Dayton players, coaches, fans ready for season opener

There’s probably nobody who has seen more Dayton games over the years than Bockhorn, who played for the Flyers from 1955-58, but in the non-player or non-broadcaster category, John Raponi comes close. He also attended the exhibition game, getting there hours early as he always does and watching the team warm up from his seat in the corner near the Dayton bench.

Raponi did get to attend one game at UD Arena last season. He saw Dayton lose 67-65 to La Salle in its Atlantic 10 Conference opener on Dec. 30.

“Worst experience of my life,” he said. “One hundred and 50 people here, and we got beat by them in the last seconds.”

Raponi has had season tickets since the last season at the UD Fieldhouse in 1968-69. In the first 52 seasons played at UD Arena, he has missed a total of five home games, one on the day his son John, who’s also one of the biggest UD fans, was born.

Raponi is more than ready for this season, which begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Illinois-Chicago.

“I think it’s going to be so loud,” he said. “I’ve been telling lot of people the last couple weeks to remember to stand until they score. I’ve been trying to spread the word.”

A crowd of 13,407 will watch the game. That will be the attendance at all 17 home games. Dayton announced Thursday it sold out the season for the first time in UD Arena history.

Dayton fans will see what in many ways is an entirely new team. There are seven newcomers among the 13 scholarship players. Dayton will be one of the youngest teams in the country with four true freshman and seven other players in their second seasons.

Illinois-Chicago counters with a roster that includes 11 players who are juniors or older. Eight players on the 16-man roster are newcomers. Five are transfers.

The Flames finished 9-13 last season, ending a streak of three straight non-losing seasons, and placed 10th out of 12 teams in the Horizon League with a 6-10 mark. They last played in the NCAA tournament in 2004. They ranked 292nd — 202 spots behind Dayton — in the NCAA Evaluation Tool last season.

The Flames played their lone exhibition game Thursday. In a 76-59 victory against Illinois Tech, a Division III program, they jumped out to a 38-6 lead. Kevin Johnson led the Flames with 18 points. Damaria Franklin scored 12. Zion Franklin had 10 points.

Most eyes, of course, will on the Flyers as they work on building chemistry and developing an identity early in the season.

“We still have to work out what our rotation ultimately will end up being in terms of who gets what minutes and who can who can be a part of that rotation,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “Ideally for me, I like to say we could play faster, and that would allow us to simplify things a little bit, but at the same time, you’re going to see that one thing about our league is that you see so many different styles of play and so many different things that your team has to be prepared for. We know we’re not going to play in transition every game up and down. There’ll be some half court. There’ll be some mix of both. There’ll be some zone games. There’ll be different styles that we’ll have to go against, which I think is the beauty of playing in a league like the A -0 You’re going to see a lot of different things. We’ve just got to be as prepared as we can be.”

TUESDAY’S GAME

Illinois-Chicago at Dayton, 7 p.m., Spectrum News 1, ESPN+, 1290, 95.7