McConnell, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, is hoping to enjoy the same kind of success he experienced on the court at UD Arena as a high school junior when the Wolverines beat Wyoming to advance to a regional semifinal in 2017.
They also beat Chaminade Julienne at UD Arena in the district semifinals that year, and their road to the Final Four in 2015, McConnell’s freshman year, went through UD Arena when Dunbar beat Franklin High and NBA standout Luke Kennard in the regional final. McConnell was 6-0 in career games played at UD.
“It’s definitely emotional just being back in my hometown,” McConnell said Tuesday before a practice session at UD Arena. “This place is very close to my heart. I went to Dayton Dunbar, which is like five minutes down the street. So, it’s definitely an emotional feeling. I’m glad to be back home.
“Never ever would I have thought that I would have got a chance to play in Dayton in my collegiate career, and here it is. So this whole time I was just thinking it’s really crazy just how life takes you in a full circle. But I’m very glad to be back home. And I’m ready to play in front of friends and family.”
Credit: Andy Manis
Credit: Andy Manis
McConnell said he heard from 30-40 people in the Dayton area that plan to be at the game Wednesday. He gave one of his six allotted tickets to former Dunbar coach Peter Pullen and was trying to get extra tickets from his teammates.
Much of McConnell’s family still lives in the area, though his parents split when he was young and his mother moved to Jacksonville. McConnell spent his youth between Ohio and Florida but found his best path for basketball in his home state with his dad. He attended Trotwood Madison Middle School in eighth grade, then went to Dunbar for the first three years of high school before finishing up at SPIRE Academy in Northeast Ohio, where he could play a national schedule and test himself even more before heading to college.
McConnell averaged 13.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists in his final season at Dunbar and was a 2016-2017 Associated Press Southwest All-District II honoree.
“I still feel all that energy,” McConnell said of his last games at UD Arena. “It’s still crazy just even just thinking about it.”
Dunbar is where McConnell said he learned to be a “gritty” defender. He was more of a scorer and facilitator back then, but as he transitioned into a role player at Rutgers, he blossomed on the defensive end.
McConnell averages 6.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game.
“I watched A.J. Harris and Doriane Dawson, and just the whole Dunbar culture was just gritty and just defense and things like that,” McConnell said. “So I definitely picked up a lot of tools there. I carried that with me through college. As I see now, it helped me become defensive player of the year this year, but that’s just that grit that I got from Dayton Dunbar.”
The Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year award is something he takes a lot of pride in, something to “stamp” him in the history books after an up-and-down first three seasons with the Scarlett Knights. He saw action in 82 games with 29 starts over his freshman through junior years, averaging 5.7 points and 4.3 rebounds.
This season, McConnell led the Big Ten with 69 steals, which included a streak of four games of four steals or more to key wins over No. 13 Michigan State (four) and No. 16 Ohio State (four), No. 13 Wisconsin (six) and No. 12 Illinois (four). McConnell was the first Rutgers player since 2010 to win a Defensive Player of the Year award.
That will all come into play Wednesday night against a Fighting Irish team that excels at avoiding turnovers and shooting the ball efficiently. Notre Dame is shooting 38 percent from behind the arc this season, which ranks them 15th best in the nation from 3-point range, and they are shooting 46.2 percent overall.
Rutgers is hoping McConnell can help keep the Fighting Irish shooters at bay for a chance to advance as the No. 11 seed in the West with No. 6-seeded Alabama awaiting the winner Friday in San Diego.
“He’s relentless,” said teammate Ron Harper Jr., the son of former NBA player and Dayton native Ron Harper. “He never gives up on a possession ever. He makes winning plays every game. We’ll watch clips of him just diving on the floor left and right. I’m just so proud of him. He deserved this, he worked for this and he’s had a setback every single year but it set him up for his major comeback and this triumph that he deserves. He’s spoken it into existence. He’s another dude who had to fight adversity all his life, all his basketball career. And now he’s a defensive player of the year, so I couldn’t be more proud of him.”
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