Archdeacon on Dayton’s Montgomery: ‘I ain’t gonna lie, I love it!’

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.

“That’s really powerful to me, so I decided to put it on my body,” said the Dayton Flyers’ new, 6-foot-4 junior guard. “I want to always remember that.”

Monday night his journey, at times, had him soaring high above the Falcons and once slipping past them with a little trickery and speed. And sometimes, beneath the boards, it just took muscle to bump them aside and corral a rebound.

Just under four minutes into the game, Montgomery launched himself skyward to gather in a Javon Bennett alley-oop pass and slam it home to tie the game, 7-7, and awaken both his team and the sold-out crowd.

“He’s definitely an athlete,” said Bennett, the veteran point guard who led the Flyers with 25 points and seven steals. “I can definitely throw it pretty high up there and he’ll get it and dunk it.”

Monday’s early slam — and a monster one-handed jam Montgomery had seven minutes later — were two of the Flyers’ highlight-reel moments, though neither dunk quite matched the one-handed posterization of Florida’s 6-foot-9 center Rueben Chinyelu last season that ended up the No. 5 Play of the Day on ESPN’s SportsCenter.

Although Montgomery said the lob and throwdown connection he had with Bennett was his favorite play of the night, there were some others worth noting.

He had a couple of no-hesitation, left-handed 3-pointers and then, with just over eight minutes left in the game, he led a fast break with the Falcons’ 6-foot-10 Troy Glover II in front of him.

With one behind-the-back dribble, he left Glover behind him and then finished with a layup.

“You can see the talent he has on the floor,” UD coach Anthony Grant said. “He has the ability to kind of change the game with his energy and the plays he can make on both sides of the ball.

“He has great enthusiasm, and he brings it every day. He’s a very positive young man.”

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

Montgomery ended the game with 16 points, eight rebounds, a team-high six assists and three steals.

And yet the thing that stood out the most Monday night was not what he did, but how he went about doing it.

His highlight reel should come with a soundtrack.

He likes to talk.

On the court, he constantly talked to his teammates.

He talked to the Falcons and at one point had their 6-foot-7 senior Justin Thomas laughing heartily. Other times there was a little edge to his chatter.

“Yeah, on defense, I like screaming in people’s faces and getting the people rattled,” he said with a grin.

He also talked to the refs and once a ref came and talked to him.

He came up to Montgomery, who had lined up to rebound a free-throw attempt, and admonished him because he thought he was needling Falcons’ senior Sam Towns who was next to him.

“He thought I was talking trash to the other dude, but I wasn’t,” Montgomery said. “I was talking to my teammate Keonte (Jones). We were just having fun.”

Then after the game, Montgomery talked briefly to the media.

When he first walked into the press room with a towel over his head, he sat down, leaned into the microphone and mumbled to the group: “How y’all doing?”

With some of the media types not paying attention yet and no one answering, he said it again: “How y’all doing?”

He sounded like a Sunday morning preacher trying to warm up his hungover flock.

When he finished the question-and-answer session, Montgomery leaned in again and said: “Appreciate y’all.”

Later, in private, he quietly explained his loquaciousness:

“I feel like when I’m not talking, I don’t have a lot of energy, and my game takes a step back. I always want to have energy. I always want to lift my teammates, so I feel I always have to talk.”

A better opportunity

Montgomery’s mother, Sigrun Spurlock, is German.

Growing up in Fort Lauderdale, he said it was her European influence that helped guide him to soccer. He said he didn’t discover basketball until ninth grade when a kid down the street introduced him.

He started his hoops career at Piper High School in Sunrise, just outside of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and then moved to Somerset Prep in North Fort Lauderdale. To further polish himself, his parents thought it would be best if he spent a season at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham. Va.

That led to a scholarship at Mount St. Mary’s, a small Catholic school in rural Emmitsburg, Md.

Playing in 32 games and starting 10 as a freshman, he averaged 13.5 points per game and was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Rookie of the Year.

But the Mountaineers had a losing season and when other players entered the portal, he decided to look for a bigger stage for himself.

He ended up at Georgia, though he said he had to sit out the first 12 games last season because he was academically ineligible.

He ended up coming off the bench in 17 games — he had 22 points against Charleston Southern — and averaged 6.5 points and 15.5 minutes a game.

In the portal era, the door is always open, and he said he was looking for a “better opportunity” and thinks he’s found it at Dayton.

That same roundball route served another former Bulldog well.

Toumani Camara came to UD after two seasons at Georgia and his game truly blossomed here. He became a first-team All-Atlantic 10 selection and was picked in the second round of the 2023 NBA draft by Phoenix, then traded to Portland before the season.

After an injury marred his rookie campaign, he became a real presence for the Trailblazers last season, starting 78 games and averaging 11.3 p.p.g.

Eleven days ago, Camara signed a four-year, $82 million contract with Portland.

Montgomery said he didn’t initially know of the Camara connection when he came to Dayton but quickly found out.

“I wear No 2 … just like he did,” he said proudly.

‘I want to be different’

On three different occasions in the seven minutes he and Bennett spoke at their postgame press conference, Montgomery brought up how much he loves it here.

“My path has been different from the others (players),” he said. “But I’m happy to say I did find my home now. I just love it here.

“I mean, I ain’t gonna lie. I love it!

“I love everything: the basketball, the community, the environment, everything.

“This is probably my favorite arena I’ve played in so far in my college career. And I’m just waiting ‘til it’s for real so I can see everything.”

This isn’t just lip service, Grant said:

“He is grateful for the opportunity here. That’s probably the best word to describe it. He doesn’t take it for granted. He’s enjoying it and having fun with it and I think it’s contagious.”

And that brings us to the other big tat on Montgomery’s right arm.

“I just came up with this one in my head,” he said as he pointed to his upper arm.

In big letters it read: “The World Is Yours. ... But Shoot for the Stars.”

He grinned and pointed to the picture beneath it.

“See, it’s a little astronaut and he’s holding a basketball made with earth.

“Yep, it just came to me. It’s different and that’s what I want.

“I want to be different.”

Monday night he was.

He was on a journey, launched by Oma and Opa, that Bowling Green could neither translate, nor quite stop.