Those two assists, plus a turnover in seven minutes, were Smith’s only stats in his junior season. He banged knees with a defender midway through the first half, suffering a season-ending right knee injury that required surgery two days later. He sat out the rest of the season and watched Dayton’s return to the NCAA tournament from the bench.
Now he’s back as the longest-tenured current Flyer. Smith scored 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting and led Dayton with six assists and three steals in 19 minutes in the 87-57 victory against Saint Francis University.
“It’s great to be able to see him out there healthy again and playing with confidence,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “I think it was big for him, considering a year ago at this time it was a hard, hard thing that happened to him. I’m so happy for him to be back out there, playing free, playing with confidence and playing healthy.”
Smith started exhibition games against Xavier and Ashland but was the last player off the bench in the first half Monday. Posh Alexander, a fifth-year guard who played at Butler last season, took Smith’s place in the starting lineup.
Grant did not provide any analysis of the change, saying only that it was a “coach’s decision.” Smith played more than eight minutes in the final 10 minutes of the half. Then he started the second half instead of Alexander.
Alexander finished with seven points on 3-of-8 shooting, five assists and two steals in a team-high 27 minutes.
“Posh did a great job tonight,” Grant said. “He was really active. I think he was a plus 18 in the first half. He did a lot of really good things. I thought we had a lot of good combinations tonight with different guys. We were able to play three different lineups that had different point guards out there. We were able to play pretty much each guard off the ball at times. We were able to get a look at some of the versatility that our lineup could bring us at different times.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Long-awaited debut: Like Smith, Jaiun Simon sat out last season. He redshirted as a freshman. He also overcame surgery — a left-ankle procedure in March — to get back to the court.
Simon was the last available scholarship player to see the court Monday but made 1 of 4 field goals in the final five minutes and scored two points.
First points: Two UD freshmen scored their first college points in the opener.
• Amaël L’Etang, who at 7-foot-1 became the tallest player to appear in a game in UD basketball history, had seven points and eight rebounds in 16 minutes.
• Guard/forward Hamad Mousa had four points in 12 minutes.
Injury news: After appearing in both preseason games, junior forward Isaac Jack was on the bench in street clothes during the opener. Grant said he has a “lower-body injury.”
Around the A-10: Fourteen of the 15 teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference — everyone but Richmond — played in the first two days of the season Monday and Tuesday. All but three won.
The only team to win by more points than Dayton was Rhode Island, which opened coach Archie Miller’s third season with a 96-58 victory against Fairfield.
The most significant result involved Saint Louis, which lost 85-78 in coach Josh Schertz’s debut. Isaiah Swope and Robbie Avila, who followed Schertz from Indiana State to Saint Louis, combined for 40 points.
Avila suffered an ankle injury late in the second half and is expected to miss a couple of weeks, according to reports. A sprained ankle also sidelined Avila in the preseason.
Another A-10 coach making his debut, Duquesne’s Dru Joyce III, lost his first game, 77-72 at home to Lipscomb.
SATURDAY’S GAME
Northwestern at Dayton, 7:30 p.m., WHIO-TV, 1290, 95.7
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