On the drive home from Davidson, N.C., after Dayton’s 69-55 victory on Saturday, I stopped in Point Pleasant, W.Va., to get a look at the Mothman Museum. It bills itself as the world’s only Mothman Museum, as if there might be another. Sadly, it was a Sunday morning and also New Year’s Day, so it was closed. All I could do was photograph the Mothman statue in the street. I decided it was only slightly scarier than the Billiken statue outside Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis.
» PHOTOS: My travels in A-10 country
Speaking of mythical creatures, the Always-Flapping Hawk of Saint Joseph’s visited UD Arena on Wednesday. I love the Hawk mascot. It’s a unique part of college basketball — the only mascot that travels to every game in the A-10. It sheds feathers like my dogs Henry and Fergus shed hair in the living room. I’ve picked up several over the years and might keep doing so until I have enough to make my son Chase a Hawk Halloween costume.
I shared a video of the Hawk flapping before the game Wednesday and wrote, “Never change, Hawk. And never die.” The Hawk Will Never Die is a Saint Joseph’s slogan. Not every Dayton fan is rooting for its eternal life.
“Stupid Hawk,” one fan wrote on Twitter. “I honestly have an irrational dislike for this mascot.”
“I have an unhealthy disdain, yet begrudging respect, for that thing,” wrote another.
The Hawk may have gained some respect for his hard work Wednesday. Indeed, he never stops flapping, even during the national anthem. The Hawks did not, falling 76-56 to the Dayton Flyers, who look like a bigger A-10 favorite now than when the season began.
Holmes getting attention from draft experts
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
My dad Jeff turns 70 today. I have to thank the A-10 schedulers for not giving Dayton a game Saturday. It allowed me to organize a surprise birthday party for him. I’m telling thousands of readers of this newsletter about it now, knowing my dad doesn’t use the Internet unless my mom Mary is helping him. He’ll never see this.
My dad played football at Alter but not basketball, which is ironic because he built a full basketball court in our backyard in Mount Orab, and it would be a famous spot now if my two younger brothers and I had made it to the NBA. There were few scouts at the Gus Macker and Hoop-It-Up tournaments back in the day, so we never got a chance.
Dayton forward DaRon Holmes II has many more eyes on him. Buzz is building about his NBA Draft prospects for 2023. USA Today predicted this week he’ll get drafted in the first round if he turns pro. It’s too early to speculate whether Holmes will stay or go and not fair to him because all the focus should be on this season, but his dominant play and string of 20-point performance is a great thing for the Flyers. At the very least, there’s little doubt he’ll declare for the draft and explore the process as Toumani Camara did last year and Obi Toppin did the year before he was drafted.
This Flyers love affair all about staying faithful
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Tom Archdeacon wrote this week about Rick Roshto, a Dayton fan from Chicago who drives to every UD home game to photograph games for the school. Roshto is one of the friendliest guys you’ll ever meet. He’s a retired firefighter and paramedic who has brought me fire department goodies — stickers, patches, coloring books, small toys — for Chase several times over the years. He put his paramedic experience to use earlier this season when someone suffered a medical emergency in the media room at UD Arena just before a postgame press conference.
Roshto became a UD fan when his daughter Lisa attended the school, and he’s a consistent presence on the crowded baseline where I sit with other photographers and TV cameramen.
“I just fell in love with the whole UD basketball experience,” he told Archdeacon.
Holmes’ career day leads Dayton to road win
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
My weekend in North Carolina included an interview with DaRon Holmes Sr. I had talked to him on the phone several times but had not interviewed him in person. He wasn’t hard to find after Dayton’s victory at Belk Arena. He wore a Chapel Blue No. 15 jersey with his son’s name on the back. DaRon Sr. and Tomika Holmes traveled to Davidson from Goodyear, Ariz., in part because they had other family members in the area to visit.
DaRon’s younger brothers did not make the trip, but the youngest brother, Cameron, is on Dayton’s radar. He’s a freshman in high school and already has a scholarship offer from UD. It’s rare for the Dayton coaches to offer a scholarship to a freshman, and he’s the first 2026 recruit to receive a UD offer.
“He’s had offers previously, but just knowing that the school that cares about DaRon cares about him as well, he’s super excited,” DaRon Sr. said. “It’s that big-brother effect. He’s probably just as excited about Dayton as he was about his first offer.”
DaRon scored a career-high 32 points in the Davidson game. That’s why I wanted to talk to his dad, who didn’t attribute DaRon’s performance to the presence of his parents.
“He and the coaches have been putting in work,” DaRon Sr. said. “I know that coach (Anthony) Grant himself has been putting in on-on-one work with him, along with coach (Ricardo) Greer. They’re putting in the work, and he’s enjoying the work, and it’s going to continue to pay off.”
Fast Break
Each week, I’ll spotlight news from around the A-10 or other news that might interest Flyer fans.
🏀 Saint Louis announced Friday guard Fred Thatch, the team’s seventh-leading scorer (6.2 points per game), suffered a season-ending injury, a torn ACL, during a 90-81 loss Wednesday at Massachusetts. The injury also ends his college career because he will not use his final season of eligibility.
“Fred Thatch Jr. is the exemplary college athlete to cover,” wrote Stu Durando, the Saint Louis beat writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, on Twitter. “He has been open about his physical challenges and courteous. He has worked hard for two degrees and working on more. He became a spokesman for the program. He helps his community in Sikeston. He’ll no doubt be a success.”
🏀 The surprise team in the A-10 in the first two weeks of the conference schedule is St. Bonaventure (8-7, 2-0), which is the only team other than Dayton that hasn’t suffered an A-10 loss. Saint Peter’s transfer Daryl Banks has scored 58 points in victories against UMass and George Mason.
🏀 The NCAA’s Division I Transformation Committee announced this week it will recommend the NCAA tournament expand from 68 to 90 teams. The Division I board of directors will consider the proposal next week at the NCAA convention. I think the tournament is great as it is, but I also don’t think expanding it to 90 teams will significantly damage it. Selfishly, I’d like to cover the NCAA tournament more, and I haven’t gotten to do that in six years. This would improve Dayton’s chances every year.
Not surprisingly, Grant, whose job would get easier if the tournament expands, supported the change when I asked him about it before the season.
“I think certainly anytime you can add more opportunities for teams to compete in the postseason, I don’t really see a negative to that,” Grant said. “I don’t think it would impact the quality or the attractiveness of the tournament. I guess the first thought that comes to mind for me is maybe it puts more value on what teams do during the course of the regular season as opposed to everything being based on how you perform over any given random weekend at the end of the year. If that creates more opportunities to get more teams that are more than capable of going into the tournament and winning games into it, I’d be in favor of that.”
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