Post by nutsberryfarm 🏜 on Feb 19, 2020 17:36:13 GMT
sports.yahoo.com/how-dayton-has-arrived-we-can-go-win-a-national-championship-205423420.html
Can Dayton win the national title? You’d have gotten crooked looks if you mentioned that at Atlantic 10 media day after the Flyers were picked third in the league. But the record, résumé and results would indicate that it can. Dayton’s losses to the Jayhawks and Buffaloes on neutral floors are better than its wins. But the Flyers have beaten a smattering of decent teams – Virginia Tech, Saint Mary’s, Richmond and Rhode Island among them – and are 12-0 in league play. “We feel like we can go win a national championship,” Crutcher said. “That’s what we talk about a lot.”
That’s where Grant, a man with a perpetual poker face, wants to hit pause. He understands his players’ ambition but is far more concerned about the present. His past offers a window into his worldview.
Over the phone last week, Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan – who has been Grant’s boss at Marshall, Florida and with the Thunder – cackles through story after story about his old friend in his distinct Long Island accent. He knows Grant is focused only on what’s in front of him because that’s the only way he’s ever looked.
Grant would drive on recruiting trips while working for Donovan at Marshall in the mid-1990s. Donovan would be in the passenger seat, look over and see that Grant’s eyes were squinted so tight locked in on the road that he worried Grant was asleep.
“I called him Slits,” Donovan said. “I’d say, ‘I have to put toothpicks in your eyes. They’re like little slits. Can you even see out the windshield?’”
Can Dayton win the national title? You’d have gotten crooked looks if you mentioned that at Atlantic 10 media day after the Flyers were picked third in the league. But the record, résumé and results would indicate that it can. Dayton’s losses to the Jayhawks and Buffaloes on neutral floors are better than its wins. But the Flyers have beaten a smattering of decent teams – Virginia Tech, Saint Mary’s, Richmond and Rhode Island among them – and are 12-0 in league play. “We feel like we can go win a national championship,” Crutcher said. “That’s what we talk about a lot.”
That’s where Grant, a man with a perpetual poker face, wants to hit pause. He understands his players’ ambition but is far more concerned about the present. His past offers a window into his worldview.
Over the phone last week, Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan – who has been Grant’s boss at Marshall, Florida and with the Thunder – cackles through story after story about his old friend in his distinct Long Island accent. He knows Grant is focused only on what’s in front of him because that’s the only way he’s ever looked.
Grant would drive on recruiting trips while working for Donovan at Marshall in the mid-1990s. Donovan would be in the passenger seat, look over and see that Grant’s eyes were squinted so tight locked in on the road that he worried Grant was asleep.
“I called him Slits,” Donovan said. “I’d say, ‘I have to put toothpicks in your eyes. They’re like little slits. Can you even see out the windshield?’”
