“Our family never gave serious thought to chasing the money. But we also understand families of other highly-recruited athletes can have different priorities. Simply put, we believed in UD, its basketball program and Dayton 6th.
“The Dayton 6th ensured DaRon and his teammates are taken care of in a very meaningful way. In fact, they made sure his decision last spring was a basketball and education decision, not solely an economic one.”
Dayton 6th is the non-profit organization that launched in 2022 with the aim of giving fans a chance to invest in the men’s and women’s basketball programs through the athletes. Holmes II has benefited more than anyone from NIL deals he has gained with the help of Dayton 6th.
Of course, it’s the performance Holmes has delivered on the court that has taken his profile to another level. He and the Dayton Flyers, who fell to 21st in Monday’s Associated Press poll, enter the final two weeks of the regular season with a chance to win an Atlantic 10 Conference championship and build momentum for the postseason.
Dayton (21-5, 11-3) returns to action after a six-day break at 7 p.m. Wednesday against Davidson (15-12, 5-9) at UD Arena. Here are seven things to know about the game:
1. Inconsistent opponent: Davidson alternated wins and losses over the last three weeks, winning at Duquesne, losing at home to George Mason, beating La Salle at home, losing at St. Bonaventure, beating Fordham at home and finally losing at Richmond on Saturday.
In the 66-63 loss to Richmond, Davidson’s Bobby Durkin made a game-tying 3-pointer with 14 seconds to play. Then Richmond guard Jordan King was fouled on a 3-point attempt by Grant Huffman with two seconds remaining. King made all three free throws as the Spiders (20-7, 12-2) kept pace with Loyola Chicago (20-7, 12-2) atop the A-10. Dayton sits a game back with four games to play.
In a postgame radio interview after the loss, second-year Davidson coach Matt McKillop said he was “disappointed and heartbroken” for his players, but he also expressed optimism about a team that suffered three losses by a total of six points in a 15-day stretch.
“This team is so much fun to coach,” McKillop said. “They compete. They’re physical. They’re tough. They execute. The way we executed late in that game was pretty top notch, pretty high level. We’re getting better. It’s going to show in the wins column soon.”
That was Davidson’s second loss to Richmond. The Spiders won 69-64 in overtime at Davidson on Jan. 20.
Credit: David Jablonski
2. Rested Flyers: Most A-10 teams get one extended break during conference play.
Dayton ran into a fresh George Mason team last week. The Patriots had an eight-day break before beating the Flyers 71-67 on Wednesday. A year ago, the Flyers made the most of a seven-day break and won 65-49 at Loyola Chicago.
Dayton coach Anthony Grant said last week he thought the break came at a good time for the Flyers because it would give players who are banged up a chance to recuperate.
Forward Isaac Jack looked to get back on the court after the third loss in the last four road games. Dayton is 13-0 at UD Arena with two home games remaining.
“This just makes us hungry for the next one,” Jack said. “We want to go out and show what we’ve got. This isn’t the best example of how we play.”
Credit: David Jablonski
3. Series history: Dayton won 72-59 at Davidson on Jan. 3 on the opening night of the A-10 season. Holmes led Dayton with 18 points. Kobe Elvis had 17 points. Nate Santos added 16 points.
Dayton led from start to finish and had a double-digit lead throughout the second half. It pushed the advantage to as many as 19 points.
The Flyers have won eight straight games in the series and are 5-0 against Davidson at UD Arena since Davidson joined the A-10 in the 2014-15 season.
4. Players to watch: Huffman, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, leads Davidson with 13.1 points per game. He scored eight points in the first game against Dayton.
• Reed Bailey, a 6-11 sophomore forward, had 23 points and 11 rebounds against Richmond. He averages 12.5 points and 5.9 rebounds.
• Connor Kochera, a 6-5 senior guard, averages 12.2 points. He’s the team’s top 3-point threat (42 of 112, 37.5%).
5. Strengths and weaknesses: Davidson has the fourth most efficient defense in A-10 games, according to KenPom.com, but the 13th most efficient offense. It ranks 14th out of 15 teams in 3-point shooting percentage (31.5).
6. Odds and rankings: KenPom.com gives Dayton an 83% chance of winning this game. Dayton ranks 20th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. Davidson is the 10th-highest-ranked A-10 team at No. 109.
This is a Quad 3 game for Dayton because it’s a home game against a team that ranks between 76 and 160. Dayton is 3-3 in Quad 1, 5-2 in Quad 2, 6-0 in Quad 3 and 7-0 in Quad 4.
This is a Quad 1 game for Davidson. It is 0-5 in Quad 1 with losses to Saint Mary’s, Clemson, Dayton, St. Bonaventure and Richmond.
7. NCAA tournament picture: In his most recent bracket update Friday, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi listed Dayton as a No. 5 seed playing McNeese State in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Jerry Palm, of CBS Sports, had Dayton as a No. 6 seed playing Indiana State in his latest bracket Monday.
Dayton has an average seed of 5.51 on BracketMatrix.com.
TUESDAY’S GAME
Davidson at Dayton, 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network, 1290, 95.7
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