Grant: ‘It ain’t supposed to be easy’ or ‘pretty’
Even 29-win season wasn’t always smooth for Flyers, who host Fordham today.
DAYTON — The road to 29 victories in the 2019-20 season wasn’t always smooth for the Dayton Flyers. Anthony Grant remembers the tense moments as well as the joyous ones.
“We had some battles,” Grant said Tuesday after a 75-59 victory against Duquesne. “We had some close games. It wasn’t like we just ran through the league. There were several games in there that were in the balance going down the stretch, and the guys found a way to come up with a win. It ain’t supposed to be easy. It ain’t supposed to be pretty. That’s a part of athletics. There are going to be struggles. There’s going to be adversity.
“That’s the norm. We act like it’s the exception. No, it’s just the norm. It’s hard. It’s hard to win. Getting young people to accept that and understand that and try to bring their best every day ... at the end of the day, basketball is always going to be a game of habits, right? So we try to build those habits over the course of the season and rely on those habits.”
Dayton’s dominance overshadowed the close calls during a 20-game winning streak to end the regular season, but as Grant said, there were few easy games in Atlantic 10 Conference play that season.
■ Dayton faced a seven-point deficit early in the second half at Saint Joseph’s on Jan. 5 before pulling away in the final five minutes for an 80-67 victory.
■ At home on Jan. 14, Dayton trailed Virginia Commonwealth 39-38 early in the second half but took over with a 22-0 run and won 79-65.
■ No one has forgotten this game, but on Jan. 17, Dayton over
came a 13-point deficit in the second half to win 78-76 at Saint Louis in overtime on a last-second 3-pointer by Jalen Crutcher.
■ In a 73-69 victory at Duquesne on Jan. 29, Dayton let most of a 13-point lead slip away in the final 10 minutes before clinching the victory on two free throws by Obi Toppin in the final seconds.
■ Dayton needed two free throws by Dwayne Cohill with 21 seconds remaining to secure a 66-61 victory at VCU on Feb. 18.
■ On Feb. 22 at UD Arena, Dayton trailed Duquesne 38-36 at halftime but won 80-70.
■ Dayton trailed 39-38 in the second half at George Mason on Feb. 25 but won 62-55.
■ Even in the 29th victory on March 7, Dayton trailed George Washington early in the second half before pulling away for a 76-51 victory, capping an 18-0 season in the A-10.
Grant brought up the 2020 season because the 2023-24 team, which has one of the 12 best records (20-4) in the country, has not dominated every game.
The Flyers do lead the A-10 in scoring margin by a wide margin, winning games by an average of 10.8 points. That’s more than double the margin of VCU (5.1), which ranks second in that category. On other other hand, Dayton has trailed in the second half four games in a row. It turned the game around in the second half Tuesday with a 22-0 run in the last six minutes.
No. 16 Dayton (20-4, 10-2) stays at home, where it is 12-0, for a 1:30 p.m. game today against Fordham (1014, 4-7). Here are five things to know:
1. Series history: Dayton leads the series 35-6. Fordham has never won at UD Arena. It is 0-16 on Tom Blackburn Court.
The Flyers won 16 straight games in the series before losing 55-54 at Fordham in 2021. It was Fordham’s first victory in the series in 15 years. Last season, Dayton won 82-58 at Fordham on Jan. 10 and beat Fordham 78-68 in the semifinals of the A-10 tournament.
2. Disappointing season: Last season, Fordham finished 25-8 overall, its winningest season since 1970-71 (26-3), and 12-6 in the A-10. Keith Urgo, who took over as head coach when Villanova hired Kyle Neptune, won the A-10 Coach of the Year Award.
Fordham lost its two fifthyear players from Urgo’s first team: Wayne grad Darius Quisenberry (16.9 points per game); and Khalid Moore (15.7). It returned four players who averaged double-digit minutes. Fordham was picked to finish seventh in the A-10 this season.
From the beginning of the season, Fordham has struggled to find consistency. It has two two-game winning streaks and six two-game losing streaks. A loss today will mean its first three-game losing streak. Fordham finished 6-7 in non-conference play. Its worst defeat was an 80-77 loss to New Jersey Institute of Technology, which ranks 322nd in the NCAA Evaluation Tool,
In A-10 play, Fordham is 0-3 against teams in the top four of the standings, losing at home each time: 65-61 to Loyola Chicago; 83-69 to Richmond; and 75-60 to VCU. It is 0-6 at Rose Hill Gym in conference play but 4-1 on the road with victories at George Washington, St. Bonaventure, Rhode Island and Saint Louis.
In its most recent game, Fordham lost 85-67 at home to St. Bonaventure on Wednesday. The Bonnies made three 3-pointers in the last 94 seconds of the first half to build a 44-27 halftime lead.
“It’s interesting because we honestly just had two of the best practices we’ve had all year,” Urgo said in his postgame press conference. “We were coming in here really confident. So I give them a lot of credit because they kind of punched us in the mouth, and we didn’t know how to respond. So I have to do a better job getting us prepared.”
3. Players to watch: Japhet Medor, a 6-foot senior guard, leads the team in scoring (11.4 points per game). He’s a transfer from UTSA (The University of Texas at San Antonio).
■ Will Richardson, a 6-0 sophomore guard, averages 10.3 points after averaging 6.6 last season.
■ Elijah Gray, a 6-8 sophomore forward, averages 10.2 points after averaging 2.7 last season.
■ Kyle Rose, a 6-3 senior guard, ranked third on the team in scoring last season (7.3) and fourth this season (9.1).
4. Strengths and weaknesses: Fordham leads the A-10 in turnovers forced per game (13.2) in league play
Since A-10 play began, opponents have shot 40.6% from 3-point range against Fordham. That’s the worst mark in the conference.
5. Odds and rankings: KenPom.com gives Dayton an 96% chance of winning this game. Dayton ranks 19th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. Fordham is the 13th highest-ranked A-10 team at No. 197.
This is a Quad 4 game for Dayton because it’s a home game against a team that ranks between 161 and 362. Dayton is 3-3 in Quad 1, 5-1 in Quad 2, 6-0 in Quad 3 and 6-0 in Quad 4.
This is a Quad 1 game for Fordham. It is 1-1 in Quad 1 with a loss to Saint John’s and a victory at St. Bonaventure.