Dayton Basketball: Can Flyers handle early season without Malachi Smith?
A report has sophomore guard Malachi Smith potentially missing time to start the season for Dayton Basketball. Are they doomed to lose a couple of games early on?
Last season, Dayton Basketball was one of the youngest teams in all of college hoops. And it showed early on, with three straight home losses to inferior opponents. But the team did manage to mature quickly, making a big run the rest of the way and nearly making the NCAA Tournament.
While big man and leading scorer DaRon Holmes rightfully got a lot of attention, another effective true freshman was Malachi Smith, who once he became the lead guard, took the team to another level. On the season, Smith averaged 9.3 ppg and 5.3 apg, good for 6th in the Atlantic 10.
With Smith and the rest of the rotation all back, the expectations for the program are at a high. They’re in the top-25 AP preseason poll and a consensus favorite to win the A-10 regular-season title. The question is whether or not they’ll make the Big Dance in 2023 and recent news may have taken a hit to that.
Heard from multiple sources now that Mali Smith has re-injured his ankle and will be out to start the season.
— Sully (@sullymygoodname) October 21, 2022
From what I have heard, I would not expect him to be ready to go before Thanksgiving.
Just a huge blow for the Flyers.
When Smith wasn’t running the offense, Dayton was losing games. And if the timeline from the report above is accurate, that means the team won’t have their starting point guard for at least the first four games before the Battle 4 Atlantis around Thanksgiving. Two of those four games (Lindenwood and Robert Morris) should be easy for the Flyers without Smith but the other two, SMU and at UNLV, will be more difficult.
The Mustangs have completely rebuilt their roster and have plenty of power conference transfers, including Xavier Foster and Samuell Williamson. That’ll be a tough one, as well as when they travel to the Rebels. who also added a number of former Big 12 players such as Elijah Harkless and Isaiah Cottrell. They have size and depth, although it may take time for them to put the pieces together, whereas Dayton’s rotation is already set.
With Smith, look for Kobe Elvis to be the starting point guard, while Kobe Brea goes from being the 6th Man to the starting two-guard. Both averaged over 8.0 ppg last season and shot around 40% combined from three-point range. They also have the frontcourt duo of Toumani Camara and DaRon Holmes to throw the ball to as well.
dark. Next. Dayton 2022-23 season preview
With an extra year of experience for everyone, Dayton Basketball should be able to handle not having Malachi Smith for a few games. But the team still can’t afford to lose any bad games in order to maintain a strong at-large resume so winning three of the first four games is a must. If they can do that, they’ll survive not having their starting point.