Atlantic 10 Basketball: Breaking down each program’s 2018 recruiting class

Dayton Flyers

Dayton will miss the scoring output of Darrell Davis Jr., who averaged 15.4 points per game and was their leader in crunch time. On the bright side, however, he’s the only impact player from last year’s squad (I don’t count Kostas Antetokounmpo as an impact player, despite his now being in the NBA) that they’ll be without, and they have a lot of promising returning talent to work with. In what will be Coach Anthony Grant’s second year at the helm, he’ll be joined by four returning players who averaged at least 8 points per game, and six who averaged at least 4.

There’s also a lot for Flyer fans to look forward to in terms of newcomers as well. Outside of redshirt freshman Obi Toppin – who looked surprisingly natural in a pickup game with Kevin Durant, CJ McCollum, and other NBA stars, the Flyers will have two promising true freshmen in Dwayne Cohill and Frankie Policelli.

Cohill is the 137th ranked player nationally, and has all the tools to be one of the best freshman in the conference. The 4-star guard who turned down offers from the likes of Butler and Virginia Tech can score from anywhere, but is most notable for his handle and ability to get to the rack. He should be a starter at some point this year, if not to begin the season. Policelli, a 6’8″ forward, is similar in his versatility, and should see plenty of time at both the 3 and the 4. One thing he will need to work on is his quickness, however, if he wants his attacking style to work against A10 defenders. Regardless, Coach Grant will have some of the conference’s best freshman talent to work with between those two and Toppin.