Dayton will play for the first time since Dec. 21 when it beat Southern 69-60 in its final non-conference game. Its first two A-10 games — at Rhode Island on Thursday and at home against St. Bonaventure on Sunday — were postponed because of positive tests within those programs.
“There’s nothing like playing games,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said last week before the St. Bonaventure game was postponed. “You don’t like those long delays, those long breaks in between games. We always say we try to control what we control. This one was out of our control. We’re just trying to make sure we’re as ready as we can be come Sunday.”
That thinking continued this week as the Flyers (8-5) prepared for a team that beat them three times last season. The Rams (7-4) haven’t played since Dec. 15. COVID-19 issues forced them to cancel their last two non-conference games against Penn State on Dec. 18 and New Hampshire on Dec. 21 and then their first two A-10 games against George Mason on Thursday and Davidson on Sunday.
VCU still wouldn’t have had enough players to play Dayton if the CDC hadn’t lowered the required quarantine time from 10 days to five days, VCU coach Mike Rhoades said Monday in a Zoom press conference with media in Richmond. He did not say how many players would be available Wednesday. That’s to be determined.
In recent weeks, the Rams often had only one, two or three players in practice.
“We just had so many guys in protocol,” Rhoades said. “Pretty much the whole team and staff members and so forth. ... It was just like every day there was something new going on. We just kept getting strung out with new guys in protocol.”
In the last two seasons, Dayton has not any shutdowns because of COVID-19. Its whole roster is vaccinated. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t had players and/or coaches test positive.
“Obviously, you want your guys to be as careful and diligent as possible, but some of it is kind of luck,” Grant said Monday on his weekly radio show with Larry Hansgen on WHIO. “Maybe we’re not in a position that some other teams are in and we’ve had our share of cases like anybody else, but fortunately for us, it hasn’t prevented us from having enough guys where we couldn’t play the games that are on the schedule. Knock on wood, we won’t get into that situation, but as we can see across the country, this thing, it doesn’t seem like it’s slowing down anytime soon. Hopefully, we’ll be able to continue to move forward.”
Even though VCU hasn’t played in three weeks, it will have a familiar look. The Rams ranked 14th in the nation in defensive efficiency last season, according to KenPom.com, and rank third this season. They allow 56.7 points per game, the best number in the A-10.
Four players who started against Dayton in the A-10 tournament last season remain in the rotation for the Rams. Only Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland, the A-10 Player of the Year in 2021, is gone. He scored 28, 22 and 30 points against Dayton last season as a sophomore.
Like Dayton, VCU has a balanced lineup. Both teams have four players averaging between 9 and 11 points per game. Neither team has a player who ranks among the top 25 scorers in the conference.
VCU ranks 12th in the country in turnovers forced per game (18.6). Dayton ranks 280th in turnovers committed per game (14.6).
“They’ve shown themselves to be a team that harasses you, that creates turnovers,” Grant said on WHIO. “Those turnovers create opportunities for them in transition, which is where they’re at their best. So we’re going to have to do a really good job of understanding where we can attack and then where we need to be intelligent. A big thing is being able to take care of the basketball and make sure that we’re giving ourselves the chance to not only get shots, but also keep them out of broken-floor situations where they get easy buckets.”
WEDNESDAY’S GAME
VCU at Dayton, 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network, 1290, 95.7
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