If you cover college basketball long enough, you’ll see it all.
On Wednesday at Rhode Island’s Ryan Center, I had just sat down at my laptop in the media row next to the court moments after the final buzzer when the fire alarm started blaring. Rhode Island officials began clearing the building, telling people to exit the arena and leave their things — my camera and computer, for example.
I wasn’t going to do that, of course, unless flames were warming my heels. I quickly gathered my stuff and fled. Meanwhile, the TV and radio broadcasters continued working. I joked later that WHIO’s Larry Hansgen and Keith Waleskowski risked their lives to finish the show. There was never any smoke or hint of a fire, so that obviously wasn’t the case.
Outside the front of the arena, I saw the group of fans who had sat behind Dayton’s bench cheering for Rhode Island native Enoch Cheeks, the fifth-year Dayton guard. Then I ran into Cheeks on the side of the arena where teams and media enter. I told Cheeks I could show him where his people were and then asked if I could ask him a few questions about Dayton’s 85-77 victory as we walked that way.
“Not a lot of college players get to play back in their home state,” Cheeks said. “I’m just forever grateful for the opportunity, and it was just awesome to get the win.”
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Cheeks’ friends cheered when they saw him. He spent some time with them before returning to the locker room. Most of Dayton’s players did not leave the arena. The alarm lasted for five to 10 minutes at most. When it started, it interrupted Rhode Island coach Archie Miller’s postgame press conference, though he did a good job of summarizing the game in about two minutes.
“We turned it over too much,” Miller said. “We couldn’t make a shot. That’s a disaster in terms of those two statistical things. We fought hard to kind of hang around and claw back, but we just weren’t good enough tonight.”
It was an ugly game at times. Dayton got back in the game with a 12-0 run late in the first half but had four turnovers in that stretch. Rhode Island didn’t score for seven minutes in the first half but trailed by only two at the end of the drought.
In the second half, with a chance to coast after building a 20-point lead, Dayton struggled through a 1-of-9 shooting stretch that also featured three turnovers.
They say basketball is a game of runs, and they aren’t wrong. Dayton was in Rhode Island’s position in its previous game at Loyola Chicago, though the deficit was only 12 points. This time, the Flyers built a big enough cushion that they were never in serious danger of losing the game in the second half.
Whoever pulled the fire alarm, if that’s why it went off, should have done so early in the second half if they wanted to change the momentum.
An early Senior Day for Dayton
Dayton has won 13 straight games when it honors its seniors on Senior Night or Senior Day. That streak will likely continue Saturday when the Flyers play Richmond at 2 p.m. at UD Arena. The Spiders have fallen to 13th place in the Atlantic 10 Conference one year after tying for first.
It’s not the last home game of the season. That will be Tuesday against Saint Louis. Dayton chose the Saturday game to honor the players because it will be easier for family members to attend a weekend game.
This will be the busiest Senior Day I’ve seen in 12 seasons on the beat. Six players will be honored: Cheeks; Brady Uhl, Zed Key; Posh Alexander; Nate Santos; and Malachi Smith.
Smith is the only player in the group who has a season of eligibility remaining. He’s graduating in the spring. His decision to take part in the Senior Day ceremony does not mean he’s made a decision about whether to return to Dayton for his final season of eligibility. Kobe Elvis was in the same situation last year and transferred to Oklahoma after the season. Koby Brea did not participate in the Senior Day ceremony last year even though he was graduating in the spring. He transferred to Kentucky.
This will be the second Senior Day for Key. He scored nine points for Ohio State in an 84-61 victory last year in his final home game as a Buckeye.
UD will also honor four senior student managers before the game Saturday: John Hannan, a sports management major from Cleveland; Jackson Conroy, a finance major from Philadelphia; Liam Armstrong, an accounting major from Dayton; and Ayden Johnson, a business economics major from Centerville.
Conroy and Armstrong have been managers for four seasons. Hannan and Johnson have spent three seasons on the job.
The A-10 tournament approaches
I hung out with my best A-10 sports writing friend, Bill Koch, of the Providence Journal, after the game Wednesday. We went to Mews Tavern in South Kingston, R.I. Dollar bills serve as wallpaper for the place. They cover the walls and ceiling. Everybody writes something on their dollars before stapling them to the wall. I thought about writing, “Archie Forever,” in support of the former Dayton coach who is trying to turn the Rams around, but devoted my dollar to UD fans and wrote “Lowd.”
Four Rhode Island students who broadcast games for Rhode Island’s student-run radio station joined Bill and I. It’s always good to talk to the next generation of sports journalists — and buy them beers. They were trying to figure out how to get to the A-10 tournament in two weeks in Washington, D.C., if Rhode Island has an early game on the first day of the tournament.
I shouldn’t have as much trouble traveling to D.C. I will arrive on that Wednesday, March 12, so it doesn’t matter to me if Dayton plays its first game Thursday or Friday.
If I had to bet, I would guess Dayton gets the No. 5 or No. 6 seed and plays Thursday only because Saint Joseph’s, which is tied with Dayton and Saint Louis for fourth place, plays three winnable games in its last three games: at Fordham; home vs. Rhode Island; and at La Salle.
Dayton plays at home against Saint Louis on Tuesday and then finishes the regular season at VCU next Friday. It’s hard to see Dayton winning at VCU, which likely will need a victory win or share the A-10 regular-season championship and also will be honoring its seniors, but stranger things have happened.
Fast Break
Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans:
🏀 After playing together the last three seasons at Dayton, Brea and Elvis played against each other Wednesday in the Southeastern Conference. Brea and Kentucky beat Oklahoma and Elvis 83-82 in Norman, Okla.
Brea scored nine points on 3-of-10 shooting in a team-high 35 minutes. Elvis made 2 of 3 3-pointers and scored eight points in 14 minutes.
“It’s gonna be fun,” Elvis said before the game. “I was literally texting him this morning. That’s my roommate at Dayton. It’s gonna be a great feeling to go against my brother, somebody that I lived with for three years.”
🏀 The A-10′s chance of earning multiple bids to the NCAA tournament may rest with VCU winning the rest of its games but not winning the A-10 tournament. According to The Athletic’s latest Bubble Watch story, “if the Rams keep winning, they will have a real chance to dance despite a nearly empty Q1 record,” while George Mason’s “candidacy is probably cooked without any real chances to move the needle.”
Dayton is listed as a team “on the fringe” of the at-large discussion. The Flyers might have a shot of earning at-large berth if they win their last three regular-season games — a big if because one of the games is at VCU — and then two A-10 tournament games.
There aren’t many NIT bracketologists, but one, Stu Streit, of BarkingCrow.com, has Dayton playing at Butler in the first round.
🏀 The Dayton Daily News Community Gems initiative highlights people who give their time and effort to improve the lives of their neighbors and community. Do you know someone like this in your community? Follow this link to nominate them.
