What were in the boxes UD checked for him?
“Definitely, coming from Buffalo, I did want to move up,” Jack said. “The A-10 and MAC are close, but the A-10 is better. I wanted to go to a well-established program, somewhere that’s had a winning culture, and a place that develops their guys. Dayton has a good history of developing their bigs with Obi (Toppin) and (DaRon) Holmes last year. And it felt like family.”
Jack averaged 5.6 points and 4.2 rebounds in the 2022-23 season as a freshman in the Mid-American Conference. He appeared in 31 of Buffalo’s 32 games and started 20 games. He averaged 16.3 minutes per game for a team that finished 15-17. The school fired its head coach, Jim Whitesell, who was 70-49 in four seasons, on March 11.
During his visit to UD, Jack said, “I met all the guys — all the ones that were there. Everyone got along really good, and it was a good group of people there, not only just the team but just going around campus and around Dayton and having people coming up and saying how excited they are for this season and introducing themselves. It just was a good feeling to be there.”
Jack is the fourth recruit to commit to Dayton since the 2022-23 season ended in March and the fifth member of a 2023 recruiting class that could grow by as many as three or four players in the weeks and months ahead.
The other players in the class are: Merrimack transfer Javon Bennett, a 5-11 guard who committed to Dayton on April 10; Robert Morris transfer Enoch Cheeks, a 6-3 guard who played the last three seasons at Robert Morris University and committed to Dayton on March 30; Vasilije Erceg, a 6-foot-10 forward from Novi Sad, Serbia, who committed to Dayton on March 24; and Jaiun Simon, a 6-7 forward from Mableton, Ga., who committed to Dayton on Oct. 28 and signed in November.
The newcomers join a roster with three returning guards (Malachi Smith, Koby Brea and Kobe Elvis) and at least one returning forward (Zimi Nwokeji). The big question for Dayton’s 2023-24 roster is with Holmes, who declared for the NBA Draft on Sunday but has until May 30 to decide whether to stay in the draft or return to college basketball.
“It’s a good group,” Jack said. “There’s a group of young guys coming in. I know they had a lot of injuries last year, so they’re coming back eager. I’m just excited to get after it with them. I know they’re hungry to get after it, too.”
With Jack, who’s from Port Alberni, B.C., on Vancouver Island, and Elvis, who’s from Brampton, Ont., Dayton will have two Canadians on the roster at the same time for the first time.
Jack’s hometown is 2,078 miles from Dayton and about a 3½-hour drive, which includes a ferry ride across the Strait of Georgia, from Vancouver. Jack said Port Alberni is a great place to grow up because there are so many outdoor activities — “It’s super beautiful,” he said — but it wasn’t the best place to develop his skills.
Jack grew up playing hockey but switched to basketball in high school four or five years ago because of his height. He started making weekly trips to Vancouver to work on his game.
“That’s where the best resources were for me,” Jack said. “I had a good trainer over there and everything, but it just gets expensive. It gets hard getting there. It was hard, but my parents were super supportive and helped me every step, so I’m really grateful for them.”
Jack graduated from Alberni District Secondary School in 2021 and then spent a post-graduate year at Fort Erie International Academy in Fort Erie, Ont., just across the border from Buffalo in the 2021-22 school year.
“That was probably my biggest year,” Jack said. “I got linked up with some really good coaches, some super good people. They believed in me all the way and helped me a ton that prep year. They were part of my decision to go to Buffalo.”
In nine games in the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association, Jack averaged 15.9 points per game and 7.9 rebounds while shooting 76.7% from the floor. He was elected to play in the All-Canadian BioSteel Basketball Game, which is comparable to the McDonald’s All-American Game in the United States, on April 3, 2022, in Toronto. He and scored eight points on 4-of-6 shooting in 17 minutes.
Jack committed to Buffalo on May 10, 2022. He earned minutes right away as a freshman and moved into the starting lineup on Dec. 21 after a 13-point performance against West Virginia in the previous game and stayed there the rest of the season.
Jack felt he developed well as a freshman.
“I’m relatively new to the game of basketball,” Jack said. “So a big part of it is just getting playing time and getting experience and getting my confidence. I think Buffalo really help with that just because I was able to work my way into the starting position, which offered me a lot more experience and playing time and helped me get better.”
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