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It would be fair to say that Anthony Grant’s tenure at Dayton has been marked by underperformance.
Since Grant’s hiring, Dayton has only won one Atlantic 10 regular-season championship, has never earned a conference title, and has only been to the NCAA tournament once.
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However, the Flyers have won 20 or more games in all but two of their nine seasons under his leadership and have been ranked in the AP Poll four times. Of course, there’s the historic 2019-20 season in which Dayton went 29-2, won every game in league play, and finished third in the country before the NCAA Tournament was canceled at the onset of the global pandemic.
There might not be a more polarizing coach for fans in this conference.
All that tension came to a head late last week when Dayton hosted Northern Illinois on Saturday and fell to the Huskies in overtime, 81-76. According to KenPom’s metrics, it’s the program’s worst loss since 2021-22, when DaRon Holmes II, Toumani Camara, and Co. were defeated by Austin Peay.
Three days later, the Flyers went back-and-forth with Siena before eventually losing by double digits, 99-89. Again, it’s one of the top-5 worst non-conference home losses of the Grant era by KenPom’s rankings.
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“It was a lesson today,” Grant said. “What becomes evident is you have to have an understanding of what it takes to win at this level. We have a lot of guys who are kind of new to college basketball or Dayton. It’s different when opponents come in here and they know the history and tradition, and see the atmosphere. We always have to expect that we’re going to see their best version.”
The Flyers’ struggles aren’t for a lack of offense, with four different players averaging double digits for a team that’s scoring 89.7 points per game. It feels like a shortage of defensive effort, with Dayton allowing 79.3 points per game, which is the 123rd most in the country.
Northern Illinois used its chaotic screening offense and off-ball movement to create open shot…
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Publish date : 2026-11-13 17:10:00
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