Many Dayton Flyers fans will have similar itineraries. The Flyer Faithful don’t mind spending Thanksgiving on the road if they’re watching their favorite team. They always fill the arena at these November tournaments.
Dayton plays in the premier in-season tournaments every year, in part, because of its fans. These are made-for-TV events. Dayton fans help make the arenas look good on television by filling the seats.
“Dayton’s one of the very elite travel programs in the country,” said Pete Derzis, senior vice president of ESPN Events in 2014 at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. “We’ve recognized that. It’s something that hasn’t changed decade upon decade. There’s always pride in the Flyers. The community has always supported them.”
Eleven years later, that’s still true. Dayton played in the Charleston Classic in 2023 and the Maui Invitational in 2024. Its 2026 destination is still up in the air. Otherwise, fans would be making plans for next year already.
Dayton has a long history of playing in these types of tournaments, going back to the National Catholic Invitational in Denver, Colo, in 1949. The Flyers played in a Hawaii tournament for the first time in 1991 and made their only appearance in the Great Alaska Shootout a year later. They made the first of five appearances in the Maui Invitational in 2000.
Throughout the 1990s and the first decade of this century, Dayton played in these events once every two or three years. As for playing three games at one site in a three or four-day period every year, that tradition started in 2008 with the Chicago Invitational Challenge.
For the purposes of this story, I’m going to limit my analysis to the last 14 tournaments, 12 of which I’ve covered in person. Here is the best and worst of Dayton’s play in November tournaments from 2010-24.
Best performance: This is an easy choice. Dayton won the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando in 2021 by beating Miami, Kansas and Belmont. Considering the Flyers entered the tournament after three straight losses at home to UMass Lowell, Lipscomb and Austin Peay, it was the most unexpected in-season tournament run in school history.
Miami ended up making the Elite Eight that season and lost to Kansas in that round. Kansas won the national championship. Dayton was one of six teams to beat it in the regular season.
Second-best team performance: Dayton’s first championship during this span came in the Old Spice Classic at the HP Field House, which is now called the State Farm Field House. It beat Wake Forest, Fairfield and Minnesota.
In an 86-70 victory against Minnesota, redshirt junior guard Kevin Dillard had 19 points, 10 assists, seven steals and three blocks. He was named MVP of the tournament.
“When I came here, I said I wanted to win championships,” Dillard said after the victory. “I said I wanted to be part of a winning tradition. We’ve got great fans. We couldn’t have done it without them. I love this community. That’s why I came.”
Worst performance: Dayton finished 0-3 at the Battle 4 Atlantis in 2022, losing 43-42 to Wisconsin, 76-64 to North Carolina State and 79-75 in overtime to Brigham Young.
Dayton blew a 23-point lead against BYU and also lost guards Malachi Smith and Kobe Elvis to injuries in the second half.
Other worst performances: Dayton finished 1-2 in three tournaments in coach Anthony Grant’s first eight seasons.
At the Charleston Classic in 2017, Grant’s first season, Dayton lost 72-69 to Hofstra, beat Ohio 79-65 and then lost 75-67 to Old Dominion.
At the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas in 2018, Dayton beat Butler 69-64 in the first round but then lost 66-59 to No. 4 Virginia and 65-54 to Oklahoma.
At the Maui Invitational in 2024, in the best field Dayton has seen in these tournaments, the Flyers lost 92-90 to No. 12 North Carolina and 89-84 to No. 5 Iowa State before upsetting No. 2 Connecticut 85-67.
Best victory: Dayton beat No. 4 Kansas 74-73 on a buzzer-beater by sophomore forward Mustapha Amzil in 2021. Kansas won the national championship that season. It was Dayton’s first victory against a top-four team since it beat No. 3 DePaul 72-71 on Feb. 18, 1984, on The Shot by Ed Young. Kansas
Second-best victory: Dayton beat No. 11 Gonzaga 84-79 in the first round of the Maui Invitational in 2013. That turned out to be the best victory on Dayton’s resume and helped it earn a No. 11 seed in the 2014 NCAA tournament. Gonzaga finished 29-7.
Third-best victory: Dayton’s victory against No. 2 UConn in Maui in 2024 was the best in terms of the opponent’s ranking at the time, though UConn fell out of the poll with a last-place finish and finished 24-11.
Most disappointing loss: Dayton lost 90-61 to Xavier in 2015 in the championship game of the AdvoCare Invitational championship in Orlando. It was Dayton’s worst loss to Xavier since a 46-12 defeat in 1931-32.
“I’ve got to give full credit to Xavier and their players and staff for a fantastic game,” Dayton coach Archie Miller said after the game. “They ripped through the tournament. They’re going to be a contender for a lot of things. They have a lot of weapons. They played with great force today. They had great attitude.”
Best individual tournament performance: Obi Toppin’s campaign for national player of the year began with his play in the Maui Invitational in 2019. He scored 25 points against Georgia, 24 against Virginia Tech and 18 in an overtime loss to Kansas in the championship game.
“He’s a special talent,” Dayton Athletic Director Neil Sullivan said then, “and we’re lucky to have him.”
Best single-game offensive performance: Senior guard Darrell Davis scored 27 points on 10-of-19 shooting against Old Dominion in the 2017 Charleston Classic. He made 7 of 14 3-pointers.
Best shooting performance: Sophomore forward Dyshawn Pierre scored 23 points on 8-of-8 shooting in an 87-71 victory against Boston College at the 2012 Charleston Classic. He made 5 of 5 3-pointers.
Best freshman performance: Malachi Smith was named MVP of the 2021 ESPN Events Invitational.
Smith had 10 points and six assists in the championship game against Belmont and averaged 11.3 points and 6.3 assists in the tournament. He was the first Dayton freshman to win an MVP award at an in-season tournament since Roosevelt Chapman, who was MVP of the Dayton Invitational in 1980.
“I just want to win,” Smith said. “It doesn’t matter to me about stats. I try to leave it all on the floor. Coming off those three games, it was raw. I’m a sore loser, so those three games were rough. We were hungry to get a win, and bringing up that trophy felt good.”
Luckiest moment: Amzil benefitted from a friendly bounce on a high-arcing shot over a Kansas defender. He had the ball because Malachi Smith had a layup attempt blocked at the rim with seconds to play. The ball bounced to Amzil in the corner. He took a couple dribbles and got off a shot just in time.
It was great,” Amzil said. “I had to watch the ball bounce in and down. It’s hard to describe. It’s surreal. It’s a great feeling. I saw the clock when I was driving. I was about to kick it out, but there was just one second so I just had to take the shot.”
Second-luckiest moment: Dayton beat Texas A&M 55-53 in the first round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off in 2014 when Devon Scott tipped in a missed layup by Scoochie Smith with 1.2 seconds to play.
”The play was set up for Scoochie to get a screen from Kendall (Pollard) and make a play from there,” Scott said. “My mindset as he was coming down the lane was to get on the glass no matter what. Miss, make or whatever, I just wanted to make sure I was up there. It just happened to roll my way.”
Unluckiest moment: Dayton lost 67-66 to Baylor in the semifinals of the Maui Invitational in 2013 when Devin Oliver’s tip of a missed jumper by Vee Sanford fell off the rim at the buzzer.
Credit: David Jablonski
Best comeback: Dayton overcame a 60-45 deficit in the final nine minutes to beat LSU in the first round of the Charleston Classic in 2023.
Koby Brea made a game-tying 3-pointer with 47 seconds to play. Nate Santos made a tie-breaking 3 with 4.1 seconds remaining. After LSU missed a desperation 3-pointer, Dayton celebrated a 70-67 victory.
“It’s big,” said Santos, who led Dayton with 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting. “It’s definitely some momentum for us. It’s something we wanted, and I’m glad we got it.”
Biggest collapse: In the first round of the Maui Invitational in 2024, Dayton led by 21 points early in the second half but saw North Carolina chip away at the lead and finally pull ahead in the final minutes to win 92-90.
“Give North Carolina credit,” Grant said. “They played 40 minutes. It’s always going to be a 40-minute game. We understood that. I thought our guys battled. We gave ourselves a chance. I’m proud of the effort. This is a heck of a field. We’ve got a quick turnaround. We need to get prepared to play one of the best teams in the country again tomorrow.”
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