Flyer Connection newsletter: It’s Obi Toppin Week in Dayton

Dayton coach Anthony Grant, who recruited Toppin to the program in 2017, weeks after taking the UD job, talked Thursday about what it means for Toppin to get this honor.

“I’m so proud of him and so happy for him,” Grant said. “I think it’s extremely well deserved. What an example for a guy that really came in as an unknown. The work that he put in to put himself in a position to become national player of the year, a lottery pick and a guy that’s carved out a great career. It’s a great honor. It’s an honor that will mean a lot to him, but I think as he gets older, it’s going to mean even more to him. I’m proud that he was able to be recognized in that way. And I’m looking forward to being a witness to it.”

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Asked if he had a favorite Toppin memory, Grant said. “His first game. You never know how freshmen are going to respond when the lights are bright. I think he led us in scoring and kind of put Dayton on notice. ‘Who is this guy that we’ve never seen before?”

Grant has plenty of memories of Toppin away from the court, too. He mentioned Toppin’s “infectious smile” and the way he engages with fans.

Dayton amended its Hall of Fame rules to honor Toppin. In past years, inductees were college graduates.

The addendum to the rules reads:

“The committee reserves the right to waive the degree requirement if an individual earns recognized multiple national honors at the highest levels of performance. The student-athlete must have withdrawn from the University of Dayton in good standing (both academically and athletically), and the reason for withdrawing must be deemed by the selection committee to be valid enough to warrant consideration and election to the Athletic Hall of Fame.”

This isn’t the first time the rules have changed. Prior to 1993, inductees had to be a Dayton graduate. Then UD created an exemption to honor Johnny Davis, a Dayton star in the 1970s who left school early to enter the NBA and later completed his degree at Georgia State.

According to a 1993 Dayton Daily News story on the exemption made for Davis, “Now, to be eligible for the Hall of Fame, a student-athlete must play three seasons at UD, withdraw in good standing both academically and athletically, and then finish his/her degree with another four-year institution. Five years after that graduation, the athlete will become eligible for UD’s Hall.”

Toppin’s induction should be the most exciting part of the evening as Dayton plays the second lowest-ranked team on its non-conference schedule. North Florida ranks 328th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. It lost 109-58 to Gonzaga on Sunday.

A missed opportunity in Charlotte

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

I killed time in Charlotte on Saturday morning with a walk around downtown after landing around 8 a.m. My first destination was Bank of America Stadium, where the Atlantic Coast Conference football championship game would take place 12 hours later.

The streets near the stadium were blocked off to traffic but quiet. Virginia and Duke fans did not awake early to start tailgating. Many Virginia fans had to pace themselves so they could watch their basketball team play Dayton at noon across downtown at the Spectrum Center.

Virginia fans did far outnumber Dayton fans, but I don’t think it had a major impact on the game, which Dayton lost 86-73. The Flyers played the Cavaliers close for the first 22 minutes but were outmatched the rest of the way, with the exception of a 14-point run that cut into a 21-point deficit.

Virginia climbed into the top 25 after the victory at No. 24. Voters, including myself, took note not only of the dominant second-half performance against Dayton but the rout three days earlier of Texas on the road.

Dayton fell to 2-1 against former Virginia Commonwealth coaches this season, if you count an exhibition game victory against Penn State’s Mike Rhoades. The Flyers beat Marquette’s Shaka Smart and now have a loss to Virginia’s first-year coach Ryan Odom, who was 1-1 at UD Arena in two seasons at VCU but probably knew better than to take his Virginia team to Dayton for the start of a home-and-home series.

“Dayton’s a really good basketball team,” Odom said. “We’re very familiar with them and coach Grant from our time at VCU, and he’s an amazing coach and just a great representative of our game. So it’s always a pleasure to compete against him and his players and staff. Their pressure, obviously, is very, very good. We had just enough positive plays on offense to be able to withstand a poor turnover performance.”

The loss doesn’t doom Dayton in terms of a NCAA tournament at-large bid. It will be a contender if it wins its last three non-conference games in December and finishes 10-3 in non-conference play. Everything will then hinge on finishing at least 14-4 in A-10 play.

Even that might not be enough. Virginia Commonwealth finished 25-6 overall in the regular season and 15-3 in the A-10 last season but wouldn’t have made the NCAA tournament if it had not won the A-10 tournament.

Fast Break

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