Archdeacon: Former Wright State star chasing $1 million TBT prize with UD team

University of Dayton associate head coach Ricardo Greer gave a spirited affirmation of that early Wednesday afternoon as Basile sat in a corner of the Flyers’ Cronin Center practice gym following the Red Scare’s workout for The Basketball Tournament, the $1 million, winner-takes-all competition that tips off this weekend at UD Arena. The UD alumni team plays DaGuys STL at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Basile, the former Wright State star who went on to a stellar year at Virginia Tech and just finished his first season as a pro with the Italian Serie A2 team, Agribertocchi Orzinuovi, was talking about the hoops whirlwind he’s been on since the Orzinouvi campaign ended 10 weeks ago.

Since he grew up in Wisconsin with Italian heritage and just became an Italian citizen, Basile tried out for the Italian National Team, which had hopes of making it to the Paris Olympics but lost two weeks ago to Puerto Rico in the FIBA Qualifying Tournament.

Basile played a few weeks with the Saskatchewan Rattlers of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) and now, at the invitation of Red Scare coach Joey Gruden, he’s part of the TBT team that’s made up mostly of former Dayton Flyers players.

When Greer saw Basile perched in the corner, he came over and gave him an enthusiastic salute: “This man still gives me frickin’ nightmares! When we played at V-Tech, he kicked our (butt).”

Greer was referring to the Flyers’ Dec. 7, 2002, game in Blacksburg, Va. Virginia Tech won 77-49. It was Dayton’s most lopsided loss in seven years.

It was just Basile’s ninth game with the Hokies after four seasons at Wright State, where he scored 1,228 points and grabbed 616 rebounds.

“I wanted that (Flyers) game for a long time,” Basile admitted. “Some of my Virginia Tech teammates didn’t understand why I wanted it so bad.”

The other Hokies knew nothing about the hoops history — more recently, non-history — between Wright State and UD.

The Raiders and Flyers played eight times between 1988 and 1997, with Dayton, hosting five of the games and winning five times. The last meeting was December 13, 1997.

In the years since, WSU has lobbied to restart the crosstown series — dubbed “The Gem City Jam” — and that’s what Basile was doing at the Frericks Center in the fall of 2021 when the UD women’s volleyball team was playing visiting Wright State.

Basile was in the crowd, watching the game with WSU basketball teammates Tanner Holden and Trey Calvin, when he held up a homemade sign that would stir rivalry and debate on social media platforms.

“It said, ‘Play Us in Basketball,’” Basile said with a grin.

“I heard DaRon Holmes was on a podcast the other day, and he brought up that sign. He told how before that game (two seasons ago) their coach told the team, ‘Hey, this guy with Virginia Tech is ready for the game. He’s wanted to play you for four years!’

“He was right. And I came out on fire.”

And Greer was right, too.

Basile did kick the Flyers’ butt.

He made eight of his 10 shots in the first half — four from three-point range — and scored 20 points. That gave the Hokies a 22-point advantage at the break.

“I was burned out going into the second half because I’d poured so much into it at the start,” Basile said.

He finished the game with 23 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots.

“That was a really cool experience,” he said. “It meant a lot to me.

“UD is the team in the area here that everyone knows and everyone roots for. If you’re from Ohio you’d know Wright State, but some people nationally don’t necessarily hear about the school.

“I always wanted the opportunity for us to play against UD. They’re a good team with a lot of good guys and they have a great environment.

“I think it would be a fantastic game for this city, something everyone would want to see. And back then I thought Wright State could surprise some people. They’d see we were a good team, and they might end up as Raiders’ fans, too.”

Overcoming the doubters

The 6-foot-9 Basile has spent his career trying to dunk on the deniers, the doubters and the detractors.

“It’s because I’ve been a late bloomer,” he said. “I’m a decent athlete, but I’m not quite as gifted as some others are, and I’m not a high-flier. So people always have tried to put limits on me.

“I’ve always been told, ‘We don’t know if you’re good enough.’

“My sophomore year in high school I didn’t play varsity. By my junior year I was doing OK, and some people were like ‘OK, maybe he can play at the Division III level.’

“At the end of the signing period, I had just two Division I offers — Denver and Wright State.”

The latter came only because former Raiders assistant coach Sharif Chambliss, now a Wisconsin Badgers assistant, was from Racine, Wisc., which is just 43 miles from Pewaukee, where Basile grew up and went to school.

Shariff used to be an assistant coach at Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His wife went to the same Pewaukee High School that Basile later attended. Chambliss knew Grant’s dad, Michael Basile, who was a longtime coach at Pewaukee.

When Basile joined the Raiders, he still was hobbled by an ankle injury suffered in the high school tournament that March. He struggled in three early games for WSU and then took a redshirt season and had surgery.

“If you watched my first year at Wright State, there were some rough games and people wondered if I could play at that level,” he shrugged.

“But Wright State really worked with me, and I went from a guy coming off the bench — and not playing when the matchup was bad — to being able to do things some people doubted I could do.

“I played with some great teammates, and in my four years at Wright State, we won three Horizon League regular-season titles, the conference tournament once and we won a First Four game against Bryant (WSU’s first-ever NCAA Tournament triumph at the Division I level) at UD Arena.”

But a few weeks after that euphoric moment, Basile, who had won second team All-Horizon League honors two years in a row, followed the lead of fellow Raiders standout Tanner Holden, who transferred to Ohio State.

Basile opted for Virginia Tech.

The move ruffled some feathers at WSU and brought out the detractors once again.

“I was going to the ACC, and some people said I wouldn’t be able to compete at that level,” he said. “I wanted to force myself out of my comfort zone and see if I could play against some of the best teams in the country.”

Basile led the Hokies in scoring with 16.4 points per game, seventh best in the ACC that season. He shot 52% from the field.

He bypassed his final college season and signed a three-year contract with the Italian team Bertram Derthona in the Series A Unipolsai and then was optioned to the second-tier team in Orzinuovi, which is in Italy’s Lombardy region, an hour southeast of Milan.

Basile went on to lead the team in scoring (20.9) and rebounding (9.7).

Reconnecting with Raiders

When Basile left WSU for Virginia Tech, many Raiders fans were dismayed as were some of the coaches.

Clint Sargent, the Raiders new head coach, was the associate head coach under Scott Nagy and had spent a lot of time developing Basile.

“We had had such a close relationship, and I know there was some hurt,” Basile said. “I sat in his office for however long and it was hard. We had a tough heart-to-heart talk.

“It was a super hard decision for me, and it wasn’t easy for him either. But in the end, it was one of those things where our relationship was bigger than basketball.”

Since leaving WSU 27 months ago, Basile has found himself gravitating back to the program. He still had friends on the team and the coaching staff. And his longtime girlfriend, Melody Roop, who’s becoming a registered nurse, is still in the area.

A couple weeks ago, he was in town and worked out each day at the Raiders practice gum. Last weekend he was here for former teammate Andy Neff’s wedding.

And he’s rekindled his bond with Sargent, who just had him speak to the current team.

“Wright State was an awesome experience for me,” Basile said. “I don’t think anybody could have helped me better than they did when I came out of high school. And I got to be a part of a great group of guys, guys like Lou (Loudon Love); Tim (Finke); Trey (Calvin); Tanner (Holden); and so many more.

“We were in the gym nonstop together. We pushed each other. We played together, and basically, I think we just cared more than other teams. That’s why we had success.

“That’s what I tried to pass on to this team. I told them that Raider logo means something. I still have all my Wright State gear, and I’ve still got my NCAA Tournament clip on my backpack.

“I wanted them to have the same mindset we did. It helped me succeed here and afterward.

“It helped me do a lot of things people thought I could not do.”

It’s why he was able to remake that familiar maxim.

It’s why he could beat them and then join them.