Dayton had just lost 79-58 to Lipscomb, avoiding a 20-point loss only because Toumani Camara made a 3-pointer in the final minute after missing his first five attempts and Lipscomb elected to run out the clock in the final seconds without taking a shot.
Grant had to answer for not only that loss but also an equally-stunning 59-58 defeat four days earlier against UMass Lowell. It’s the first two-game losing streak for Dayton in which both games have taken place at home since 2012 when it lost to Rhode Island and Duquesne in a four-day stretch. This two-game skid had Dayton fans reminiscing — not fondly — of the Jim O’Brien days of the mid-1990s when the program recorded 17 victories in a three-year stretch.
Although there was nothing Grant could say to truly soothe the rabid fans who bought every ticket for the season before it began — there will be another sellout at 2 p.m. Saturday when Dayton (1-2) plays Austin Peay (1-2) — part of Grant’s job is communicating with those fans through interviews. Here’s how he answered that question.
• “The answer is always going to be in the work. I have to figure out as a coach how I can help this team get the work in that that helps them transfer some type of consistency on both sides of the ball to the games.”
• “We’re at a point now where the games are coming fast. As a coach, what we did it in June, July, August, September, you would hope there would be lessons — there would be some habits — that we will be able to build that would carry us through the non-conference.”
• “We’ve seen really three unique styles of play. This prep today was something for a young team that was very difficult. With the guys as skilled as they have in the front court, with the shooting they had, the way they space, it was a very difficult prep. So we struggled. We struggled in every facet of it.”
• “We’ve got to evaluate everything in terms of where the minutes are, what the combinations on the floor are, who gives us the best chance at each position to try to become the team we can become. I’ve got to look at all that right now.”
• “We have to be able to be honest. I have to be able to be honest and say, ‘How can I be better? How can I help these guys? How can we build some habits on both sides of the ball that help us put us in the best position to grow as a team.’”
• “Every game you get 200 minutes, right? Take tonight. Our veteran guys that have played more than a year of college basketball, they got 60 minutes tonight. So there’s 140 minutes that are being distributed between guys that are in the first and second second year of college basketball. And of the guys that are in their second year of college basketball, probably the most experienced one is the guy that came halfway through the season last year: Mustapha Amzil. So they don’t know what they don’t know. They have to learn.”
• “Let’s be true with who we are and where we are right now, individually. If we can do that, I think that’s how you get better. When we can honestly say, ‘OK, when what I think I do well isn’t going well, can I play well? Can I help my team win? Am I willing to sacrifice the me to help this team be successful? Do I know how to do that? Do I understand what that looks like? Right now, based on the results that we’ve got for three games, the answer is probably no.”
• “We have three games of data, and it’s been pretty consistent — especially on the offensive end, and even on the defensive end — in terms of what we’ve got to be able to do. It’s on me as a coach. I’ve got to grow these guys. In terms of the confidence thing, this team is full of potential, but potential can be a dirty word, too, because it means you haven’t done it. At some point, guys have to make that change from being a bunch of guys that have potential to being guys that understand what it takes to win in college basketball.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Austin Peay at Dayton, 2 p.m., Bally Sports Ohio, 1290, 95.7
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