DAYTON — The No. 24 Dayton Flyers are gearing up for the Atlantic-10 Tournament and have their eyes on the NCAA Tournament.
The Flyers left on Tuesday to head to Brooklyn for the conference tournament, but before they left News Center 7 caught up with head coach Anthony Grant and some of the players about starting their postseason journey.
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To go dancing in the NCAA Tournament this year, the Flyers don’t need to win the A-10 Tournament and the automatic bid that comes with it. Dayton has had an at-large resume for weeks, but the players and Grant said that doesn’t change the team’s mindset heading into Brooklyn.
“Our goal is to win the whole thing and prove to everybody that we are the best team in the A-10,” DaRon Holmes II, Junior forward, said.
The Flyers would savor a second shot at teams they only played on the road and lost to in the process, like co-regular season champions Richmond and Loyola of Chicago.
“We weren’t able to play those teams that beat us twice,” Nate Santos, Junior forward, said. “So, hopefully, we get that chance to compete against them again.”
The Flyers told us they’re heading to Brooklyn with a chip on their shoulder and a conference tournament championship on their mind.
“Oh man, that would me everything at this point. Just because, you know, I’ve been here for four years now and it’s something that we haven’t done yet,” Koby Brea, Junior guard, said.
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They’re hoping to build momentum heading into the postseason and toward the NCAA Tournament.
“For this week, we’re going to keep our focus on what’s in front of us, but I’m excited for them to have a chance to experience that because I think that’s a really, as a college basketball player, that’s a special opportunity to be able to participate in that,” Grant said.
The A-10 released its end-of-year awards today and the league honored three Flyers.
Holmes was named Co-Conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. He also earned all-conference first-team and defensive-team honors.
Brea was named the A-10′s Sixth Man of the Year for the second straight year.
Santos made the All-Academic Team and was named to the All-Conference Third Team.