Dayton basketball: 'A military-type operation' led to Flyers landing six commitments in six days

May 10—The Dayton Flyers added three transfers in a six-day stretch in April 2025 but needed much more time to pick up commitments from three more transfers in what was then the biggest transfer class in school history.

* Malcolm Thomas joined Adam Njie Jr., Jordan Derkack and De'Shayne Montgomery in the class on April 24.

* Bryce Heard committed on May 2.

* Keonte Jones rounded out the class on July 31.

Fans eager for recruiting news didn't have such a drawn-out experience this year. From April 16-21, six players from the transfer portal announced their commitment to Dayton.

Looking back on that period on Wednesday, May 6, in his first interview since the season ended in March, University of Dayton Director of Athletics Neil Sullivan told the Dayton Daily News, "These things move fast. I can't say it was 100% choreographed, but it was pretty much a military-type operation."

Sullivan worked with head coach Anthony Grant and his staff, as well as senior associate athletics director PJ Hubert and Jim Paxson, the senior advisor of basketball operations.

"We had a map and a plan of attack," Sullivan said. "We were able to do it in a window. We didn't think we'd drag it out too far. A lot of it was planned, but sometimes these things move fast, so I can't say that it went exactly according to plan."

Dayton's flurry of transfer additions started April 16 when Travis Perry, a 6-1 sophomore guard from Ole Miss, and Jalen Haynes, a 6-8 fifth-year forward from Cincinnati, committed to Dayton within two hours of each other.

Two days later, Murray State transfer Tristian Ford,

a 6-3 freshman guard, announced his commitment to Dayton, hours before Marquette transfer Zaide Lowery, a 6-foot-5 junior guard, picked the Flyers.

On April 20, Grant Randall, a 6-9 sophomore forward from Quinnipiac, committed to Dayton.

Finally, on April 21, Landen Joseph, a 6-foot-2 guard who played his freshman season at Marshall, became the sixth transfer to commit to Dayton.

As of Monday, May 4, all of the players except Haynes had officially signed with Dayton.

"It was a lot more than six days in terms of when that process started," Grant said. "There was a lot behind the scenes in terms of watching film, talking to coaches, agents and players, trying to get real-time information. It culminated in a lot of success in a short period.

"Credit to our coaching staff. These guys did a tremendous job, as did our support staff, the people organizing things here on campus, to make sure that the experience was good for these guys to be able to get a good picture of what this place is about. And there was the commitment from the administration to allow us to have the resources to put it together. That was big time as well. It was just a collaborative effort all the way around."

Dayton turned an eight-man roster that included five returning players and three incoming freshmen into a 14-player group. It's the first time Dayton has had more than 13 scholarship players on the roster. The limit changed from 13 to 15 last season.