Today, when Arizona tips off in its second round of the NCAA Tournament here in Salt Lake City, he’ll be on the court:
As the star of their opponent — the darlings of the Delta Center — the Dayton Flyers.
For DaRon Holmes II, dreams changed.
Coming out of high school three years ago, he decided to leave his home in Goodyear, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, for the Midwest and the city where two men once took flight and became famous.
Now he’s done the same.
The 6-foot-10 Holmes is now a consensus second-team All American, the co-Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, and he’s on the final watch list for several national player of the year awards.
He’s likely headed to the pros after this season ends.
It looked like UD’s season was over Thursday when the Flyers were down by 17 to Nevada with just over seven minutes left in their NCAA Tournament opener here.
Then came the miraculous comeback – the Flyers overcame the fifth greatest deficit in NCAA Tournament history – that ended in a 63-60 UD victory.
The grit, the refusal to wilt and certainly the on-court excellence in the final minutes – of which Holmes played a huge role, as he did all game – won over everyone in the Delta Center crowd that wasn’t a Wolfpack fan and caught the attention of a national audience, as well.
Holmes carried the team in the first half, when the Flyers’ other stars were struggling.
In those final seven minutes – when Dayton went on a 17-0 run to tie the game with two minutes left and overall would outscore Nevada 24-4 coming down the stretch – he had eight points.
He finished the day with a game-high 18 points, nine rebounds three steals and a blocked shot.
The other comeback stars were Koby Brea, who hit three three-pointers in just over five minutes – and Nate Santos who had seven points.
Today the No. 7 seed Flyers (25-7) face a stiff test in No. 2 Arizona, which easily handled Long Beach State, 85-65, in its opener.
The 26-8 Wildcats are physical and deep and have several talented players.
In the post, they have 7-foot, 260-pound redshirt senior Oumar Ballo.
“He (has) an insane level of physicality,” Holmes said Friday afternoon. “We’re going to have to stay strong, stay locked in and do what we do. I think we’ll be okay.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Arizona’s 6-foot-7, 225-pound Keshad Johnson, who’ll also mix it up inside with Holmes, was asked about the Dayton big man Friday:
“We know he’s a freak athlete. We know he’s very skilled on offense and everything. We’ve got to try to make it tough on him. We know he’ll make tough plays. That’s the price you pay when you’re going up against great individuals.”
Johnson talked about contesting every shot and keeping him off the offensive glass.
While he said they respect Holmes, he said they also would “try to make his night as tough as possible.”
As much as Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd would like to have him in a Wildcats’ uniform, he said he thinks Holmes found the perfect place in Dayton:
“DaRon’s done a great job. I actually went down and watched him as a young player. (He) might have been a sophomore in high school.
“At the time he was more of a perimeter base player, and he just continued to grow. I don’t think anybody knew he was going to get this tall.
“Then he went to Monteverde (the first half of his senior year in high school) which is a tough thing to do and then came back to Arizona Compass (High.) I think all that was during COVID.
“The kid was a top recruit and probably could have picked a number of schools and he chose Dayton.
“I think he made a great choice for himself. He became a player there that’s featured. His game has really grown, and they’ve done a good job helping him become a better player inside.
“That’s what makes him tough. He plays inside the paint and out at (the) three. He can drive the basketball. He can get fouled. He presents a lot of problems. They’ve done a great job developing him.”
That was the thinking when Holmes’ parents – DaRon Sr. and Tomika – helped guide him to UD.
They thought head coach Anthony Grant would be a good role model for him off the court and that Grant and his staff could develop their son much the way they had Obi Toppin four years ago, molding him from a raw talent out of New York to the National Player of the Year in 2020 and a first round pick in the NBA soon after that.
Seven months after Toppin’s last game at UD, Holmes verbally committed to the Flyers .
Before that he had narrowed his numerous offers down to Marquette, Cal, Arizona, and UD, and finally it was between the Wildcats and Flyers.
“I had followed Arizona when Sean Miller was the coach,” he said. “I went to the McKale Center a couple of times and I’ve been on campus. I was a big fan of theirs in high school.
“I’m familiar with the team and I know some of their players now.
“Dylan and I played on the same AAU team, back in the day,” he said of the Wildcats 7-foot sophomore forward Dylan Anderson. “I know (Keshad) Johnson and Kylan (Boswell), too
“I know a lot about Arizona.
“They’ve a very great team…but we’ve played great teams before. This is going to be interesting.”
He said the fact that it’s happening in the second round of the NCAA Tournament makes it even more so:
“Really, for me, this is a dream come true.”
It’s just not the same dream he once had as a kid.
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