| Most of my friends come from the pickup basketball court these days. We’ve got a group of guys who play hard, sweat harder and only occasionally lash at our each other for hard fouls. We play to win, though at least for me, it’s less about the Ws and the points and more about the calories burned. Dean, the best rebounder I’ve seen since the Dennis Rodman days, likes to say, “Ball is life,” in our group chat. Another player, Ben, once urged everyone to quit their jobs and focus on basketball. He was joking — sort of. Credit: David Jablonski What does this have to do with the Dayton Flyers? Well, basketball never stops for us — we play twice a week on average at the Jewish Community Center down the street from my home in Bexley — and the same is true for Division I college basketball teams. The Flyers started official preseason practices for the 2024-25 season last week with little fanfare because they practiced for eight weeks this summer and got back to work when they returned to campus in August. They’re allowed to practice more often now. That’s the difference. Coach Anthony Grant opened practice to local media on Wednesday before the sixth practice of the preseason. We also talked to him and two fifth-year guards, Posh Alexander and Enoch Cheeks, before practice. I asked Alexander, a transfer from Butler, how good this Dayton team could be. *** *** “I’m not going to talk too much, but I know we’re going to shock the world,” he said. “I know we all can’t wait to just show the talent that we’ve got and put it out on the floor. I feel like we’re going to have a great year.” For me, the first interviews of the 2024-25 season were the start of a long road to March. I’ll cover two preseason exhibition games, 31 regular-season games and whatever postseason games that follow. In my first 11 seasons on the beat, I’ve covered close to 350 games. In most seasons, I miss one game a year on average, typically so I can attend our annual extended family Christmas gathering. I also missed road games in the 2020-21 season when the company limited travel during the pandemic. It’s hard to miss even one game. Ball is life, after all. A-10 Media Day returns to Washington next week Credit: David Jablonski - Staff Writer My 6-year-old son Chase told me Wednesday he had a dream the previous night about an angry tractor that chased him and his classmates around the playground. They escaped on a train. Chase loves his trains — whether they be toy trains like Thomas or books about trains like “Two Little Trains” — and Thursday he got to ride one. Chase, my wife Barbara and I flew to Washington, D.C., — Chase calls it George Washington — for a short family trip. We took the Metro from Ronald Reagan Airport to our hotel downtown. We ruined Chase’s perfect kindergarten attendance record by giving him off Friday. He’s only missing one day because there was no school on Thursday anyway. While they’ll fly home Sunday, I’m staying for Atlantic 10 Conference Media Day, which will take place Monday at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. All 15 schools will send their head coach and one player to the event. I’ll be there and will be working twice as long as usual because for the first time the A-10 will hold a women’s basketball Media Day at the same location on the same day. This is the first Washington, D.C., Media Day since the 2017-18 season when first-year coach Anthony Grant’s team was picked to finish fifth. My guess is Dayton will be picked to finish third this season behind Saint Louis and Virginia Commonwealth. Most Dayton fans will be OK with that because the preseason favorite the last two seasons (Dayton) did not finish the season atop the standings. Anthony Grant and Nate Santos will represent the Dayton men’s team at Media Day. Tamika Williams-Jeter and Ivy Wolf will represent the women’s team. The second spotlight on mental health Credit: David Jablonski There was a bigger media crowd at the Cronin Center on Wednesday because the local news stations that don’t typically come to basketball interviews were there to interview Grant about the the second mental health event he helped organize at UD Arena. “The Spotlight, To Shine A Light On Mental Health” took place a year ago for the first time. The 2024 event will be next Wednesday. “Mental health is something that’s near and dear to myself and my wife,” Grant said, “and I’m very appreciative of Caresource and university and everybody involved partnering with us to spread the word to help try to reduce the stigma around mental health.” Dayton Daily News columnist Tom Archdeacon interviewed Grant and his wife Chris about the event and their dedication to the mental health issue. That story will run Sunday. I also have a story about the event for next week. My story will focus on Brandon Saho, a former TV sports broadcaster in Cincinnati who started The Mental Game Podcast. He will moderate a panel discussion at The Spotlight event for the second straight year. The Grants decided soon after the death of their daughter Jay, 20, who died by suicide in 2022, to become advocates for mental health awareness. Now they are leading an effort that has spread to other campuses. Ohio State will play Cincinnati, and Kansas will play Arkansas in other charity exhibition games this month. The Dayton Daily News is playing its part in raising awareness with in-depth reporting this year centered on children in the Mental Health Matters: Kids in Crisis series. Fast Break Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans: 🏀 It’s never too early for NCAA tournament predictions. Joe Lunardi’s latest bracket for ESPN lists Dayton as one of the last four at-large teams in the 68-team field. 🏀 The big news in recent weeks in the A-10 came from St. Bonaventure, which hired famous NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski as the general manager of its basketball team. Woj, as everyone calls him, is a famous Bonnie alum. He has 6.5 million followers on X (Twitter). That’s probably more than every player, coach and program in the conference combined. By comparison, I’ve got 15,600 followers. 🏀 Anthony Grant’s crusade to shine a spotlight on mental health has drawn support from other programs. First Ohio State announced it would Cincinnati in a charity exhibition game on Oct. 18. Then Kansas and Arkansas announced they will play Oct. 25. CareSource will sponsor those games as well as Dayton’s game against Xavier at UD Arena on Oct. 20. 🏀 I delivered the last 49 copies of my book, “The Epicenter of College Basketball: A History of UD Arena,” which was published last November, to the arena last week. You can buy it there at the gift shop or at the UD bookstore. It’s also available on Amazon. What do you want to know about the Flyers? I want to hear from you. Reach out to me directly at [email protected] with your questions and feedback on the team or this newsletter. Also be sure to follow our Flyer Nation Facebook page for the latest news on the team. I’ll have updates, photos and videos on Twitter, as well. *** | 