“It’s so weird because my family and friends who normally go to the games with me, they’re upset about not getting to go,” Watson said before the season began. “I’m of the mindset that as long as these boys get a season, let’s go. We’ll watch them on TV. The sad thing is Dayton has such an amazing energy, and it’s going to be really weird for them to come and not have that.”
Sheila Crutcher, who used to be a cheerleader, could make extra noise but knows her son Jalen wouldn’t want her that. The presence of Sheila and Jalen’s dad, Greg Crutcher, is enough. Jalen’s brother Courtland also can come to games because he lives with Sheila and Greg. UD told players only immediate family members — parents and others who live under the same roof — will get tickets.
The Crutchers live in Memphis and have traveled all over the country to see Jalen play in the last three seasons, wearing out the interstates between Dayton and Memphis on many seven-hour drives. They were among the few fans in the stands Saturday.
“I don’t care if it’s just us in the stands,” Sheila said. “I just want the season to happen — not just for me but for the boys.”
A different experience
Like the rest of the parents of Dayton players, Chad Frazier, whose son Luke is a UD freshman, just wants to get in the building. Early this season, family members are being allowed to see the team play at UD Arena, though they had been told that could change if the COVID-19 situation worsens in Montgomery County and the department of health changes the protocols.
There’s a chance even the parents of players won’t get to see the team play in person. That’s the case for the Ohio State Buckeyes football team, which had parents at the first two home games but not the third.
If the parents can attend games all season, they will do their best to create a home-court advantage. Chad and Kristy Frazier were at the first two games.
“It’s going to be different,” Frazier said before the season. “It’s basketball, though. I just want to watch the team play. I’m not overly concerned about the fans. I think the fans and the players and the coaches and the staff, their blood’s going to be boiling as if there were 13,000 fans there. I just miss watching basketball. It’s been a long time since I’ve watched my kid play. I’ve never seen him play at this level. We’re just excited.”
Credit: David Jablonski
A delayed start
The wait for the season opener continued well past the beginning of the college basketball season. There were 282 Division I men’s basketball games played in the first five days of the season. Of the 357 teams, 99 did not play a game from Nov. 25-30, including five teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference: Dayton, Massachusetts, Fordham, Duquesne and St. Bonaventure.
UMass had some players in quarantine as December began and didn’t plan to play again until this week.
Dayton went 0-for-3 in early opportunities to play outside competition in a public setting. While it held an unpublicized scrimmage against Cincinnati on Nov. 25, it saw an exhibition game Nov. 28 against Cedarville University cancelled because of a positive COVID-19 test within Cedarville’s program. At that point, Dayton had already lost Bellarmine, its first regular-season opponent, for the same reason and replaced it with Alcorn State, only to lose that Dec. 1 game because of a positive COVID-19 test within Alcorn State’s program.
Dayton also lost Purdue Fort Wayne off the schedule. The Flyers played Eastern Illinois in their opener Dec. 1 and then played Southern Methodist on Dec. 5. They will play Northern Kentucky on Tuesday.
Dayton freshman Zimi Nwokeji’s parents, Kennedy and Linda, were doing an interview with the Dayton Daily News when the news of the Alcorn State cancellation broke Nov. 28.
The Nwokejis live in Quincy, Fla., near Tallahassee, and weren’t planning to travel to any home games in December anyway because of the COVID-19 situation, but they do still hope to see the Flyers play Mississippi State on Dec. 12 in Atlanta.
Parents have been told they will not be able to get tickets from UD for the game in Atlanta, but the Nwokejis may try to go anyway because it’s the closest game for them to drive to. Sheila Crutcher also said Jalen told her fans wouldn’t be allowed at the game in Atlanta. A Mississippi State parent she spoke to told her the same. She’s hoping something changes.
“I booked a room already in Atlanta,” Sheila said. “I told Jalen I would keep my reservation.”
While Watson and the Crutchers saw many games at UD Arena last season, the Nwokejis experienced only one game last December when Zimi was visiting campus.
“Last year was amazing,” Kennedy said. “It was a great experience. We’re looking forward to that happening again.”
Once Zimi joined the team last January, his parents bought a bigger TV and subscribed to all the different platforms you need to watch the Flyers. They planned to see the Flyers play at the Crossover Classic in Sioux Falls, S.D., and had bought plane tickets, but Dayton withdrew from that event because of the high positivity rate in South Dakota and Ohio’s quarantine rules for residents traveling to South Dakota.
A big sacrifice
If the parents of players do get to see their kids play on the road this season, it may not be until late in the season. That’s assuming the coronavirus situation has improved. Parents were told last week they wouldn’t be able to attend any A-10 road games.
“My wife (Kristy) and I are pretty dedicated to being at about every home game,” Chad said. “As of right now, we won’t be able to go to away games.”
Chad said the family subscribed to ESPN+ and have a Roku and Amazon Fire Stick so they can get all the channels they may need.
The uncertainty about the season has made planning difficult. Molly was supposed to be the exhibition game against Cedarville.
“You get used to planning your life around your player for so many years,” she said Friday. “You pretty much abandon any other plans or people who aren’t involved in basketball. It’s 100 percent; you’re in. I was all set to go. I was going to take Ibi to dinner after the game.”
Molly last saw her son in mid-November. The Crutchers visited Jalen once in the fall. Kennedy and Linda haven’t seen Zimi since he returned to campus in July. Luke traveled home to Painesville for 48 hours once in the fall and Chad took him out to dinner once in Dayton, but his parents didn’t get to see him for Thanksgiving and weren’t sure if they would see him for Christmas.
“We totally understand and support what they’re doing,” Chad said.
The parents understand what kind of sacrifice their kids are making to play this season. Dayton players have to undergo COVID-19 testing three times per week. Kennedy knows what it’s like. He works in the health-care industry and is tested once per week. Sheila also works at a hospital and said the tests are not fun. Jalen hates them, she said.
Ibi has told his mom it’s all worth it.
“He says he’s fine with whatever happens,” she said. “He just wants to play a season.”
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