| Enoch Cheeks provided the most exciting Dayton Flyers highlight of the week with a tomahawk dunk against Davidson in a 72-59 victory Wednesday in North Carolina. Vincent Palmer, 3, delivered the moment earlier in the week. UD’s official men’s basketball social media accounts released a video Tuesday showing Vincent sitting on the ground in front of a Christmas tree and home and flipping through photos of the Dayton players and reading their names in the style of UD Arena public address announcer Jeff Stevens, who’s now held the job for 24 seasons. He rolled right through them, not missing a beat when he came to a Lithuanian name: Petras Padegimas. He even paused after saying “DaRon Holmes!” to add “the second,” as Stevens does. “This is about the coolest thing I’ve ever heard!” Stevens wrote on X (Twitter) after watching the video. “I will happily turn over the mic and be the guy who gets his water and soft pretzels while being his spotter. Vincent is THE man. I feel like I’ve got some more years in me, but the search for my replacement is done!” My 5-year-old son Chase could easily accomplish a similar feat if he had to identify Paw Patrol characters, but he doesn’t have any interest in team sports at this moment. That’s OK. Maybe he never will. I don’t have any sports memories until about the age of 6 or 7 when I started going to Cincinnati Reds games and don’t remember watching basketball until Michael Jordan’s famous shot to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers when I was 11. Palmer has a big head start and plenty of reasons to love the Flyers. He’s the son of Nick and Jane Palmer, of Washington Township. Jane graduated from UD in 2004, and Nick graduated a year later. The whole family, including Vincent and his younger brother, Dominic, went to the Charleston Classic in November. Jane’s uncle is Tom Westendorf, who works the clock during games UD Arena and has held many posts in the athletic department over the years, including interim AD. Tom’s dad and Vincent’s great-grandfather, Jerry Westendorf, is a UD Hall of Famer. “My grandpa was an amazing, amazing human being,” Jane said. Vincent is an amazing kid, as the video showed. His parents made the video to show family and friends, and then Nick shared it with UD. Vincent knew players’ names and faces last year. He could even pronounce Mike Sharavjamts’ name. Vincent’s had some help. Jane is a speech therapist and works with flashcards with him. “He’s known all the players since he was 2,” Jane said. “He just loves learning.” A strong start for Flyers in conference play Credit: David Jablonski I made my fifth trip in 11 seasons to Davidson’s Belk Arena on Wednesday. I’m almost on auto pilot on these trips: five-mile trip to the Red Lot at the Columbus airport; airport shuttle to the terminal; breeze through TSA PreCheck; get coffee; always a window seat; hopefully a direct flight, as this one was; rental car, Uber or train (as in Washington, D.C., Saint Louis, Philly, etc.); and then kill some time before the game. I used to grab the earliest flights on gamedays to lessen the chance of delays. I typically schedule departures now for later in the morning so I can help get Chase to school. It’s not the end of the world if I don’t make it to the game because of a cancelled or delayed flight, and that’s only happened a couple times since I started traveling to cover the team in 2013. *** *** One time in 2017, I arrived home well after midnight after covering the Big Ten championship in Indianapolis and had an early flight to Starkville, Miss., where Dayton was playing Mississippi State. The first flight to Atlanta was delayed and I would have barely made the game if I had driven from Atlanta, so I stayed home. I was watching the game on my couch when my wife Barbara found out she was pregnant with Chase. I didn’t show enough enthusiasm upon hearing the news, according to her, but in my defense, the Flyers were playing an exciting game they lost at the buzzer. That 2017-18 season, Anthony Grant’s first, was largely forgettable but did set the stage for a historic season two years later. Dayton fans hope the near misses of the last two seasons lead to a similar story this season. The Flyers are on that path with an eight-game winning streak, their longest since the 29-2 season of 2020. I talked to UD great Brian Roberts, who lives in the Charlotte area, after the Davidson game and he gave his thoughts on the team. “I like what I saw, for sure,” Roberts said after the game. “I watch every game pretty much — ESPN and all that stuff. I’m familiar with everything. They play well together. They play the right way. They move the ball. ... .They’ve just got different different guys who can take over the game on different nights, so it’s been fun to watch them, for sure.” Dayton played far from a perfect game Wednesday. The Flyers had 12 turnovers after committing 14 over their three previous games, for instance. They still controlled the game from start to finish and could have won by two more. Kobe Elvis passed up a wide-open layup as time expired. “Dayton is really good,” Davidson coach Matt McKillop said on his postgame radio show, “and we knew that. They’ve beaten some really good teams. ... They should be in the top 25.” For the record, Dayton is getting three votes in the Associated Press poll: one from me; one from Dave Preston, of WTOP Radio in Washington, D.C.; and one from Todd Golden, of CNHI Sports in Bloomington, Ind. Forty three teams received votes last week. Dayton probably needs three or four more unbeaten weeks to enter the top 25. Elvis continues to elevate his game Credit: David Jablonski I have a greater appreciation for injured players today. This morning, for the first time in my life, I had a physical therapy appointment. I broke my left ring finger five weeks ago playing pickup basketball, but my doctor thought it was sprained and didn’t do an X-ray. Now I’m stuck with a finger that will never be 100 percent. The hand specialist I saw on Tuesday, Dr. Brent Bickel, by chance a former UD football player, said he could have fixed it if I had come to him right away five weeks ago, but surgery won’t fix it now, so I’m working once a week with a therapist to rehab the finger as best I can. I’ve got a small blue cast on it now that will help straighten it. Dayton’s players are always dealing with pains. That’s the nature of the sport and a long season. Guard Kobe Elvis had a bag of ice attached to his ankle when I talked to him after the game Wednesday. He hurt the ankle in the previous game against Longwood. While it didn’t slow him during the game, it was sore enough after the game to require treatment. I’m writing about the improved play of Elvis today. He’s been one of the big stories this season. He had 17 points against Davidson. He’s 17.7 averaging over the last six games. He averaged 6.9 in the first seven games. This is the best he’s played since midway through his first season at Dayton two years ago. Elvis missed 12 games in the middle last season and played hurt the rest of the way until suffering another injury that prevented him from playing in the A-10 tournament. “I feel like last year I didn’t have the opportunity to be aggressive and show people what I am capable of,” Elvis said. We’re now seeing what Elvis can do when he’s healthy — even if 100% isn’t a realistic goal for anyone in this physical game. Fast Break Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans: 🏀 Anthony Grant talked to Jeff Goodman, of the Field of 68, for more than 20 minutes in an interview Thursday. 🏀 Dayton has an average seed of 7.8 on 41 brackets listed on BracketMatrix.com, where various NCAA tournament brackets are listed. 🏀 R.J. Greer, the son of Dayton associate head coach Ricardo Greer, will choose from Cincinnati, North Carolina State and Penn State and also the NBL, a professional league in Australia. I talked to R.J. not long after he received his first scholarship offer from Florida in 2022. He and his dad said then R.J. would make his own decision and not play for Dayton just because his dad coaches there. What do you want to know about the Flyers? I want to hear from you. Reach out to me directly at david.jablonski@coxinc.com with your questions and feedback on the team or this newsletter. Also be sure to follow our Flyer Nation Facebook page for the latest news on the team. I’ll have updates, photos and videos on Twitter, as well. *** | 