Grant calls Dayton’s 2021 recruiting success a ‘team effort’

“Yes, sir!” Washington said.

Grant asked DaRon Holmes and Malachi Smith the same question.

“I’ve got all my papers signed,” Holmes said. “I’m ready.”

“I’m ready to be a part of the family, to be a part of the brotherhood,” Smith said.

All three players, who had previously verbally committed to UD, signed their national letters of intent Wednesday as one of the best recruiting classes in Dayton basketball history became official. It ranks 21st in the nation in 2021, according to Rivals.com, and 25th, according to 247Sports.com.

Holmes, a 6-foot-8 forward from Phoenix, Ariz., who now attends Montverde Academy (Fla.), 36th in the class, according to Rivals.com. He’s Dayton’s highest-ranked recruit this century.

“You look at his accolades and his talent, his size, his skill,” Grant said. “He really fits the prototypical forward for us with the way we want to play with his skillset and versatility. When you talk to people around him, you get this feel when you get to know him of just his character and who he is as a person. His humility, his willingness to work, they really stand out.”

Smith, a 6-foot combo guard from the St. Raymond School for Boys in Bronx, N.Y., signed with Dayton seven years after his brother Scoochie Smith signed to play for the Flyers. He ranks 150th in the 2021 class.

“Going in and being able to see him at the start of his junior year," Grant said, "watching him work out and watching the film on him, I felt like just as a basketball player, his game speaks for itself. He’s one of those New York City guards that’s mature beyond his years, He has a toughness about him. He brings a level of swagger with him. He can play both ends. Defensively, he takes pride in what he does there, and offensively, he has the ability to run a team and facilitate and make plays for others as well as himself. We got a guy who will fit really well into what we’re trying to do.”

Smith visited Dayton when his brother was a senior in 2017 but did not get to visit campus during the recruiting process because of the coronavirus pandemic. Holmes has never visited campus and didn’t get to meet the coaches in person.

Washington, a 6-7 forward who ranks 90th in the 2021 class, also didn’t get to meet the coaches in person after he received a scholarship offer in the summer but visited the UD campus with his mom and two coaches on Oct. 9 and then committed to Dayton on Oct. 26, two days after Holmes made his announcement.

“Kaleb is someone we jumped in on a little late,” Grant said. “We saw him during the season with his high school team. Ricardo (Greer) went down and watched him play and was really excited about him. Then we followed up. He has tremendous size, skill and mobility. We felt like the way we play he will really fit well, and he was able to see that.”

Assuming Dayton doesn’t fill the one open scholarship in the 2020-21 season, it has two open for the 2021-22 season. The recruiting never stops, so there’s always a chance Dayton will add to the 2021 class, but as it stands now, it’s the best freshman class Grant and his staff have compiled.

Grant said the success the program had last season, when it finished 29-2 and rose to No. 3 in the top 25, played a part in the recruiting success, but he also praised his assistants for the job they did.

“It was a great team effort between Ricardo, Anthony (Solomon) and Darren (Hertz)," Grant said. "Some guys played point and some guys played lead, just building relationships with them, their families, their coaches. It’s amazing how six degrees of separation works. Coach Solomon may have had a relationship with an AAU coach, whereas maybe Ricardo knew someone affiliated with a parent of one of the kids and Darren was able to use his connections with some high school coaches to get more information about one kid. Our staff did a tremendous job of working together to put us in a position to get all three kids.”

In other Dayton recruiting news, the women’s program signed two players on Wednesday: Shannon Wheeler, a 6-2 guard from Renaissance High School in Detroit; and Brynn Shoup-Hill, a 6-3 forward from Goshen High School (Ind.).

The Dayton volleyball program announced the signing of four recruits: Katie Gale, a 6-4 middle blocker/right side hitter from Seven Hills, Ohio, and Normandy High School; Lia Hawken, a 6-1 outside/right side hitter from Vancouver, Wash., and Skyview High School; Alyssa Miller, a 5-10 setter from Overland Park, Kan., and Blue Valley West High School; and Taylor Russell, a 6-2 outside hitter from Whitehouse, Ohio, and Anthony Wayne High School.