“I remember, before he handed out the diplomas, we were back stage and he came over and talked,” said the Dayton Flyers senior forward. “He was a really good guy, really personable, and he took an interest in us.
“I remember I got to give him a commemorative jersey on Good Morning America. That was the coolest thing. I was one-on-one with this historical president and we just talked back and forth about basketball and my plans for the future, things like that.”
Somewhere in there Oliver made a standing invitation to Obama, a huge basketball fan who still hoops it up, to play him one-on-one.
Oliver went on to UD and, though he said he would liked to have stayed in touch, he never heard from Obama again.
“I didn’t know the best method of reaching out to the President,” he said. “I just didn’t know how to go about it.”
Now he’s certainly found a way.
Oliver and the rest of the 11th-seeded Dayton Flyers already have pulled off two stunning upsets in the NCAA tournament, edging Ohio State, 60-59, last Thursday and two days later pushing aside Syracuse, 55-53.
After last Saturday’s game, Obama tweeted:
“Congrats to the Dayton Flyers on a huge upset win! Devin Oliver, I may need to take you up on that pick-up game one of these days – bo.”
Suddenly D-MO and BO are BFF.
“Winning is an incredible platform for communication,” Oliver said. “It’s been great.”
The scrappy, ever-resilient Dayton Flyers are one of the embraceable stories in the Sweet 16 and now, as they prep to play Stanford here in Memphis on Thursday night, folks everywhere are jumping on the bandwagon.
Even some who previously had jumped off.
Oliver came to Dayton as one of four players in Brian Gregory’s last recruiting class.
He certainly was not the most hyped of the lot, nor did he see much court time his freshman season.
Over the next two years, the other three would all transfer out of Dayton.
Juwan Staten left after his freshman season for West Virginia. Brandon Spearman lasted one year before heading first to an Iowa community college and then the University of Hawaii. Ralph Hill, Oliver’s roommate, stayed two seasons then opted for Oakland (Mich.) University.
“Ralph, Brandon and Juwan, all three have texted me (since Saturday),” Oliver said. “Ralph’s text was a little more excited than the other ones. He said he got excited like he was still going here. He’s my best friend and I told him in my mind, he still was with me.”
While the three each left UD for what they thought would be a better basketball opportunity, only Oliver has made it to an NCAA tournament.
“I love those guys — I will always love them,” Oliver said. “It would have been great if we all made it to the NCAA tournament, but it didn’t work out that way.”
Meanwhile, you’ve got to feel good for Oliver.
He’s being rewarded for his loyalty.
His special fan
“It’s just a matter of sticking to the script,” Oliver said. “That’s how my parents raised me. Once you commit to something, you’ve got to see it through. You can’t get discouraged. A lot of guys think you should be one and done. They come in and leave, but that’s not how it works.”
That’s not saying it was easy for him. Freshman year, he never started and averaged 9.5 minutes and 1.4 points.
“The big thing for me, when maybe I had some thoughts of leaving, was to remember my parents,” he said.
Kelvin and Amy Oliver, former Western Michigan University basketball players, raised their son right.
You see that not only in his loyalty to UD, but the loyalty and love he has for his younger sister, Miya, who has Down syndrome, but is quite a shining star herself.
Although she’s now graduated from high school and works a special job in Kalamazoo, nothing keeps her from going to most of the UD games with her parents. And no one is a more animated or passionate fan.
She cheers the team. She tirelessly works the refs and she zeroes in on everything her 6-foot-7 brother does on the court.
In turn, Devin makes sure she is part of the Flyers’ inner family, just as he once made sure she had the perfect escort — himself — for her high school prom.
For the Syracuse game last weekend, Miya was in the First Niagara Center stands waving a jumbo-sized cutout of her brother’s face.
“That’s just Miya,” Oliver grinned. “She goes all out, regardless of the circumstances. If we lose, she’s balling. If we win, she screams with joy.”
After Saturday’s victory, Oliver briefly joined his family at their seats.
“Miya was barely able to contain herself,” he said. ”She was jumping around. She’s non-stop. She’s not gonna shy away. She’s been doing it since my high school days.
“She just cares so much and it’s so beautiful because it’s just so genuine. She’s not putting on a show for everyone, not trying to show she’s the best fan. That’s just who she is. And that’s what makes it more special.”
Making a splash
Oliver has given Miya plenty to cheer about this season.
He leads the team in minutes, rebounding (7.5 per game) and steals. He’s second in scoring (11.9) and free-throw percentage.
Junior guard Jordan Sibert called him “the heart and soul of our team.”
As the team checked into the DoubleTree Hotel here on Beale Street Tuesday evening, Coach Archie Miller stopped to talk about Oliver, who had just walked past in a Memphis Grizzlies cap:
“We’re not in the Sweet 16 without him. He’s had one of the better senior seasons I’ve ever been around. As important as the other guys are, we can’t function without him. Everything goes through him.
“Offensively, he creates a lot of problems for the other team. He’s gotten himself where he can shoot the ball, so he’s added a fourth shooter on the floor. Defensively he’s hung tough all season long even though he’s undersized.
“This season will go down as one of the better ones in memory and a lot of it has to do with him.”
Oliver realized how special this season has been: “I told my mom, ‘This is something I’ll be able to tell my kids one day.’ And she didn’t miss a beat. She said, ‘This is something I’ll be able to tell my grandkids one day — that both me (at WMU) and you went to the NCAA tournament.”
And he hasn’t just gone, he’s made a splash that he believes will continue as the Flyers advance here. And should that happen, he hopes the President will get back to him:
“I hope he takes me up on that offer to play.”
He was asked if he could handle the President on the court.
“Yes, definitely,” he said with a quick grin, before pausing and then backtracking. “But I may have to play it smart. He is the POTUS.”
He said he talked to TV commentators Vern Lundquist and Bill Raftery and they told him how Clark Kellogg had reined in his game a bit when he played Obama one-on-one.
“I might have to do a little of that, too,” he said before the smile returned. “But I might have to slap away just one shot, just to let him know I CAN play.”
After this Sweet 16 run, the President and everybody else already knows that.
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