ESPN’s Joe Lunardi also sees Dayton as the A-10 favorite. He lists the Flyers as the league’s automatic qualifier in his 2024 NCAA tournament prediction.
If Dayton is the favorite in the official A-10 preseason poll in October, as it was last year, it likely won’t be a big one. With so much turnover on the rosters of the typical A-10 front-runners — Dayton and VCU, specifically — it’s hard to predict the 15-team now, a little more than three months before the season begins, and it won’t be much easier when league play begins in January.
Dayton became the fifth straight preseason favorite to not win the regular-season championship last season. It tied for second with Saint Louis, three games behind VCU. The previous four preseason favorites didn’t crack the top three.
If Dayton does enter the season as the favorite, the expectations won’t bother it. Its players are confident in the roster coach Anthony Grant, entering his seventh season, and his staff have built.
“I feel like every year that I’ve been here we’ve gotten closer and closer,” fourth-year guard Koby Brea said Friday, “so now there’s no option. We’ve got to get it done. There was no more beating around the bush or whatever. There’s no excuses.”
Brea, who has two seasons of eligibility remaining, counting this season, is one of five returning scholarship players.
• Forward Zimi Nwokeji, who joined the program halfway through the 2019-20 season also has two seasons of eligibility remaining. He’s the longest-tenured Flyer for the second straight season.
• Third-year guard Kobe Elvis also has two seasons of eligibility remaining because the 2020-21 season, which he played at DePaul, didn’t count against anyone’s eligibility.
• Junior forward DaRon Holmes II and junior guard Malachi Smith also have two seasons of eligibility remaining, though Holmes put his name in the NBA Draft this year and will be more likely to stay in the draft next year.
Those five players join seven newcomers, plus a strong group of six walk-ons, on the 2023-24 roster. The group leaves Friday for a 10-day trip to France and Spain.
“We’ve all been together for two or three years,” Smith said. “We’re definitely more experienced than last year. I think we were still young last year. Now we’ve matured and been through some adversity and know what it takes to win on the road and stuff like that. We’ve just got to make sure these new guys follow us and we lead them as much as we can.”
Brea and Smith have been sidelined by offseason surgeries and have watched their teammates in practice all summer. Asked who has stood out among the newcomers, both mentioned the same player.
“Honestly, every single one of them, the growth that I’ve seen from day one until now it’s literally amazing,” Brea said, “but somebody I would say that probably sticks out the most is maybe Enoch (Cheeks). I’m really impressed with his physical attributes. He’s extremely fast. His athleticism is off the charts. I think he’s going to help this team a lot.”
Cheeks, a transfer from Robert Morris, is entering his fourth season in college basketball. He has two seasons of eligibility remaining.
“He’s just aggressive and quick and has one speed,” Smith said. “He’s straight to the point. He plays hard. I like that aggression.”
The return of Holmes, who withdrew his name from consideration for the NBA Draft on May 31, is the biggest reason Dayton ranks among the A-10′s top contenders. Brea and Smith knew a few days before Holmes made his decision public he would return to Dayton.
Like Dayton fans, the players wanted what’s best for Holmes but also hoped he’d stay at Dayton.
“That’s something we talk about all the time,” Brea said, “We all want whatever was going to be the best situation for him. Obviously, you want to see him in the NBA, but the selfish part of us wanted him to stay.”
As a sophomore, Holmes averaged 18.4 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per game and made the A-10 first team and all-defensive team.
“His game’s growing tremendously,” Brea said. “His body, everything, that man has really grown a lot. I think that experience — doing the combine and working out with the teams — I think it will really show on the court how much it helped him.”
“He looks sharp,” Smith said. “He’s moving better. He’s shooting better. I think coming back was a smart choice.”
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