The Uber waiting area across the street from the United Center was the place to be Saturday night. I ran into former Flyer Matt Kavanaugh, who now lives in Chicago, and his parents as we waited for rides. Then former NBA All-Star Shawn Marion, who’s from Chicago, walked by.
The Kavanaughs told me they saw a number of former Flyers at the game, including Kendall Pollard, Bobby Wehrli and Luke Fabrizius. I talked to three former players myself, native Chicagoan Kevin Conrad as well as Johnny Davis and Sedric Toney, who both sat courtside next to the Dayton bench during the 66-49 victory against Wyoming.
In short, it was a great night for former Flyers and current Flyers as the team put more distance between itself and the 28-point loss at Virginia Tech with its seventh victory of the season. The victory didn’t help Dayton much from a NCAA tournament resume standpoint and won’t unless Wyoming turns its season around, but it gave the Flyers a shot of confidence in the final days of non-conference play.
Two players enter transfer portal
Dayton lost two players to the transfer portal this week: Tyrone Baker on Monday and Kaleb Washington on Tuesday. Neither decision was surprising because both players had disappeared from the bench at times in recent weeks. Washington had been suspended twice. Baker was “going through some issues,” in the words of coach Anthony Grant, at one point.
Anyone not receiving playing time is a transfer candidate these days. Typically, those decisions happen after the season, but this is the second year in a row the Flyers have lost a player at midseason. Lynn Greer III left for Saint Joseph’s a season ago.
Grant addressed the departures in his postgame press conference Tuesday.
“Both of those guys, I support their decisions,” Grant said. “I think, obviously, it’s two different situations for each of them. But I think at the end of the day, you get one chance to to be a college student athlete, and I say this in recruiting a lot: You’ve got to find the right fit. Sometimes it takes going through stuff to figure out whether or not things are the right fit. So I wish both of them the best of luck. I think both of them are first of all just really good human beings, good people. This wasn’t the best fit for either of them. Right now it’s about finding that fit. They both leave here academically in good shape. They did a good job in the classroom. So they’ll be able to hopefully find another fit where they can thrive and become the best versions of themselves. We wish them all the success in the world.”
Uhl living ‘every walk-on’s dream’ for Flyers
A reader wrote me this week to complain about us writing about Dayton walk-on Brady Uhl instead of Zimi Nwokeji and R.J. Blakney. Obviously, the latter two players have bigger roles on the team. What the reader failed to grasp is Uhl’s connection to the history of the program, his connection to the Dayton area (he’s an Alter graduate) and the special place walk-ons have in college basketball.
Tom Archdeacon wrote about Uhl after he made two 3-pointers in the second half against Alcorn State. Arch has a long history of stories on Dayton walk-ons. He wrote about Jeremiah Bonsu’s nickname Love in 2015. He wrote about Jack Westerfield checking all the boxes in his four seasons with the Flyers in 2019. He wrote about Camron Greer, the shortest player on the roster in 2020. The list goes on. Arch has been writing about the Flyers for more than 30 years.
Fans love the walk-ons because they do play an important role for teams and rarely get time on the court. Uhl is not going to play a Bobby Wehrli role this year, but he’s proven capable of giving the scholarship players breathers and has made the most of his limited playing time. Plus, Dayton basketball is all about history, and who wouldn’t want to read about a third-generation Flyer.
Breaking down Dayton’s performance in non-conference play
I’m on vacation this week. It’s called PTO, or paid time off, these days. But I wrote one more piece before the holidays, breaking down Dayton’s performance in 13 non-conference games.
For many fans, the whole season revolves around the goal of making the NCAA tournament. Competing for the Atlantic 10 Conference championship is way down on the list compared to that. From that perspective, Dayton’s 8-5 record has soured fans on this season. There’s nothing wrong with looking at the season that way. UD’s own stated goals center on playing in March Madness.
In my opinion, however, the A-10 race is just as fun. Let’s face it. Any NCAA tournament experience is probably going to be short-lived. No A-10 team has made it past the first weekend since Dayton in 2014, and that’s one of only two times Dayton reached the second weekend in the last 40 years.
The A-10 race, on other other hand, is going to be two-plus months of entertainment. It should be a wide-open competition. Dayton is the highest-ranked A-10 team in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (No. 88). No other A-10 team is in the top 100.
Dayton and Saint Louis, the teams widely expected to lead the A-10, have gone 0-6 in their toughest games against Quad 1 competition. The A-10 ranks 11th in the Ken Pomeroy conference rankings. That’s as low as it’s ever been. It ranked as high as seventh in 2015.
The A-10 is not in a good place. In some ways, that makes the games ahead more meaningful. Someone’s going to play in the NCAA tournament. It will likely be only the A-10 tournament champion. You can throw the November and December results out the window. No one will miss them anyway.
Fast Break
Each week, I’ll spotlight news from around the A-10 or other news that might interest Flyer fans.
🏀 I moved two of the remaining undefeated teams into my Associated Press top-25 ballot this week: New Mexico and Utah State. Neither had that impressive of a resume, but for me the poll is not only about who has the best team but who is having the best season. New Mexico’s best victories came against Saint Mary’s and Iona, while Utah State hadn’t beaten anyone better than Oral Roberts. Utah State suffered its first loss on the same day I voted for it, so it won’t be getting any love from me anytime soon.
🏀 In a week that saw Iowa, the No. 37 team in the Ken Pomeroy ratings, lose to the No. 356 team, Southern Illinois, the loss by No. 65 Saint Louis to No. 212 Southern Illinois Edwardsville did not generate as much attention. For the A-10, though, it was another brutal blow. It had Saint Louis coach Travis Ford questioning everything about his team. “There are certain things holding our team back,” he told reporters. “I saw it after our third or fourth practice. I’ve got to do a better job of getting it out of them.”
🏀 COVID cancellations are back. Well, there’s been only one, but it involved an A-10 team. Rhode Island cancelled a game against Milwaukee because of a COVID outbreak on its roster. A year ago, there were numerous cancellations at this time of the year, but there were few issues late in the season.
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