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Back in NCAAs, Dayton remembers its lost center

Before each tipoff, Dayton coach Archie Miller writes the keys to the game on the locker room’s whiteboard. He’ll do it again Friday when his seventh-seeded Flyers play No. 10-seed Wichita State in a first-round game at Indianapolis’ Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

But this season, Miller’s pregame routine has also included writing a big number 5 on the board’s upper-right corner.

That was Steve McElvene’s jersey number.

As a redshirt freshman last season, the 6-foot-11, 270-pounder set a school record with 55 blocked shots.

Less than two months after the season, on May 12, McElvene died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — a heart disease that causes the heart to work harder because the heart muscles are abnormally thick.