By PAUL GOTHAM
PITTSBURGH, PA — Archie Miller‘s Dayton Flyers finished 25-8 last season. In games when Kendall Pollard played 25 or more minutes, Dayton went 13-2 including 10 straight wins under such circumstances to close the season.
If Miller has his way, the latter trend will carry over to 2016-17.
Injuries limited Pollard a year ago. With those setbacks possibly in the rearview mirror, Miller hopes to have the senior forward back on track, but the sixth-year coach knows that will take patience.
“He had probably one of the roughest off-seasons just due to the amount of work he had with rehabilitation,” Miller said during the Atlantic 10 preseason media day at the PPG Paints Arena. “He played literally in the NCAA tournament with a broken wrist and obviously his injured knee which he dealt with much of January and February. He had two procedures. Both of those procedures went well. Now he’s in the mode of coming back.”
Pollard burst on to the scene as a freshman. The Chicago native averaged 8.5 minutes per contest for the season but played four of his 14 double-digit minute games during the Flyers run to the Elite Eight. He scored 12 points in 14 minutes on 5-of-6 shooting to go with two rebounds as UD knocked off Stanford 82-72 in the Sweet Sixteen.
“He did it the old fashioned way for two years,” Miller added. “He came in as a freshman. He earned his sort of keep. To me he was playing really, really well at the end of the year when we made our run. He carried that into an off-season, got bigger and stronger.”
As a sophomore Pollard played in all but one game averaging 29.1 minutes. He scored 12.7 points and grabbed 5.3 rebounds per game. KenPom ranked him top 10 in the conference with a true shooting percentage of 62.4, an effective field-goal percentage of 60.3 and percentage of possessions used at 25.7.
“You watched him in the sophomore year, and you could make the case he was one of the more or most improved players in the league. But to me he was one of the most improved players in the country. He was as good in February and March as any guy we had on our team. We really rode him.”
Pollard’s minutes and production, though, dropped in 2015-16.
“He battled injuries to start the season whether it be his shoulder, his Achilles was bothering him there for a while. Then obviously it ended up being with his knee. We saw a non-conference Kendall that probably wasn’t as good as he wanted to be. Then out of sheer determination he made it back at the end of last year. He saved us probably in a couple games that he played.”
He averaged more than 10 points and corralled nearly five rebounds but missed six games with injuries.
“If Kendall’s healthy, he’s one of the better players in the conference.”
Dayton opens the season at home on November 11th against Austin Peay.
“He’s progressing without having a setback for four weeks,” Miller noted. “That’s the best we can ask. In terms of him starting to play and having no limits and all that I think we’re in a gray area. My hope is he will be ready to start our season.”
The Flyers play at Alabama before returning to UD Arena to host nationally-ranked St. Mary’s. The Flyers open the Direct TV Wooden Legacy against Nebraska and will play either Portland or UCLA in the second round before the end of the month.
Leave a Reply