“I’m with Tampa Bay,” he said. “I just know Tom Brady is the G.O.A.T.”
Burrow has a little more time on his hand this weekend than Brady, who will play in the Super Bowl on Sunday, and he also had a good reason for watching the Flyers. He and Dayton guard Ibi Watson have stayed in touch since they were basketball teammates at Athens High School as freshmen and sophomores from 2012-14. Watson transferred to Pickerington Central for his last two seasons.
Burrow saw Watson bounce back from the worst 3-point shooting performance of his career (0-for-10 on Tuesday in a 69-64 loss at Duquesne) with a more typical effort. He made 5 of 10 3-pointers and scored 20 points, playing all 40 minutes for the third time in the last four games.
Weaver also struggled in that loss to Duquesne, turning the ball over four times and failing to record an assist or score a point. He turned the box score around Friday with a season-high 13 points. He made 3 of 3 3-pointers after making 3 of 20 in his first nine games with the Flyers. He had missed his last 10 attempts.
Weaver was a decent 3-point shooter in his first two seasons at Southern California, making 34 percent of his attempts (48 of 141), so he was excited to finally have some success at Dayton.
“I can’t even put it into words,” Weaver said. “It felt great to finally see one go down and then the next one and the next one. It’ll give me a lot of confidence going into the next game.”
Dayton made 12 of 23 3-pointers (52.2 percent) against George Mason and led from start to finish, winning by the same score as it did in the first matchup on Jan. 2. It was the opposite Tuesday when Dayton made 8 of 35 3-pointers (22.9 percent) and trailed the entire way.
For Dayton coach Anthony Grant, the difference wasn’t in the shooting percentage but in the focus and effort. His team has battled inconsistency all season but has yet to let one disappointing performance effect its play in the next game. Dayton still has not lost back-to-back games in the Atlantic 10 Conference since 2018.
“We had mistakes,” Grant said. “We had breakdowns. We had things we needed to do better. But it wasn’t because of a lack of focus or a lack of effort in terms of the things we needed to do to put us in a position to win today. What you need to be able to do now is do it again. That’s the thing our team has to understand. You have to be able to repeat that over and over again. That has to become a habit. That has to become your identity. So that’s the challenge.”
Dayton’s most consistent player has been senior guard Jalen Crutcher, who has topped 20 points in six A-10 games. He had 28 points against Duquesne, though even he struggled from 3-point range (3 of 11). Against George Mason, he made 7 of 13 shots, including 2 of 5 3-pointers, and scored 21 points.
Crutcher also played all 40 minutes for the fourth straight game. With Moulaye Sissoko sidelined for the second straight game with an injury, Dayton played a seven-man rotation. Zimi Nwokeji and R.J. Blakney who combined for 20 minutes, were the only reserves to play.
All the starters contributed. Mustapha Amzil had 10 points. Jordy Tshimanga had 14 rebounds and eight points and dunked three times.
Weaver’s production might be the most important sign for the team. Dayton knows what it’s getting from Crutcher most nights. It knows what Watson can do, though when he’s off, it’s likely to be a bad night for the team. If Weaver can find some consistency, it will help the team’s chances down the stretch of the regular season and in the A-10 tournament.
“The story for Elijah was his poise and his focus,” Grant said. “He really did a great job distributing the basketball. He was locked in defensively. That’s where we need Elijah to be. Sometimes you make shots, sometimes you miss shots. My thing is always take good shots, stay in character to who you are. I thought tonight he got shots in rhythm. His teammates gave him rhythm opportunities, but the things he did outside of shooting the basketball were a major difference tonight. Maybe seeing a shot go in adds to that energy and that sustainability, but we’ve go to be able to mature and understand the game is a lot more than how many points you score. You can impact the game in so many different ways, and I thought he did that in a big way tonight.”
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