How undersized Dayton is winning with all perimeter players
Hours after dismissing the only two scholarship big men on his roster last month because they were caught stealing items from on-campus dorm rooms, Dayton coach Archie Miller called a team meeting to address the rest of his players.
Miller acknowledged doubters would probably discount the Flyers since they no longer had a single player taller than 6-foot-6. Then he urged his team to prove the skeptics wrong and show that size isn't everything.
"A lot of people wanted to bury us right away or to predict a significant drop-off," Miller said. "I challenged each individual player in that team meeting to understand very clearly what the expectation is here and to do what they needed to do to make up for what we lost."
Dayton has embraced Miller's no excuses philosophy so far by not allowing its size disadvantage to derail a promising season. The Flyers are 4-0 since jettisoning starting center Devon Scott and top backup Jalen Robinson, sandwiching routs of Boston University and Duquesne around impressive home wins against Ole Miss and Georgia Tech.
Those four wins have restored optimism that Dayton (11-2) can reach the NCAA tournament for a second straight season despite having to reinvent itself on the fly. Whereas last year's Flyers advanced all the way to the Elite Eight playing a 11-man rotation featuring four players 6-foot-9 or taller, this year's team goes only six or seven deep and doesn't have a single player with frontcourt experience.
"It helps that all the guys they're playing at 6-foot-6 and under are really good," Duquesne coach Jim Ferry said. "It almost feels like they're playing five guards at once. They're playing extremely fast, extremely unselfish and it wasn't just our game when I noticed that. In watching tape leading up to it, they were one of the best teams I've seen all year, and that's including games I've just watched on television.
The secret to Dayton's success the past few weeks has been finding ways to exploit its quickness advantage on offense without getting pummeled in the paint or on the glass defensively.
When opponents have played man-to-man, Miller has taken advantage of Dayton's superior speed by spreading the floor, identifying the most favorable mismatch and attacking off the dribble. When opponents have gone zone to prevent those mismatches, Miller has a handful of skilled wings he can play in the high post who are capable of either shooting, driving or distributing. The Flyers coach has also encouraged his team to look for transition opportunities whenever possible since their guards are often able to outrun opposing big men down court.
Kendall Pollard, a 6-foot-6 wing who replaced Scott in the starting lineup, has averaged 12.8 points and 6.5 rebounds the past four games. Dyshawn Pierre, another 6-foot-6 wing now forced to match up with power forwards and centers, has averaged 14.8 points and 7.3 rebounds during that same stretch.
"With them losing their two big guys, in my opinion they've become that much better offensively," said St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt, whose team hosts Dayton on Thursday. "They're a mismatch with Pierre and Pollard taking guys off the dribble, spacing you out and the way they run the court in transition. ... They may be outsized but they play really hard and that overcomes whatever size limitations they have."
A lack of depth may eventually catch up with Dayton, but for right now Miller believes his seven-man rotation is fostering good team chemistry. Each of the remaining Flyers are happy with their playing time and are consistently making the extra pass, a philosophy that has helped them shoot 50 percent from the field and 44.8 percent from behind the arc the past four games.
Where being at a size disadvantage is the greatest challenge for Dayton is defensively and on the glass. The Flyers have surrendered 39 offensive rebounds in their last three games and have yielded some double-digit scoring nights to opposing big men even though they haven't faced any truly formidable frontcourt players since the dismissal of Scott and Robinson.
Those figure to be recurring problems for Dayton even in a guard-oriented league like the Atlantic 10. Pierre and Pollard are still typically matched against players up to five or six inches taller and 40-50 pounds heavier than them, meaning they both have to work very hard to defend the post and hold their own on the offensive glass.
"We've really challenged those two guys to not worry about who they're guarding and just be defenders," Miller said. "There are teams out there that play in the NCAA tournament every year with smaller players that just scrap, battle and are nasty. That's what we're trying to do with our team right now. How scrappy can we be? How nasty can we be? We are going to get whacked a little bit on the glass every now and then, but our guys have taken on the challenge."
It's still a little too soon since the dismissals of Scott and Robinson to give an accurate assessment of how good Dayton can be, but early indications are the undersized Flyers shouldn't be dismissed as an Atlantic 10 contender.
At the very least, they've taken Miller's message in last month's team meeting to heart and haven't lowered their expectations for this season whatsoever.
"I'm not sure surprised is the word I'd use but I'm definitely proud," Miller said. "I'm proud of the way they've handled adversity. They have not budged. They have not moved. To be quite honest with you, they've stuck their chests out a little bit and they keep coming."
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
