Welcome to the 2nd installment of The War Room for the 2023 offseason! As always, I'll begin this session with the ground rules for those that may be new. Everything that is reported in The War Room must stay in The War Room. Sometimes the info is sensitive enough that it simply doesn't need to be passed on beyond the doors of this message board thread.
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Without further ado, here it is.... The 2nd edition of the War Room for 2023!
NO DJOK!
Dayton has been known for their international flavor and they’re going all the way for Serbia, the home of Novak Djokovic, for their latest target. Vaiilije Erceg is a 6-10, 230-pound power forward/center out of Novi Sad, Serbia. He played for the U19 Junior League this past year, averaging around 18 points, 13 rebounds, and three blocks for Vojvodina. He shot nearly 57% from the floor and around 40% from three-point range.
Reviewing video highlights of him, he possesses a beautiful shooting stroke. He’s a very skilled big with good movement and can score at all three levels.
He told me that he met with the Dayton coaches via a Zoom meeting a few days ago and mentioned that he had a second one today. He told me he has heard from around 20 schools so far and would be considered a 2023 high school recruit.
Erceg also told me he is about a week away from a decision and believes he has all the necessary information from the schools recruiting him and is ready to get down to business in deciding. Here’s one of the videos I watched that showcases a lot of his abilities:
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READY FOR A DUAL
Since Ed Cooley left for Georgetown, Providence commitment Garwey Dual has reopened his recruitment. Unofficially, I believe Dayton was his second choice when he committed to PC. To no surprise, Dayton is involved again this time around.
Dual told Rivals analyst Travis Graf that he has heard from Butler, Dayton, DePaul, LSU, NC State, Texas, Texas A&M, and Western Kentucky. St. John’s has reportedly got involved too. I think he’s going to have a lot of strong suitors fighting for him, but I was told the staff is ready to go to “war” with other programs to try and land him. He also told Graf that he plans to make one or two visits prior to the Nike Hoops Summit and Dual told me he is currently working on setting up visits to Dayton and St. John’s.
From Dayton’s side, It seems like there may be a tag team with Ricardo Greer and James Kane going on for Dual’s services with Coach Kane taking the lead on this one. Sources tell FlyerHoops that they have already conducted at least one meeting with him since his decommitment.
Those close to Dual tell me they weren’t happy with the way things went down with Coach Cooley and that they’d be surprised if he even considered Georgetown because of it. PC new head coach Kim English will likely try to keep him so it could come down to Dayton, St. John’s, Providence, and maybe one or two others before he plans on signing in the middle of April. I'd say the fact that St. John's and Dayton are two visits he's working on is a good sign for those two programs.
FRONTCOURT
Here’s the latest I am hearing on Deuce and Toumani. Of course, Dayton would love to have them both back next season. As I reported earlier, they believe they have the NIL money for those two that would allow them to come back for another year and make it a tough decision with their other options.
My sources are telling me Toumani is leaning towards going professional and put the chances of him returning under 50%. Even if he declares for the NBA Draft for a second time, which I believe is a strong possibility, it doesn’t mean it takes his chances of returning to 0%. While it may decrease those chances, there are certain scenarios where he could possibly still return in a Dayton uniform.
Lets move on to Deuce. DaRon and his entire family love and adore Anthony Grant. My expectations at this point are one of two things: he puts his name in the NBA Draft, goes through all the workouts and gets feedback. If he gets a first round grade, I would put the odds above 50% that he would leave. If he doesn’t, I would expect him to return to Dayton and work hard on his body this summer. Those are the two scenarios I’ve been led to believe he is preparing for.
With that being said, it only takes one team to fall in love with him and say they’re going to call his name during the first round. Selfishly, I think he would benefit greatly from another year at Dayton. They’ve done a tremendous job with him and he should have been the A10 Player of the Year this year. He needs to get stronger so when he goes up against those strong, physical centers from the power five conferences that he’s in the non-conference and hopefully next year’s NCAA tournament, he can hold his own.
There’s not two guys that love Anthony Grant more than these two. I’d love to see all three of them back another year, but AG will always tell them what’s in their best interest just like when he told Obi Toppin it was time to go. Expect both to get feedback before ultimately making their decision.
ACTIVITY
I think with the addition of Mustapha Amzil to the Transfer Portal, Dayton will be looking to fill at least five scholarships this spring between the portal and late 2023 high school kids (Update, Richard jumped in after I wrote this so it is now officially five). Obviously there needs to be an emphasis on the frontcourt in case DaRon and/or Toumani don’t return in the fall, and you also need some scoring and depth in your backcourt.
A guy that Dayton is reportedly heavily involved with is Enoch Cheeks from Robert Morris. He told me last week that Ricardo Greer was leading up his recruitment from Dayton. He’s originally from Providence, Rhode Island, so I would expect English and possibly Archie Miller to both be involved as well.
East Carolina’s Javon Small is another guard they recruited out of high school that has hit the portal. He’s a Midwestern kid (South Bend) that averaged 15.8 points and 5.6 this past season for the Pirates. He's already heard from several high major programs.
Another guy that Dayton recruited hard out of high school that could fill some frontcourt needs is Payton Sparks from Ball State. He put up some impressive numbers for the Cardinals and has heard from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, SEC, and others. He will be a hot commodity after averaging 13 and 9, while shooting nearly 60% from the floor.
Clemson’s Ben Middlebrooks and Indiana’s Logan Duncomb are two names to keep an eye on just because there is familiarity with them out of high school. I have not heard or seen anything directly connecting them to Dayton this time around, but would not be surprised if there’s some dialogue.
Of course, I already mentioned Dual is working on setting up a visit. I’m hearing that Dayton could host their first official visitor as soon as this weekend now that the players are back on campus following Spring Break. My guess would be it would be from this pool of candidates above. Stay tuned as we get more clarity on that!
CLOSING
That does it for this edition of the War Room. NIL is a big topic these days and I have a Zoom setup on Monday to discuss the NIL impact on the transfer portal and recruiting in general. Thank you to all of you! You all are what makes this board so special and the best place to talk Dayton basketball all year round! And a special welcome to the newbies that just joined the board. Until next time, We Are…
