| My time in Maui has ended, or will soon. I’m writing this at Kahului Airport on Thursday as I await a flight to Honolulu, where I will catch an overnight flight to Minneapolis. If all goes according to plan, I’ll land in Columbus at 10 a.m. on Friday and head straight to our family’s Thanksgiving get-together. They delayed it for me, so I hope Delta gets me home. Five years ago, I remember I had the same flight from Maui to Las Vegas as the Dayton Flyers. I had never been on the same flight as the team and haven’t traveled with them since. Dwayne Cohill joked about Obi Toppin getting the NBA treatment because he had extra leg room in his row. That was a preview of a life to come for Toppin, who I’m sure can stretch out a bit on NBA charter flights. Dayton left the Maui Invitational in 2019 in a good mood, thanks to victories against Georgia and Virginia Tech and an overtime loss to No. 4 Kansas. It’s a similar story this week, though Dayton picked up one fewer victory. It lost 92-90 to No. 12 North Carolina on Monday and 89-84 to No. 5 Iowa State on Tuesday before beating No. 2 Connecticut 85-67 on Wednesday. I talked to Dayton forward Zed Key a few minutes ago as he and the rest of the players walked to their gate. They’re flying to Atlanta from Maui before heading to Dayton. He’s the rare player who got to play in the Maui Invitational twice in his career: this season with Dayton and in 2022 with Ohio State. “I love Maui,” Key said. “Great players, great time. Even though we went 1-2, we battled down to the wire every game and showed everyone that we can compete with these top teams. So it was a great experience for everyone.” Credit: David Jablonski You could argue Dayton played better this week in Maui than it did in 2019. The Flyers routed two mediocre teams five years ago. Georgia and Virginia Tech, in fact, were the definition of average. Both finished 16-16. The 2019-20 Flyers might not have played any better against North Carolina, Iowa State and UConn, or maybe they would have beaten all three. That’s certainly possible, too, with the way they played against Kansas, which ranked No. 1 at the end of the season when the pandemic brought a halt to everything. There’s little doubt this Dayton team delivered one of the best 1-2 performances in Maui Invitational history. The seventh-place finish won’t get them into the top 25 next week. That’s what the runner-up finish did for Dayton in 2019. But the Flyers can move into December feeling good about their chance to build a non-conference resume worthy of a NCAA tournament at-large bid. Every time Dayton has played in Maui it has played in the NCAA tournament. To continue that trend, Dayton needs to continue to play like the team that held its own against some of the best teams in the country over three days at the Lahaina Civic Center. “This experience of being here and playing in this tournament, the competition that we got a chance to play against, I think will help propel us as we move forward,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. Flyers reward fans who traveled 4,000 miles Credit: David Jablonski Four times this week, I ran into Dayton fan Michael Murry and his parents — at the Hyatt where the team stayed; outside the arena, where they were first in line on Tuesday; at the Maui Brewing Company, where they were getting dinner after the game Tuesday; and again outside the arena before the final game Wednesday. Michael’s mom Patty was a member of the Alter Lancerettes with my mom Mary back in the day. I didn’t get to interact with as many fans as I normally do because everyone gets into the game just before tipoff, and no one mills around after the game because they clear out the arena for the next game. Also I stayed about three miles north of the arena in an AirBnB condo. Most fans, I’m sure, stayed at the resorts on the beach. Dayton fans held their own against some of the best basketball fan bases in the country. “It means the world when we have our fans behind our backs,” guard Enoch Cheeks said Wednesday. “It gives us energy. It motivates us to do better. We’re very grateful for them. They show out every game at home. When it’s away, it means the world.” “I’ll backpack off that,” forward Nate Santos said. “It means a lot. It gives us energy, especially in close games. It’s great that they’re here, and we appreciate them.” I talked to many fans over the course of the week, including Malachi Smith’s dad Elliot Rosado, who watched proudly from the middle of the Flyer Faithful as his son played so well in the tournament. Smith looked like the player who was named MVP of the ESPN Events Invitational as a freshman, though he’s stronger now and more experienced. Credit: David Jablonski Smith was Dayton’s star Tuesday against Iowa State and then watched from the bench as Dayton made its big run against UConn on Wednesday. It wasn’t that Smith played poorly. He just happened to be out when the momentum shifted, and Grant stuck with a group that included Posh Alexander. I talked to Smith and Alexander outside the bus just before Dayton returned to its hotel after beating UConn. They’re both from the Bronx. You can tell that shared background is a bond. Alexander enjoyed seeing Smith’s big day Tuesday, and Smith appreciated the show Alexander put on Wednesday. Alexander praised Smith for his play against Iowa State and said he was taking notes because Smith has been in the program longer. He said he appreciated getting the chance to be on the court at the crucial time against UConn. “It means a lot,” Alexander said of the victory. “To win with these guys with how hard we prepared for this game ... We came out here trying to go for the (championship), but we made this one our best one and got out of here with a win.” Will Dayton return to Maui? Credit: David Jablonski What will I remember most about Maui? Aside from the obvious big shots, monster dunks and hard fouls. • The hard-working Maui Invitational towel boys. Groups of four kids would run out to mop up sweat on the court. They never missed a drop. • Former North Carolina and Kansas coach Roy Williams shaking hands with Tom Izzo as Izzo left the court following a victory against North Carolina on Wednesday. The two coaching legends met in the national championship game in 2009 when the Tar Heels won the title. • Magic Johnson cheering for the his alma mater from behind the Michigan State bench. • Players using any corner or space they could find in the stairwell leading to the court to stretch as they waited for one game to end and theirs to begin. It’s hard to beat the atmosphere at the Lahaina Civic Center. Hopefully, the Maui Invitational lives long and prospers, but the future of the event is uncertain because no one knows what college sports will look like a year from now. We know universities will be able to pay athletes directly for the first time in 2025. How will that work exactly? That’s hard to say. There has been no official announcement, but Dayton is scheduled to play in the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando again next season. It won that tournament in 2022. I talked to someone who said teams in that event in 2025 will play two games instead of three. There will still be eight teams, but there will be two groups of four teams playing separate two-game tournaments. As for the Maui Invitational, the tournament has a field for 2025, but events like the Players Era Festival, which raise name, image and likeness money for players, could change the Maui Invitational and other similar events like the Battle 4 Atlantis. “Atlantis and Maui have done a great job of creating a must-go-to event, so I think these two are pretty solid,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said in an Arizona Daily Star story this month. “Those of us at the highest level want to be involved and they’re great places to go to. Obviously, it’s a wonderful, beautiful resort, great part of the world, much like Maui. “But everybody’s adapting. Programs are adapting. Coaches are adapting. Promoters are adapting. And it’s a changing world. So we’ll see.” Fast Break Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans: 🏀 The 2024 Atlantic 10 Conference tournament champion was the last A-10 team to win a game this season. Duquesne started 0-6 under new coach Dru Joyce III before beating Old Dominion 67-54 on Tuesday. 🏀 UConn star Alex Karaban suffered a concussion in the final minutes of the game against Dayton. He went to the hospital after the game for further testing. ESPN reported Karaban was scheduled to fly home with the team on Thursday. 🏀 Matt Norlander, of CBSSports.com, covered the Maui Invitational and had this story summing up the final day of the event. Of Dayton he wrote, the Flyers earned “some validation and a sorely needed win to give some nonconference cred to its docket.” 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. *** *** | 