The players know not to reveal too many details about the injury status of teammates, but Elvis said, “I don’t want to spoil nothing for nobody, but we might have Mali sooner than later.”
At that moment, Smith walked out of the locker room on the other end of the court. He was in uniform, something that hasn’t been seen this season.
“I think he’s progressing really well,” Grant said. “I think he’s starting to do some movements. We hope today maybe he can get out there and do a little more. If he’s able to do more, it will be his first time on the floor with his teammates.”
No. 21 Dayton (2-1) returns to action at 1 p.m. Saturday against Robert Morris (2-1) at UD Arena. The Flyers will try to bounce back from a 60-52 loss to UNLV on Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nev. The Flyers got back to Ohio at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, 2½ hours later than planned because of a mechanical issue with their plane.
Grant labeled Toumani Camara (knee) and DaRon Holmes II (ankle) as day to day after they suffered injuries Tuesday. Both said after the game they would be fine for Saturday. Grant also said suspended forward Kaleb Washington has returned to practice.
If Smith can return to the lineup anytime either Saturday or next week in the Battle 4 Atlantis, it will help an offense that committed 24 turnovers against UNLV. That was the program’s highest number since it had 26 in a 61-59 loss at Mississippi State on Dec. 3, 2017.
Elvis led Dayton with 16 points against UNLV but also led Dayton with six turnovers. He had two turnovers in the first two minutes. He traveled after picking up a ball on the fast break and then had the ball slapped out of his hands by a UNLV defender on the next possession.
Elvis said he sat down with Grant to talk about the turnovers and talked with assistant coach James Kane, too. He’s watched the film. He’ll watch more and talk more about the turnovers in the days ahead.
“There were times when I might have looked down (while dribbling),” Elvis said. “There were times I might have over-penetrated.”
The seven players who saw at least 10 minutes of action all had at least two turnovers. R.J. Blakney and DaRon Holmes II each had four.
Dayton ranked below the national average in turnover percentage in Grant’s first five seasons. Only the 29-2 team of 2019-20 avoided that fate. Through three games this season, Dayton ranks 279th with turnovers on 22.2% of its possessions.
Some of Dayton’s failures Tuesday had to do with UNLV’s prowess at forcing turnovers. The Runnin’ Rebels lead the nation in defensive turnover percentage (34.9).
“It was a little of everything,” Grant said. “We had three charges. They’re really good at forcing turnovers. Some of it was them being active and aggressive. Some of it was us making poor decisions. You’re never going to play a perfect game, but unfortunately for us, the numbers were a lot higher than we want.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Robert Morris at Dayton, 1 p.m., Spectrum News 1, 1290, 95.7
Credit: David Jablonski
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