Now Chase is 6, and I don’t have to worry about anyone watching him while I talk to players or Grant. He sat in the back for the most part Monday as local media talked to Amael L’Etang, Grant and then Posh Alexander. I embarrassed Chase when I asked him if he had any questions for Grant.
Doug Hauschild, Dayton’s longtime director of athletics communications, gave Chase a job, asking him to hand out copies of the game notes to Tom Archdeacon, UD’s Alex Mikos, WHIO’s Larry Hansgen, Matt Digby, of Dayton 24/7 Now, and WDTN’s Joey DeBerardino. Chase did it with such enthusiasm I gave him a $1 for the effort. I hope Hauschild’s interns get paid more.
***
At the interviews Monday, we talked about the start of Atlantic 10 Conference play. Dayton beat La Salle 84-70 the next day in the first of 18 league games over the next two-plus months.
The La Salle game followed what will likely be a familiar pattern for Dayton. It wasn’t easy. There will be few easy games in A-10 play. Dayton held the lead for the last 27 minutes and had a double-digit lead for about half of that time. La Salle got as close as six points four times in the second half.
Dayton answered every La Salle run with a run of its own and coasted to its 26th straight victory at UD Arena. Dayton (11-3) has now won six games by double digits. It also won six games by double digits last season in its first 14 games.
Dayton’s average margin of victory in 18 A-10 games last season was a league-best 9.1 points per game. Two years ago, it ranked second in scoring margin (8.4) behind regular-season champion Virginia Commonwealth (9.8). Dayton led the A-10 in scoring margin in 2022 (10.3) but finished a game behind Davidson (7.4).
In 2021, St. Bonaventure won the A-10 championship and led the league in scoring margin (9.7). The last A-10 team to finish A-10 play with a double-digit scoring margin was Dayton in 2020 (14.0 in an 18-0 season).
Scoring margin doesn’t matter in the standings, but it does tell the story over a course of a season. Dayton’s quest to return to the top of the A-10 standings for the first time since 2020 will depend on how dominant it can be. If it doesn’t have to depend on last-second shots or stops, its path to the championship will be that much easier.
Even if a NCAA tournament berth is the end goal for all programs these days, an A-10 championship would have great meaning for the players who finished a game back last season and for Malachi Smith, who has seen the program fall short three seasons in a row.
“I think I speak for the team as a whole: we really want it,” Smith said after the game Tuesday. “We put in a lot of sacrifice and work. I think we deserve to get that championship. We know it’s not going to be easy. We know it’s going to be hard. So we’ve got to do whatever it takes.”
Flyers play first true road game Saturday
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
We had to use the snow shovels for the first time this winter this morning in Bexley. There’s more on the way, apparently, on Sunday. I don’t often look at the weather report. We rarely have interesting weather here in Ohio.
I did glance at the forecast this week, though, because I’m flying to Washington, D.C., on Saturday at 6 a.m. Dayton (11-3) plays George Washington (11-3) at noon Saturday at the Charles E. Smith Center. Fortunately, I have an 8 p.m. flight home Saturday, so I shouldn’t have to worry about the looming snow storm.
Dayton’s second A-10 game will be its first true road game of the season. It has played 10 home games and four games on neutral courts (three in Maui and one in Cincinnati).
Dayton has never gone this deep into a season without playing on an opponents’ home court, though it didn’t play its first true road game in the 2019-20 season until the 14th game of the season at La Salle. The rise in popularity of neutral-court games made this possible.
Dayton is one of 15 teams in the country that have played 10 or more home games. Only Missouri, DePaul and Georgia Tech have played 11 home games at this point. Only three other programs have yet to play a true road game this season: Texas Tech; Colorado; and Oklahoma. All three also play their first road games Saturday.
Dayton could set the tone for tougher road games ahead if it can win at George Washington. The Flyers have a worse winning percentage at the Charles E. Smith Center than any other A-10 venue since entering the conference in the 1995-96 season.
Here are Dayton’s road records in the A-10 (ranked from best to worst): Davidson (5-1, .833); Fordham (13-4, .765) Duquesne (17-7, .708); St. Bonaventure (10-5, .667); Saint Louis (12-10, .545); La Salle (10-10, .500); George Mason (4-4, .500); Loyola Chicago (1-1, .500); Richmond (6-8, .429); Massachusetts (8-11, .421); Rhode Island (8-11, .421); Saint Joseph’s (7-12, .368); VCU (4-7, .364); and George Washington (6-14, .300).
A balancing act for Posh Alexander
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Tom Archdeacon wrote about Dayton guard Posh Alexander after the La Salle game. He had been waiting for a good moment to talk to him about the juggling act he’s doing this season as a new father playing his fifth and final season of college basketball.
I first heard that Alexander had become a dad last summer. He announced the news himself on Instagram in August with a photo of he and his girlfriend Aniyah Soto’s, A’Miri.
“I love you baby boy,” Alexander wrote in the caption.
Later, Alexander shared a series of photos, including one of himself in a hospital room with his newborn son.
“One of the best summers ever,” Alexander wrote.
Alexander opened up to Archdeacon about being a new dad and praised his girlfriend, who lived with him here in Dayton with A’Miri until moving back home to New Jersey after the holiday.
“She’s sacrificed a lot and does so much for the baby,” he said. “When they were here, if I had to get up early for practice or something, she got up a lot of the time at night. I give all the credit to her. She’s a great mother.”
Fast Break
Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans:
🏀 We’re working on an in-person Flyer Connection Live event and will be inviting you, our readers and Flyer fans to join us on the evening of Jan. 14. Details will be coming soon, but plan for a fun night at Warped Wings Brewery with myself and our Dayton Daily News sports team discussing the second half of the Flyers season.
🏀 Dayton ranked 20th in ESPN’s power rankings on Thursday.
🏀 Chuck Pollock, of the Wellsville Sun, ranked St. Bonaventure’s victory against A-10 preseason favorite VCU on Tuesday as one of the 10 best in the 58-year history of the Reilly Center.
🏀 Duquesne earned one of the most surprising victories on the opening day of A-10 play, beating Rhode Island 67-55 in Pittsburgh.
“From what the Dukes considered a snub in the Atlantic 10 poll to starting the season with six straight losses,” Abby Schable wrote in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “not many expected them to kick off conference play with a win — especially against a Rhode Island team that came into the game 11-1.”
What do you want to know about the Flyers?
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