“If I’m being honest with you, I’m torn whether this was a team that overachieved or underachieved,” he said.
At the end of this season — with his Flyers prematurely knocked out of the Atlantic 10 Tournament once again and the door now closed on any chance of an NCAA Tournament bid — the answer seemed pretty simple.
Regardless of the 22-10 record and some of the big wins early in the season, this was underachievement when it mattered most.
The third-seeded Flyers had just blown a four-point lead with 14 seconds left in regulation play against Saint Joseph’s in their A-10 Tournament quarterfinal game at Capital One Arena and then had been outhustled, outmuscled and outplayed by the Hawks in overtime and ended up losing, 73-68.
The Flyers have not won the A-10 tournament since 2003 and that’s when it was played in the partisan confines of UD Arena, where Dayton teams take on another dimension because the sold-out hometown crowds lift them and so often wilt the opposition.
I get that Grant struggled with the assessment after Friday’s game. The team went through a mighty non-conference schedule with a 10-3 record and beat teams like UConn, Marquette and UNLV, while coming up just short against North Carolina and Iowa State.
There were high hopes for the Flyers then, but this team and that one from November and December seemed like two different squads.
Everybody seemed to be pulling together in the same direction early on, but now there are moments in a game when there looks to be two different groups all dressed up as Flyers.
There are the guys who start the game and there are the two veterans, Posh Alexander and Zed Key, both who transferred in this season with impressive resumes and high hopes for their final college seasons but now find themselves relegated to backup roles and dwindling minutes, something they seem to have trouble adjusting to at times.
You saw that as they sat there next to each other on the bench at the end of Friday’s game or when, after some limited time on the floor, they were called back to the sideline and they were not happy about it.
Zed shakes his head, Posh sometimes disappears under a towel.
I’ve written several stories on both, and they seem like good guys. I know this is not the best of situations for them and there may be some other personal situation involved here that opened the chasm in the first place.
Grant has mentioned on a few occasions of late about all the things this team has had to overcome this season, and he did so again after the St. Joe’s game.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
I don’t think he means injuries.
When pressed on it after the game Friday, he called them ‘’self-inflicted” problems.
This is all part of the dicey new dynamic that makes up college basketball these days.
With the lure of unrestricted NIL perks and the always-waiting, always-revolving door of the transfer portal there to take players to supposed better situations, teams sometimes are cobbled together in cross-your-fingers, but slap-dash fashion.
The days of nurturing homegrown, four-year talent seems like a quaint anachronism, akin to the set shot or Chuck Taylor, white canvas high tops.
Groundhog Day
Against Saint Joseph’s, the Flyers got four points from the bench, all of them from Key. The Hawks got 16 points from its backups.
UD’s starters had plenty of struggles too, Friday night. I remember at one point in the first half seeing a box score where Amaël L’Etang, Nate Santos and Malachi Smith were a combined 1-for-18 from the floor.
Early on the Flyers were carried only by Javon Bennett, who would end the night with 15 points, and Enoch Cheeks to a lesser extent. With so few contributors it’s no wonder UD trailed by 15 late in the first half.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
The Flyers got back into the game in the second half because the trio who struggled early all picked it up: L’Etang finished with 15 points and four blocked shots. Santos had 14 points and 15 rebounds and Smith had 11 points, but he did miss the crucial front end of a one-and-one free throw situation with 10 seconds left that could have put UD up by four.
Instead, after his miss, Smith fouled Xzayvier Brown, who made both foul shots to tie the game 60-60 and send it to overtime when Smith’s layup attempt was thwarted by St. Joe’s 6-foot-10 Justice Ajogbor and Bennett’s put back was then swatted away by him.
UD likely will get an NIT bid and then the rebuilding process will begin all over again.
College basketball is sort of like the movie Groundhog Day, where it’s a constantly repeating scenario.
The Flyers will have to replace five or six players — depending if Smith comes back — next season. All six — Santos, Key, Alexander, Cheeks, Brady Uhl and Smith — took part in Senior Day ceremonies recently.
The Flyers will also have to do their best to shoo away suitors for the 7-foot-1 freshman L’Etang, who came on as the season progressed and with more games under his belt and meat on his bones could be the Flyers next “big” player. And that’s not just talking height.
But the NIL fat cats will draw a bead on him the way Kentucky went after Koby Brea.
Grant said UD is in great NIL shape compared to schools similar to UD. He also said the support he and the program get from athletic director Neil Sullivan and university president Eric Spina couldn’t be better.
And the fan base — which sells out the Arena season after season now — is one of the best in the nation.
That leaves the on-the-floor product, which has been quite good through the seasons, but has come up short when it comes to NCAA Tournament trips.
Worst of times
Grant has an impressive 171-82 record in his eight UD seasons and that’s highlighted by the magical 29-2 year cut short by the COVID shutdown of college basketball.
If you count that as an NCAA bid — the Flyers likely would have been a No. 1 seed — there have been two NCAA trips in eight years.
That’s not enough for the Flyer Faithful.
Grant was asked about that after the game.
Dave Jablonski and I talked to him alone in the empty arena late Friday and I’ll admit, I asked some questions that could have been finessed more.
I wondered about the rift I saw on the team — he didn’t deny it — and the pressure of now trying to rebuild every season.
And even worse, you have to continually recruit the players you already have on your roster. I wondered if it wore on him and he ever thought of retiring or not coming back.
The timing was bad and unfair, but Grant was gracious and sincere.
“You ask me these questions … and right now I’m just hurting,” he said quietly. “I thought there was opportunity this year… and we put a lot into it … but every time a season ends abruptly like this, it hurts.”
I felt for him. There’s not a coach — or a person — I like better in the business.
Earlier in his postgame press conference, he had talked about the up and down season and how it’s been “the best of times and the worst of times.”
Once again, there was no debate on where this moment stood.
With all the early-season success and hope, this was the worst.
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