- After the Dayton Flyers point guard twisted his ankle with just under seven minutes left in Tuesday’s victory over Duquesne and limped to the bench soon after — then spent the next three days hobbling around campus with a protective boot on his right foot and did not practice — a lot of folks speculated on social media that there was no way he’d play Saturday against Fordham at UD Arena.
And yet there he was on the floor for the opening tip and just over a minute later he hit his first shot.
Not long after that, Bennett wormed his way beneath the basket and when teammate Nate Santos missed a shot, he outrebounded the Fordham big men and quickly put the ball back up for his second score.
- Since Bennett is the smallest Flyer at 5-foot-10, Fordham, like other UD opponents, may have thought it could bully him with its taller, beefier players. And for a brief moment near the middle of the half that happened when Abdou Tsimbila, the Rams’ 6-foot-9, 245-pound forward, swatted Bennett’s three-point attempt from the corner so hard it looked like the ball was headed for Preble County.
Undaunted, Bennett hustled to the other wing and that’s when teammate Koby Brea, who had grabbed the rejection, passed the ball right back to him and Bennett promptly buried a three-pointer.
By the end of the first half, he’d made six of his seven field goal attempts for 14 points. That gave UD a nine-point lead which was enough to keep the suddenly resurgent Rams at bay the rest of the way in what would end up a 78-70 Dayton victory.
- Fordham learned Saturday what so many other opponents have over the course of Bennett’s career. He almost always was the smallest player on his team and opponents often resorted to roughhousing — or worse — to try to keep him from playing so much bigger than he was.
His dad, Corey, told me about an AAU Tournament in Melbourne, Florida, that Javon played in when he was a youngster.
The other team had a point guard everybody said was very good. Javon picked him up full court from the opening tip, stole the ball several times and got easy lay-ups and finally the other kid snapped.
He lowered his shoulder and slammed into Javon’s chest, knocking him backwards and breaking his wrist.
That didn’t deter him. He would be an AAU star in Florida and then at Trinity Prep Academy in Orlando, too.
Opponents there tried some of the same tactics that the kid in Melbourne did and Bennett still has one of the souvenirs from those times.
If you look at him closely, you see his nose sways a bit unnaturally to the right and then back to the left again.
“That’s from like sophomore year,” he said after Saturday’s game. “Somebody stole the ball from me and I came right back to block his shot and he hit me in the nose with his elbow.
“I wore a mask for three games, but I didn’t like it and took it off.”
He finished his high school career with 2,147 points and yet it was his defense that amazed people even more. As his high school coach Eric Schneider put it: “He was a one-man press.”
When it was time for college, Bennett said only three lower echelon Division I schools offered him a scholarship: Jacksonville, Stetson and Merrimack College, the Massachusetts school which was in the process of transitioning from an NCAA Division II school to Division I .
He went to Merrimack, led all of Division I in steals last season, was named the Northeastern Conference Rookie of the Year and was the MVP of the NEC Tournament, but because the school was still in the transition phase to Division I, it was not allowed to play in the NCAA Tournament.
Soon Bennett was headed for the transfer portal and this time some of the old arguments didn’t seem so valid.
“A lot of people never really gave him what he deserved,” his dad told me earlier this season. “He had to work a little harder than most kids, just not to be overlooked. Head coaches and scouts told him if he was just a little taller, the blue bloods would be after him.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
That bias didn’t deter the UD coaches, who added him to the mix and, as it turned out, it was a move that helped save Dayton’s season.
When starting point guard Malachi Smith was lost for the year with an injury seven minutes into the opener, Javon Bennett suddenly stood taller than he ever has.
He became Dayton’s starting point guard and the Flyers haven’t missed a beat,
DaRon Holmes II, who led Dayton with 29 points and 10 rebounds on Saturday, said he knew from pick-up games in the summer that Bennett was special: “I was like ‘Wow! This kid can hoop!’”
With Saturday’s victory, the 16th-ranked Flyers are now 13-0 at home this season and 21-4 overall.
Bennett leads the team in steals and assists and is fifth in scoring, averaging nine points per game.
And he’s had some huge outings:
He made 8-of-9 field goal attempts for 22 points against Rhode Island. He made 5 of 6 field goal attempts for 18 points in the Flyers’ victory at St. Joseph’s 12 days ago. He had 18 points in the loss to Richmond and 16 — including 8 in 67 seconds in a crucial comeback surge — as Dayton topped LSU.
He made 6 of his 10 shots Saturday, had three rebounds and two assists, all without a turnover.
Since last year, he’s shooting better in every facet of his game: field goals, three-pointers, and free throws.
One other thing is different from last season.
He’s grown something of a pencil-thin moustache.
“I grew it to make me look older,” he said as he stood in a UD Arena hallway after the players’ press conference Saturday.
Meanwhile, head coach Anthony Grant was holding court, and he mentioned how good Bennett had looked Saturday.
Speaking of that, he was asked what he thought of his point guard’s new moustache.
“You want me to answer honestly?” he asked. “I didn’t even know he had a moustache.”
Told he did, the coach seemed a bit surprised: “He has a moustache for real? It’s new?”
He smiled, then shrugged: “OK, I’ll take your word for it.”
Like always, people see what they want to see in Javon Bennett.
About the Author