“Dayton was hosting Missouri-St. Louis, a Division II school,” Hansgen said, “and they opened the second half by defending the wrong basket and giving up an uncontested layup.”
Dayton lost 66-63 on Jan. 2, 1993. The Flyers finished 4-26, which was the fourth season for coach Jim O’Brien.
“We’re at rock bottom,” O’Brien said after the game. “I feel absolutely horrible.”
Bucky Albers wrote about the play Hansgen remembers in the Dayton Daily News the next day.
“The epitome of UD’s embarrassment,” Albers wrote, “came at the beginning of the second half when the Rivermen, who were passing the ball in bounds to start the half, caught the Flyers sleeping by lining up in the UMSL defensive end near the Flyers’ goal, then inbounded to guard Steve Roder, who raced for an uncontested layup that stretched a 37-31 halftime lead to 39-31. The crowd of about 10,000 (11,872 paid) booed.”
That puts what happened to Dayton last season in perspective. Dayton finished 23-11 in coach Anthony Grant’s eighth season.
The 2024-25 season wasn’t a great season in that Dayton did not win the Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season or tournament championships and didn’t make the NCAA tournament despite a pair of top-10 upsets in non-conference play. It was far from the forgettable mid-1990s, though. Dayton fans enjoyed the first two months, at least.
The shortcomings of the 2024-25 season put more pressure on Grant and his staff entering the 2025-26 season, which begins at 7 p.m. Monday with a home game against Canisius.
To preview this season, the Dayton Daily News talked to four people who know the program as well as anyone.
• Hansgen, who has called Dayton games on the radio since the 1983-84 season.
• Brooks Hall, a UD Hall of Famer who provided analysis on the ESPN+ broadcast for the Penn State game and will call a number of games with Hansgen throughout the season.
• Matthew Schwade, a UD graduate who covered the team for Rivals.com for 20-plus years and whose coverage can now be found on 247Sports.com.
• And Keith Waleskowski, Hall’s former teammate and also a member of the UD Hall of Fame who also works with Hansgen on the radio broadcasts.
The four UD experts spoke on Oct. 20, one day after Dayton beat Penn State 78-62 in an exhibition game at UD Arena and one week before Dayton beat Bowling Green 90-59 in its second and final exhibition game.
Credit: David Jablonski
Here are excerpts of those conversations:
General thoughts about the team
Hansgen: “What I’ve seen — both in the exhibition game and just being around the team at a couple of practices and workouts and interacting with some of the guys off the court — is it seems to be a return to their roots, if you will. I thought last year’s team didn’t have that same identity of recent years, and a lot of it had to do with the departure of Deuce (DaRon Holmes II) to the NBA. They had to kind of wait to see what he was going to do.
“Then both Kobes (Koby Brea and Kobe Elvis) transferred, and I think they were almost in a scramble mode to try to replace those guys. I’m not knocking the guys that came in who aren’t here anymore. But I see the same type of identity in this group. The guys have come in through the portal, they remind me more of Javon Bennett, of Nate Santos, of Enoch Cheeks and, going back, to Ibi Watson and Rodney Chatman.
“These are guys I think that have a little chip on their shoulder. Either they felt that they were under-recruited someplace or underused someplace. I think they want to come here and prove to the world — some of them — that they can play on a bigger stage. They appear to be very cohesive. I don’t really think you can fake joy, and I saw a lot of joy yesterday. And not just personal joy but the joy of seeing teammates succeed."
Hall: “I think they could be really good. I think they’ll be top three in the league. I think they’ll have a legitimate chance to win the A-10 outright and a legit chance to win the A-10 tournament and then a legit chance to make a run (in the NCAA tournament). I understand it’s an exhibition. I’m not getting ahead of myself. But the things that I look for that can tell me early on how successful they’ll be showed yesterday.
“One is, ‘What kind of effort do they play with and what kind of urgency do they play with?’ Everybody kept telling me — coaches included — that we’ve got some dogs this year. What does that mean? Well, it’s a you’ll know when you see it type of thing. And we saw it yesterday — guys that are relentless on both ends of the court. Defense, rebounding and effort, those are things you can take into every game. I think they’re going to do that at an elite level. They’re going to defend at an elite level. They’re going to play at an elite level. They’re going to play as hard as you can play.
“Then the other piece to that is, ‘Are they selfless or selfish players?’ And it’s a very selfless team. Like the way they share the ball, already that’s something to be excited about.”
Schwade: “I think that we got used to a skilled, perimeter-oriented team the last couple of years, and I think that this team is almost built completely differently. They’re going to be relying this year on defense to offense for more consistent scoring, and I think the ability to attack the rim is pretty evident on this roster.”
Waleskowski: “The skill sets and the individual attributes and playing characteristics of the players, they suit the system well on paper, I think it looks really good. It’s a small sample size from the game last night, but there are reasons to be optimistic. There’s a reason you play every one of the games. You’ve still got to show up and execute. And how do we counter and continue to execute and get better when there’s film out there and teams are scouting us and making adjustments to take things away? How do we make adjustments to their adjustments and continue to move on the fly? In any season, that determines a little bit of the success or lack thereof.
“But the core building blocks of this team are one of the reasons that is so exciting. You saw a little bit last night. They’re super unselfish. They’re happy for each other. They want to see each other succeed. I think the energy and enthusiasm and certainly the connectivity between players was there last night. Hopefully, that type of stuff continues.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Scouting reports on players
Hansgen on Cal State Northridge transfer Keonte Jones: “Keonte Jones is the real deal. This guy had a reputation of being a double-double man who loves to defend, and boy, he sure looked like it yesterday. No knock on Casey (Cathrall), the strength coach, but there’s weight-room strong, then there’s man strong. He’s grown-man strong. He’s the type of player that gave Dayton fits last year.”
Hall on Jones: “He’s going to be their most dynamic player. He’s going to be their loudest player, if that makes sense. I don’t even mean verbally loud. His game is very loud. You notice his effort and his energy.”
Schwade on Jones: “I know (the coaches) were really, really excited when they got him, and I know they were holding their breath that it would come through.”
Hall on senior guard Javon Bennett: “He’s the key to this year. Yes, Jones is the X Factor. But in terms of who they’re going to need to be consistent, that’s Bennett. He’s got to run the show this year. He’s got to shoot 40% from 3. He’s got to have a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. He’s got to push tempo. A lot their success falls on Javon Bennett.
“Javon’s a friend of mine. When I got to the arena, I saw him in the tunnel. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him in a little while. He said, ‘Hey, this is the year.’ What I took from that is he’s ready to lead. I’m excited about him. I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people. I think he’s going to have a big year.”
Hansgen on Bennett: “He’s got a maturity about him that is palpable. He’s going to be that guy that when things don’t go well he won’t be rattled. Some of these guys, the first time they face some adversity, the first time they face a hostile crowd, even though some of them are experienced college players, it’s going to be different. But I think Javon has been there, done that, and I think he’s going to be a very calming force with this team.”
Schwade on Bennett: “The thing that I’ve noticed with him the last couple of years is that he turns things around toward the end of the season in terms of his shooting numbers. If he can curb that early, I think he could be a high 40s 3-point shooter, and he also showed that he’s able to take his defenders off the bounce and score inside as well.”
Hansgen on Amaël L’Etang: “I think he can take an incremental step. I don’t know if he’s going to take a big leap. Right now, he is a little bigger than he was a year ago. But by playing for the national team in the summer — which is a wonderful opportunity for him and you don’t want to deny the guy a chance to play for his country — he missed essentially a summer in the weight room. He could have gotten maybe a little bigger, a little stronger. I noticed, though, rebounding wise, he was a lot stronger with the ball, and even just catching the ball in traffic, he did a lot better job of that than he did a year ago. There is some added strength there. The guy just knows how to play the game, though. I was reminded what a great passer he is. Yesterday, he led the team in assists."
Hall on De’Shayne Montgomery: “The thing that impressed me most about De’Shayne was his relentless defensive effort. I heard that we’ve got about three or four elite defenders. I see it now. I was looking at the effort, and it didn’t matter if it was a 2-point game or 15-point game, the effort did not change defensively. He was one of the main guys who was just all over the place. He’s a supremely gifted offensive player, in transition, especially.”
Schwade on guard Bryce Heard, a transfer from North Carolina State: “It‘s hard not to be excited about what you saw from Bryce yesterday. He really surprised me. From the guys that I’ve talked to, when I’ve heard Bryce’s name, it’s almost like in passing. If he can consistently give them eight to 10 points off the bench, that’ll go a long way toward Dayton fighting for a conference crown.”
Schwade on guard Jordan Derkack, a transfer from Rutgers: “The one thing that Jordan will bring is energy and effort on the defensive end. He’s always been known as a defender, one of those guys that will not back down from a challenge.”
Hall on senior forward Jacob Conner: “The intention is for his role to expand. Whether or not it does is going to be on him. You’ve got to knock down open shots because you’re on that court to stretch and space the court. And you can’t be a liability defensively. If he makes shots and holds his own defensively and limits his turnovers, he’s going to play a good amount of minutes.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Potential weaknesses
Waleskowski: “If I’m getting nit-picky, obviously defensive rebounding — given their size, consistently being able to do it — could be a weakness. I just think it’s going to look different. I don’t think it’s going to be your traditional, ‘Shot goes up. Everybody boxes out. Ball drops in the middle. Somebody pick it up.’ I think because of the lineups we’re going to have opportunities to put different size guys on different people, whether it’s a cut out or two guys cutting somebody out. It’s basically what you call team rebounding — gang rebounding. Everybody doing their part and flying in to clean it up is going to be imperative.
“I think this team has guys that can make shots. I don’t know if we have any quote, unquote, shooters. You don’t have a Koby Brea whose role is to space the floor and spot up for shots. Certainly every one of them can make shots, and certainly every one of them can get hot, but who that go-to guy is I don’t know.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Defining a good season
Waleskowski: "Do you have to get (to the NCAA tournament) for it to be a good season? No. Do we need to get there consistently? I would argue yes. It’s somewhat of an expectation. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable expectation. I think a good season is coming down the stretch we have positioned ourselves in the non-conference to have a resume where if we don’t win the A 10 tournament, we’re still being talked about for an at-large bid.
“When you navigate the A-10 season, when it comes down to that last game against VCU, you’re in a position that you’re competing for that regular-season championship — hopefully more so based on your own results than hoping for somebody else to lose a game. We need to be in that mix, competing for a championship every single year.
“We haven’t won the A-10 tournament since I played. That’s quite the drought. So if we could sucker the A-10 into playing it at Dayton, that might be nice.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Mindset of the fanbase
Hansgen: “Sometimes not knowing makes things more fun. Nothing is worse than those years when the schedule comes out, you look at it and you can go, ‘Well, that’s a win. That’s probably a loss.’ And lo and behold, the season ends, and it was exactly what you thought it was going to be. The unknown is what makes sports fun. It’s what makes sports interesting. I think the fact that the fans don’t know a lot about this team and don’t know what to expect makes them more excited.
“This is not a year where fans are talking about what seed we could be in the NCAA tournament. They just want to see if we’re going to win the next game. I don’t sense that they’re worried. Obviously, fans should expect that Dayton every year should be competing for a championship and competing for an at-large bid. That’s the standard, but I don’t think they’re saying, ‘All right, let’s hurry up and get this regular season over with so we can get down to the wire.’ I think fans will enjoy the ride this year more than they have in the past.”
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