My dad, Jeff, accompanied me to UD Arena on Wednesday night and watched the Dayton Flyers beat New Mexico State 74-53. He wore a Hickory High School jacket from the movie “Hoosiers.” It’s one of his many bold clothing choices. He mostly stands out by wearing shorts all winter, though he did choose pants for this game. Sean Damaska, the Dayton assistant coach/recruiting coordinator who played football at Indiana, saw us walking down the tunnel to the court, and I said, “Sean, look at this jacket. Aren’t you inspired?” Damaska did indeed appreciate the look. It’s hard to say whether it rubbed off on him and then the players, but Dayton played its best half of the season against the Aggies. The Flyers turned a one-point halftime lead into a 29-point advantage at one point before the walk-ons gave up four late baskets. Aside from their struggles at the free-throw line, the Flyers couldn’t have picked a better way to go into the Maui Invitational. “When you look at the numbers, I thought our guys did a really good job of controlling some of the things that (New Mexico State) had success with in their first three games,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “In the second half, I thought it was the combination of what we were able to do defensively and then offensively, the shots were falling, and that opened the game up to where we had a substantial lead. I thought our guys did a good job of playing all the way through. That may have been one of our more complete games overall.” My dad is more likely to go to road games with me — Duquesne and St. Bonaventure, specifically. When he does go to UD Arena, it’s a good reminder of how each section of the arena is its own neighborhood. He met up with Bill Stoddard Jr. They were neighbors on the west side of Dayton 60-something years ago. Their parents (Jim and Eileen Jablonski and Bill and Ruth Stoddard) were good friends throughout their lives. My dad also visited his good friend Paul Beyerle, a fellow member of the Alter class of 1971, in the stands. They’ve hiked hundreds of miles together over the years on various backpacking trips. I have a growing knowledge of where various fans sit in the stands. A couple games ago, I saw Gary McCans, the longtime ticket manager of the arena. He had a front-row seat in the corner by the visitor’s bench. No one knows better where everyone sits than McCans. Even though he retired in 2016, there’s little doubt many of the fans he sent tickets to then are still sitting in the same places almost nine years later.
I work most mornings at the Panera near my home in Bexley. You can’t beat the Sip Club deal. I would be wasting much more money on coffee if I wrote at Starbucks instead. Today, my Panera turned on the little fireplace, so I’m baking on one side as I write this newsletter. Tomorrow, I’ll find a different sort of warmth in Maui. My bags are packed. I’ve got a snorkel and mask this time, as well as a waterproof case for my iPhone so I can document my travel experiences, as well as the basketball. I’ve got an 8 a.m. flight Saturday to Salt Lake City. It’s a direct flight that wasn’t available when I flew west for the NCAA tournament in March. Then it’s on to Kahului Airport — OGG if you’re into airport abbreviations or OMG if you’ve got a window seat for the approach to the island. The Flyers leave today for their journey to the Maui Invitational. One fan wrote to ask me how much of an advantage North Carolina will have because it’s playing in Honolulu tonight against the University of Hawaii. The Tar Heels will have a head start on adjusting to the time change. I can’t imagine UNC will gain any sort of edge by traveling to Hawaii early. The Flyers will be amped up and ready to play Monday at 6:30 p.m., even if it still feels like 11:30 p.m. to them. They’ll adapt faster than me. The last time I covered the Maui Invitational in 2019, I was up by 5 a.m. every day because of the five-hour time difference. I expect Dayton to have its usual strong turnout in Maui. Zed Key, one of the new Flyers, was just learning how well Dayton fans travel this week. Key played at the Maui Invitational two years ago with Ohio State. Like Ibi Watson, who played in Maui with Michigan before transferring to Dayton, where he played in Maui for a second time, Key will be the rare player who experiences the tournament twice. “It’s rockin’,” Key said. “You don’t expect people to travel because it’s so far, but the fans are loyal. I already asked Malachi (Smith) if Dayton fans travel because I had no idea. He said, ‘Yeah, they travel.’ So I’m looking forward to that.”
Why coaches play the way they do Every season, I ask myself, “What stories haven’t I told?” One of the challenges after 12 seasons on the Dayton basketball beat and 28 years in this business is coming up with new material. The Flyer Connection section we publish every two weeks during the season presents a special challenge because the stories have to be written two weeks in advance of publication. That means I can’t write anything timely about the current team. Last Sunday, the Flyer Connection featured a long story about Dayton’s history in the Maui Invitational. This week, I’m working on a 35th anniversary story about the 1990 Flyers. That story will run Dec. 15. In the next Flyer Connection on Dec. 1, I have a story that came about at A-10 Media Day in October. I talked to a number of coaches about how they chose to play the way they do. What are the origin stories behind their systems? Here’s how one coach, Anthony Grant’s good friend Frank Martin, of Massachusetts, answered that question: “If you coach any sport and you don’t have a philosophy on how you want the game played, you’re probably not going to succeed,” Martin said. “So my teams are going to be relentless. Defensively, we’re going to rebound the ball and play fast offensively. I’ve always preached that. I learned that from my high school coach (Shakey Rodriguez), who was Anthony Grant’s high school coach. We lived it as two kids. We learned it from him. You watch Anthony’s teams play, and they are relentless defensively and they rebound the basketball. Now they don’t play as fast as we do. I decided to hit the pedal a little harder than him on that one. But it’s the way we build our programs. What you do is you adapt your Xs and Os to the talent on your team. You don’t change the philosophy of how you want your team to play.”
Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans: 🏀 Former Dayton forward Zimi Nwokeji enjoyed his best performance in almost four years Wednesday. He had 19 points and nine rebounds for Jacksonville in a 74-64 victory against Virginia Tech. It was Jacksonville’s first victory against a program from a power conference since 2010. Nwokeji scored 29 points at Rhode Island as a redshirt freshman in February 2021. 🏀 Virginia Commonwealth’s 69-66 overtime loss to Seton Hall in the first round of the Charleston Classic on Thursday was a setback for the Atlantic 10 Conference. VCU (4-1) was the A-10 preseason favorite. It was receiving votes in the Associated Press top-25 poll. Seton Hall (3-2) already had losses to Fordham and Hofstra on its schedule. 🏀 On the other hand, Saint Joseph’s (4-1) earned the best victory by an A-10 team so far this season on Thursday, beating No. 24 Texas Tech 78-77 in the Legends Classic. Justice Ajogbor made a go-ahead free throw with 13 seconds remaining.
What do you want to know about the Flyers? I want to hear from you. Reach out to me directly at david.jablonski@coxinc.com with your questions and feedback on the team or this newsletter. Also be sure to follow our Flyer Nation Facebook page for the latest news on the team. I’ll have updates, photos and videos on Twitter, as well. | 
