College basketball has changed dramatically in Grant’s tenure, which has seen players earn the right to profit off the use of their name, image and likeness, and transfer without penalty, but the Flyer Faithful have maintained their status as one of the nation’s great fan bases.
“I can’t even put it into words,” Grant said. “You invest so much time into something that you love to do. Then you’re in a place where it’s really important to everybody around you and they value what you do. I recognize the impact that Dayton basketball has on this community and the importance it has had for a lot of people here for generations. For me, there’s gratitude, and it’s a responsibility and obligation that I don’t take for granted.”
Dayton plays St. Francis University, of Loretto, Pa., in its first game. The Northeast Conference school is the lowest-ranked Division I team on UD’s schedule.
The Flyers have won 19 straight season openers at UD Arena. They have only lost twice (1997 and 2005) since the arena opened in 1969 when the first game has taken place at home.
A season ago, Dayton rode a 10-2 performance in non-conference play to its first NCAA tournament berth in seven years and its first NCAA tournament victory in nine years. A 63-60 victory, which included a 17-point comeback in the second half, against Nevada in the first round will go down as one of the most memorable games in UD history.
However, the Flyers lost three key players from the 2023-24 roster: forward DaRon Holmes II, who was the No. 22 pick in the NBA Draft in June; guard Koby Brea, the nation’s top 3-point shooter, who transferred to Kentucky; and guard Kobe Elvis, a three-year starter who will finish his career at Oklahoma.
Three starters return: senior forward Nate Santos, fifth-year guard Enoch Cheeks; and junior guard Javon Bennett.
Redshirt junior guard Malachi Smith, who started the opener last year only to suffer a season-ending knee injury in the first half, and fifth-year forward Zed Key, who played the last four seasons at Ohio State, joined Santos, Cheeks and Bennett in the starting lineup in two exhibition games.
Dayton did not generate much optimism with its performance in the preseason. Playing in front of sellout crowds at UD Arena, it lost 98-74 to Xavier on Oct. 20 and then beat Division II Ashland University 65-56 on Oct. 26 in the first single-digit victory against a lower-division team for the Flyers since 2016.
Grant experimented with different combinations of players on the court in the two games and spread the minutes among 11 players. The game Monday, the first one that counts on the record, will give a clearer picture of where the Flyers stand early in the season. The first big tests follows on Saturday with a home game against Northwestern, which beat Dayton in Evanston, Ill., last season.
“Coach wanted to see how guys play with each other, what fits, what doesn’t fit, what works and what doesn’t work,” Bennett said. “We learned what we need to work on. Offensive execution was one big thing, and then defensively we wanted to press to see how that looked.”
Dayton will seek its 20th NCAA tournament appearance this season. That number would be 21 if the 2020 tournament hadn’t been canceled by the pandemic.
Throughout its history, putting together back-to-back NCAA tournament teams has been difficult for Dayton. The last four coaches — Jim O’Brien, Oliver Purnell, Brian Gregory and Archie Miller — all made at least one NCAA tournament, but only Miller was able to record consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. The Flyers played in the tournament in each of his last four seasons (2014-17).
Dayton reached the NCAA tournament in Purnell’s last season (2003) and Gregory’s first season (2004). Dayton’s winningest coach, Don Donoher, guided the program to the tournament eight times in 25 seasons.
Neil Sullivan, Dayton’s athletic director since 2015, talked last spring about the goal of achieving consistency, something made even more challenging in an age of constant roster turnover.
“Each season takes on a life of its own as you see with the roster, but there’s no doubt that our focus is relentless consistency and sustainable success,” Sullivan said. “We’re not trying to be in and out and up and down. I feel we’re maniacal about our process and our discipline and our approach, and it was good to see that the results came this year.”
MONDAY’S GAME
St. Francis at Dayton, 7 p.m., 1290, 95.7, ESPN+
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