Former Dayton guard finds home in SEC with Vanderbilt

Former Dayton Flyers guard Rodney Chatman announced Saturday he will transfer to Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference for his final season.

Chatman entered the transfer portal in March after three years at the Dayton and two seasons on the court. He sat out the 2018-19 season after transferring from Chattanooga. He will be a sixthyear senior at Vanderbilt, able to play the extra year because the NCAA didn’t count the 2020-21 season against anyone’s eligibility.

Chatman joins a Vanderbilt program that finished 9-16 last season, the second for coach Jerry Stackhouse. Vanderbilt has recorded four straight losing seasons and last played in the NCAA tournament in 2017.

In two seasons at Dayton, Chatman appeared in 43 games, starting all but one. He averaged 7.8 points and 3.3 assists. He was one of three players to start all 31 games during the historic 29-2 season of 2019-20 along with Ryan Mikesell and Obi Toppin. Chatman has 895 points in his career counting the two seasons at Chattanooga.

This past season, Chatman started the first six games but suffered a torn ligament in his right hand during the Atlantic 10 Conference opener against La Salle on Dec. 30 and missed the next 11 games. He returned Feb. 16 in a 91-89 overtime loss at Rhode Island and returned to the starting lineup in the next game as Dayton beat Saint Louis 76-53.

Chatman is one of three to leave Dayton since the season ended in March, joining freshman Luke Frazier and junior Dwayne Cohill.