of NCAA tournament action.
• Andy Farrell, a Carroll High School and UD graduate who spent six years on Anthony Grant’s staff at Dayton, will be on the Vanderbilt bench during a first-round game at 3:15 p.m. Friday against Saint Mary’s in Cleveland. Farrell coached last season at Siena and is now the director of operations on Mark Byington’s staff.
• After four seasons at Dayton, Koby Brea will play for Kentucky in the NCAA tournament on Friday. No. 3 seed Kentucky plays No. 14 Troy at 7:10 p.m. Friday in Milwaukee.
Brea appeared at a press conference Thursday in Milwaukee and talked about his season with the Wildcats.
“I feel like it’s definitely surpassed my expectations just being able to see what it’s really like to be a Wildcat and be embraced by the great fans and be part of something special,” Brea said. “I feel like we’ve done a lot of special things this year. To be here is rewarding, the effort and everything that we did this whole year to end up here now. We know that there’s a lot more to do. So that’s ahead of us so we’re excited for it.”
• Kobe Elvis played with Brea in two NCAA tournament games last season. He’s back in the tournament with No. 9 seed Oklahoma, which plays the two-time defending national champion, No. 8 seed Connecticut, at 9:25 p.m today in Raleigh, N.C.
• Mustapha Amzil did not get to play in the NCAA tournament in three seasons at Dayton but will make his second tournament appearance with No. 10 seed New Mexico, which plays No. 7 Marquette at 7:25 p.m. Friday in Cleveland.
Fast Break
Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans:
🏀 Damon Friery, one of two freshman in Dayton’s 2025 recruiting class, saw his high school career end when defending Division I champion Cleveland St. Ignatius lost 58-54 to Olentangy Orange in the state semifinals on Sunday. Friery scored 23 points. He finished his high school career as the sixth-leading scorer in school history (1,127 points).
🏀 Dayton’s other incoming freshman, Jaron McKie, of Philadelphia, finished his high school career in February with 1,381 points. That ranks fourth in Saint Joseph’s Prep history. McKie committed to Dayton in September and signed in November.
🏀 Two years after he won the A-10 Coach of the Year award, Keith Urgo lost his job at Fordham. It’s hard to explain this move. No one has won big at Fordham. Urgo produced the best season in decades (25-8 in 2022-23). But sports fans love coaching changes, so it should produce excitement in the offseason.
🏀 What do you want to know about the Flyers?
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