UD Arena, Dayton, Ohio
Saturday, January 20, 2018
1:00PM
Media
TV: CBSSN
Radio: B101, 101.5 FM
Previews:
Disano: Insider Breakdown
Independent: Overtime
GoRhody.com: Rams Head to Dayton For Saturday Matinee
Projo: Dayton Out to End Rams Win Streak
Dayton Daily News: Rhode Island Brings Familiar Names to UD Arena
Vegas: URI -4.5
Opponent
Record:
9-9 in Div I, 3-3 in the Atlantic-10 Conference
Road: 1-4
Neutral: 1-2
Home: 7-3
Last season: 24-8, 15-3 in the Atlantic-10 Conference
Rankings:
RPI: 88
BPI: 146
KenPom: 133
Leaders (returning from 2016-17):
Points - Xeyrius Williams, 8.4 ppg
Rebounds - Xeyrius Williams, 4.8 rpg
Assists - Darrell Davis, 1.3 apg
Leaders (after the first 17 Div I games of 2017-18):
Points - Darrell Davis, 17.6 ppg
Rebounds - Josh Cunningham, 9.1 rpg
Assists - Jalen Crutcher, 3.7 apg
Preview
The University of Dayton (UD) is a private Roman Catholic national research university, located in Dayton, Ohio's sixth-largest city. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary, UD is one of three Marianist universities in the United States and is the second-largest private university in Ohio, currently having about 8,000 undergraduate and 2,200 post-graduate students.
The sports teams at Dayton are called the Flyers; their team colors are red and blue.
University of Dayton men's basketball team enjoys considerable support from a very energized fan base. The Dayton men's basketball team is perennially among the top 25 programs nationally in attendance.
The Flyers play their home basketball games at the University of Dayton Arena (or, as it is more commonly known, the UD Arena), a 13,435-seat multi-purpose arena located in Dayton, Ohio. From 2001 to 2010, the UD Arena facility hosted the annual "play-in" game in the NCAA men's basketball tournament (officially the "opening round" game) which featured the teams rated 64th and 65th in the tournament field. In 2011, when the tournament expanded to four opening round games, the arena continued to host all "first four" games. Overall, the UD Arena has hosted more men's NCAA Division I basketball tournament games than any other venue.
The current head coach for UD men's basketball is Anthony Grant, a former Oklahoma City Thunder assistant who is now in his first year as head coach for Dayton.
Anthony Grant is a UD alum. He played for the Flyers for four seasons, graduating in 1987, averaging 11.6 points and 6.7 rebounds over the course of his career. He had previously been the head coach at VCU and at Alabama.
Coach Grant was hired in March-2017 to replace Archie Miller, who had just left Dayton for the head coaching job at Indiana.
Last year under Miller, the Flyers won the A-10 regular season with a 15-2 record. In post-season tournament play, the Flyers went to the NCAA Tournament, losing in the first round to Wichita State, finishing their season 24-8.
So far this season, Dayton is 9-9 (3-3 in Atlantic-10 Conference play):
opponent RPI DATE Opponent score ------------ ------ -------- ----- 107 Nov 10 Ball State W 78-77 087 Nov 16 Hofstra L 69-72 @TD Arena, Charleston, SC 216 Nov 17 Ohio W 79-65 @TD Arena, Charleston, SC 110 Nov 19 Old Dominion L 67-75 @TD Arena, Charleston, SC 243 Nov 25 Akron W 73-60 005 Nov 29 Auburn L 60-73 061 Dec 3 Misssissippi State L 59-61 157 Dec 6 Tennesee Tech W 79-66 175 Dec 9 Penn L 70-78 187 Dec 16 Georgia State W 88-83 041 Dec 19 @Saint Mary's L 54-69 177 Dec 23 Wagner W 79-67 211 Dec 30 @Duquesne L 62-70 045 Jan 3 St Bonaventure W 82-72 166 Jan 6 U Mass L 60-62 236 Jan 9 @Richmond W 87-81 103 Jan 12 VCU W 106-79 194 Jan 17 @St Joseph's L 65-81
Over the Division I games that Dayton has played so far this season, Coach Grant has pretty much stayed within an eight-nine player rotation (likely starters in bold)
- Jalen Crutcher (6-1 161) Freshman guard from Memphis, Tennesee. Crutcher is currently the assist leader and the starting point guard for Dayton. In addition to dishing out assists, Crutcher (Coach Grant's first recruit to UD) can also score and rebound. In the loss to the Auburn Tigers back at the end of November, Crutcher had 15 points, six rebounds, two assists and one turnover. In the epic beat-down of VCU last Friday, Crutcher nearly triple-doubled, racking up 12 points, eight rebounds, and 10 assists. In the puzzling road loss to St Joes, Crutcher had a team-high and a career-high 23 points, making 7 of 10 3-pointers.
- Jordan Davis (6-2 195) freshman guard from South Carolina. Jordan Davis moved into the starting lineup in early December. He had a career high 21 points in the blow-out win over VCU, scoring 11 points in the first four minutes.
- John Crosby (6-3 197) junior point guard from Baltimore, Maryland; he prepped at the New Hampton School. During his first two seasons in Dayton, Crosby played in the shadow of Scoochie Smith, one of the most celebrated point guards ever to play for the Flyers (and now a pro in Australia). At the start of this season, Crosby was the starting point guard, but since the Auburn game that role has shifted to Jalen Crutcher. Nevertheless, the likeable Crosby remains a competent guard that the Dayton staff continues to believe in. In the season opener against Ball State, back when he was still the point guard, Crosby played 28 minutes, scored 13 points, had six rebounds, four assists and two turnovers. Most recently, Crosby did not play Wednesday night against St. Joseph’s at Hagan Arena, as he was sick and did not travel with the team to Philadelphia.
- Darrell Davis (6-5 170) senior guard from Detroit, Michigan. In the 106-79 win over VCU, Darrell Davis had nine assists and 28 points, 20 of which he scored in the first half on 7-of-7 shooting.
- Trey Landers (6-5 224) sophomore guard from Dayton; a local kid, he played for Wayne High School in the Dayton suburb of Huber Heights, where he earned All-Ohio honors as a high-schooler. Last year as a freshman, he played in nine games for the Flyers. This year, he is starting. He averages 9.0 ppg, 4.7 rpg,
- Matej Svoboda (6-7 224) freshman forward from the Czech Republic. The sport of basketball is not played in Czech high schools, but Svoboda did play four seasons as an amateur on the CEZ Basketball Nymburk professional team, which won the Czech Republic Championship in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 (one of his teammates was Lauri Markkanen, a 7-0 forward who starred for Arizona last season and is now in the NBA). This year, coming off the bench for Dayton, he is averaging 13 minutes per game, with 3 ppg and 1 rpg. Against Rhody, he is not likely to far exceed his averages.
- Josh Cunningham (6-7 233) redshirt junior forward from Chicago, where comng out of high school he was a Top-100 prospect (No. 98 on the ESPN Top 100). He played his freshman year at Bradley, then transferred to Dayton. Last season, the 2016-17 season, his first year eligible for Dayton, he was one of three co-captains for the Flyers, playing in only 11 games and starting a mere two, primarily due to an injury occurred early in the season. This season once again team captain, he is injury-free and doing quite-well-thank-you, playing 30+ minutes per game, scoring 15 points per game, and leading the Flyers in rebounds at 9 per game (154 total rebounds through the first 17 games).
- Xeyrius Williams (6-9 205) junior forward from Springfield, Ohio. He started the first four games of the 2017-2018 season, but now is coming in off the bench, averaging 6 ppg and 3 rpg. A slender bigman capable of hitting the trey, he struggled from long range early this season: in his first nine appearances, he made 12 of 44 3-pointers (27.3 percent). However, in the last three games BEFORE ST JOSEPH'S, though, Williams has made the six 3-pointers that he has taken: made 3 of 3 against UMass, didn’t attempt a shot in the 87-81 victory at Richmond, and made 3 of 3 against VCU. The last time Dayton and Rhode Island met (10-Feb-2017 in the Ryan Center), Williams came in off the bench in a tightly-contested game to contribute 13 points and 5 rebounds; he remains capable of making the same type of contribution this year against Rhody on Saturday in Dayton.
- Kostas Antetokounmpo (6-10 197) redshirt freshman forward, originally from Athens, Greece; he played his high school ball at Dominican High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Took the 2016-17 season as a redshirt year. This season, his second year at Dayton but his first season actually playing for the Flyers, he comes in off the bench for double-digital minutes (he actually started six consecutive games in late-Nov early-Dec), and is averaging 5 points, 3 rebounds and 1 block per game. In the game against VCU, due to an illness, he didn’t play at all; he was at the arena but not on the bench. By the way, if his unusual last name seems oddly familiar, it may be because two of his three brothers are currently playing in the NBA: Giannis Antetokounmpo plays for the Milwaukee Bucks, and Thanasis Antetokounmpo plays for the New York Knicks.
Members of Dayton roster who have not yet seen much (if any) court time this season:
- Camron Greer (5-7 160) freshman guard from Country Club Hills, Illinois; attended Rich Central High School, where he was named Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Got in for some garbage time minutes against Akron and against VCU, but did not do anything in either game. He had a nice trey at the end of the puzzling loss at St Joes.
- Jack Westerfield (6-1 180) junior guard from Cincinnati, Ohio. Walk-on, currently in his third year of contributing to the Dayton M-BB efforts. Honor Roll type of student. Has coaching as a long-term career goal. Westerfield is mostly a practice player, and had played a total of seven minutes in his entire career, prior to the St Joe's game Wednesday night. In the St Joseph's game with 7:47 to play and the Flyers trailing by 18, Dayton head coach Anthony Grant had seen enough of his starters, so he subbed in Westerfield. Westerfield the walk-on played the rest of the game, hitting a trey along the way.
- Joey Gruden (6-1 185) senior guard from Leesburg, Virginia. In garbage time at the end of the blow-out against VCU, he hit a trey, which just happened to be his first field goal ever for the Flyers.
- Dalton Stewart (6-2 190) freshman guard from Brookville, Ohio. This guy is usually a practice player who does not play in games. However, even Dalton Stewart got in at the end of Wednesday's road game at St Joe's (and he almost sank a shot at the buzzer!).
- Ryan Mikesell (6-7 215) junior forward from St. Henry, Ohio. Mechanical Engineering major. As a freshman, he averaged 8.0 minutes, 3.0 points, and 1.5 rebounds per game. As a sophomore, he saw action in all 32 games, starting in 24 of them (including both games against Rhode Island), averaging for the season 5.7 ppg and 3.9 rpg. This year, as a junior, he is sitting out, rehabbing from off-season surgeries on both hips.
- Obadiah "Obi" Toppin (6-8 193) freshman forward from Ossining, New York. After graduating from high school, he did a prep year at Mt. Zion Prep in Baltimore, Maryland. Has not not done much statistically since arriving in Ohio.
- Jordan Pierce (6-11 265) freshman bigman from Union, New Jersey, where he played for Union Catholic. Currently buried deep on the Dayton bench. Has played a total of 4 minutes in the first 17 games. In the away game against Richmond, he didn’t travel with the team, staying behind in Ohio because of a disciplinary issue.
However, that was then and this is now.
Last spring, the Flyers lost four valuable seniors to graduation and lost to Indiana the head coach who had made Dayton a regular NCAA tournament participant, with the Flyers having gone 139-63 during Archie Miller's tenure.
Dayton now has a new coach, who, despite his experience elsewhere, is still in the process of getting his new team to gel.
The current version of the Dayton Flyers can shoot. The question is whether their shots go in. When their shots go in, Dayton wins. This season, Dayton is 5-0 when it shoots 50 percent or better. However, the statistical reality is that Dayton as a team is averaging 45% from the field (37% from three).
When their shots do go in, Dayton can be spectacular. In the 106-79 win over VCU on last Friday evening, the Flyers set a Dayton program record with 17 made-3-pointers. Dayton went 39 of 62 (62.9 percent) from the field, including 17 of 32 (53.1 percent) from 3-point range. In that game, Dayton also set a program record with 66 points in the first half. Interestingly, in that game, Dayton's successful field goals came either from very close-in or from the 3-point arc: Dayton had almost no intermediate game.
When their shots do not go in, Dayton can be quite mediocre. On Wednesday night in the away game against the St Joseph's Hawks, the Flyers shot 37% from the field, losing 81-65. Dayton was unable to score as many points in the entire St Joes game as they had scored in the first half of the VCU game.
During Archie Miller's tenure, Dayton hung its hat on defense: the Flyers defensive efficiency improved each year under Miller. Currently, KenPom has Dayton with an adjusted defensive efficiency of 104.8, which ranks them 188th defensively in Division 1, and 11th defensively in the Atlantic-10. Rhode Island sits at number one in the Atlantic-10 with a KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency of 95.0, which is 28th in Division 1.
In short, Dayton this season under their new coach continues to be inconsistent. On any given night, they can sneak up and bite you bad, and then in the next game they can just roll over and go belly up. Their defense, which in previous seasons had been a hallmark of the Flyers basketball style, has become equally variable.
Even with the erratic on-again off-again performance of this season's Flyers, the up-coming contest will be a road game for Rhode Island, and the UD Arena is always a tough place for any opponent to play. The Dayton fans are vocal, and they show up for the Dayton home games, no matter how hard the wintry winds blow.
Look -- while I have a high level of respect for Dayton basketball as a program, this is not the Archie Miller's Flyers that Rhody will be facing this season. In last year's regular season matchups, Dayton won both of their games against Rhody (67-64 in January at the UD Arena, and 75-74 in February at the Ryan Center). Somehow, with URI standing at 6-0 in A-10 conference play, you gotta think the Keaney Blue faithful are ready for a Rhody sweep of Dayton in both regular season games this year. Let's go, Rhody! win this Dayton road game!
GO RHODY!