A season later, the Dayton-Saint Louis rivalry could be more heated than ever because they are the top two teams — on paper, at least — entering the 2022-23 season. Dayton received 22 first-place votes in the preseason poll. Saint Louis received the other nine.
Both teams return almost everyone, and the Billikens regain a key piece in guard Javonte Perkins, who missed last season with an injury after leading the team in scoring two seasons ago.
“There’s no question I like the depth of our team,” Ford said at the Barclays Center. “We hope that’s one of the reasons we can be successful. Now with that depth, we’ve got to stay healthy, and that depth has to be productive, and I think we have the potential to do that. A lot of those guys who may not be in the starting lineup have proven themselves a bit. We think that is a strength of our team, but this league is going to be ultra competitive. Obviously, Dayton has got a great team and VCU and Davidson. George Mason, I think is a team that has a chance to be really, really good. And you go down the line. There’s a lot of really good teams and the transfer portal has allowed teams to rebuild very quickly.”
The top returner for Saint Louis is Yuri Collins, an A-10 preseason first-team selection who averaged 11.1 points and a NCAA-best 7.9 assists last season.
“Yuri leads us on both sides of the ball,” Ford said. “He’s going to have the ball in his hands a lot. He creates for others. We all know he can pass. But he also starts our defense. He’s a first-team all-league defensive player. He’s a year older. We’ve given him a lot of responsibility. He wants a lot of responsibility. He deserves it. He needs it. We want him to have it.”
Local grad: Wayne graduate Darius Quisenberry returned to Fordham for a second season. It will be his fifth season in college basketball. He spent his first three seasons at Youngstown State.
Quisenberry has a new coach, Keith Urgo, an associate head coach last season who took over when Villanova hired Kyle Neptune.
Urgo talked at media day about Quisenberry’s decision to return to the Rams. He said it had to do with the coaching staff staying intact after the departure of Neptune and Quisenberry getting healthy and realizing he has the opportunity to do something special in his final season.
Quisenberry is the team’s leading returning scorer (16.2 points per game).
“He’s just a super, super young man,” Urgo said. “He’s got a future in anything that he wants to do. He’s got that innate ability to change a locker room. He helped do that last year, and I think he’s really taken that responsibility heavily. He is prepared to really have a tremendous year for sure. But I’m extremely grateful to him and his family for sticking around believing in me.”
Saturday event: Grant said he hasn’t decided how they’ll divide up teams for the Red & Blue Game on Saturday at UD Arena. He said it depends on what players are available. Koby Brea remains sidelined with an undisclosed injury, he said, and Malachi Smith suffered a setback earlier in the preseason and has worked his way back.
Doors open at UD Arena 12:30 p.m. Admission is free. There will be an autograph session, sponsored by CareSource, with players from the men’s basketball team from 12:45 to 1:45 p.m. in the East Concourse Club. Fans are limited to one autographed item.
Between 1 and 2 p.m., the women’s basketball team will warm up and practice but won’t scrimmage because they don’t have enough players available. The women’s players will sign autographs for approximately 15 minutes after the scrimmage in the East Concourse Club.
The men’s team will take the court at 2:20 p.m. for a warmup session and intrasquad scrimmage.
The scrimmage will be the first chance for Dayton fans to the 2022-23 team in action.
“My challenge to them every day is, ‘Can we get a little bit better?’” Grant said. “This is a different team than what we had last year but with a lot of familiar faces. We’re ahead of where we were at this time a year ago, but we’ve still got work to do. We’ve still got some some improving that we could make. I think this team has an upside that hasn’t been tapped yet.”
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