Former Alter standout wants ‘to be a part of something bigger than myself’ at UD

“We hugged it out,” Conner said.

With that hug, Conner sealed a return to his hometown and to a program he knows well. He grew up going to UD team camps and remembers having Jordan Sibert and Kyle Davis as coaches. He played at games at UD Arena during high school. His brother Brady, a junior in high school, won a state championship at UD Arena with Alter in March.

Now Conner will join a program being transformed once again by the transfer portal. He committed during a busy recruiting week for Dayton.

Vanderbilt transfer Colin Smith, a 6-8 forward with two seasons of eligibility remaining, and Duke transfer Jaden Schutt, a 6-5 guard with three seasons remaining, also visited UD, according to a source. Earlier in the week, Kolby King, a 6-2 point guard transfer from Tulane, visited, according to a report by Jamie Shaw, of On3.com, though King committed to Butler on Saturday.

On Sunday, Dayton lost forward Nate Santos to the transfer portal. He’s the fifth player to leave the program this spring. The others were: Koby Brea; Kobe Elvis; Petras Padegimas; and Zimi Nwokeji.

Conner, a 6-foot-10 forward with two seasons of eligibility remaining, made his announcement 25 days after entering the portal. He spent the last two seasons at Marshall.

“It was a lot of things put together,” Conner said Saturday. “Coming into the portal, I wrote down some of my goals for a team — what I wanted to be around, what I wanted to be a part of — and some individual goals for myself. Individually, this was the best place for me to achieve my goals. Also it’s a great place to be a part of something bigger than myself.

“Being a kid from Dayton, I know how much the community loves Dayton basketball and how big of a deal it is. Even though I’m from Dayton, I still have to become a part of Dayton basketball. It’s a pretty big deal for me to see all the different things it can help provide for me. Ultimately, it felt like the best fit for me.”

Conner committed to Marshall in July 2021 before his senior season at Alter. He did take several unofficial visits to Dayton and attended practices on campus during the 2019-20 season but said “it wasn’t a super hard” recruiting pitch from UD. He played his senior season during the pandemic when recruits couldn’t visit.

In a Signing Day story on Conner on Marshall’s website in 2021, Alter coach Eric Coulter said Conner would fit Marshall’s system well because Alter ran a similar offense.

“He has great court vision and can play all five positions,” Coulter said. “He has improved a lot with his strength and conditioning. He was also in the top five of our conference in many different statistical categories, which speaks volumes to his versatility on the court.”

Conner averaged 5.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists as a freshman at Marshall. He shot 32.2% (28 of 87) from 3-point range. He averaged 20.9 minutes per game and appeared in all 32 games for a team that finished 24-8.

As a sophomore, Conner averaged 6.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists. He shot 31.8% (35 of 110) from 3-point range. He started 32 games, averaging 26.5 minutes, and appeared in all 33 for a team that finished 13-20.

Before the season, The Almanac’s season preview of Marshall listed Conner as the team’s X-factor. Coach Dan D’Antoni planned to make Conner the “lead guard.”

“Conner has tremendous vision and a good feel for the game, which comes from his time running the point in high school,” Brian Rouf wrote in The Almanac. “D’Antoni is also big on his ability to make cross-court skip passes, something he hopes will enhance Marshall’s offense even more ‘almost like (Nikola) Jokic’ does for the Nuggets.”

D’Antoni was fired on March 25 after 10 seasons and replaced by associate head coach Cornelius Jackson. Conner entered the portal eight days later.

“It was really hard to leave,” Conner said. “My two years there were great. All the people, all the coaches, they were great. I really did love Huntington. This year, we had a bad year. Coach Dan got fired. It didn’t sit great with me. I didn’t feel my heart and mind were 100% there.”

Conner also visited Miami and Wright State before visiting Dayton. He talked to coaches at Akron and Belmont. Programs from the west coast contacted him, but he didn’t think he would have time to visit far-flung schools because he had classes back at Marshall.

Conner visited UD’s campus on Wednesday.

“I took a tour of the campus, came back, watched some film, talked about what it means to be a Dayton Flyer with coach Grant and the staff,” Conner said. “(Grant) offered me after the film session. We went down to the arena, saw the locker room, the players lounge. They had a video about the atmosphere at UD Arena, which I’m pretty aware of.”

Conner believes the UD coaches can help him achieve his basketball dreams.

“I want to play in the NBA,” he said. “If you don’t shoot high, then why do anything? I want to do that. Seeing how many pros this staff has been able to develop and the resources they have here, it was kind of a no-brainer. This was the right spot. Playing professionally is a big goal of mine.”

Conner also wants to play for a program that can make the Sweet 16 — something Dayton last did in 2014.

“Dayton has done that before,” he said. “You come up a game short this year. It’s been done at Dayton. That’s the expectation. Being able to play in the tournament is a big deal.”

Conner is the first scholarship player from the Dayton area to commit to Dayton in the tenure of coach Anthony Grant, who’s entering his seventh season. Dayton did have one scholarship player from the area last season when walk-on Brady Uhl, a former teammate of Conner at Alter, earned a scholarship in January.

Conner and Uhl continue a tradition of Alter grads playing at Dayton. Two Alter grads, Jim Paxson and Keith Waleskowski, rank among the program’s top-25 scorers.

Conner is the first transfer from Ohio to commit to Dayton since Ibi Watson, of Pickerington, who played for the Flyers from 2019-21 after two seasons at Michigan.

Conner has two seasons of eligibility remaining. He’s the second transfer to pick Dayton this spring, following Ohio State forward Zed Key, who will play his final season of college basketball at Dayton.

Conner said Uhl was super excited to have another Alter grad on the roster.

“He just reaffirmed everything I knew about how great everything is at Dayton,” Conner said, “and the relationships built here between the players and the staff.”