Dayton basketball: Flyers start practice for 2024-25 season

The fans who follow the Dayton Flyers the closest dissected every second of the 52-second video shared by the official UD basketball social media accounts on Thursday night.

There’s less excitement surrounding the first preseason practices nowadays — at least compared to the days of Midnight Madness when fans could witness the first moments of the preseason themselves — because practices and workouts really never stop for college basketball teams. UD shared many other videos and photos in August and September of the team at work.

Still, the workload increases six weeks before the opening night of the season. Teams can practice as many as 30 times in the 42-day stretch. Dayton got things going Thursday at the Cronin Center — 39 days before the Nov. 4 opener against St. Francis (Pa.) at UD Arena.

The practice was closed to fans and the media. Coach Anthony Grant, entering his eighth season, and players will talk to the media for the first time next Wednesday before practice.

The video showed only glimpses of the Flyers, but did provide at least one important piece of news: Nate Santos, a senior forward who is Dayton’s top returning scorer, looked to be full participant more than five months after undergoing hip surgery.

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Santos missed the entire summer practice session but said in July he would be ready for the start of preseason practices. The video showed him cutting through defenders Posh Alexander and Hamad Mousa for the type of layup he scored on numerous times last season.

Santos wasn’t the only Flyer to miss the summer practices. Redshirt freshman guard Marvel Allen was also sidelined after undergoing arthroscopic surgery in early June to clean up an issue in his left knee. He was the only one of the 13 scholarship players not seen playing in the 5-on-5 action seen in the video, though he was spotted in practice clothes on the sidelines.

Day 1 ✅#GoFlyers // @DaytonFlyers pic.twitter.com/Q1oJuXol7K
— Dayton Basketball (@DaytonMBB) September 27, 2024

What else did fans see in the video?

• Mousa, a freshman from Qatar, making a 3-pointer in the corner over the outstretched arm of Ohio State transfer Zed Key.

• Fifth-year guard Enoch Cheeks, one of three returning starters, throwing an alley-oop pass to Key for a dunk.

• Redshirt junior guard Malachi Smith, who missed last season with a knee injury, dribbling past an Isaac Jack pick to score a layup against freshman forward Amaël L’Etang, of France.

• Junior guard Javon Bennett making a 3-pointer from the corner in front of Alexander, a fifth-year guard who played at Butler last season.

• Alter grad Brady Uhl, a fifth-year guard entering his first full season as a scholarship player, throwing an alley-oop pass to L’Etang.

• Alter grad Jacob Conner, a junior forward who spent the last two seasons at Marshall, making a 3-pointer.

• L’Etang blocking a shot by Conner, who tried to dunk from the baseline.

• Smith dishing to Key for a dunk.

• Alexander driving past Jack, a junior forward in his second season at Dayton, for a layup.

• Cheeks making a bounce pass to Conner, who scores on a layup with Smith guarding him.

• Key scoring over Jack with a left-handed hook shot.

• Cheeks making a wide-open 3.

• Mousa driving to the basket against Conner and dropping the ball to Jaiun Simon, a forward who redshirted last season as a freshman, for a dunk.

• Cheeks dribbling through Jack and Mousa and passing to L’Etang for a dunk.

The first practice came 24 days before fans will first see Dayton in an exhibition game against Xavier at UD Arena at 5 p.m. Oct. 20.

Preseason talk will ramp up Oct. 5 when the Atlantic 10 Conference holds Media Day at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. Every team will send its head coach and one player to the event. For the first time, the A-10 will hold a women’s basketball Media Day on the same date at the same location.