“The first thing I told him was, ‘Remember, we started your career,’” Driscoll said with a weary smile as he stood outside the visitors’ locker room. “Last year we were the opening game here and Dayton’s big guy (Josh Cunningham) had gotten hurt in practice (sprained wrist) and didn’t play.
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“Obi started instead and had a monster game against us.”
In that college debut, Toppin scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Dayton to an eight-point victory over the Ospreys.
But Monday night he was even more commanding.
He had a career-high 31 points and a career-high 10 dunks, many of which left the sellout crowd roaring in disbelief and delight. Add in eight rebounds, a pair of assists and a steal and it was a signature night of domination.
“I told him, ‘I know you love playing against us, but I’ve got some good news too,’” Driscoll said. “’You ain’t playin’ against us no more!’”
After the jocularity, Driscoll spoke to Toppin from the heart: “I told him I was proud of the way he carries himself.
“I stood here and watched him in pregame and watched him in the stands with people and interacting with his teammates. There’s his kindness and his heart and it shows with the team.
“He’s such a star, but he’s so unselfish, so willing to be a team guy. And it echoes more with the other guys. It gives them a confidence that they don’t have to rest on quote-unquote ‘one dude.’
“When your best dude is also your hardest worker, a great defender and with the way he shares the sugar, it affects the whole team and next thing you know they’re super connected.
“The thing that separates this year’s team from last year’s is that they’re not only older and more experienced, but what happened in Maui with them has a complete correlation to when whey walk on the floor now.
“They are an extremely, extremely confident group of young men. They’re borderline arrogant, but they are not arrogant, They’re just confident in what they do and the way in which they do it.”
He credited Flyers coach Anthony Grant with that – “Anthony has done a really phenomenal job getting them to understand who they are,” – and he especially credited Toppin:
“His heart is ridiculous.”
The 7-8 Ospreys – who lead the nation in three-point attempts – are starting the season playing 11 of their first 12 games on the road and, in the process, they’ve battled several top teams down to the wire.
“We’ve played four nationally-ranked teams,” Driscoll said. “We’ve played Florida, Florida State, Iowa, Creighton and Syracuse and the thing that makes Dayton different than those teams is the way they are connected and share the success. And Obi’s personality is a big part of that.
“That’s why I think they’re going to be such a handful down the way…because they are a team.”
With those kind of insights, Grant ought to have Driscoll Skype a pregame pep talk or two.
Not that the Flyers coach needs help. Monday night he especially knew what to say to Toppin, who struggled early in the game.
He missed three of his first four shots and five of his initial seven.
“I was getting fouled, but they weren’t getting called and I was getting frustrated,” Toppin said. “But Coach stayed in my head and kept me going. He said, ‘Don’t worry about any calls, just play your basketball and everything will come to you.’
“He said to play at the next level you have to play through foul calls, that there’s going to be nights you get fouled EVERY possession and they’re re not going to call a thing, but it can’t get in your head because it will bring you off your game.
“I listened to him and my teammates found me and it turned out good.”
One Flyer after another fed Toppin the ball, most of which he finished off with an assortment of highlight-reel dunks. After his early misfires, he made 13 of his last 17 shots.
‘Room for improvement’
“Obi’s a really talented player, but he’s still a young player in terms of understanding the way his opponents will come at him and the different things that will come in the game,” Grant said. “I just tried to get him some perspective.
“He’s a great kid. He’s a willing listener and I think from that point forward he was really able to dominate. It was really great to see him be able to put his stamp on the game the way he did.”
Several other Flyers stepped up as well. Trey Landers had 15 points and Jalen Crutcher had 11. Rodney Chatman added nine assists and four steals and Ryan Mikesell had nine points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots.
The Flyers – whose ranking has slipped from 13th to 20th the past two weeks – finished their non-conference schedule 11-2 and begin conference play Thursday night at LaSalle, followed by a game Sunday at St. Joseph’s.
If the Flyers are going to be “a handful” as Driscoll suspects, a lot of the reason is Toppin, who has become the most talked about player in the Atlantic 10 this season.
“I’ve coached lottery picks, I’ve been in the Big 12 and the ACC, so I know what those guys look like,” Driscoll said. “He’s definitely going to be a first-round pick. How high depends on how well he shoots the ball from three. His percentage is good out there, but it’s not what he really does.
“But what will serve him well is the kind of human being he is. Teams will see that.”
Grant said for all that to happen, Toppin must stay true to who he is and what he does:
“There’s a lot of things he does that are spectacular — he had some plays tonight that I don’t think too many people are capable of pulling off — but he’s just beginning to scratch the surface. Most guys reach their peak at like 28 or 29 years old.
“He’s still got a lot of room for improvement. The main thing, mentally and physically is for him to continue to get better and have that mindset. Sometimes that’s tough when you have so many different ways people can throw accolades your way.
“He’s just got to continue to remain humble and work on his craft.”
Listening to coach
Grant’s words seem to be resonating with Toppin, even in some of the headiest moments on the floor.
With just under 12 minutes left Monday, he got the ball to the right of the foul line, faked a pass, dribbled past a defender down the lane and had clear sailing to the rim as teammate Jordy Tshimanga boxed the Osprey’s Josh Endicott out of the picture.
“I was gonna try to windmill it, but I had Coach Grant in my head: ‘Don’t windmill it,’ so I just dunked it,” Toppin said with laugh as he recalled the one-handed slam.
“What was going through my head was ’ between the legs.’ I was like, ‘Aaah, trick play?’ Then ‘Aaaah naah.’”
Last season Toppin’s most celebrated slam was a breakaway against Georgia Southern where he took the ball through his legs first and then slammed it home. It turned his teammates into head-clutching jumping jacks on the bench, brought the crowd out of their seats in thunderous approval support and went viral soon after. It was highlighted as one of ESPNs Top 10 plays of the day.
And did Grant like it?
“Oh no! Toppin grinned. “NO!”
He was asked if he’d ever seen a clip of Grant dunking back in his Flyer days in the mid-1980s.
“No, I’ve never even seen him play basketball,” Toppin said impishly.“Did they even have cameras back then?”
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