By Malcolm Price
1 8 2025
GAME NOTES
https://daytonflyers.com/documents/2025/1/5/UMass.pdf
DAYTON — The University of Dayton men’s basketball team plays its second road game in a row when the Flyers play at UMass on Wednesday, Jan. 8. Game time is 7 p.m. ET.
Dayton is 11-4 overall, and 1-1 in the Atlantic 10. UMass is 5-10 and 0-2 in the A-10. The game features teams coached by long-time friends and high school teammates Anthony Grant and Frank Martin. The Miami, Fla. natives played and coached at Miami Senior High School for South Florida coaching legend Marcos “Shakey” Rodriguez.
UD will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing 82-62 loss at GW on Saturday. Nate Santos led the Flyers with 23 points. Zed Key added 11 points, six rebounds and two steals. The 20-point margin of defeat was more than the combined total of UD’s previous three losses. Dayton’s three losses in non-conference play were all to ranked teams by a total of 14 points.
The UMass game will be broadcast on WHIO Radio, and streamed on Peacock. Streaming audio, video and live stats will be at DaytonFlyers.com.
#TRENDING
• Nate Santos was named First Team Preseason All-Atlantic 10 after being named to the third team after last season.
• Santos’ 6-for-6 shooting performance from deep against Lehigh is tied for the best in the nation. It is also the second-best ever at UD, behind Shawn Haugh’s 8-for-8 in 1993-94.
• Posh Alexander was named Second Team Preseason All-Atlantic 10 and to the Preseason All-Defensive Team. Alexander is a fifth-year transfer who already has 1,000 career points and 500 career assists (1,431 and 587 respectively). The fourth recruit from New York City in Anthony Grant‘s tenure at UD, he led the Big East in steals in each of the last four seasons (three at St. John’s and one at Butler).
• Enoch Cheeks was also named A-10 Preseason All-Defensive Team. He led the team in steals (40), was second in blocked shots (21), and was third in rebounding (4.7) in his first season at UD after transferring from Robert Morris. The Providence, R.I. native was the 2023-24 winner of UD’s Steve McElvene Award. Cheeks was consistently assigned the opponents’ top perimeter player on defense. In the 25 games (out of 33) where the Flyer foe’s top player was a guard or wing, that player was held under his average 17 times. He started in all 33 games and averaged 8.1 points per game (9.5 in A-10 play).
• The Dayton roster includes five players who have earned all-conference recognition in their past – junior forward Nate Santos (Atlantic 10), junior Enoch Cheeks (Horizon League). junior Javon Bennett (Northeast Conference), redshirt junior Malachi Smith (Atlantic 10) and fifth-year senior Posh Alexander (Big East).
• Amaël L’Etang was named the A-10 Rookie of the Week on Nov. 25. He scored 11 points (4-6 FG) in 13 minutes against New Mexico State.
• Cheeks was named the A-10 Player of the Week on Dec. 2 after averaging 15.7 points and 7.0 rebounds against North Carolina, Iowa State and UConn in Maui.
• Cheeks is fourth in the A-10 in rebounding (7.4) and fifth in steals (1.8).
• Smith is second in the A-10 in assists (5.8), third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.6) and fifth in 3-pt. FG% (.444, 16-36).
• Zed Key is sixth in FG% (.616. 53-86). He is also fifth in D-I (31) for most dunks .
• As a team, Dayton leads the Atlantic 10 in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.69) and is second in FG% (.477, 400-838) and is fourth in 3-pt. FG% (.348, 115-330). UD is 16th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio.
• UD ranked 20th in average attendance in NCAA Division I last season, averaging a capacity crowd of 13,407 fans a game in 2023-24. Of schools in the top 25 in attendance, only Kansas, Purdue, Michigan State and UConn also sold out every game of the season.
• Dayton has already announced it has sold out every game for the upcoming 2024-25 season, including both exhibition games that have already been played. This will be the fourth consecutive year UD has sold out every home game. That streak is now 68 games.
• This is also the 55th anniversary season of UD Arena. The Arena underwent a $76.2 million transformation project that was completed in time for the 2019-20 season.
• Dayton’s 26-game homecourt win streak are tied for fourth-longest in Division I, behind Houston (30), Drake (28) and UConn (27), and with Iowa State and Samford.
• The Flyers are wearing “DJD” on their left shoulder strap in memory of Don Donoher. Coach Donoher died last April at the age of 92. He was the first man to coach his alma mater in the NCAA tournament after appearing in it as a player. A member of the NABC College Basketball Hall of Fame, he is Dayton’s all-time winningest coach (437 wins). He was the 2017 winner of the USBWA’s Dean Smith Award.
UP NEXT
• UD’s next game is at home on Wednesday, Jan. 15 vs. George Mason.
• Game time is 7 p.m. ET.
COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS
