Dayton fans proud to support team in Florida despite tough start

Dayton took a three-game losing streak into a first-round game against Miami at noon Thursday at the HP Fieldhouse at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports.

DeVelin has attended Dayton’s last four November tournaments: the Charleston Classic in South Carolina in 2017; the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas in 2018; the Maui Invitational in 2019; and now the ESPN Events Invitational, which was formerly known as the Old Spice Classic and the Advocare Invitational.

Dayton fan Paul Goodhue and his wife Shannon, of Springboro, have attended each of those tournaments plus the Puerto Rico Tipoff in 2014. They shared the story of why they like going to these games while sitting in the Charlotte airport on the way to Orlando on Wednesday.

“You get to see great basketball, and you’re close to the team and the action,” said Goodhue, who provided the action himself by making a 94-foot putt on the court to win a lease on a car from White Allen at halftime of the game against Lipscomb on Nov. 17. “You get to interact with the team. And then they’re good destinations. When you’re not watching basketball, there’s a lot of entertainment, a lot of fun to have.”

The Goodhues’ son, Ryan was 5 when he met Dayton star Obi Toppin in the Bahamas three years ago.

“This was before anybody really know who Obi was because it was early in his career,” Paul said. “Obi was with his mom and maybe even his brother Jacob was there. We were waiting outside for dinner, and Obi just chatted Ryan up and he picked him up and put him on his shoulders. He was like a big kid. You could just see the joy. Obi wanted to play with a little kid. That was a really cool experience.”

Another fan who took time at the airport on Wednesday — he was at CVG in northern Kentucky, not far from home in Fort Wright — to talk about why he wanted to go the tournament was Dave Nienaber. He planned to take his family to the tournament in 2020, but the Myrtle Beach Invitational was cancelled. Dayton then joined the field of the Crossover Classic in Sioux Falls, S.D., but withdrew from that event because of the COVID-19 situation in that state.

Nienaber was so excited to travel to Florida with his wife Moreen and five kids, along with a larger group of family members that will number 19, he filmed an eight-second video with his kids in June to announce he had booked the trip and shared it on Twitter.

The video starts with Caroline holding a basketball and dancing. Then another daughter, Anna, rises from below the counter with another basketball and joins the dance. Then the two boys, Luke and Nick, pop up from behind the kitchen table and hold a UD flag in the air. Then Ella appears and lifts a third basketball in the air above her head. The whole thing is set to the same music — “Start a Riot” by Duckwrth & Shaboozey — that accompanies Dayton’s pregame video.

How many takes did the video require?

“It was more than one and less than 10,” Nienaber said. “Just to get the kids to listen, it takes more than one. Whatever that song is, it was just played on a loop in our house, and I still love that intro song.”

Despite Dayton’s losses to UMass Lowell, Lipscomb and Austin Peay in the weeks leading up to this tournament, the Nienabers will be there.

“I think if it were not for being with family over Thanksgiving, I may have reconsidered,” Nienaber said, “but at this point, with just being in Orlando as a family and spending a day at Disney, Flyer basketball as a bonus. I guess I’ll be more chilled out than I would be if they had a good record and we’re playing Miami and possibly Kansas.”

Dayton fans held out hope their dedication would be rewarded with improved performances

“I think it’ll turn around,” Goodhue said. “I think this is the low spot. Whether it happens this week, or if it’s in January or February, I think they’ll start playing better at some point.”