CHARLESTON, S.C. – Dayton certainly didn’t look like a team with seven newcomers on Friday afternoon. If you didn’t know better, you would think this team was more experienced together, seeing how they out-executed Boston College in a big way en route to an 87-71 win.
Four of the Flyers’ newcomers are freshmen. Save for Jalen Robinson, none of them start, playing behind an experienced starting lineup that features two seniors and two juniors. Head coach Archie Miller changed that up on Friday, moving Robinson out and Dyshawn Pierre into the lineup, and it worked very well.
“It was brilliant, wasn’t it?” Miller quipped when asked about the change.
All four freshmen play good minutes for this team, and on Friday they not only showed why but also that it will continue to be the case. Robinson can do a lot of things in his support role, while Khari Price is the point guard of the future, Pierre could lead this team in scoring before long and Devon Scott can be an inside presence. All of them are part of a team that showed a high skill level on Friday.
In the first half of Friday’s game, Pierre and Robinson led the Flyers in scoring with 10 points apiece. Pierre finished with the perfect stat line: 23 points on 8-8 shooting, including 5-5 from long range, three assists and no turnovers. Robinson had 15 points on 7-10 shooting and six rebounds. Price didn’t score but had two assists and no turnovers. And while Scott didn’t get in, there is a place for him in the lineup and Miller noted that it will be different games for different players right now.
“Everyone’s time comes at different stages,” said the second-year head coach.
One can’t forget the upperclassmen, though, because it starts with them as they set the example. The Flyers will be fine on the perimeter with senior Kevin Dillard and junior Vee Sanford, the latter of whom filled the stat sheet with 10 points, eight rebounds, six assists and just two turnovers. Sanford is also another newcomer, having sat out last season after transferring from Georgetown. Devin Oliver had a quietly outstanding game with 17 points on 7-11 shooting and eight boards.
As if the way they executed wasn’t enough, this team also very effectively put Boston College away early. They added to their halftime lead, then later rebounded after Boston College made a run to get within nine with just under 11 minutes left. Later, when the Eagles pressed, the Flyers methodically broke it and got two dunks.
Consistently, the Flyers moved the ball efficiently and often in the halfcourt. Coaches talk about making the extra pass to the point of it being a cliché, but the Flyers really did that and got a lot of easy baskets out of it, as reflected in the shooting percentage.
“As you’re learning your team, you have to get some chemistry,” said Miller. “You’re trying to find lineups and chemistry that works. Tonight, before we knew it, we had chemistry going, and I wasn’t going to mess with it.”
The Flyers allowed Boston College to shoot over 59 percent from the field in the latter frame, and Miller cited that as a concern, but the Flyers shot over 78 percent from their end and thus the defense never came back to haunt them. It will surely be a focus in future film sessions, but the lessons of bouncing back and moving the ball offensively are the bigger ones.
Dayton will play Auburn for fifth place on Sunday. They have already turned the page nicely from Thursday’s loss to Colorado, and now will attempt to finish up with a 2-1 mark on the weekend. While Friday’s game will probably be an outlier from a statistical standpoint, the Flyers seem to have the personnel to not let it be an outlier from a visual standpoint. They have ball handlers, passers, scorers and rebounders, and look well-rounded. Most of all, there appears to be a high level of trust already established among the players.
