While Dayton’s neighbors to the east can claim a national championship in football, the Dayton area can make its claim to be one of the most passionate basketball cities in the nation.
This past weekend featured a number of huge crowds in Dayton’s major arenas with fans out in droves supporting their teams. At Wright State’s Nutter Center, a season-high crowd of over 7,500 gathered to watch Wright State nearly pull off an upset over Valpo Saturday evening.
Meanwhile in Kettering, a packed house watched as Franklin High School senior Luke Kennard entered the top 10 on the state’s high school scoring list during the Flyin’ to the Hoop Invitational at Trent Arena. Franklin’s game against Maryland’s Montrose Christian was one of many games where thousands gathered to watch some of the best high school players in the nation compete.
Earlier on Saturday, a crowd of 13,455 watched the University of Dayton top Saint Louis 61-45.
Not only did thousands of basketball fans converge on the Miami Valley, so did the nation’s top collegiate coaches. Monday evening, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo and Louisville coach Rick Pitino were in town to watch Huber Heights Wayne defeat the No. 1-ranked team in the nation Findlay Prep 76-68 for the finale of Flyin’ to the Hoop.
According to Flyin’ to the Hoop director Eric Horstman, the annual event now in its 13th year brings roughly $2 million in revenue to the Dayton area. The invitational is listed as the No. 2 high school basketball event in the nation.
Wright State head coach Billy Donlon was in attendance for Sunday’s session of Flyin’ to the Hoop. Though he is a Dayton transplant, he has known for quite a while the area is rabid in its support of basketball.
“I knew but that was because I was the son of a coach,” Donlon said. “You knew the lore of Dayton (Flyers) and what they had done.”
Donlon spent much of his childhood in the Chicago area while his dad was an assistant at Northwestern.
“Growing up, Wright State played teams where I lived,” Donlon said. “They played UIC, they played Loyola. You knew about all the great coaches that came here. I have said this about the region, ‘There are a lot of great football coaches and that gets a lot of talk in the Miami Valley area. There have been some incredible basketball coaches if you include the Cincinnati area with this area.”
There were plenty of dramatic moments over the weekend at Trent Arena. One of the most memorable was when Centerville beat Bowman Academy with a wide-open layup at the buzzer Saturday.
Centerville and Wayne play each other Friday.
“The fact we won the game is irrelevant,” Centerville head coach Brook Cupps said. “Hopefully we will go back to practice and realize how much work we’ll have to do in order to stay on the floor with a team like Wayne.”
Two weeks after players from Wayne complained about being ranked No. 8 in the AP’s statewide poll, the Warriors defeated the No. 1 team in the nation to close out the 2015 edition of Flyin' to the Hoop after 21 games were played.
