» MARCH 7 PHOTOS: 100 never-before-scene shots from a great day at UD
Jagielski was nervous about going out because of his condition but decided to do it, along with his parents Rob and Lara, longtime season-ticket holders who have traveled as far as Puerto Rico to see the team play. The last great day of 2020 — though no one knew it was that at the time — for Dayton men’s basketball fans proved to be too much of a draw.
Bobby wore a T-shirt advocating for the election of Dayton stars Obi Toppin and Jalen Crutcher as president and vice president in 2020, a contest they surely would have won in Dayton if they had been old enough and decided to make a run.
“I had five people come up and ask me about that shirt,” Jagielski said.
» MORE STORIES: UD’s Neil Sullivan, others look back on March 7
The game at George Washington followed two other big events on campus — the filming of ESPN’s College GameDay at the Frericks Center and the Dayton’s women’s team’s Atlantic 10 Conference tournament semifinal game at UD Arena — and started at 7 p.m. For the next few hours, Jagielski forgot about his condition and the upcoming months, which would see him undergo a stem-cell transplant in July.
“Just being able to go felt like a victory,” Jagielski said, “having something to take my mind off it.”
Credit: David Jablonski - Staff Writer
Credit: David Jablonski - Staff Writer
Slow start
There were 13,407 fans at the game. It was one of 14 sellout crowds to watch the Flyers in 17 home games. All of those fans have different stories about how they ended up there and why.
In the morning, Jay Swartz told his kids, JJ and Harlow, if they were good he had a special treat for them at lunch. At 11 a.m., he served them a plate of pizza rolls and turned on College GameDay. Then he told them they would have to take a good nap because they were going to the game that night.
John Chambers flew to Dayton from St. Augustine, Fla., for his cousin’s 50th wedding anniversary. They moved the party to Friday because of the game on Saturday. Chambers wore a lucky he shirt he won at the Maui Invitational.
“We got to the game, and there were all these people I hadn’t seen in a long time,” Chambers said. “It was great. Everyone was happy and thrilled to be there.”
This was not a game any of these fans worried Dayton would lose. George Washington played the role of the Washington Generals. It no chance to beat Dayton’s Globetrotters. The Colonials, who finished 12-20, their third straight losing season, had lost four games in a row. Dayton had won its regular-season home finale eight years in a row.
From a standings standpoint, the game didn’t matter. Dayton had a four-game lead over second-place Richmond with one game to play. The Flyers played for seeding in the NCAA tournament — and for history. Dayton had never finished undefeated in conference play, and no team had gone 18-0 since the A-10 returned to an 18-game schedule in 2015.
After coach Anthony Grant and the Flyers dealt with the distraction of GameDay earlier in the day, they returned to preparation for the game and also for everything extra that came with it being Senior Night. Ryan Mikesell and Trey Landers, the last two players in the program recruited by former coach Archie Miller, were honored before the game along with three student managers: Alex Reilly; Henry Stark; and Jack Walsh.
Alex Wilker, who’s from Mikesell’s hometown, St. Henry, wanted to see Mikesell’s moment so much he ran from campus to the arena when he couldn’t get an Uber on the crowded streets outside the arena.
“I got through security and was sprinting out onto the concourse as he was getting his moment,” Wilker said. “I was dripping sweat. I almost missed the entire thing.”
The images of the Senior Day walk across the court never get old. It’s the same story every year but with different names, and it’s special for everyone involved.
“I just remember Alex’s smile,” said Erin Reilly, Alex’s mom. “I knew there were a ton of people watching. I just felt pride for him and the whole team. We didn’t know what was going to happen. We didn’t know it was the last game.”
No one talked about it before the game, Grant said, but everyone also knew it would be Toppin’s last game at the arena. He was bound to head to the NBA after the season.
“You have all those emotions and are trying to get that under control and make sure that we had enough focus and energy to go out and take care of business,” Grant said. “Then you go to the game and certainly give GW credit. They made it difficult. In that first half, it was a heck of a game, a heck of a battle.”
Dayton trailed 19-12 halfway through the first half and but the deficit to 26-25 at halftime. The Flyers shot 37.5 percent from the field in the first half.
“Everyone was kind of sitting on their hands in the first half,” said UD graduate Daniel Massa. “I think all year we had been expecting the typical Dayton stumble, or whatever you want to call it, and it definitely seemed like that was happening in the first half.”
Fast finish
That half doesn’t matter now. All anyone will remember 20 years from now is the second half — and more specifically a trilogy of Toppin dunks.
First there was the power: Toppin dunking over George Washington sophomore Jamison Battle.
Then there was the agility: Toppin performing a 360-degree dunk on a fast break.
» MORE MARCH 7 PHOTOS: Fans share photos from the day
Then there the exclamation point on the trio of dunks and the sequel to Toppin’s most famous dunk: a between-the-legs slam that would turn out to be the second-to-last dunk of a school-record 190 career dunks over two seasons.
Sarah Schwieterman, whose family has traveled from New Bremen to games since before she was born, remembered thinking earlier in the game she hadn’t seen a Toppin dunk.
The flurry of dunks resulted in one satisfied fan.
“Everyone was hugging and high-fiving,” she said. “I hugged random people. I almost cried.”
“Especially with the slow start, the way they finished, it was just an electric night,” said Jeff Hoagland, who was at the game with his sons Charlie and Jake and a college friend, Luke Fuller.
The three dunks came during an 82-second span near the end of a 21-2 run. The game was tied at 37-37 with 13:57 to play. A 3-pointer by Ibi Watson gave Dayton a 58-39 lead with 7:15 to play. Toppin added one more dunk with 6:04 to play.
“I told one of my buddies next to me, ‘They’re going to go off in the second half,’” said Sam Stolly, a former UD student manager. “They got it out of their system. The nerves are gone. You’re not going to see anything like it. It’s going to be nuts. The next thing you know, it’s a dunk here, a dunk there, a 3-pointer here, a 3-pointer there. It was really just awesome to see. That was the loudest of all the games I’ve been to, and the loudest point was when Obi did the in-between-the-legs dunk.”
Toppin dominated the headlines all season — and for good reason — but there were other scene stealers on this night. Mikesell, who made his first shot at the arena in 2015, made his last shot, a 3-pointer in the final minutes, before being pulled from the game and enjoying one last walk to the bench and a hug from Grant. Landers experienced the same moment and even got an embrace from George Washington coach Jamion Christian.
While he wasn’t honored before the game, the fans got to cheer Toppin one last time as he left Tom Blackburn Court.
“We were all sort of talking and wondering if there would be something for Obi,” said season-ticket holder Quinn Marker. “I’m a big fan of Trey and Ryan, so it was exciting to see those two guys there. We were all glad the way Obi went out that night. It was probably better than any sort of senior night send-off they could have done. When he came off the court and hugged coach Grant and looked up at the fans, it felt like perfect way to send him off.”
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