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.