Archdeacon: Former WSU standout brings life on otherwise listless night for Red Scare

He had entered the postgame media room at UD Arena and slumped down in a chair in front of the press.

Some 20 seconds later, when Grant Basile came through the door and sat down next to him, Bonsu’s dejection became even more pronounced.

Before the session started, Bonsu turned from the microphones and whispered to Basile: “My bad, Bro…I should have played you more!”

Basile, the 6-foot-9 forward who had starred at Wright State, then had a stellar year at Virginia Tech and this past season was the leading scorer and rebounder on his Italian pro team, shrugged and whispered back:

“No worries…You had nine guys out there who are used to being the best dudes on their team.”

Basile had just given the mostly listless Red Scare, made up primarily of former Dayton Flyers players, its one flash of life in the 71-60 loss Monday night.

Although he only played 16 minutes — when four Red Scare teammates played 30 or more each and another played 24 — Basile led the team with 14 points on 6 for 8 shooting from the floor.

He was their most accurate three-point shooter, making 2 of 4 long range attempts, and their second leading rebounder.

His lack of court time was most glaring in the second half when he played just 7 ½ minutes and was on the bench for the final 6:10 when the Red Scare desperately needed some scoring to avoid an unconquerable deficit going into the Elam Ending.

And yet afterward Basile didn’t make a public display of his displeasure, a claim that couldn’t be made by one Red Scare star who stomped out of the dressing room and up the ramp to the Arena exit, voicing his disgust over another premature exit in the TBT for the hometown heroes.

But as good as Basile had been on the court, his best performance of the night came at Bonsu’s side when he showed diplomacy and defended his coach who was pressed publicly about the line-up decisions.

And to his credit Bonsu didn’t dodge the questions or his responsibility, even though he was in a tough situation with the absence of Gruden, who was on paternity leave, and his limited knowledge of Basile — who had missed Saturday night’s TBT opener because he was previously committed to a former Virginia Tech teammate’s wedding.

“Like I’ve been telling him the last 10 minutes, I’ve been apologizing for not playing him more,” Bonsu told the press after looking over at Basile and then glancing down at the box score sheet just put in front of him.

“I didn’t realize how well he was playing.

“He was excellent.

“He was our best player tonight ... by far!”

Always known for his offense — he scored 1,786 points in college — Basile showed on this night he could play defense ... of his coach.

“I wasn’t worried,” he said. “We had a lot of talented players. There’s no bad blood. Nobody was worried about much they played or how many shots they got. We all knew we had the same goal in mind … We were trying to win this tournament.”

Basile had been a late addition to the team that Bonsu and Gruden, the co-founders and co-general managers of the Red Scare, work on all year while still doing their regular jobs.

Bonsu is the head video coordinator of the Houston Rockets and Gruden is an assistant coach at Stetson University.

After averaging 20.9 points per game for Agribertocchi Orzinuovi in the Italian Series A2 league, Basile tried out for the Italian National Team, with an eye on the Paris Olympics which open Friday, and the past few weeks he had played with Saskatchewan in the Canadian Elite Basketball League.

At 24, he was the youngest player on the Red Scare (by three years) and in game shape, while a couple of his older TBT teammates looked like 2.0 versions of themselves in their Flyer heydays.

Bonsu admitted he and Gruden haven’t had much luck adding more recent Flyers stars — many of them transfers in or out of the program who did not have deep ties to UD hoops — to join the Red Scare.

“We’re trying to figure out how to improve the talent,” Bonsu said. “It’s a conversation Joey and I have once a week. We’re definitely looking for younger blood.

“Grant here is a young guy. Young guys win in this tournament. They make runs. They have juice to them.”

Basile has shown juice in his limited opportunities at UD Arena in his career.

Since UD no longer is interested in playing Wright State, Raiders’ players no longer get a Gem City Jam invite to the Arena.

Basile has played in it just twice.

WSU beat Bryant in the NCAA Tournament’s First Four at the Arena in March of 2022. It was the Raiders first-ever win in the Division I post season tournament and Basile had 14 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots that night.

“That was a great experience,” he said. “It was a lot of fun walking down the hallway when we practiced the first time. There were a lot of memories. Some snapshots were sent back to my friends Wright State. It was an awesome experience.

“The UD community really rallied around us. They had the place rockin’ for us….There were a lot of ‘Let’s Go Wright State!’ chants.

“And tonight was a cool experience to play here again. It’s fun to play in front of the Dayton community again.”

Bonsu, who was a walk-on for the Flyers from 2014-17, has a real love affair with UD basketball and the Arena. That’s why he felt so bad after Monday night’s game:

“It’s a crappy feeling. There’s nothing worse in my life than losing on this court. It sucks. It absolutely sucks”. He praised the Dayton fans and the community for its love of basketball and said he hopes he and Gruden and their Red Scare effort are back here for next year’s TBT:

“Every chance we get to come to this Arena, we’ve got to take it.”

That seemed to be the case with Basile as well Monday night.

Long after most of his teammates had left, he was back at courtside — still in his uniform — taking some pictures with his girlfriend and a few Wright State fans.

He had shown himself well this night, not only during the game and now long after, but especially when he had sat next to his coach in the pressroom.