DAYTON – The preseason prognosticators in the Atlantic 10 conference have the University of Dayton finishing seventh in the 13-team league this season. The panel making the preseason poll was a mix of coaches from the league as well as media members. The panel also didn’t choose any Flyers players for any of its three preseason all-conference teams or its all-defensive team.
The A-10 sent five teams to the NCAA tournament last March – La Salle reached the Sweet 16 – plus Massachusetts went to the NIT. Gone from the league mix are Temple, Butler (NCAA teams), Charlotte and Xavier but the A-10 figures still to be one of the best conferences in the country whether anyone wants to admit it or not.
When it comes to the Flyers, who went 17-14 in Archie Miller’s second season, there’s going to be a lot of wait-and-see, a lot of show-me. The roster has a lot of that p-word: potential. There is versatility in the players Miller has brought to campus, a lot of possibilities in who could start, who can play what positions and when they’ll play them.
Conventional wisdom might say the Flyers are still a year away from joining the top of the conference. That’s what makes this team exciting; it could easily run right past conventional wisdom.
“I don’t know if you’re ever comfortable but we’re more comfortable,” said Miller. “When we got here we had a senior-laden team with less numbers. With the turnover in our first couple of seasons we knew there were going to be a mass of these personalities coming in. In our second year we introduced six new players. This year we introduced five new players.
“Although we’re adding the bodies, that chemistry of year-to-year guys playing with one another we haven’t reached yet. But I think in watching us we’ve completely evolved as a team and we’re able to run our system offensively in a much different way than we have in the past.”
UD relied a lot on Kevin Dillard for his ball-handling, distribution skills and scoring the last couple of seasons. The Flyers don’t have that go-to guy, at least not yet. Guards Khari Price and Vee Sanford, and forwards Devin Oliver, Jalen Robinson and Dyshawn Pierre all averaged more than 18 minutes of playing time last season. Add in Ohio State transfer Jordan Sibert, who scored 40 points in Dayton’s two exhibition games against Findlay and Ryerson, and a recruiting class that includes highly-touted guards Kyle Davis and Scoochie Smith and forward Kendall Pollard and there is reason for optimism for the Flyers.
“The depth we have on this team is going to help us out in the long run,” said Robinson, from Columbus’ Northland High School. “The intensity level on the court will never drop because everyone wants to play and play hard. It’s a good thing to see everyone on the team play. This is what we’ve worked for this offseason. It’s going to be good to see all of us in games.”
The Flyers begin the season with three straight home games – against Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday (2 p.m. Fox Sports Ohio), St. Francis (Pa.) and St. Francis Brooklyn – before going on the road to play Georgia Tech and former coach Brian Gregory on Nov. 20. They’ve also got a trip to Hawaii to play in the Maui Invitational, which begins against preseason No. 15-ranked Gonzaga.
Conference play doesn’t start until January but by then the Flyers will have a better idea of themselves. They already know what to expect from the A-10.
“You’ve got to come to play every night,” said Oliver, a senior who was fifth in the conference in rebounding (7.8) last season. “In my eyes it’s one of the top leagues in the country even with the removal of Butler, Xavier and Temple. It’s still a solid league. You can’t expect to blow teams out in a league where you know what the other team is going to do. A lot of the games last year were close. We learned that you’ve got to dig in at the end of those games to pull some wins out.”
Virginia Commonwealth, Saint Louis, La Salle and UMass were the top four teams in the A-10 preseason poll, followed by Saint Joseph’s and Richmond ahead of Dayton. VCU is ranked No. 14 in the AP preseason national poll, while Saint Louis and La Salle also received votes nationally. UD finished 7-9 in the conference last season but it could’ve been much better. The Flyers were just 2-7 in conference games decided by six points or less, including a six-point loss against Butler in the first round of the A-10 tournament.
They did that with four freshmen – Price, Robinson, Pierre and Devon Scott – playing heavy minutes. Those freshmen are now sophomores.
“Whether it was good, bad or ugly, they had to be out there,” said Miller. “As sophomores, all of them are much more prepared to take the floor, and not only take the floor but be successful. I think they all will have heavy roles here moving into their second years and I do think as we move forward they all could be anchors if we can stick it together here and they all continue to show how we develop our players. They’re all better.”
