Tom Archdeacon: Uhl living 'every walk-on's dream' for Flyers

Dec. 21—When he goes to visit his grandpa over these next few days — or better yet, if he and his family are able to bring their 89-year-old patriarch home from the assisted living facility he's in on Far Hills Avenue for the family gathering on Christmas Day — he'll have a lot to tell him.

For Brady Uhl, this truly has been a December to remember.

The Dayton Flyers guard, who has a storied UD pedigree, but also a blue collar, team-first attitude, has had a 10-day span that, in the words of Dayton's standout big man, 6-foot-10 DaRon Holmes II, has been "every walk-on's dream."

With the Flyers' roster depleted by injury — especially at the guard spot ― Uhl's been getting some significant playing time after playing just two minutes total over four games last season.

In a victory over UNC Asheville on Dec. 10, Uhl scored his first points as a Flyer — a three from the corner in front of the Bulldogs' bench — that made the crowd and the Flyers bench roar with approval.

That was just a prelude to Tuesday night's performance when he came in with 9:43 left in the UD's 88-46 victory over Alcorn State and hit his first two three pointers from his sweet spot, the baseline corner in front of the Flyers' bench.

After the first one Tuesday — which came off a pass from Mustapha Amzil with 5:45 left — his seated teammates jumped to their feet to cheer him.

"Yeah, I heard Kobe Elvis saying, 'Shoot the next one! If you're open, shoot it. Just get it off!'" Uhl said quietly afterward. He seemed almost embarrassed by the attention.

"My teammates are terrific. They support everyone that way, not just me."

Uhl's second trey — just 88 seconds later on an assist from Zimi Nwokji — got a high-decibel salute from the crowd and again brought the "Bra-dy!...Bra-dy!...Brad-dy!" chant from the student section.

Some 30 seconds later, Uhl, who's often hesitant to take a shot and last season never hoisted an attempt, missed a three from out front.

Had that one dropped, he would have brought the house down, maybe even more so than when Holmes provided the most explosive moment of the night as he soared up above the rim for a one-handed snag of an RJ Blakney alley-oop pass and slammed down a dunk over a startled defender.

Holmes finished with a game-high 23 points and Toumani Camara had another double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds.

But the feel-good story of the game was Uhl, whose six points now give him nine for his UD career.

"You're inching up on your grandpa," he was teased afterward.

"Yeah, but I'm still a little way away," he laughed as he stood outside the Flyers' locker room. "I might need a few years' extra of eligibility ... and maybe a lot longer than that!"

His grandpa, Bill Uhl Sr. -the Flyers 7-foot All-American from the 1950s and a UD Hall of Fame member — scored 1,627 career points in his three varsity seasons. He averaged a career double-double: 18.5 points and 14.6 rebounds a game.

Brady's dad, Bill Uhl Jr., was a 6-foot-9 forward for the Flyers at the end of the Don Donoher era and was on the first Jim O'Brien team that beat Xavier twice, won the Midwestern Collegiate Conference and topped Illinois in the NCAA Tournament.

Bill Jr. had 531 career points and had some memorable moments of his own, including the game-winning free throw with one second left against Bucknell in 1988.

With Brady now carrying the family name onto the UD court, the Uhls have become one of only two family's to produce three generations of UD players.

The other was the Zimmermans: George, Jack and Jack. Jr.

Over the years the Uhls have especially embraced the program and have supported a Uhl Family Endowed Scholarship, given to a player who shows promise in the classroom.

After Bill turned down a pro career — he was selected by the Rochester Royals in the 1956 NBA draft — he and Cynthia, his wife of 65 years, raised five children, all of whom went to UD.

He started an insurance business and then was joined Bill Jr., who eventually took over the firm.

When Bill Sr.'s memory issues began to increase, he moved to the assisted living facility.

When I went to see him about a year ago, I remember on the wall he had a photo of Brady in his UD uniform. He told me he couldn't wait until the Flyers started playing him some more.

That's happening now and you hope he can appreciate some of it.

"I haven't been able to ask my dad how he feels about all this," Bill Jr. said Tuesday night. "Unfortunately, he's turned the corner and can't really talk anymore."

Brady though said he's still able to communicate with his grandpa on their visits:

"I try to get their as much as I can. He's getting slower and slower, but he knows me. We say 'Hi' and we might watch football together on TV.

"And when I leave, we always say we love each other."

'He's just a great teammate'

Brady figures he went to his first Flyers game when he was three and started going to UD team camps a year or two after.

He had Flyers Fathead pictures on his bedroom wall, would wear a Flyers jersey to the games and, just like kids today, would clamor for autographs from his favorite players.

A 6-foot-1 guard, he became a three-year starter and two-time team captain at Alter High School. As a senior he was the Greater Catholic League Player of the Year and finished with 1,036 career points,

He got no Division I offers — "I got my name from my dad, my height from my mom," he said with a grin — so he went to the University of Cumberlands, an NAIA power in Williamsburg, Ky., where he initially hoped he'd be "a bigger fish."

His first season was 2020-21 — a year marred by COVID ― and fans, including his family, weren't permitted to attend games. He played in eight games and scored 11 points, but he wasn't happy and transferred to UD.

Initially, he decided to give up basketball and just be a student. He figured he'd get his hoops fix playing in pickup games at the RecPlex.

But UD assistant coach Ricardo Greer had watched Brady play in high school and told him he thought he could be a walk-on on the team.

At first Brady turned down the offer, but eventually he realized the opportunity at hand.

He went to a September tryout and was the one player among 20 chosen to walk onto the team.

Since then he's become a great addition, head coach Anthony Grant said:

"He's just a great teammate. He plays a number of roles for us, whether it's on the scout team or, like now, actually being a part of the rotation and doing what he can to help the team."

'I feel at home here'

Besides injures, the Flyers have been hit by some recent departures.

A walk-on quit the team after the Bahamas trip over Thanksgiving and now Kaleb Washington, a twice-suspended sophomore, and Tyrone Baker, a 6-foot-9 transfer from Georgia who was being red shirted, have announced they are entering the transfer portal.

After Tuesday's game, Grant said he supported both players' decisions:

"Sometimes it takes going through stuff to figure out whether or not you have the right fit.

"This wasn't the best fit for them. Hopefully they'll find (it) and they'll become the best versions of themselves."

The Uhl family understands that.

Coming out of McClain High School in Greenfield, Bill Sr. first went to Ohio State. He soon decided to come back home, but his dad already was in contact with UD coach Tom Blackburn, who gladly added the program's first dominant big man.

Brady left Cumberland because he said it "wasn't the right fit" for him:

This is different:

"I love being here. I was comfortable coming here and now I feel really lucky. I'm really blessed, For me, Dayton is a special place. I feel at home here."

And it shows.

For Brady Uhl, it's truly been a December to remember.

One he hopes he can share with his grandpa this Christmas.