Flyers strive to stay focused despite Atlantis resort’s many distractions
The Atlantis Paradise Island resort does not scream basketball in the way UD Arena does. There’s a casino, a waterpark, numerous restaurants, fountains with dolphin sculptures, tourists everywhere, not to mention the beach a short walk away.
The Dayton Flyers and the seven other teams, including Wisconsin, its first-round opponent Wednesday at the Battle 4 Atlantis, are dealing with all those distractions this week.
“It is really exciting,” said Dayton forward Toumani Camara at a press conference Tuesday before the team’s first practice at Imperial Arena. “It’s a business trip. We came here to play basketball. Of course, the environment is really nice and everything but we need to stay on the main focus.”
Dayton forward DaRon Holmes II shared a photo of himself walking around Atlantis with teammate Mustapha Amzil. As of Tuesday night, there hadn’t been any videos or photos of any players taking on the giant waterslide at Atlantis, as Obi Toppin did in 2018, though one Dayton fan saw Mike Sharavjamts and Tyrone Baker
on a slide.
“It is great to see the scenery here,” Holmes said. “It’s my first time out of the country. So it’s pretty cool. I like it a lot. The resort’s really nice. We’re just locked in.”
Travel info: Dayton had a relatively easy trip to the Bahamas, compared to the fans flying commercial. According to the “Sports + Aviation” Twitter account, which tracks team planes, the Flyers left Dayton at 12:10 p.m. Monday and landed in Nassau at 2:40 p.m.
Back on the bench: Kansas coach Bill Self returns from a four-game suspension during this tournament. The Jayhawks played N.C. State in the first round Wednesday and play Dayton or N.C. State today.
Assistant coach Norm Roberts led the team to a 4-0 start in his absence.
“Guys rallied around him,” Self said Tuesday. “He did great. You knew he would.”
Self did not enjoy the experience away from the team.
“The first two games were
OK,” he said. “The Duke and Southern Utah games, I didn’t feel as comfortable watching from the living room as I did the first two. The guys did fine. We’ve got a long ways to go to become a really good team. Sometimes I think me stepping away at least at that moment in time may be a positive for us because maybe I can see it from a little bit different perspective.”