I responded to the text message with a joke, writing that maybe the students meant to spell “GIRAFFE” but one student forgot to show up and then they didn’t get in the right order.
Obviously, they had a different statement to make about the future of Dayton Flyers coach Anthony Grant, one shared by a number of vocal fans on social media. Some fans have been repeating this statement for years.
Grant has plenty of company in the category of coaches with disgruntled fans. Zac Taylor, Jake Diebler, Wes Miller, even Ryan Day — none of them should search for their name on social media after a loss.
***
The actions of the six students sum up the state of Dayton basketball. The last week featured one of the program’s low points in the last nine seasons — a 102-71 loss at Saint Louis — and then a victory that would have been thrilling if the opponent had been better and if the team hadn’t lost the previous four games.
Dayton beat St. Bonaventure 72-70 in front of those disgruntled students, who wore the T-shirts long enough for cameras to capture the scene before being forced to remove them or cover them up. Jordan Derkack’s two free throws in the final seconds saved the Flyers from a loss to the 13th-place team in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
The press conference Tuesday after the St. Bonaventure game was an interesting one. Someone asked Derkack and Javon Bennett what message the coaches had relayed to the players in the days since the Saint Louis loss.
Bennett talked about the word “pride” being used and how Dayton had lost its sense of pride.
When I asked Anthony Grant about Bennett’s comments, he spoke for almost four minutes, hitting on all sorts of different topics.
As an experiment, I asked ChatGPT to summarize Grant’s answer, and it did a better job than I could have.
“The speaker argues for perspective over a long season, explaining that neither wins nor losses are as extreme as people make them out to be and that results alone don’t tell the full story. He emphasizes that coaches see the daily reality outsiders miss — players dealing with injuries, illness, role changes, and emotional pressure while still trying to help the team succeed. Because seasons naturally include ups and downs and constant adversity, his role is to guide players’ growth and improvement over time, not chase unrealistic perfection. Ultimately, he stresses that these athletes are human beings performing on a public stage, and what they do is bigger and more complex than any single result."
The Schertz Show moves on
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
I stayed at the Angad Arts Hotel in St. Louis on Friday. It’s one of the closest hotels to Chaifetz Arena and one of the most unique places to stay in A-10 country. My room had four or five books about art plus two bunk beds my 7-year-old son Chase would have enjoyed.
That same day, Chase lost his first tooth while at school. He’s probably the last first grader at Montrose Elementary to lose a tooth. And he really lost it. It’s gone for good. Maybe he swallowed it. Who knows?
With no proof of a lost tooth, my wife Barbara told Chase she had to send the Tooth Fairy an email to explain the situation. That’s how he ended up with $5.
When I got home, I showed Chase my one tooth photo on our Staircase of Fame at home. It’s a shot of Dayton’s DaRon Holmes II dunking on Matt Cross, of Massachusetts. Cross chipped a tooth during the play, and you can see a small white speck flying through the air in the image. It’s one of my favorite photos.
Out of respect for Dayton fans, I will not put any photos on the wall from the Billiken blowout, Dayton’s most lopsided loss in 15 years. Saint Louis was every bit as good, if not better, than its record.
Dayton has dominated the series over the years, but Saint Louis fans could forget that for one night. Josh Schertz, the second-year Saint Louis coach, made all the right moves in the offseason to turn his team into the best A-10 team since the 2019-20 Dayton squad that won 29 games.
Dayton fans have noticed the job Schertz has done in a short time.
“David, how much longer can UD afford to keep Anthony Grant before the program dies?” one fan wrote to me. “Look at Saint Louis. They bit the bullet and moved on from Travis Ford and now they have a second year coach that is dominating the A-10.”
Saint Louis is the first A-10 team to start 10-0 in league play since Dayton in 2020. It has a decent shot to finish 18-0 as that Dayton team did with a home game against VCU and road games at Dayton and George Mason being its biggest remaining tests.
Trey Green, who averaged 5.5 points the last two seasons at Xavier, led Saint Louis with 23 points. He made a season-best 7 of 10 3-pointers.
“I’ve had some (off games) this year, but that’s the beauty of this team,” Green said in the postgame press conference, according to a report by Stu Durando. “You’ve got a lot of guys who can come in and do a lot of different things. It doesn’t put a lot of pressure on your shoulders. There’s not a lot of pressure to go out and play your best every game. We just had one of those nights tonight.”
Fast Break
Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans:
🏀 The news of Dayton AD Neil Sullivan taking a medical leave of absence came as a shock. I noticed he wasn’t at the Saint Louis game, but he doesn’t attend every road game, just most of them. I hope it’s not too serious and that he returns healthy.
No one cares more about Dayton basketball more than Sullivan. He paces nervously at games. He gives coaches and players big hugs after important victories. I’ve seen comments from fans who say he doesn’t care about winning but only about filling seats — I guess because he hasn’t fired anyone — and those kinds of misinformed comments contribute to the toxic stew of debate on social media.
🏀 George Mason’s 71-65 loss at home to Duquesne on Wednesday was one of the most surprising result of the A-10 season. The Patriots had won 14 straight A-10 home games.
“This is an unfortunate and disappointing loss,” coach Tony Skinn said in a story on George Mason’s website. “So many things snowballed into that outcome. With what we’re chasing, that’s a tough one. But we’re going to have to stay together because the second half of our league play is not going to get any easier.”
🏀 What do you want to know about the Flyers?
I want to hear from you. Reach out to me directly at david.jablonski@coxinc.com with your questions and feedback on the team or this newsletter.
About the Author
