“It was very fun,” DaRon Holmes II said. “We had good time with that.”
Dayton returns to game action after a 10-day break at 2 p.m. Saturday against Longwood University (12-2), one of six teams in the country with 12 victories, at UD Arena. It’s the last of 12 non-conference games for the Flyers, who have won six straight games to climb to No. 22 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool.
“We’re definitely extremely confident,” Elvis said. “In terms of putting ourselves in a position to try to get a (NCAA tournament) at-large bid, something that we’ve talked about the majority of the year, just getting this getting this next win would probably really solidify some good things for us.”
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi lists Dayton as a No. 9 seed in his latest bracket prediction. Jerry Palm, of CBSSports.com, lists the Flyers as a No. 12 seed. Mike DeCourcy, of FoxSports.com, sees them as a No. 7 seed. Brian Bennett’s latest prediction for The Athletic had Dayton as a No. 9 seed.
Dayton has a 58.9% chance of earning an at-large bid, according to TeamRankings.com, and a 34.5% chance of earning an automatic bid by winning the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament.
Earning a NCAA tournament bid in 2024 would top all the Flyers’ lists of New Year’s resolutions. Dayton has put itself in a strong position but still has to get by Longwood and then navigate the 18-game A-10 schedule, which starts with a game Wednesday at Davidson (9-3).
In summary, the Flyers have work to do. No one has written their name on the bracket with a Sharpie just yet.
“I think the guys have done a really good job of just being able to understand it’s one day at a time,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “The staff has done a really good job of keeping guys focused, and the guys have showed great maturity. That’s the plan — to continue with the same things we’ve done. I don’t think we really need to change a whole lot. I think we can move the needle in a couple of areas on both sides of the ball and just continue to get better. But I like where we are.”
This will be the first meeting between Dayton and Longwood, a member of the Big South Conference located in Farmville, Va., 64 miles west of Richmond.
Longwood made the move from Division II to Division I starting in the 2004-05 season and was first eligible for the NCAA tournament in the 2007-08 season. It has been a member of the Big South Conference since the 2011-12 season and earned its first NCAA tournament berth by winning the conference tournament in 2022 when it finished 26-7.
Last season, Longwood returned the majority of its roster from the NCAA tournament team but finished 20-12 and lost its opening game in the Big South tournament. The Lancers were picked to finish fifth out of nine teams in the Big South preseason poll this season.
Longwood ranks 112th in the NET, which makes it the second highest-ranked non-conference opponent to play at UD Arena this season behind No. 101 Youngstown State, which Dayton beat 77-69 on Nov. 24.
Longwood opened the season with a 73-69 loss at another A-10 school, St. Bonaventure. It then won 12 straight games. The winning streak included two games against non-Division I opponents and 10 games against teams ranked below 250 in the NET.
In its last game before the Christmas break, Longwood lost 79-70 at No. 254 North Carolina Central. That ended the longest active winning streak in the nation.
Longwood’s top scorers are: 6-foot junior guard Walyn Napper (14.4 points per game); 6-5 sophomore guard Johnathan Massie (12.7); 6-6 fifth-year guard Michael Christmas (10.9) and 6-11 fourth-year center Szymon Zapala (10.6), who played the last three seasons at Utah State.
Longwood’s strength lies in its defense, which ranks 106th in the nation in adjusted efficiency. It has struggled to shoot the 3-pointer (30.8%) and has made 5 of 38 (13.2%) in its last two games.
“They’ve had a great non-conference performance,” Grant said, “and they got some really good players. From what I see on film, they’ve got a system and a structure in terms of how to do things and they’ve bought into it. We’ve got to put together a great game on both on both sides of the ball to be able to have success.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Longwood at Dayton, 2 p.m., Spectrum News 1, 1290, 95.7
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