Arizona Wildcats will try to keep Dayton Flyers, led by former Arizona HS star Daron Holmes II, grounded

SALT LAKE CITY — Good buddy Nico Mannion hadn’t checked in yet from Italy as of Friday afternoon, but DaRon Holmes was OK with that.

Besides, Mannion might just tell him to take it easy on his Arizona Wildcats, who will be dealing with Holmes as the centerpiece of seventh-seeded Dayton in a second-round NCAA Tournament game Saturday at the Delta Center.

“He might not even know just because he’s so busy over there,” Holmes said of Mannion, the former Arizona guard who used to regularly work out with Holmes under a Phoenix trainer. “But if he does know, then he probably will say something.”

Pretty much everyone else in Holmes’ Arizona life already has.

That’s what happens when you become the Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year, lead Goodyear Millennium to the 2020 Arizona Class 5A title, get recruited by the Arizona Wildcats … and then head out of state to become a second-team All-American this season as a junior on a team that will face the Wildcats in the NCAA Tournament.

People either want you to go easy on the Wildcats, or end their season by beating them up.

“Definitely hear from a lot of people about this game, especially this game.,” Holmes said. “A lot of my high school friends go to U of A. And some of my high school friends go to ASU, who just do not like U of A. I know about the rivalry. So this is gonna be very, very nice.”

Holmes also briefly attended Montverde Academy with UA walk-on Jackson Cook and played club ball on an Arizona Powerhouse team with UA forward Dylan Anderson. He said he also knows UA guard Kylan Boswell, who entered the AZ Compass program in 2021 just as Holmes left.

About the only person in Holmes’ life who might be quiet about Saturday’s matchup is his little brother Cameron, a five-star prospect himself in the class of 2026 who has attracted considerable recruiting attention from UA coach Tommy Lloyd and his staff, just as DaRon did with former UA coach Sean Miller.

“Cameron is still considering them but he’s also considering Dayton as well,” DaRon said. “So it’s definitely pretty funny to see. He’s staying out of it for the most part, but he definitely is watching the game. He’s excited to come see the game. It’s pretty cool.”

The Wildcats offered Cameron a scholarship last spring before his freshman season at Millennium ended, getting in on him early like Miller did. But DaRon committed to Dayton in Oct. 2020, after Mannion finished playing for the Wildcats in 2019-20, then attended Montverde and AZ Compress Prep as a senior, trying to keep playing under the COVID restrictions of 2020-21.

Arizona’s recruiting was all but put on hold at that point anyway, with the Wildcats self-sanctioning themselves out of the postseason while Miller would lose his job in April 2021.

Meanwhile, Dayton coach Anthony Grant said Dayton’s 2018-19 NIT team and its would-be NCAA Tournament team (and possible No. 1 seed) in 2019-20 helped attract Holmes by showing them how his abilities would mesh with the Flyers’ system.

“I think he felt like his skill set, his talent would fit well,” Grant said. “Then once we got a chance to know each other, I think he felt very comfortable with our staff, with the things that we kind of shared with him about what we were about and how we could help him.”

Holmes said he still had Arizona among his top four final choices but expressed no regrets about what might have seemed initially like a somewhat curious choice to head to the Atlantic 10 powerhouse.

“It’s the people, the culture,” Holmes said. “I felt like this was gonna be a new home. This place is amazing. It’s like a big family. I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Enjoyed everything, except the lack of mountains and desert.

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“It’s just very different,” Holmes said. “It’s a lot different from home in terms of the scenery. I like the scenery in Arizona. The school, I like. Not too big, not too small. It’s good to get around. It’s very fun. I’m having a great time.”

By now, Holmes could almost be the mayor of Dayton, too. Well known for its passionate fan base, Dayton has sold out every game in advance of its season three years in a row.

They won 24 games and reached the NIT during his freshman season of 2021-22 and, while injuries helped drag them down to a 22-12 record last season, Holmes led the Flyers to a 25-7 record that earned them a No. 7 NCAA Tournament seed.

Holmes has mirrored the Flyers’ improvement. A post presence right away as a freshman in 2021-22, taking only seven shots from beyond the 3-point arc, Holmes has evolved into a foul-drawing, elite interior scorer who also steps back to take over a fifth of his shots from 3 – and hits those at a 38.0% rate.

“When he walked in the door, we needed him as a freshman to be able to have a major impact on our team, and I think he grew … … understanding the physicality of the game, figuring out what he was good at and how he could impact the game,” Grant said. “Then, as a sophomore, he became a focal point for a lot of other teams, and he had to add some things to his game there.

“I think his best basketball is ahead of him. I don’t think he’s anywhere close to reaching how good he’ll be. I think he’s still growing, still learning.”

UA coach Tommy Lloyd saw the roots of what made Holmes so versatile. As a Gonzaga assistant, Lloyd saw Holmes as a sophomore standout at Millennium when he was “more of a perimeter base player” who may have projected as a college wing.

Then Holmes grew to 6-10.

“I don’t think anybody knew he was going to get this tall,” Lloyd said. “I think he made a great choice for himself (picking Dayton). He’s become a player there that’s featured. And his game has really grown; they’ve done a good job helping him become a better player inside the paint.

“That’s what makes him tough. He plays inside the paint and out at 3. He can drive the basketball. He can get fouled. He presents a lot of problems.”

Those problems, on Saturday, will now be Arizona’s to deal with.

And Dayton’s to try and celebrate.

“It’s amazing to be able help put the school in this position, it’s such a big deal,” Holmes said. “This is something that not every school gets the experience. It’s great.”

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Photos: (2) Arizona Wildcats dispatch (15) Long Beach State 85-65, NCAA West Region