Dayton hires Anthony Grant as new basketball coach

After losing Archie Miller to Indiana, Dayton has moved quickly to hire Anthony Grant as its new men’s basketball coach.

The Dayton Flyers made a surprising run to the Elite Eight in 2014, and Archie Miller became a hot candidate to move on to a bigger school. Three more NCAA Tournament appearances have kept Mille toward the top of the list of coaches ready to take a step up, and last weekend it came to fruition with him being hired to replace Tom Crean at Indiana.

Dayton is a good job by practically any measure, outside of the bigger conferences. There were not any significant rumored candidates to replace Miller, as some smaller jobs have been filled, which has been surprising. But it now appears Dayton had their man in mind, and on Thursday an official announcement came from the school.

Anthony Grant has spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he reunited with Billy Donovan. Grant was a long-time assistant under Donovan at Florida from 1996-2006, before getting his first head coaching opportunity.

Grant moved on to become head coach at VCU from 2006-2009, with a 76-25 record and two NCAA Tournament appearances in three seasons. He moved to Alabama in 2009, and the Crimson Tide had a 117-85 record with four postseason appearances (three NITs) over Grant’s six seasons.

Grant played at Dayton from 1983-1987. He was a three-year starter, while averaging 11.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game for his career.

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Grant surely wanted to be a college head coach again at some point, with a .637 combined winning percentage at VCU and Alabama to make him a worthy candidate. Returning to Dayton is surely a unique opportunity for him, and the success the program enjoyed under Miller is in line to continue under Grant.