The question I tossed to Jaiun Simon and De’Shayne Montgomery came in like an off-target, alley-oop pass on what should have been a roses-are-red, violets-are-blue slam dunk.
Simon had just mentioned all the people from home — “my grandma, my godmom, my mom, two godsons — who had come to town to watch him and his fellow Flyers outlast Davidson 70-59 at UD Arena late Sunday afternoon.
And that prompted this question from me:
“So yesterday was Valentine’s Day. You had all these gals in here? What did you do?”
Simon looked out into the audience, which included maybe a dozen female students and thought I meant them, not, as he once had explained to me, “the house full of women I grew up with.”
Although some of them were in Sunday’s crowd, he said quickly: “Me, I played Fortnite last night.”
When Montgomery addressed the same Valentine’s question in the hallway after the press session, he too Euro-stepped away.
“I was just in my bed, still kind of sick,” he said.
When the pair learned the question was about their families, they both took a relaxed breath. Kind of like they do before shooting a free throw.
“Ohhh, I thought you was talking about girls our age,” Montgomery said.
“So yeah, my mom was my Valentine.”
“My mom was mine too,” Simon said.
“And my grandma, this was the first time she’s seen me play here at Dayton,” Montgomery said.
His grandmother is German, and she was at the game with his mom and his older brother.
Montgomery rolled his right arm to show his inner wrist.
“See, I got her name and my grandpa’s tatted right here,” he said. “Oma and Opa means grandma and grandpa in German. My (maternal) grandparents are German, and this is a quote from them that’s powerful to me.”
He pointed to the message etched onto his arm:
“Take pride in how far you have come.
“Have faith in how far you can go.
“But don’t forget the journey.
“I’ve got family names tatted on me too,” Simon said, “My great grandmother, my grandmother, my little sister, my auntie, my mom.”
Montgomery had spoken for both of them earlier when he said: “I just know my family all loves me and supports me and cares for me.”
Simon nodded to that now: “So that’s a Valentine.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Improved performance
The pair led the Flyers Sunday in a must-win situation following five losses in the previous six games and including two blowout setbacks — by 31 at Saint Louis and 26 at VCU — in the past three games.
What was more impressive than just their box score numbers Sunday was what Simon and Montgomery did to get to that point.
Montgomery was down with the flu for five days and has been feeling the effects of it for a couple of weeks. Too sick to travel, he missed the VCU game and said he didn’t feel 100 percent until Saturday.
He still looked a little like the ghost of himself Sunday. He said he’s lost 10 pounds and when pressed, admitted he didn’t feel 100 percent now. He said the virus “hit me like a train.
Later, head coach Anthony Grant said at least five players were leveled by the flu in the nine days since the loss at VCU.
Bryce Heard, another player floored by the flu at midweek, practiced just one day, but came off the bench Sunday and scored 10 points in just over seven minutes in the second half and added seven rebounds.
Jacob Conner and Malcolm Thomas stayed on the bench Sunday, not fully recovered or needed, Grant said.
One big reason the Flyers were able to exert their will on Davidson — they outrebounded the Wildcats 39-18 — was Simon.
Just 6-foot-6 and playing against a frontcourt that included guys like 7-foot Ian Platteesuw, 6-10 Sean Logan and 6-8 JQ Roberts, Simon finished with 13 rebounds and 11 points, the first double-double of his career.
Some five minutes into the second half, he had more rebounds — 10 to 9 — than the entire Davidson team.
After two seasons in the shadows at UD — one as a redshirt and then last season averaging 7.1 minutes a game, fewer than anybody but the walk-ons — he started Sunday and played a career-high 31 minutes and 47 seconds.
“Jaiun has been a workhorse for us all year,” Grant said afterward. “I’m just really proud of the effort he gives you. His consistency just in terms of understanding what he needs to do to impact our team.
“He’s been through his own struggles of staying healthy and getting his body where he can go out and do what he’s capable of doing. I thought he was huge today on both sides of the ball.”
Amaël L’Etang added 12 points for the Flyers, who are now 16-9 overall and 7-5 in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
They got Sunday’s victory thanks to their rebounding — especially on the offensive boards — and the way they finally were able to close out a game at the end.
And that led to the biggest Valentine of the day.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Finding their joy
It had been a rough 3½ weeks for the Flyers.
They lost back-to-back games in Philadelphia, fell to Archie Miller’s Rhode Island team in overtime at UD Arena and then suffered the two crushing losses.
Players were disheartened; fans grumbled and the team’s NCAA Tournament chances narrowed mightily. Now the Flyers need an A-10 Tournament title in Pittsburgh next month to get the covered invite.
Against that backdrop, Grant settled on one theme for resurrection.
“He told us to find our joy again,” Simon said, “Find what brought us happiness playing the game. He wanted us to remember who we are playing for and what we’re playing for. That this is bigger than us.”
Grant credited assistant coach Jermaine Henderson for especially delivering that message.
Henderson joined the UD staff three years ago after a career that included some stellar guard play for the then Miami Redskins in the mid-1990s where he played on four postseason teams, including in 1995 at UD Arena when Miami knocked off Arizona and then fell in overtime to Virginia.
He then had a long career as an assistant coach at four schools, including 15 years as Charlie Coles’ right hand man at Miami.
“Jermaine had the scout today,” Grant said. “He was really passionate about it yesterday. Just about his experiences and being in their shoes; and his experiences as a coach and an observer.
“Just a guy who has been around the game a long time, and he was giving us a perspective that we really needed for the players and the coaches.”
It worked.
“Everybody just came out and played hard,” Simon said. “We competed at a high level. We brought that joy back (we had) when everything was going good. We’ve got the same positive mindset we came in with. ... It felt really good to find that again, especially at home.”
The sold-out crowd could tell the difference late in the game and responded with renewed enthusiasm, too.
As Valentine themes go, this reminded me of that old Stylistics song:
“Break Up To Make Up.
“Break up to make up, that’s all we do.
“First you love me, then you hate me.”
Another line of the song goes:
“What does it take to please you?“
The Flyers got that answer Sunday when they played with joy again and got the victory in front of the people Grant wanted his players to remember they were playing for.
After they returned to the dressing room, Montgomery and Simon joined their waiting families.
It would make for a final Valentine’s moment at a time when Flyers’ basketball needed it most.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
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