Anthony Grant

Dayton had the tools to compete for a National Championship, and college coaches agreed. In a poll of 115 coaches on who would have won the tournament, Anthony Grant’s team reeled in the third most votes.

The Flyers had arguably the nation’s top player, Obi Toppin, one of the most efficient and effective offenses in the country and won 20 straight games in a tear through the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Tuesday afternoon, 247Sports caught up with Grant to discuss his team, cancelling the NCAA Tournament, Obi Toppin’s growth and more.

247Sports: Where do you think you guys stacked up nationally?

Grant: I really have no idea to be honest with you. During the season you just really lock in where you’re at. I don’t really watch a lot of the other conferences when we’re focused on us. For me it’s about controlling the things you can control, missing the game right now but don’t know if it’s something that will ever be answered. I choose to look at what our team accomplished with the opportunities that we had and I’m proud of what we did. That’s as far as I can take it.

247Sports: How frustrating and disappointing is it for you guys to not get a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament?

Grant: In light of what we’re all going through with covid-19 and what the entire world is going through with covid-19, the loss of life and the loss of health, just the uncertainty in terms of the times that we’re in, you put basketball in the proper perspective. For our guys, I hurt that we didn’t get a chance to finish the journey but in terms of their health and safety at risk, the health and safety of our staff, our coaches, our fanbase, the general public, I think the right decision was made. What I’m going to do is choose to be appreciative of what we were able to accomplish with the 31 games that we did play.

247Sports: What made you guys so hard to prepare for?

Grant: I think we had a really good group in terms of the talent and skillset that we had. I think more importantly these guys supported each other and they enjoyed being around each other, they were willing to sacrifice for each other they bought into the things myself and the staff told we needed to do on a game-to-game basis to try to give us the best chance to be successful. Those are the things that I will remember. This group really enjoyed each other’s company. You saw them together not only when we had basketball activities but they would go eat together, they hung out together, they really enjoyed each other.

247Sports: Offensively you all were really impressive this year … No. 2 in Kenpom Offense and efficient across the board. What made you all so good on that end of the floor?

Grant: I think those same things. I think we had a group that they found joy in their teammates success. It wasn’t a group that got caught up with their own individual things. They understood that in order for us to achieve what we set out to achieve that they would each have to sacrifice some and they had to understand that we had a good amount of talent so on different days it could be different guys it could be different guys that had opportunities from an offensive standpoint. I think buying in defensively helped us offensively as well.

247Sports: When Obi Toppin stepped on campus, did you have any idea he could end up this good?

Grant: I felt like Obi had a chance to be really good. To say anyone could predict at the end of the day, obviously the awards will still come out and we’re hopeful that he can still get recognized when some of the more prestigious awards start to come out. He was just named CBS Sports National Player of the Year, he was named Sporting News First Team All American. Those things are certainly great recognition but for Obi I think it’s more about the journey and how he approached history here on campus. He was a joy to see what he became this year. As he prepares for the future, I think he’s just scratching the surface of what he could be.

247Sports: When you look at where Toppin was last year compared to today, where do you think he's shown the most growth?

Grant: Just learning the game. I think his first college game was November of last year and to see the growth he had from game one to game 31 as a freshman, he just kept getting better and kept understanding the game better. This year, with that experience under his belt and just the continued growth mindset, he’s got 60 something games under his belt in terms of college competition, he’s just getting better and better.

247Sports: How do you think his game translates to the NBA game?

Grant: I think whenever he decides to make that jump, I think at 6-foot-9 with his skills, his athleticism, his basketball IQ I think there certainly will be a lot of opportunities for him to make somebody at that next level happy that they picked him.

247Sports: It’s looking like we are going to miss the spring evaluation periods because of the Coronavirus, do you have any thoughts on what we can do in terms of adding an evaluation period in the summer or fall?

Grant: I think it’s going to have to happen because you have so many kids whether it’s high school kids or junior college kids, obviously with kids making decisions about where they are right now and maybe making some changes I think you have to do something to provide opportunity for guys. Whether it’s reworking the calendar, the signing period or the evaluation period or maybe a combination of the two. I’m sure the governing bodies of the NCAA are looking into that because you would hate to see kids miss out on the opportunities that could be there because they didn’t get to finish their seasons either. Not only did our men’s and women’s basketball at the he collegiate level in Division I, Division II and Division III, it also affected junior colleges, high schools, prep schools, they all got affected as well.

247Sports: What do you foresee are the biggest challenges navigating through this at a recruiting standpoint?

Grant: I think that’s impossible to answer right now. I think that we all have to acknowledge that this is a national emergency. This is bigger than basketball right now so basketball will take its proper place at the appropriate time when we get the health and safety of the general public and get some answers in terms of how we can help. My thing right now is just to try to as best we can follow the direction of our leaders whether it be on the local, state or national level and just to listen to the advice that we’re being given to keep us and our loved ones safe and healthy. Then we will figure out the rest as it comes.