“We’re off to a good start,” Briski said on Dec. 16. “We’re 6-1 overall, and Mike’s obviously been a huge reason why. We’re playing him at the point. He really runs the show for us and is kind of the head of the snake. He’s been terrific, shooting well over 40 percent from 3 and something like 60 percent from the field. He’s probably averaging around 7 or 8 assists per game, so he’s really doing it all.”
Dayton fans will have a chance to see Sharavjamts in person at the Flyin’ to the Hoop event at Trent Arena in Kettering. ISA plays Link Academy (Mo.) at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 14, in the first of 19 games in a four-day stretch.
ISA is located in Willoughby, Ohio, northeast of Cleveland. Its players attend Andrews Osborne Academy. Briski started the program in 2018. Charles Bediako, who’s now a freshman at Alabama, played there the first two seasons, as did Keon Ambrose-Hylton, who’s a sophomore at Alabama.
Sharavjamts, the first player from the 2022 recruiting class to commit to Dayton, ended up with ISA after Briski saw him play last summer with Midwest Basketball Club.
“We didn’t really know a lot about him,” Briski said, “but when we went through the process with him, we told him, ‘We get that you’re a point guard, and we’re going to play you that way. We play a national schedule and feel like we can really continue to help you develop your jump shot,’ which is clearly paying off. We felt like he would be able to play against competition that’s going to prepare him for what he’s going to face when he goes to Dayton next year. That was our pitch and he believed in what we were doing and our development plan for him, and it seems to be working out for everybody.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Centerville High School coach Brook Cupps, who coached Sharavjamts last summer with Midwest Basketball Club, said Sharavjamts makes the game easier for his teammates. Briski agrees.
“The kid’s unbelievable with the ball in his hands,” Briski said. “Primary actions, secondary actions, he’s going to give you an advantage, and he’s going to find players. He’ll tell you himself he’d rather assist on a bucket than score himself. That can be a problem sometimes, but he really makes everybody around him a better player.”
Briski said Sharavjamts’ mom and older brother moved to Cleveland to support him and will move back to Mongolia when he starts college.
His dad, Tserenjankhar, was playing for the Harlem Globetrotters when Sharavjamts was born in Phoenix, so he has American citizenship.
Sharavjamts received a scholarship offer while on a visit to Dayton in September and sat behind the bench with his parents for an exhibition game in November. He picked the Flyers over Rutgers, Providence and Eastern Washington.
“I think coach Grant and coach (Ricardo) Greer quite frankly just did a hell of a job,” Briski said. “We’ve had a lot of guys and a lot of guys have had some really good recruitments and we’ve worked with Dayton before. They’ve recruited a few of our guys over the years. Coach Grant, when he walks in the room, you feel his presence, and the way he plans on using Mike was the real separator. Mike had some great schools on his list, and quite frankly, he would have had some even bigger names on that list had he waited, but he wanted Dayton and Dayton wanted him. You have a coach who has coached in the NBA have a coach who’s beaten Duke in the NCAA tournament. There’s not a lot else you could ask for, and then you’re going to a place that sells out every game. Everything kind of just came together. Coach Grant and coach Greer built a relationship and built a lot of trust and took him through everything that he was curious about, answered all his questions, and he just felt like Dayton was home.”
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