The first Mongolian citizen to play Division I men’s basketball, Sharavjamts, a 6-foot-8 guard/forward was the only freshman on Dayton’s roster last season. He made the Atlantic 10 Conference All-Rookie team, averaging 5.6 points and 2.6 assists in 30 games. He started 20 games.
Sharavjamts is the fourth player to leave Dayton since the season ended March 12 and the sixth to leave since December.
Dayton now has at least five scholarships to work with on the 2023-24 roster after losing Mustapha Amzil, R.J. Blakney and Richard Amaefule to the transfer portal last week.
There are six scholarship players remaining on the roster: Toumani Camara; DaRon Holmes II; Malachi Smith; Koby Brea; Kobe Elvis; and Zimi Nwokeji.
The 2023 recruiting class has two freshmen in it at the moment: Vasilije Erceg, a 6-foot-10 forward from Novi Sad, Serbia; and Jaiun Simon, a 6-7 forward from Mableton, Ga.
Sharavjamts committed to Dayton in December 2021. He had connections to the area, having played his freshman season at Legacy Christian in Xenia and with Midwest Basketball Club, coached by Centerville’s Brook Cupps, in the summer of 2021.
After considering playing for Centerville, Sharavjamts chose to play for the International Sports Academy in Willoughby, Ohio, his senior season.
At Dayton, Sharavjamts got off to a strong start. He scored 10 points in the season opener against Lindenwood, 10 again against Southern Methodist and then 14 points in a 60-52 loss at UNLV. At that point, he had made 8 of 16 3-pointers and 6 of 6 free throws.
Sharavjamts then scored a total of three points in the next two games after Malachi Smith returned to the starting lineup and his playing time decreased. The coaches put Sharavjamts back in the starting lineup for the final two games of the Battle 4 Atlantis. He scored 15 points in the seventh-place game against Brigham Young. That would be his highest points total of the season.
Sharavjamts hurt his knee in the final game of the regular season at Saint Louis and missed Dayton’s first A-10 tournament game against Saint Joseph’s. He played 10 minutes in each of the final two games of the tournament.
The City of Dayton honored Sharavjamts with a Mongolian Day in February.
“This is a big surprise for me,” his dad Sharavjamts Tserenjankhar said then. “I couldn’t imagine what one little boy could do. A freshman basketball player is now like a bridge between two countries.”
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