• The site of coach Archie Miller’s last game with the Dayton Flyers in Indianapolis.
• Eureka College, the alma mater of Ronald Reagan, in Illinois.
The list goes on. It’s a 330-mile journey. There are plenty of opportunities for pit stops — unless you’re a basketball team on a business trip.
The Dayton Flyers took their longest bus trip in years Tuesday for Wednesday’s game against Bradley University in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament and returned by bus Thursday.
Peoria was just close enough to make driving the preferred choice over flying. Prior to this trip, Dayton’s longest drive was to Pittsburgh, about three hours from Dayton.
“It’s a long drive,” Dayton guard De’Shayne Montgomery said. “I ain’t going to lie, it hurts the legs, but we going to be good.”
In Peoria, Dayton didn’t visit the Caterpillar Visitors Center to learn about one of the world’s leading manufacturers of construction and mining equipment or stop by the statue honoring one of the city’s most famous citizens, Richard Pryor.
The Flyers traveled to Peoria to win a basketball game, and they did that in dominant fashion, beating Bradley 80-66 at Carver Arena.
“I think we were locked in,” said Dayton guard Javon Bennett, who made two 3-pointers in the opening minutes and finished with 25 points. “Obviously, it helped that we were hitting shots, but I think we did a good job coming in with the right focus and right mentality.”
No. 2 seed Dayton (24-11) advanced to another road game in the second round against North Carolina Wilmington (27-6) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Trask Arena. The Flyers haven’t won a second-round game in the NIT since 2010, when they won their third NIT championship.
This game is 637 miles from Dayton, so the Flyers will travel by air. They’ll hope for a better second-round result than last season when they lost 87-72 at Chattanooga.
“This is a new team, a new year, so that has no bearing on anything,” Grant said Wednesday.
That’s a message Grant also relayed to the players.
“We’re not last year’s team,” Bennett said. “That’s what Coach keeps saying.”
The Dayton-Wilmington winner will play No. 1 seed Wake Forest (18-16) or Illinois State (21-12) on Tuesday or Wednesday in the quarterfinals. The NIT semifinals and championship game take place at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on April 2 and April 5.
Here are five things to know about the game:
1: Series history: Dayton leads the series 3-0. All three games took place at UD Arena.
• Dayton won 68-59 on March 14, 2001, in the first round of the NIT at UD Arena. Keith Waleskowski led the Flyers with 19 points.
• Dayton won 59-48 on Dec. 7, 2002. Waleskowski again led the Flyers with 17 points.
• Dayton won 74-49 on Nov. 19, 2011. Chris Johnson scored 19 for Dayton.
Dayton is 14-3 against the Coastal Athletic Association, which was formerly known as the Colonial Athletic Association. It last played a team from the conference at the Charleston Classic in 2017, losing 72-69 to Hofstra. That was the first loss in Grant’s first season at Dayton.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
2: State of the program: Wilmington has recorded five straight 20-win seasons and back-to-back 27-win seasons after a stretch of four straight losing seasons.
Coach Takayo Siddle is 133-53 in six seasons with one NCAA tournament appearance. Last week, he signed a new contract that extends until 2031. He was named the CAA Coach of the Year this season for the second time.
Last year, No. 14 seed Wilmington lost 82-72 to No. 3 seed Texas Tech in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
This is Wilmington’s third NIT appearance. It also played in the event in 1998 and 2001.
“I couldn’t be more thankful and happy with where the program is right now,” Siddle said before the NIT. ”You’re talking about being one of 100 teams that are playing in one of the two NCAA affiliated tournaments in the country. It’s definitely a big deal. It’s a big deal for us. We’ve had 75 seasons of basketball here at UNCW, and this is our 12th appearance in postseason play, and we’re in back-to-back postseasons for the first time since I’ve been here. So we’re excited to be in this position."
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
3: Scouting report: Nolan Hodge, a 6-foot-7 senior guard, leads Wilmington with 14.4 points per game. He made the All-CAA second team.
• Patrick Wessler, a 7-0 junior center, averages 13.6 points and leads the team with 9.6 rebounds per game. He made the All-CAA first team.
• Christian May, a 6-5 senior guard who played his first three seasons at Towson, averages 10.7 points per game.
• Madison Durr, a 6-4 senior guard who has also played at The Citadel and Monmouth, was named CAA Sixth Man of the Year. He averaged 10.3 points per game.
• Wilmington ranks fifth in the country in 3-point shooting defense. It holds opponents to 29.5%.
• Wilmington ranks 11th in the country in average height. The eight players in the rotation measure 6-4 or taller.
4: Season summary: Wilmington finished 11-2 in non-conference play, losing to Kent State and Howard. Its best victory came against Navy, another team that appeared in the NIT this week.
The Seahawks won the CAA regular-season championship for the first time since 2022, when they shared the title with Towson, with a 15-3 mark.
Wilmington ended the regular season on a 13-game winning streak but lost 85-70 to No. 9 seed Campbell in the CAA quarterfinals. Wilmington beat Campbell by three points twice in the regular season.
On Wednesday in the first round of the NIT, Wilmington won 68-67 at Yale, rallying from a 14-point deficit in the second half for the first NIT victory in school history.
Trevor Mullin made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 34 seconds to play. Yale missed two free throws with 12 seconds to play.
“I told them in the locker room, ‘It’s March. You’ve just got to find a way to win so you can survive and advance,’” Siddle said in a postgame radio interview. “I thought we were resilient. We were player led in the huddles. I just kept telling them, ‘If we lose, it’s over, so you’ve got to go out there and play like every possession is the last one that you could potentially play.”
Credit: David Jablonski
5: Odds & Ends: KenPom.com gives Dayton a 46% chance of winning and predicts a 69-68 score.
Dayton ranks 71st on KenPom.com. Wilmington is No. 105.
• Dayton forward Jaiun Simon has made 25 straight free throws in the last 11 games. He was shooting 72.6% (45 of 62) before this streak and has raised his average to 80.5% (70 of 87).
Kobe Elvis set the Dayton record by making 37 straight free throws in 2024.
• Two other A-10 teams won Wednesday after Davidson and George Mason lost in the first round Tuesday.
• George Washington won 79-78 at Utah Valley. The Revolutionaries will play at New Mexico at 8 p.m. Sunday.
• Saint Joseph’s won 69-64 at Colorado State. The Hawks will play at California at 9 p.m. Sunday.
NEXT GAME
Who: Dayton at UNC Wilmington
When: 7 p.m., Saturday
Where: Trask Coliseum
What: Second round of NIT
TV: ESPN+
Radio: 95.7-FM, 1290-AM
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