Red Scare building strong roster for event
Former VCU player joins host of former Flyers in tournament.
The next live basketball everyone sees will come in The Basketball Tournament, and the Dayton Flyers alumni team is building an interesting roster that should be a top contender for the $2 million prize.
The Red Scare, managed by former UD walk-ons Jeremiah Bonsu and Joey Gruden, added a second non-Flyer to the roster on Monday: former Virginia Commonwealth forward Justin Tillman. That followed the announcement last week of former Dayton guard Rob Lowery joining the team.
Tillman and Lowery join a team that includes former Flyers Trey Landers, Ryan Mikesell, Devin
Oliver, Dyshawn Pierre, Darrell Davis, Kendall Pollard and Kyle Davis. Former Louisville guard Ryan McMahon will also play for the team.
Tillman scored 1,415 points in four seasons at VCU. He played against Dayton eight times. After not scoring in the first two games against Dayton as a freshman in the 2014-15 season, he averaged 21 points in six games. He scored 37 points in an 88-84 overtime victory against Dayton in Richmond, Va., on Feb. 10, 2018.
Tillman played professional in Israel last season. He also has played in Korea and in the NBA G League.
Lowery, who started his college career at Cecil Community College in North East, Md., averaged 7.4 points in two seasons at Dayton (2008-10). He still plays professionally overseas, most
recently in Belarus. He also has played in Germany, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Italy and Greece.
The Basketball Tournament, a $2 million winner-takes-all event, plans to play all its games at one location in a 10-day period this summer. The dates and location have not been announced, but UD was interested in hosting all the games. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the TBT had announced UD Arena would host the final three rounds.
Women’s basketball: The Dayton Flyers women’s basketball program received two commitments from members of the 2021 class in recent weeks: Shannon Wheeler, a 6-foot-2 center/ forward who will be a senior at Renaissance High School in Detroit; and Brynn ShoupHill, a 6-foot-3 forward from Goshen, Ind.
In an email to this newspaper, Wheeler wrote, “The coaching staff made me, my parents, and siblings feel like family. Dayton’s playing style is very similar to my high school and AAU style, which can make the transition easier for me. I am very aware that I am a student-athlete, and my academics are important to me. The coaching staff worked to get me all the information I needed on the engineering program.
“I was able to meet with the dean of the engineering school, Dr. (Tony) Saliba and found out Dayton has one of the top engineering programs in the country, where I can graduate as a certified engineer. Due to COVID-19, I wasn’t able to take an unofficial visit, but my parents and I decided to come to Dayton to walk the campus. It’s a beautiful campus — not too big, not too small, with a real college feel. While there were other schools, I felt the University of Dayton was the best fit for me in both academics and athletics.”
Wheeler also had scholarship offers from Temple, Detroit Mercy, Nebraska Omaha, Cleveland State, Western Michigan and others.
Shoup-Hill committed to Dayton three days before Wheeler. She took an unofficial visit to Dayton last September and received a scholarship offer in January.
According to the Goshen News, Shoup-Hill chose Dayton from a list that included Ball State, Xavier, Western Michigan, Indiana State, IUPUI and Purdue Fort Wayne among others.
Shoup-Hill averaged 15.5 points, 11.5 rebounds and 4.1 blocks per game last season as a junior. She plays for her dad Shaun Hill, who’s the head coach at Goshen.