Performance Review: Archie Miller’s First Five Years
Hello Flyer Faithful. I thought I would take some time between UD whooping up on ETSU and their next game vs Northwestern in Chicago to reflect on the fun, crazy, bumpy, but ultimately successful first five years with Archie Miller at the helm of your beloved Dayton Flyers. Things have not always been smooth but I believe everyone out there can now agree he is the best man for the job.
2011–2012
Let’s start with his first year. As you can see below, BG did not exactly leave the cupboard bare as he ran for “greener” pastures at Georgia Tech, there definitely was some talent leftover from the BG era.
Roster:
Guards: Kevin Dillard, Paul Williams, Josh Parker
Forwards: Chris Johnson, Josh Benson, Luke Fabrizius, Devin Oliver, Ralph Hill
Bigs: Matt Kavanaugh, Alex Gavrilovic
Sitting (Transfers): Vee Sanford, Matt Derenbecker
The roster could have been even more talented had Juwan Staten and Brandon Spearmen decided to stick around (however, one could argue, those departures could be taken as addition by subtraction due to the team chemistry issues that accompanied them).
Archie’s first-year as head coach had some highs and lows (as expected). After a decent non-conference slate, UD opened A10 play with a 4–1 start capped with a 15 point win over Xavier. However, the next 4 games were all losses and Dayton finished a mediocre 9–7 in the A10 and ended the season with a first round exit from the NIT. Dayton fans everywhere pretty much accepted this result as we were very accustomed to this type of season.
Season Recap Video:
2012–2013
The second year of Archie’s head coaching career was not so good. The A10 added VCU and Butler and UD lost a large (talented) senior class + a big man for assault allegations. This all added up to a pretty ugly year. Let’s look who we had left/added to the roster.
Guards: Kevin Dillard, Khari Price, Vee Sanford
Forwards: Josh Benson, Dyshawn Pierre, Devin Oliver, Matt Derenbecker, Jalen Robinson
Bigs: Devon Scott, Alex Gavrilovic
Sitting (Transfer): Jordan Sibert
Basically, the “highs” of the season included beating Xavier and well… that is pretty much it. Look, UD went 17–14 (7–9 in the A10) and nearly missed the A10 tournament. That’s right, not the NCAA or NIT tournament, nearly missed the A10 tournament. Needless to say, there were no postseason tournaments for Dayton that year. Let’s just move on to the next season.
Season in Review video (no audio)
2013–2014
Ahh… the golden year of recent Dayton basketball history. Everyone remembers the ending, but does everyone remember the other parts? UD added Mr. Kavanaugh back to the roster as well as Jordan Sibert who sat the previous year due to transfer rules. They also added the (arguably) best Dayton recruiting class ever to the fold. Let’s take a look at who we had. (NOTE: We were also passed over by the Big East which left a much more manageable A10 schedule).
Guards: Khari Price, Jordan Sibert, Vee Sanford, Scoochie Smith, Kyle Davis
Forwards: Dyshawn Pierre, Devin Oliver, Kendall Pollard, Jalen Robinson
Bigs: Matt Kavanaugh, Devon Scott, Alex Gavrilovic
Can we just talk about the ending of the season? No? Fine… Dayton opened the season with a nice easy buy game vs IPFW. After a furious comeback capped with a last second 3 pointer by Jordan Sibert (after Kyle Davis traveled), UD won the game by 1 point. (Does everyone realize we do not make the NCAA tournament that year without that miraculous comeback?) Anyway, Dayton rallied off 4 more wins to open the season capped with a HUGE win over then #11 Gonzaga. Looking great right!? Hold on, Dayton went on to drop games at Illinois State and a very average USC team at home. Still, after a 12 and 3 non-con schedule we are feeling pretty good. Well… UD opened the A-10 schedule with a 1 and 5 record with the lone win coming against Fordham. Saying the natives were restless would be an understatement. Everyone across the message boards and at water coolers in offices across the 937 were calling for Archie’s head. After two underwhelming years and now sitting at 13–8 (1–5) everyone was questioning the administration for hiring him. (It should also be noted the administration extended his contract during this time, and this information was conveniently announced after the season ended). The rest, as they say, was history. Dayton rallied off 10 wins in the next 11 contests and were right back in the NCAA picture. UD lost the A10 tournament game vs St Joe’s (IT WAS A FREAKING PUSH OFF). Anyways, everything happens for a reason because the push off led to UD being slated to face Ohio State and Syracuse, which were two teams that started the season extremely well but were both limping down the stretch to put it kindly. Combine that with Stanford upsetting Kansas and Dayton ends up in the elite 8 for the first time in decades. And just like that, in a 2 month time span, Archie went from being run out of town to fans fearing that a bigger program will come and steal him away from the Gem City.
The season also gave us arguably the greatest Dayton Basketball video of all time. Enjoy.
2014–2015
In true Dayton basketball fashion, the basketball gods were out to get UD after the miraculous elite 8 run. To put it lightly, the 2014–2015 campaign had a lot of complications. Check the very fluid roster below. I included the part time players or players who did not play in parentheses.
Guards: Scoochie Smith, Jordan Sibert, Kyle Davis, Darrell Davis, (Ryan Bass)
Forwards, Dyshawn Pierre, Kenall Pollard, Bobby Wherli, (Detwon Rogers)
Bigs: (Jalen Robinson), (Devon Scott)
Sitting (Transfer and Partial Qualifier): Charles Cooke, Steve McElevene
The big story of the year was Jalen Robinson and Devon Scott robbing girl’s dorms and being dismissed from the team. Ryan Bass’ concussion problems, the mysterious Detwon Rogers situation and Big Steve being ruled partial qualifier also took players away from the depleted roster. Out of pure necessity Archie implemented the small ball style of play. Luckily Pierre and Pollard were very skilled players that can rebound and play in the post. This made Dayton’s disadvantage (height) an advantage as other conventional teams struggled to match up with them.
Archie’s recruiting strategy has always been to recruit skilled basketball players. Not top tier athletes, who he tries to teach basketball skills to (Sorry, had to take one shot at BG in this). The transition to the new style of play was seamless and Dayton finished 25–8 (13–5 in the A10) and were ready for the NCAA tournament. Somehow, the committee slated UD as the last team in the field (which made zero sense).
But once again, it was for the best as UD got to beat Boise State at home in the play in game and then in what Providence fans and coach will tell you was another home game (never knew Dayton played home games in Columbus). After completely dominating Providence and Kyle Davis solidifying himself a top tier defender against Kris Dunn, the season ended in the second round with an extremely close loss to Oklahoma. All of a sudden, all of us Flyer Faithful are losing our minds. We now have 5 NCAA tournament wins in the last 2 seasons. We officially entered unchartered territory. The new expectation was Dayton winning NCAA tournament games every year.
Top 10 Plays from 2014–2015
2015–2016
Now Archie is rolling. Dayton graduated just one player (granted very talented Jordan Sibert), but added Charles Cooke, Big Steve McElvene and a 4-man recruiting class. Reinforcements had arrived. Check it out below.
Guards: Scoochie Smith, Kyle Davis, Darrell Davis, John Crosby
Forwards: Charles Cooke, ½ of Dyshawn Pierre, Kendall Pollard, Ryan Mikesell, Xeyrius Williams, Bobby Wherli
Bigs: Steve McElvene, Sam Miller
Sitting (Transfer): Josh Cunningham
With what looked to be the most talented roster Dayton has seen in decades, another sexual assault charge comes along and causes some turbulence to the roster. This time Dyshawn Pierre was forced to sit the first half of the season. Luckily Charles Cooke was even better than advertised and Big Steve was ready to go as well. After reeling off 5 straight wins us faithful got what we desired. The coveted rivalry being renewed with Xavier. Unfortunately, about a minute or two into the game, it was clear UD was outmatched and the game was… not close. Dayton rebounded well after the unspeakable event that was that game and ran through an extremely mediocre A10 schedule fairly easily and end up with the 7 seed. Unfortunately, a hot Syracuse team combined with a less than perfect outing by UD ended the season without the expected NCAA tournament win(s).
2015–2016 Season Highlights
Well, there you have it. The state of the program has officially been elevated in the first 5 years under Archie Miller and the future looks bright.
