Welcome to the 6th installment of The War Room for 2019. 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.
This is a special feature for our subscribers only. The reason why it is posted on the premium board is because that's the only way to ensure that the info stays exclusive to Dayton Flyer fans. Thanks for your cooperation.
Without further ado, here it is.... The 6th edition of the War Room for 2019!
EXCITEMENT BUILDING
Wednesday marks the first day of classes for a school year that has as much basketball anticipation as any other I can remember. With the talent coming back and the four new transfers becoming eligible, Anthony Grant’s squad appears prime for a breakout season.
One guy I kept hearing about all summer was UTC transfer guard Rodney Chatman. I just kept hearing that he’s the defensive bulldog that this team has missed since Kyle Davis left campus a few years ago. I was told his competitiveness will remind you very much so of KD.
He was a terrific offensive player as a sophomore at UTC, so if Dayton can get that kind of production and add a relentless defender, that’s a huge gain. I’m looking for him to really lift Dayton’s perimeter defense and push for some major minutes.
Chatman did have a setback in practice when he had some surgery performed on his cheek. I was told that he has been cleared and is ready to go. However, he is going to be wearing a mask right now similar to LeBron James wore somewhat early in his NBA career.
I was also told they were feeling pretty good about Chase Johnson getting a waiver and being eligible immediately.
SCHEDULING
As we know, the non-conference schedule has been released and I think we can all agree that an at-large bid could be highly dependent on the team’s performance in Maui. While I think it’s a competitive non-conference slate, I am thoroughly unimpressed with the home schedule, particularly in the year we are celebrating the three-part renovation completion.
If you haven’t seen already, Chris Rieman over at UDPride.com sat down with Neil Sullivan and penned a five-part piece talking about the ins and outs of putting together Dayton’s non-conference schedule. There’s quite a bit of analytics in it that many will find interesting.
He mentioned one thing that that I had heard about over the summer. “Out of respect for our league I don’t want to go into details, but primitive discussions about playing a league opponent in a non-conference road game to ensure a quality game was genuinely discussed,” Sullivan told Rieman.
I was told that the opponent was indeed Davidson. And from what I gathered, Dayton was all-in and Davidson was really not keen on doing so, despite the only league matchup between the two teams happening at UD Arena. Both teams have at-large hopes coming into this season and both teams could have benefitted from playing a second time to make up for the gaffe that the league did when not pairing them in the pods.
LONG TIME PROSPECTS
Now on to recruiting. Two prospects that Dayton has long been on are point guard Posh Alexander and small forward Isaiah Rivera. The two of them took official visits to Dayton last year when they were both juniors. With the new rule, as I understand it, the two of them would be able to take officials again as seniors if they and Dayton wanted them to.
As I told you before, I received a text during my Disney trip that rumors were swirling that Posh may be down to Dayton and Seton. The source did emphasize the word “RUMOR” when the text came across so we shall see. He just took an unofficial visit to Seton Hall on Saturday. 247’s Evan Daniels is thinking Posh could be headed to St. John’s though, giving the crystal ball prediction to SJU.
I am not quite sure where things stand right now with Isaiah Rivera. The last time I spoke to him at length, he was very high on Dayton. Since then, he’s setup an official visit to Colorado State on September 6th.
I spoke to him briefly through text over the weekend and he said he would let me know what’s going on in the next couple of days. He has a phone conversation scheduled with the Dayton staff on Monday night.
NO PAIN, NO GAINES
As was announced last week, Lithonia guard Eric Gaines will be taking his official visit to Dayton the weekend of September 12th. I added him to the Hot Board as soon as I heard they were really high on him and looking to bring him on campus for an official visit.
It didn’t take long after for Dayton and Gaines to agree on a date. I asked a national recruiting analyst about his thoughts on Gaines and was told that he has tremendous length and athleticism, but needs to find consistency with his shot and also when to take shots, in particular. As it was conveyed, he’s the kid that misses four shots in a row and then makes three and ends up shooting 43% from three. I’m confident that those are things that will see better results at the college level.
A lot of people seem to be excited about him. Before he was injured, Nick Johnson told me he was the best player on their AAU team. They have some solid prospects on their squad so that’s some high praise for the 6-2 guard.
If they are able to pair him with Luke Frazier in this recruiting class, that’s a big time backcourt. And speaking of Frazier, I was told that the Flyers may be trying to bring Luke and Keon Ambrose both to campus that same weekend when Gaines is in town. That should tell you where the Flyers have him as a priority right now.
CLOSING
That does it for this edition of the War Room! With school starting this week, the anticipation should really start building for the season. I know I am as excited to cover this team as I was for Scooch, Kendall, and Kyle’s junior year. I wanted to give a formal welcome to the new subscribers and a hearty thank you to all of you loyal, long time subscribers. All of You are what makes this site so special all year round. Until next time… WE ARE….
This is a special feature for our subscribers only. The reason why it is posted on the premium board is because that's the only way to ensure that the info stays exclusive to Dayton Flyer fans. Thanks for your cooperation.
Without further ado, here it is.... The 6th edition of the War Room for 2019!
EXCITEMENT BUILDING
Wednesday marks the first day of classes for a school year that has as much basketball anticipation as any other I can remember. With the talent coming back and the four new transfers becoming eligible, Anthony Grant’s squad appears prime for a breakout season.
One guy I kept hearing about all summer was UTC transfer guard Rodney Chatman. I just kept hearing that he’s the defensive bulldog that this team has missed since Kyle Davis left campus a few years ago. I was told his competitiveness will remind you very much so of KD.
He was a terrific offensive player as a sophomore at UTC, so if Dayton can get that kind of production and add a relentless defender, that’s a huge gain. I’m looking for him to really lift Dayton’s perimeter defense and push for some major minutes.
Chatman did have a setback in practice when he had some surgery performed on his cheek. I was told that he has been cleared and is ready to go. However, he is going to be wearing a mask right now similar to LeBron James wore somewhat early in his NBA career.
I was also told they were feeling pretty good about Chase Johnson getting a waiver and being eligible immediately.
SCHEDULING
As we know, the non-conference schedule has been released and I think we can all agree that an at-large bid could be highly dependent on the team’s performance in Maui. While I think it’s a competitive non-conference slate, I am thoroughly unimpressed with the home schedule, particularly in the year we are celebrating the three-part renovation completion.
If you haven’t seen already, Chris Rieman over at UDPride.com sat down with Neil Sullivan and penned a five-part piece talking about the ins and outs of putting together Dayton’s non-conference schedule. There’s quite a bit of analytics in it that many will find interesting.
He mentioned one thing that that I had heard about over the summer. “Out of respect for our league I don’t want to go into details, but primitive discussions about playing a league opponent in a non-conference road game to ensure a quality game was genuinely discussed,” Sullivan told Rieman.
I was told that the opponent was indeed Davidson. And from what I gathered, Dayton was all-in and Davidson was really not keen on doing so, despite the only league matchup between the two teams happening at UD Arena. Both teams have at-large hopes coming into this season and both teams could have benefitted from playing a second time to make up for the gaffe that the league did when not pairing them in the pods.
LONG TIME PROSPECTS
Now on to recruiting. Two prospects that Dayton has long been on are point guard Posh Alexander and small forward Isaiah Rivera. The two of them took official visits to Dayton last year when they were both juniors. With the new rule, as I understand it, the two of them would be able to take officials again as seniors if they and Dayton wanted them to.
As I told you before, I received a text during my Disney trip that rumors were swirling that Posh may be down to Dayton and Seton. The source did emphasize the word “RUMOR” when the text came across so we shall see. He just took an unofficial visit to Seton Hall on Saturday. 247’s Evan Daniels is thinking Posh could be headed to St. John’s though, giving the crystal ball prediction to SJU.
I am not quite sure where things stand right now with Isaiah Rivera. The last time I spoke to him at length, he was very high on Dayton. Since then, he’s setup an official visit to Colorado State on September 6th.
I spoke to him briefly through text over the weekend and he said he would let me know what’s going on in the next couple of days. He has a phone conversation scheduled with the Dayton staff on Monday night.
NO PAIN, NO GAINES
As was announced last week, Lithonia guard Eric Gaines will be taking his official visit to Dayton the weekend of September 12th. I added him to the Hot Board as soon as I heard they were really high on him and looking to bring him on campus for an official visit.
It didn’t take long after for Dayton and Gaines to agree on a date. I asked a national recruiting analyst about his thoughts on Gaines and was told that he has tremendous length and athleticism, but needs to find consistency with his shot and also when to take shots, in particular. As it was conveyed, he’s the kid that misses four shots in a row and then makes three and ends up shooting 43% from three. I’m confident that those are things that will see better results at the college level.
A lot of people seem to be excited about him. Before he was injured, Nick Johnson told me he was the best player on their AAU team. They have some solid prospects on their squad so that’s some high praise for the 6-2 guard.
If they are able to pair him with Luke Frazier in this recruiting class, that’s a big time backcourt. And speaking of Frazier, I was told that the Flyers may be trying to bring Luke and Keon Ambrose both to campus that same weekend when Gaines is in town. That should tell you where the Flyers have him as a priority right now.
CLOSING
That does it for this edition of the War Room! With school starting this week, the anticipation should really start building for the season. I know I am as excited to cover this team as I was for Scooch, Kendall, and Kyle’s junior year. I wanted to give a formal welcome to the new subscribers and a hearty thank you to all of you loyal, long time subscribers. All of You are what makes this site so special all year round. Until next time… WE ARE….
