Flyer Connection newsletter: Fans get first chance to see 2025-26 Flyers on Sunday

Maybe Chase will get some say in what future photos grace the wall. He mentioned Cristiano Ronaldo the other day. He’s familiar with Lionel Messi and told me I should celebrate goals like the Argentinian soccer star, sliding on my knees with arms raised.

I had two chances to do that Sunday as Chase watched my Bexley soccer league team play — and lose 3-2 — in the first round of the playoffs. At the most, I think I celebrated my goals with a fist bump. I have too great a sense of self preservation to attempt a celebratory slide, especially on turf that strips the skin off your knees like an apple peeler.

I love my Team Yellow, aka the Bexley Bananas. We didn’t win a game this year but had more fun than anyone. We’ll return next spring with high hopes, rested bodies and maybe a Chiquita sponsorship.

***

Speaking of people with high hopes, the Flyer Faithful will return to UD Arena this weekend for the first of two preseason games.

This is the first season teams can play two exhibition games against fellow Division I opponents, and it’s the first time in a long time Dayton has not played a lower-division team in the preseason. That doesn’t mean Cedarville University or Capital University, two common preseason opponents for Dayton, won’t get a call in the future.

“This is new,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “That’s not to say that we’ll always do this. We have relationships with some of the Division II and Division III schools in the state, and we don’t want to say we’re not doing that anymore, but this opportunity presented itself. We’re looking forward to seeing our team in live action and being in front of a crowd and putting them in that environment before the regular season.”

This will be the first opportunity for both teams to play outside competition. Penn State coach Mike Rhoades talked about what he wants to see from his team in a press conference Wednesday in State College, Pa.

“It’s just how hard are we going to play for 40 minutes,” Rhoades said. “We’ll figure out the basketball stuff as we roll along. We’re going to Dayton, and there’ll be 13,000 people there, and we’re going to go right into the furnace. I love it. I want to see how our guys respond.

“I’ve played in that place before. It will be awesome. It’ll be great for our team and for all our young guys. Welcome to college basketball, fellas. The best thing about scrimmages and exhibitions, you can do a lot of different things with lineups and try some different things.

“There will probably be a time on Sunday at Dayton when we’ll have four freshmen on the court at one time. I’m not sure you’re going to do that in every Big 10 game, but we’ll probably do that on Sunday and see what happens. And do I care about the score? Yeah, I care about the score. We’re going there to win, but I want to know a lot about my team when I get back on the bus and we head back. That’s the key.”

On the recruiting trail

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

We had our house in Bexley painted this month. It took a team of three or four workers about 10 days to finish the work, which involved replacing all the shingles on the east and west sides. Our dark brown house is now a light gray, and we have a yellow front door.

Painting is a tough job, especially compared to sports writing — or college basketball recruiting.

Dayton coaches know that well. Their quest to land its first 2026 recruit continues.

Aiden Derkack, the brother of Dayton senior Jordan Derkack, committed to Providence on Wednesday, picking the Friars over Dayton and Southern California.

Derkack is a top-100 recruit, as is Joseph Hartman, who committed to Michigan on Oct. 1 after visiting Dayton in the summer.

Dayton has aimed high in its recruiting this year. In all, it has made 16 offers to 2026 recruits. Ten of the players are top-100 recruits, according to ESPN.

With the transfer portal being the main method of building a roster, Dayton can afford to miss out on incoming freshmen. Six of the eight newcomers on the 2025-26 roster are transfers. It’ll likely be a similar story next season.

Big news on a Friday afternoon

I have not seen the interview — maybe it will never see the light of day — but someone was doing off-the-wall questions with coaches and players at Atlantic 10 Conference Media Day earlier this month and asked Grant, “If you were a Disney villain, who would you be?”

Grant doesn’t strike me as someone who’s sitting around watching Disney Plus. From what I heard, he asked for help, and I’m not sure what he ended up picking. They also asked him if he had to give a TED talk on something other than basketball, what would he talk about? He said, “Dealing with the media,” which is on brand. I’d listen to that talk.

Sullivan’s goal, he said, is to “get talented people on your team that care about the program for the right reasons.”

Paxson hasn’t worked in the college game since 1979, when his college career at Dayton ended, but he spent decades in NBA front offices, where judging college talent was part of the job. That’ll be part of his job at Dayton as the coaches eye potential transfers.

In some ways, Paxson’s duties will change as he goes along. It’s a new position, and the recruiting landscape is constantly changing in this new age when colleges pay athletes directly. Paxson will be involved in recruiting, but the coaches will still play the main roles. Paxson may help more with the financial side, deciding how much Dayton should spend on players, who’s worth making a bigger offer to, etc.

“Players come here because of the coaching staff,” Sullivan said. “At the end of the day, that’s what recruiting is about. That will never change. I don’t think our coaches will ever be devalued at any level of the recruiting process. But now that you’ve got economics attached to it, we need that next layer of analysis.”

Fast Break

Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans: