DAYTON – University of Dayton men's basketball coach Anthony Grant has officially announced the Flyer recruiting class for the 2023-24 season.

The UD newcomers consist of three incoming freshman scholarship players – Marvel Allen, Petras Padegimas and Jauin Simon; four transfers – Javon Bennett, Enoch Cheeks, Isaac Jack and Nate Santos; and four new walk-ons -- Evan Dickey, Makai Grant, Will Maxwell and CJ Napier.

MARVEL ALLEN
Marvel Allen (pronounced Mar-VELL) committed to the Flyers on May 8.  He is a 6-4, 200-pound guard who is a four-star, consensus Top 150 recruit in the 2023 class (99 by Rivals.com).

Originally from Fort Lauderdale, Allen played five seasons of varsity basketball.  As an eighth-grader, he played at The Benjamin School in North Palm Beach.  As a freshman, Allen was at Wellington High School near West Palm Beach.  He played the next two seasons at Calvary Christian Academy near Fort Lauderdale.  

Allen led Calvary Christian to back-to-back 4A state championships in Florida in 2021 and 2022. In 26 games as a junior, he averaged 13.8 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game.  Calvary Christian was 26-2 in his junior year and also won the Florida State Champions Invitational Championship.

Allen was invited to the 2022 NBPA Top 100 Camp.

Last season, he attended Montverde Academy near Orlando.  Montverde was the second-ranked team in the nation in 2022-23, with seven top-100-ranked players.  Coming off an injury, Allen was only able to see action in 10 of the team's 25 games.  He averaged 11.4 minutes, 1.6 points. 1.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists in those 10 games.  

JAVON BENNETT
Javon (pronounced Juh-VONN) Bennett is a 5-10, 155-pound point guard, who was the Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year in 2022-23 for NEC regular season and tournament champion Merrimack.  He announced his commitment on April. 9.  

The Orlando, Fla. native averaged 9.6 points, 3.4 assists and 2.9 steals per game as a freshman.  His 99 steals were the most in Division I, and his 2.9 per game were the second-most.  He was also tied for third in assists in the NEC.  

Bennett shot .359 (113-315) from the field, .279 (46-165) from 3-point range and .733 (55-75) from the free throw line.  He has three seasons of eligibility.

He scored a school-record 2,147 points for Trinity Prep School in Winter Park, Fla. as a high schooler.  A four-year varsity player, Bennett was a team captain as a junior and senior, and two-time Florida Athletic Coaches Association All-State.

ENOCH CHEEKS
Enoch (pronounced EE-nock) Cheeks is a 6-3, 195-pound guard from Providence, R.I., who is coming to UD from Robert Morris   He was Third Team All-Horizon League after averaging 15.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 2022-23.    That included 15 points at UD Arena in a 60-51 Dayton win on Nov. 19. He shot .446 (174-390) from the field, 358 (49-137) from 3-point range and .794 (81-102) from the line.  A two-year starter, he averaged 9.2 points and 5.4 rebounds as a freshman.  

Cheeks was third on the team in rebounding, second in scoring and assists, and led the Colonials in steals (1.8) last year.

Originally from Providence, R.I., Cheeks now lives in Loganville, Ga.  He played his first two seasons at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence.  His 21.1 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 82-percent shooting at the free throw line helped lead Mount Pleasant to the Division I semifinals and he was named All-Rhode island in 2018.  

He also played for Kimball Union and Putnam Science Academy before playing a post-grad year at Springfield Commonwealth Academy.  He helped Springfield Commonwealth win an NEPSAC regular season championship in 2021 

Cheeks committed to the Flyers on March 30.  He has two seasons of college eligibility.

ISAAC JACK
Jack is a 6-11, 250-pound big man from Port Alberni, British Columbia which is on Vancouver Island.  As a freshman at Buffalo last season, he averaged 5.6 points and 4.2 rebounds in 31 games (20 starts).  He shot.661 (76-115) from the field while playing 16.4 minutes a game.

Originally a hockey, soccer and snowboarding athlete growing up, Jack did not take basketball seriously until 2020, and did not play at a competitive level until 2021 when he joined UPLAY Canada.  He spent the 2021-22 at Fort Erie International Academy, helping lead the team to the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association (OSBA) championship

At Fort Erie he averaged 15.4 points and 9.7 rebounds a game, while shooting .767 (56-73) from the floor.  He was selected to play in the All-Canadian BioSteel Basketball Game, Canada's version of the McDonalds High School All-American Game. He scored eight points in 17 minutes in the game, making four of six shots. 

His mom, Anna, went to BYU as a two-sport athlete and lettered one year in basketball, but when she switched to concentrate on track and field, it was a move that paid off in a big way.  She was the 1991 and 1992 NCAA  champion in the discus, and was inducted into the BYU Hall of Fame in 2002.

Jack announced he was transferring to Dayton on April 24.

PETRAS PADEGIMAS
Petras Padegimas (pronounced PEH-tross Pah-DEEG-ee-moss) is a 6-8, 215-pound forward from Kaunas, Lithuania. He made his commitment on July 2.  He will join the Flyers after playing for the Lithuanian National Team in the European U18 championships in Nis, Serbia this summer.

This will be the third consecutive year Padegimas will represent his country in international competition.  He averaged 10.3 points and 6.3 rebounds when Lithuania finished fourth in the 2022 FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup, and 12.2 points and 7.2 rebounds in Lithuania's 2021 FIBA U16 European Championship gold-medal-winning effort.

Padegimas spent the 2022-23 season at DME Academy in Daytona Beach, Fla.  He averaged 19.5 points and 8.0 rebounds in his senior high school season and shot 43% from three-point range.  He was named First Team All-Florida Independent Athletic Association.   

NATE SANTOS
A 6-7, 210-pound forward from Geneva, Ill., Santos committed to the Flyers on June 13.  

Santos comes from a basketball family.  His father, Joe, his mother Lori, his sisters Sydney and Ashley, and his brother K.J. all played for the Puerto Rican national team at some point in their  careers.  Mom played Division I ball at Wichita State, Sydney played at Oakland, Ashley played basketball at Louisiana Tech and K.J. was a Missouri Tiger.  

Nate played two years at Pitt, and will have two seasons of eligibility left at Dayton.  As a freshman, he averaged 2.8 points and 1.9 rebounds in 12.8 minutes per game in 25 appearances. In 25 games as a sophomore, Santos averaged 1.6 points, 1.2 rebounds and 7.3 minutes per contest. 

He was a two-year varsity player at Geneva High School near Chicago from 2016-18.  Santos then enrolled the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Conn. and reclassified to the recruiting class of 2021.  He only played one full season in his three years at Loomis Chaffee  due to a torn ACL in his sophomore season and all but three games being cancelled as a senior due to the Covid pandemic.

In between, he made his mark by averaging 17.1 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game in 2019-20.   He earned All-NEPSAC honors and helped boost Loomis Chaffee to a 20-6 record and the NEPSAC Class A and Founders League Championships.  

JAIUN SIMON
Jauin Simon (pronounced JAY-on) was a fall signee with the Flyers, after announcing his commitment to UD on Oct. 28.  He comes to Dayton from Georgia powerhouse Pebblebrook High School.  He is from Mableton, Ga.  

The 6-7, 220-pound forward was Second Team Class 7A  All-Georgia as a senior after he averaged 19.3 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists.  As the only underclass starter on the team in 2021-22, he averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds and was Honorable Mention All-Georgia.

He was a four-year varsity player and a three-year starter.

In addition, Grant announced the addition of four preferred walk-ons for the 2023-24 season:
•    Evan Dickey, a 6-3 guard who was a starter on two state semifinal teams for Chaminade Julienne High School in Dayton
•    Makai Grant, a 6-1 guard who was a teammate of Dickey's at CJ and is the son of Coach Grant
•    Will Maxwell, a 6-4 guard from the Dayton suburb of Oakwood who was two-time Division II All-Ohio selection
•    CJ Napier, a 6-6 grad transfer from Ohio Northern who started 73 of 75 games played in his career at ONU and averaged 17.1 points a game for his career.  He is from Miamisburg, Ohio.

UD also has several staff changes.  Darren Hertz is now UD's Assistant Coach/Director of Program Development.  Former Director of Basketball Operations Sean Damaska has been promoted to the position of Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator.  Former graduate assistant Leron Black was elevated to become the Dayton Video Coordinator.  The University is currently in the hiring process for a new Director of Basketball Operations.

Former staff members John Brannen and Tyler Carter have moved on to other opportunities.  It had already been announced that Special Assistant  Andy Farrell had taken an assistant coaching position at Siena.

Dayton was 22-12 last season, and finished second in the Atlantic 10 in both the regular season and post-season championship.  The Flyers return three starters, including junior forward DaRon Holmes II, a two-All-Atlantic 10  pick and the Most Outstanding Player of the 2023 A-10 tournament.