The only time I’ve ever traveled with a team was in 2001 when I got a seat on the Wittenberg football team’s charter flight to Abilene, Texas, for a playoff game at Hardin-Simmons. Technical issues prevented my story getting back to the paper. Somehow I got back to Springfield in time late on a Saturday night to file the game story. I remember trying (and failing) to use the air phone — back when they had those with every seat — to connect my computer to the system back at the paper.
Only once in 10 seasons have I been on the same flight as the Flyers. They flew commercial to Maui in 2019. On the way home, I shared a late-night flight to Las Vegas, or Salt Lake City, or wherever we connected, with them. I remember Dwayne Cohill kidding Obi Toppin about getting an NBA seat because he had more leg room than some of the other players.
On the road with the Flyers
This month is a busy travel month for myself and the Flyers. I got up at 5 a.m. to catch a 6:30 a.m. flight on Tuesday. I live five miles from the Columbus airport and have TSA pre-check, so I could cut it even closer if I wanted to when I’m not checking a bag. I can be at the gate about 30 minutes after leaving my house with most of the time spent parking the car in the Red Lot.
I flew to Houston and then on to Las Vegas, landing around 11:30 a.m. Pacific time. I should have napped, knowing it was going to be a late night. Instead, I used a few hours of free time to hike at Red Rock Canyon and drive the 13-mile scenic loop. I had already experienced the Las Vegas Strip twice. I’m all about doing new things on every trip.
After Dayton’s 60-52 loss to UNLV, I waited outside the Dayton locker room for who knows how long — probably close to 45 minutes — for coach Anthony Grant, who must have needed some extra time to process the defeat. Several of the players had departed earlier, so I talked to Kobe Elvis, DaRon Holmes II and Toumani Camara, asking the latter two players about the injuries they suffered in the game. Grant finally came out to do his radio interview with Larry Hansgen, and then I talked to him for a few minutes.
I left the arena around 12:15 a.m. and got back to my hotel around 1. Shoutout to Dayton Daily News copy editor/page designer Steve Black for staying up past 3 a.m. in Ohio to design the one-page Flyer Extra we publish on our website after every game.
I still had some work to do but got about two hours of sleep before leaving for the airport at 4 a.m. for a 6 a.m. flight. It was not a glamorous trip. It was a tiring trip. But I got back a little after 3 p.m. and was able to pick my kid, Chase, up from preschool on time at 4:30.
The next trip will be more fun. The bags are already packed for the Bahamas, where Dayton plays three games next week. Chase, my wife Barbara and I leave on Sunday. We’ll stay seven nights, and I’ll get a vacation of sorts or a holiday, as Chase has been calling it — he must be from England.
Freshman Sharavjamts off to strong start
I thought the addition of Mike Sharavjamts to the roster would be a fun storyline this season. Little did I know how much he would live up to the hype. It’s rare for a freshman to start, much less score in double figures in the first three games.
It will be interesting to see what Dayton does with Sharavjamts once Malachi Smith returns to the lineup, which could be sooner rather than later, Kobe Elvis said Thursday, but they’ll have to find minutes for him even if he doesn’t start. My guess is Smith will be in uniform Saturday when Dayton plays Robert Morris. Whether he plays or not is another question.
The biggest takeaway from Sharavjamts’ play so far is his accuracy from 3-point range. He’s made 8 of 16 3s, including 4 of 6 against UNLV.
“I think the big thing is he’s taking good shots,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said Thursday. “He’s taking ones he knows he can make, ones his teammates expect him to take.”
Short stay in AP poll?
Several fans have asked me if Dayton, which moved from No. 24 to No. 21 in the Associated Press top-25 poll this week, might remain ranked even after suffering its first loss. I can’t answer for the other 62 voters, but I will not rank the Flyers when I turn in my poll on Monday.
There will be too many 4-0 teams at that point. I don’t know if I will have any one-loss teams in the poll, unless it’s a team that has lost to another ranked team, such as my No. 1 team, Gonzaga, which lost to Texas, which ranked 14th in my poll.
It’s safe to say Dayton will fall out of the top 25, though they might still get a vote or two. Seth Davis ranked the Flyers the highest this week at No. 14. I moved the Flyers from No. 20 to No. 18.
Dayton will have a chance to return to the rankings if it finds success in the Battle 4 Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas. It plays Wisconsin (3-0) on Wednesday and Kansas (3-0) or North Carolina State (3-0) on Thursday. BYU (2-1), USC (2-1), Tennessee and Butler (2-1) are all possible opponents on the final day of the event on Nov. 25.
Flyers bring the fire in new uniforms
One week after wearing Chapel Blue uniforms for a game against Southern Methodist, Dayton will wear another alternate jersey Saturday against Robert Morris: the dark blue uniforms.
I expect Dayton to wear the Chapel Blue look again at some point this season and maybe multiple times if they keep winning in them. They dominated the final minutes against the Mustangs, though the 74-62 victory looked less impressive four days later when SMU lost 84-63 at home to New Mexico.
It’s rarely valuable to compare scores, especially at this time of year. Many teams already have bad losses on their resumes. Cincinnati lost 64-51 at Northern Kentucky on Wednesday. Tennessee, which I ranked seventh in my preseason poll, lost to Colorado, which had just lost to Grambling State and has since lost to Massachusetts.
Fast Break
Each week, I’ll spotlight news from around the A-10 or other news that might interest Flyer fans.
🏀 Everyone in the Atlantic 10 Conference has lost at least one game in the first two weeks, except Saint Louis, which has victories against Murray State, Evansville and Memphis. The Billikens will get into the top 25 if they can keep it going Saturday against Maryland on a neutral court in Connecticut. The victory against Memphis, which ranks 29th in the Ken Pomeroy ratings, is so far the best for any A-10 team.
“I told our team the other day, this is not a do-or-die game, none of that,” Saint Louis coach Travis Ford said. “But this is a high-level game. It’s a great point to kind of see where we’re at. No question we want to win it, it’s a good feather in our cap right now because (the Tigers) are going to go out and win 25 games. You can count on that. They’re going to win 25 games, that’s done. They’re an NCAA team.”
🏀 Dayton isn’t the only A-10 program with injury issues. Virginia Commonwealth lost Ace Baldwin, one of the best players in the conference, to a broken wrist. He’ll miss about three weeks, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The Rams played two games at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., this week without Baldwin, losing to Arizona State but beating Pittsburgh.
🏀 There’s a new Dayton basketball podcast: “Flying with Doug,” which joins “Talking Out Lowd,” hosted by UD grad Dan Sullivan, in the UD podcast world. Sullivan’s show airs from 6-7 p.m. on Wednesdays on 1410 AM ESPN Dayton.
Doug Stephens, of Miamisburg, started his podcast this week.
“The main goal of this podcast is to get my thoughts and feelings out on my favorite team, a team that I have enjoyed for 20 years now pretty much, if not longer,” Stephens said on the podcast. “A little background on me: I grew up in the Dayton area. I used to go to the Dayton basketball camps when I was young, dating back to when Oliver Purnell ran the camp.”
What do you want to know about the Flyers?
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