Dillard a potent force for Albany
Former Oklahoma State player succeeds by keeping it simple
Albany Patroons guard Davon Dillard was known for spectacular dunks at Oklahoma State. He earned ESPN Sportscenter’s No.1 play on Feb. 4, 2017, when he drove through three defenders and soared for a one-handed slam in a win at No. 7 West Virginia.
Dillard remembered the moment fondly as he soaked his foot in a bucket of ice after Wednesday’s practice at Washington Avenue Armory.
“That really helped us get to the NCAA Tournament, that game,” Dillard said. “So that dunk right there was pretty much a dunk that really gave us momentum on the road with a really good team.”
While he can be a thrilling player, Patroons coach Will Brown sometimes has to remind Dillard to stick to the basics to be the best he can be.
“He is so talented and I’m trying to get him to understand that in gymnastics, you get rewarded for degree of difficulty,” Brown said. “In basketball, you don’t. We don’t need style points. And when he just keeps it simple, he’s very good.”
Good enough for the 6-foot-5 Dillard, a midseason signing, to score at least 20 points in four of Albany’s past six games. He had a team-high 20 points on Sunday in a 109-83 series-clinching win over Atlantic City in The Basketball League’s Northeast Division finals.
Dillard and the Patroons return to action at the Armory at 7 p.m. Thursday, when they meet the Huntsville (Ala.) Hurricanes in Game 1 of the best-of-3 Eastern Conference finals.
“Watched a couple of games on them,” Dillard said. “Pretty athletic team. Sporadic. They’re out of control sometimes. Sometimes they’re really together. We don’t want to underestimate them. We don’t want to expect a playing style. We just want to come in and with the execution mentality. We want to play together and piggyback off the last game.”
Game 2 on Friday and Game 3, if necessary, on Saturday are also at the Armory.
Dillard understood what Brown meant about keeping the game simple.
“I’m at my best with one or two dribbles,” he said. “Not only do I make myself better, but I make my teammates around me better. I’m able to see the game at a better speed. I don’t have to think so fast . ... It helps me to be able to see things that I don’t normally see when I’m out of control.”
Dillard joined the Patroons after being released on April 14 by the Kitchener-waterloo Titans of the National Basketball League of Canada. He was coming off a broken bone in his left hand.
The NBL played the TBL in an All-star Game in Liverpool two days later. Brown, who coaching the TBL All-stars, found out about Dillard and his availability from Titans coach Neal Foreman, who was also at the game.
Brown called Dillard, who signed with the Patroons. When
they first met to discuss his role, Dillard was surprised Brown wanted him to be a scorer on a team that already had plenty of firepower, including guard AJ Mosby and center Anthony Moe.
“(Brown) told me how much he believed in me,” Dillard said.
“He can make a lot of money moving forward,” Brown said. “I don’t want him to be here next year. I want him to be playing in Europe somewhere, and he’s capable of that.”
Dillard’s promising Oklahoma State career ended early in his junior year when he was dismissed from the program for violations of team rules. He moved on to Division II Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C.
Dillard, from Gary, Ind., said he’s much more mature now. In college, he wanted to party instead of going to the gym. Now he has a key to the Armory and lets himself in at night to work out.
“Going to Oklahoma State was almost a culture shock for me,” Dillard said. “I was learning myself so much as not only a player on the court but as a man off the court. I wasn’t as knowledgeable to the game as I am now. I didn’t have the work ethic that I have now.”