DAYTON, Ohio _ The Dayton Flyers gathered one last time as a team March 12 at the Cronin Center after flying home from Brooklyn, N.Y.
Hours earlier, the Atlantic 10 Conference had canceled its tournament at the Barclays Center. The NCAA followed with its decision to call off the big dance. Student manager Alex Reilly was getting a TV ready in the hotel for the players to watch Virginia Commonwealth and Massachusetts in the second round when the A-10 tournament was cancelled. Later that afternoon, he was standing on the tarmac unloading bags to be transferred to the charter flight when he heard the news of the demise of March Madness.
"Just how quickly everything happened was so surreal," Reilly said. "It didn't feel real in any way, shape or form."
That's why the team ended up gathering for the final time after 31 games, 29 victories, 2,480 points and 147 dunks. The Flyers hoped to cut down the net in Brooklyn and again next month after the national championship game in Atlanta. Instead, they went their separate ways to face an uncertain future with basketball only one of the concerns as the Coronavirus pandemic took over the country.
Before the players departed, coach Anthony Grant talked to the team one last time, and several of the players spoke, including seniors Trey Landers and Ryan Mikesell, who thanked his teammates, coaches and trainers for everything they had done for him in his career at Dayton.
"I won a lot of games as a Flyer," Mikesell told the Dayton Daily News on Tuesday. "I made a lot of relationships and had experiences I'll never forget. I just thanked everyone for that. It was a tough speech. It was emotional."
