Napier, especially, could help in many ways. He turns 23 on Monday. That makes him the oldest player on the team by two days. Zimi Nwokeji, who’s in his fifth season at Dayton, turns 23 on Wednesday.
A Bishop Fenwick graduate from Miamisburg, Napier played four seasons at Ohio Northern University, a Division III program, but had one more season of eligibility. The 2020-21 season, his sophomore season, didn’t count against anyone’s eligibility because of the pandemic.
“Out of high school, I wanted to go somewhere I was going to play,” Napier said. “I got to play for four years. I had a really good career. Now I want to get into college coaching. I want to get to the Division I level. What a better place to go than Dayton. I get to be close to home, and there’s not many better staffs out there.”
Napier ranks 19th in ONU history with 1,279 points and 18th with 584 career rebounds. He averaged 17.1 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in 75 games.
Last season as a senior, Napier averaged 17.9 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, leading his team and ranking fourth in the Ohio Athletic Conference in both categories. He made the All-OAC second team.
“C.J. had a fantastic year for us and was exactly who we needed him to be,” first-year coach Neal Young said in a press release. “Everyone talks about his offense, and rightfully so, he was our guy that kept us in games with his scoring, and when we needed a bucket, we went to him. Everyone on both teams knew it, but he was still able to produce in those big moments. But what I think was even more valuable to our team and building this program back up was how hard he worked outside of practice and how much he bought in to being as good of a defensive player as he could be. When your best player buys in, you have a chance to maximize your potential as a team, and I think that was the case with C.J. and our team.”
Napier reached out to Dayton in the spring to see if he could walk on to the roster. He sent the coaches his highlights. He received a quick response.
“C.J. has a desire to coach,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said, “so he’s gotten a chance to learn a lot of things that are behind the scenes in terms of coaching and what that entails. He’s taken full advantage of that, along with being able to take his experience and just who he is as a person and help our team. I think he’s been a really valuable asset.”
Napier grew up a Dayton fan. He remembers going to games at UD Arena when he was a kid. The noise, more than anything, stands out in his memory. On Sunday, when the Flyers played Ohio State in an exhibition game in front of a sold-out crowd of 13,407, he experienced that from the perspective of a player for the first time.
“It was awesome,” Napier said. “It was cool, too, because you don’t realize how many people are in there. At the 13-minute mark, there’s a decent amount of people, but when you come back out with five or six minutes left (before tipoff), that place is filled up.”
Napier hopes to land a job as a graduate assistant at the Division I level next season and then work his way up in the coaching profession. He earned a finance degree at Ohio Northern and a minor in analytics. At Dayton, he’s working on master’s degree in business administration.
Napier is also learning from Grant. How to manage people is the biggest lesson he has learned so far.
“I think he does a great job being being there for guys,” Napier said, “and getting the best out of everyone.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
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