Archdeacon: Cheeks is ‘heart and soul’ for 16th-ranked Flyers

Many religions celebrate Enoch: He’s a Catholic saint. In Judaism, he is referred to as “a pious worshiper.” Mormons call him a scribe. In Islam, he’s a prophet.

Here in Dayton, Enoch Cheeks, is living up to — albeit quietly until Tuesday night — his heady name.

To many of the 13,400-plus fans who pack UD Arena for every Dayton game, Enoch Cheeks has been the most unheralded of the team’s starters.

DaRon Holmes is the celebrated star, or, as Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot referred to him after Dayton’s 75-59 victory Tuesday: “He’s the best player in the league.”

Undersized point guard Javon Bennet is the pesky, give-no-quarter annoyance of all opposing players.

And Koby Brea, the first man off the bench, is the deadly, beyond-the-arc gunslinger with the sweet, sweet stroke.

But those who know the Flyers best — starting with Holmes — give Cheeks an almost biblical buildup:

“That’s a championship player. He’s our glue guy…Really, he’s our heart and soul.”

After Tuesday’s game, Cheeks shrugged off his teammates’ praise and any heavenly reference:

“I call myself the Swiss Army Knife. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I feel I can do a lot of different things on the court. I do whatever is needed.”

That was certainly the case Tuesday.

With 6:17 left in the second half and Duquesne leading, 57-53, Flyers coach Anthony Grant sent Cheeks back into the game and called for a press if UD’s Nate Santos made his free throws, which he did.

“We went to the press to try to heat them up and we did,” Cheeks said. “Coach said to keep the pressure on them.”

In less than a minute, Cheeks and fellow guard Kobe Elvis caught the Duke’s star, Dae Dae Grant, in a trap near midcourt.

Cheeks promptly stole the ball, was fouled by Grant, and without hesitation, made both of his free throws.

Just 24 seconds later, Cheeks stole the ball again — this time from Duquesne’s David Dixon — and immediately was fouled by Kareem Rozier.

“On that steal, coach was yelling to us to ‘Pressure! Pressure! Pressure!’ and I just got up in there and was able to get another steal,” Cheeks said.

The crowd — suddenly on its feet and fully-amped — began to chorus his name:

“Cheeeeks!...Cheeeeks!”

“That was a cool moment, hearing that, but I had to lock in right then and make sure I made my free throws,” Cheeks said. “We couldn’t ease up then.”

The Flyers didn’t.

Cheeks two big steals and four straight free throws empowered the Flyers the way a can of spinach used to give Popeye super human strength.

“The energy Elvis and Cheeks brought at the front of the press changed the whole game for us, honestly,” Brea said. “Cheeks had those two big steals and from there we just kind of went with it.”

UD went on a 22-0 run, after which Duquesne could only counter with a Jake DiMichele lay-up with 9 seconds left.

Although the two steals were his marquee moments , Cheeks actually hit an impressive milestone at the 5:08 mark of the first half when he drove the lane for a lay-up.

That gave him 1,000 points for his college career. With 10 points on the night, he now has 1,008 career points.

He got 846 of them in his previous three season at Robert Morris University, where for the past two years he was the standout of the team.

But after three straight losing seasons — in which the Colonials won just 28 of 84 games — and the defection of 22 players he said, Cheeks decided to enter the transfer portal.

‘I put up the white flag’

Although Duquesne is just 18 miles southeast of Robert Morris in suburban Pittsburgh. Cheeks said the Dukes never reached out to him in the portal.

Dayton had made a quick overture to the Colonials’ 6-foot-3 leader and that was enough for Dambrot.

“I’m from Ohio, as you know,” the Duquesne coach, who grew up in Akron and used to coach the Akron Zips, said with his typical candor after the game. “I’ve never beaten Dayton on a recruit in my whole life. Never!

“So, when I was at Akron, if Dayton was involved, I put the white flag up. You’re not going to beat them many times. They’ve got 13,000 people (in the stands) every night.

“It’s a tribute to the fan base, a tribute to the program and it goes way back for years. Back to when Coach (Don) Donoher played here.”

Dambrot’s dad, Sid, played for the Duquesne teams that were No. 1 in the nation from 1952-54.

“He played against Coach Donoher in the old Dayton Fieldhouse,” he said. “I heard all the stories from my dad. Nothing’s changed here (since then.) And my dad played in 1954, so what’s that…70 years?”

Dambrot was exasperated by game’s end Tuesday — both teams made 26 field goals on the night, but his team got just three free throw attempts and UD has 23 — and he voiced his displeasure enough that he got a technical with 3 minutes left.

Some fans rode him for that and when he called time out with just 9 seconds left, but he’s a coach who deserves this town’s full embrace.

Not just for the way he saluted Grant and the Flyers players afterward, but for what he did three months after the 2019 mass shooting in the Oregon District that left nine dead and 37 injured.

To draw attention to and raise funds for the victims in Dayton — and to give the grieving city a bit of a hug — Dambrot brought his Duquesne team to Morgantown, West Virginia to play the Bob Huggins-coached Mountaineers in a charity game for Dayton.

" I don’t really understand the world today sometimes,” Dambrot said after that game. “What happened in Dayton was tragic. The shootings there and at the Pittsburgh synagogue were just a shame.

“I’m glad we could play tonight and make some money and hopefully help some people. Maybe they can begin to heal after what happened to them.”

Dambrot left the arena that night carrying a “Dayton Strong” T-shirt.

‘A real special guy’

Cheeks knew of Dayton before he thought of transferring.

Although he lived many of his early years with the family of his dad, Isaac, in Minnesota, he’d returned to Rhode Island at age 15 and by the 2019-20 basketball season, he was playing a final prep year in Connecticut.

That’s when he went to see the Obi Toppin-led Flyers play at Rhode Island,

“I saw Obi get his 100th dunk,” he once told me.

And last year Robert Morris played at UD Arena. Cheeks scored 15 points in the 60-51 loss and left amazed by the crowd support the Flyers got.

That swayed him when he entered the transfer portal.

“Dayton was the first school I visited and right off the rip I just liked it,” he said.

“I knew what my position was going to be coming here though. I’d have to sacrifice the role I was used to.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be ‘The Man,’ but instead I’d have to play off the other players. I was going to embrace that. I’m not mad or disappointed by that. I wanted to be part of a championship team and I feel that’s what we can be.”

“He came here and he was like, ‘I want to win,’” Brea said. “He had been part of a team that hadn’t had much success, and he was ready to do whatever he could for us to win. That’s something we’ve seen from him since day one.”

The junior guard is one of the most experienced players on the Flyers team.

Tuesday night was his 102nd college game, which is just two behind Brea, the team leader. His 91 college starts are just two behind Holmes, who leads the Flyers.

While he’s averaging 6.8 points per game this season — sixth best on the Flyers — Cheeks is second on the team in steals and blocked shots and third in rebounds and minutes played.

Holmes said some of what Cheeks does goes unnoticed by others: “But I see it and I always tell him, ‘Hey Man, that’s very important to this team.’

“That’s a winning player right there.

“That’s a real special guy.”

His mom knew that when she gave him that first name.

And the UD Arena fans did as well Tuesday night when they loudly chorused his last name:

“Cheeeeks!...Cheeeeks!”