Dayton’s ‘brand new group’ closes ‘productive summer’ practice season

Those were a few of the images from practice Thursday at the Cronin Center as the Dayton Flyers concluded eight weeks of summer practices with one final intense workout in front of coach Anthony Grant and his staff as three members of the local media watched. This was the first in-person media opportunity with the Dayton men’s basketball team since March of 2020. All interviews were conducted via Zoom last season.

For the reporters there, it also was a rare look at Grant on the practice court as he continued to mold his fifth — and youngest — Dayton team.

“Get the ball to the other side of the floor,” Grant told the players.

“Quit over-dribbling,” he said at another point.

With seven newcomers, this summer was about laying the foundation for the season to come. There will still be much work to do when preseason practices begin in the fall, but the players made strides in June and July.

“It’s been good,” Grant said. “I think what I’d probably start with is we’ve got a brand new group. When these guys arrived on campus, they haven’t met each other. Most of them were new to me and the coaching staff. The thing I’ve been impressed with is they’ve bonded really well with each other. They all get along. They all want to work hard. They all want to do the things we talk about that we need to do to be successful. I say, up to this point, it’s been a pretty productive summer for us.”

In addition to Grant, two players talked to the media Thursday: senior guard Elijah Weaver, who made his Dayton debut in December after two seasons at Southern California; and junior forward Toumani Camara, who played the last two seasons with the Georgia Bulldogs.

Of the six returning players, Weaver and Amzil, now a sophomore forward, started the most games: 10 and 15, respectively. Guards Koby Brea and R.J. Blakney both started three games as freshmen. Forward Zimi Nwokeji, who was a redshirt freshman last season, started two games.

Amzil, Brea, Blakney and Nwokeji all made their college debuts last season and showed glimpses of what they can do. Amzil scored 22 points in his first game. Brea scored 21 of the 49 points he tallied in the season in the final three games. Nwokeji scored 29 points in a double-overtime loss at Rhode Island. Blakney hit a key 3-pointer in an overtime victory against Mississippi State.

Weaver, who had one of his best games in the final game, a first-round NIT loss to Memphis, says those young returners have gotten smarter on the court.

“The system we run, you have to be in certain spots, certain areas,” Weaver said. “I see they’re getting to those spots quicker, and they know what they’re doing more. The summer went well. A lot of learning points. A lot of teaching.”

While the group of returning players has potential, fans may be most eager to see the newcomers. Camara, DePaul transfer Kobe Elvis and East Tennessee State transfer Richard Amaefule join the program along with freshmen Holmes, Smith, Greer III and Washington.

Camara has been on campus since May.

“I love it so far,” he said. “I feel like I really fit into the program, fit into the city. It’s a pretty little town. Everything is close. It makes it easy for us, easy for everybody. The community just seems amazing. I just can’t wait to play.”

Camara won’t get to fly home to Belgium when summer classes end but does plan to travel to Florida, where he went to high school for three years. Grant said the players will get a two-week break in August before returning for the start of the fall semester.

All the players benefitted from a full summer practice season, which last year’s newcomers didn’t get.

“It’s night and day because at this time last year we were uncertain what the next day was going to bring,” Grant said. “We didn’t really have a summer, to be honest. That’s just the way it went because there was just so much uncertainty about what the next step would be, if we’d have a full group from day to day. Some of the things we tried to do with that in mind. There were just a lot of challenges around COVID that we fortunately up to this point have not had to deal with this year, so it’s completely different.”

In addition to the summer practice season, the newcomers should get the chance to play in the Red and Blue game at UD Arena in October and will play in a preseason game, which was cancelled last year when Cedarville University had a positive COVID-19 test.

All of that adds up to extra time learning Grant’s system in advance of the Nov. 9 season opener against Illinois-Chicago.

“I think they’ve done a really good job of being coachable, of listening, of trying to manage the classroom, the weight room, the training room and then what we’re doing on the court,” Grant said. “That’s a lot — not just for the freshmen but for the guys who were here last year. They really didn’t get this. They didn’t get the full feel for what we go through preparing in the summer. For really most of our team that’s new to college basketball, or new to this, I think it was a great summer.”

Staff news: Grant announced the addition of two graduate assistants to his staff for the 2021-22 season on Thursday.

• Leron Black played at Illinois from 2015-18, scoring 921 points. He led the Illini in scoring as a senior with 15.3 points per game in 2017-18. He has since played professional basketball in Argentina and Brazil.

Black played at White Station High School in Memphis, Tenn., and was Tennessee’s Mr. Basketball in 2014.

• Tyler Carter previously coached at Huntington Prep in West Virginia.