Dayton basketball: What to know about Saturday’s game vs. Saint Joseph’s

Several players left with ice wrapped around various body parts. That’s typical after every game. The players may not be injured after games, but they are sore.

Unfortunately, no amount of ice could soothe the damaged feelings of the Flyers after their worst loss of the 2025-26 season. Losing to La Salle, a team picked to finish second-to-last in the 14-team Atlantic 10 Conference, put a major dent in an already weak NCAA tournament resume.

For the seventh time in coach Anthony Grant’s nine seasons, it’s looking increasingly likely Dayton will have to win the A-10 tournament, something it hasn’t done in 23 years, if it wants to achieve its main goal of playing in the NCAA tournament.

Of course, there are plenty of opportunities left to improve that resume — two games against No. 24 Saint Louis, for example — but losing to La Salle raises doubts about Dayton’s ability to beat the Billikens and other top A-10 teams, at least on the road.

For Dayton, the first step back comes Saturday.

“We’ve just got to watch film and look ourselves in the mirror and see what we can work on,” Dayton guard Javon Bennett said.

“We’ve got a good team,” Grant said. “We’ve got to decide if we’re willing to do the things that we need to do to make us a great team. It’s just a decision.”

Here are five things to know about the Saint Joseph’s game.

1: Series history: Dayton leads the series 28-21. It won five straight games in the series, including a 77-72 victory at UD Arena on Jan. 24 last season, before losing 73-68 in overtime to Saint Joseph’s in the quarterfinals of the A-10 tournament.

The last time Dayton visited Hagan Arena in 2024, it scored 60 points in the second half and beat Saint Joseph’s 94-79.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

2: State of the program: Saint Joseph’s lost coach Billy Lange in mid-September. He took a job with the New York Knicks.

The Hawks promoted associate head coach Steve Donahue, a former head coach at Cornell, Boston College and Pennsylvania, to head coach. Donahue led Penn to a 78-70 victory against Dayton at UD Arena in December 2017 in Grant’s first season.

Lange was 81-104 in six seasons at Saint Joseph’s. The Hawks posted their best record of his tenure last season, finishing 22-13 overall and 11-7 in the A-10. The fifth-place finish was their best since they finished fourth in 2018, the second-to-last season for longtime coach Phil Martelli.

Saint Joseph’s has not played in the NCAA tournament since 2016. It’s the longest drought for the program since the 1990s.

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

3: Scouting report: Jaiden Glover-Toscano, a 6-foot-6 sophomore guard, leads the Hawks with 15.2 points per game. He’s shooting 37.7% (46 of 122) from 3-point range. He averaged 2.2 points last season at St. John’s.

• Derek Simpson, a 6-3 redshirt junior guard, averages 12.6 points. This is his second season at Saint Joseph’s after two seasons at Rutgers. He scored 11 points against Dayton in the A-10 tournament last season.

• Dasear Haskins, a 6-8 redshirt sophomore guard, averages 10.3 points.

• Deuce Jones, a 6-2 sophomore guard who played at La Salle last season, led the Hawks in scoring (15.8) through 10 games. Saint Joseph’s announced in December he was no longer a member of the team.

• Saint Joseph’s ranks 349th in the country out of 365 teams in 3-point shooting percentage (28.2). Dayton ranks 261st (31.9).

4: Season summary: The Hawks finished 8-5 in non-conference play. Two of those victories were against lower-division schools. Saint Joseph’s beat Temple, which ranks 154th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, for its best victory. Its worst loss came against No. 236 Coastal Carolina.

In A-10 play, Saint Joseph’s started 0-2 with losses at Saint Louis and at home to Davidson. It then beat Duquesne, Richmond and St. Bonaventure before losing 79-72 at Virginia Commonwealth on Monday.

5: Odds & Ends: KenPom.com gives Dayton a 68% chance of winning and predicts a 72-67 score. Dayton is No. 77 in the Pomeroy ratings. Saint Joseph’s is No. 173.

• Dayton ranks 80th in the NET. Saint Joseph’s is No. 193.

This is a Quadrant 3 game for Dayton, which is 0-3 in Quad 1, 0-0 in Quad 2, 6-2 in Quad 3 and 8-0 in Quad 4.

This is a Quad 3 game for Saint Joseph’s, which is 0-4 in Quad 1, 1-1 in Quad 2, 3-2 in Quad 3 and 5-1 in Quad 4.

NEXT GAME

Who: Dayton (14-5, 5-1) at Saint Joseph’s (11-8, 3-3)

When: 2 p.m., Saturday

TV: TBA

Radio: 95.7-FM, 1290-AM

Note: The game was originally scheduled for 6 p.m., but was moved up due to the threat of inclement weather.