Only Edwin Young’s 18-for-18 accuracy in 1997 and Henry Finkel’s 15-for-15 outing in 1965 have been better.
Elvis’ foul-line perfection enabled the Flyers to continually set up their press before UC could make the inbounds pass and that helped wreck the Bearcats, who had come into the game 8-1, their best start to a season in five years.
“They could set their press because everything is a dead ball after a made free throw,” UC coach Wes Miller said. “Our point guards weren’t able to get onto our offense and we got really out of sync offensively. That totally took us out of what we wanted to do.
“We looked frozen at times.”
Saturday night Elvis was just as much the lead in this Frozen sequel as were Anna and Elsa in the Disney series.
He showed a growing relationship with the Flyers’ 6-foot-10 DaRon Holmes II. Elvis’ drives to the rim continually drew Bearcat defenders, which enabled him to flip, fire or lob passes to the suddenly freed-up big man.
While Holmes finished with a game-high 28 points and had the highlight-reel plays with his forceful dunks and dynamic swats of UC shots, it was Elvis who set the tone for the Flyers on this big-stage showdown on the road in front of a packed house.
In the final 4:20 of the first half, he scored six points and that gave UD a 35-29 advantage at the break and the bit of breathing room they never relinquished after that.
In the first 2½ minutes of the second half, Elvis added another five points to give UD its double-digit lead, 42-31, and UC never recovered. The Flyers, now 8-2, led 34 of the game’s 40 minutes.
The rest of the team fed off Elvis’s leadership and a lot of that he credits to Toumani Camara, the 6-foot-7 rookie forward of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Last season Camara and Elvis were roommates at UD.
Camara was the Gibraltar of the Flyers last season. He became a double-double machine by season’s end, was a force on the boards all year and the elder statesman the rest of the players looked up to.
“He taught me a lot, just watching his habits on the court and off,” Elvis said in the Flyers postgame locker room. “His routine was amazing in terms of caring for his body and being mentally ready for games.
“I watched how he went about being in the weight room on a daily basis; how he’d get extra treatment and do extra stretching. He made sure his body and his mind were good.”
Early this season Elvis struggled with his shot. In his first five games, he made just 7 of 37 attempts from the floor and went 0 for 6 against Houston and 0 for 5 against Northwestern.
“When I wasn’t shooting the ball very well, I tried to impact the game in other ways,” he said. “I tried to lead by being vocal, playing defense, getting other guys the ball, and getting in the lane and giving up the ball to Deuce (Holmes).”
The last five games — all Dayton victories — Elvis has found his shot and has averaged 16 points a game in that span. Last Saturday at UD Arena he had a career-high 24 points against Troy and then seven days later he topped that in Cincinnati.
For the season, he’s made 29 of 30 free throws, his only miss coming in the season opener against SIUE.
“He’s good,” Miller said. “We had a very difficult time staying in front of him. It’s hard, because if you throw too many bodies at him, he creates a lot for (his teammates).
“They put him in action all night with Holmes. He puts pressure on you at the rim and he’s just drawing fouls, drawing fouls, drawing fouls.
“He is very, very good.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
‘The best Kobe I can be’
When Elvis’ mom, Joy, came from Guyana to Canada in the early 1990s, she fell in love with the NBA and by the end of the decade had become a true Kobe Bryant fan.
When her UD son was born, the Lakers were on their NBA championship run and she named him after the L.A star with the megawatt smile.
As a little boy, Elvis had an afro like his namesake did in the early days. On his bedroom wall, he had a Kobe photo he’d cut from a magazine and he said he often watched YouTube videos of Bryant’s hoop heroics.
Elvis started to play the game seriously as a teenager, but he once told me he didn’t pretend he was some type of Kobe clone:
“That’s something I couldn’t possibly do. I don’t have his physique, his build. I can’t do what he did. But that’s not saying there aren’t some things you can’t take from his game. And I tried to be the best Kobe I could be.”
And he’s not done a disservice to the name since.
After his schoolboy heroics in Ontario, he was recruited by several formidable programs — Ole Miss, Minnesota, Saint Louis — and chose DePaul.
His freshman season was the COVID year, and the Blue Demons were heavily impacted by the pandemic. They didn’t play their first game until Dec. 23 and had several cancellations before and after. He played in all 19 games and started four, but at season’s end he decided he wanted a new start somewhere else.
Since joining the Flyers for the 2020-21 season, he’s played in 63 games and started 57.
After Saturday’s victory, UD coach Anthony Grant praised Elvis:
“I thought Kobe was outstanding. He was really vocal. You heard him on defense, communicating with the guys and that’s what we needed him to do.
“He did a great job offensively, whether on the ball or off the ball. He understood what they were doing and helped the rest of our guys understand that and take advantage of it.
“I’m just proud of him.”
92nd meeting
In the history of the UD program, Cincinnati has been one of the Flyers great rivals.
Saturday night was the 92nd time the two schools have played, although it was their first meeting in 13 years.
Prior to the 1957-58 season, the Flyers won 21 of the 39 games. But since then, UC had taken command of the series, winning 42 of 52 games.
Saturday night was a throwback to those oft-dominant UD times.
It’s safe to say as least 60 percent of the crowd of 12,547 at Heritage Bank Arena were Flyers fans and they were vocal. By the end of the game, the old basketball house was filled with the ‘We are…UD!” chants.
On the court, the Flyers had their best game of the season and the convincing win added to an NCAA Tournament resume that already included triumphs over LSU, St. John’s and SMU.
A lot of the credit for the way the Flyers handed the moment goes to Elvis, who was ready for the big stage. Again, he credited Camara for his preparation, especially in the final minutes in the locker room before taking the court:
“I try to get off my phone and all that stuff. I just try to mediate and lock in. And I’ll do a little bit of breathing exercises just to calm myself and get me settled.”
He said he also draws on a fellow Canadian, the Grammy winning rapper/singer Drake:
“Before I go out, I listen to one of his albums —I listen to Take Care — and that puts me in the right mind.”
The refrain to that song Elvis took with him onto the court against the Bearcats:
“If you let me, here’s what I’ll do
“I’ll take care of you.”
And Saturday night Kobe Elvis took good care of the Dayton Flyers.
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