Dayton (16-2, 6-0) can take another step on the road traveled by the 2020 Flyers, who won 20 straight games to finish 29-2, with a victory Saturday. UD plays Richmond (14-5, 6-0) at 6 p.m. at the Robins Center in Richmond, Va. The winner will be the lone remaining unbeaten team in Atlantic 10 Conference play.
“I know they’re playing well,” Grant said of Richmond after the 66-54 victory at La Salle. “I know they’re undefeated. I haven’t haven’t seen much of them, but we’ll get prepared for them.”
This will be the first matchup between A-10 unbeaten teams this deep in the conference schedule since Feb. 11, 2004, when Dayton lost 81-67 at Saint Joseph’s. Each team entered that game with a 9-0 mark.
Dayton and Richmond are both 6-0 entering Saturday's game. If my research is correct, the last time two teams with better A-10 records met was 2004 when Dayton and Saint Joseph's (both 9-0) played in Philadelphia. The Hawks won 81-67. pic.twitter.com/lwZgOOOKQf
— David Jablonski (@DavidPJablonski) January 25, 2024
While Dayton is 6-0 in the A-10 for the fourth time (2003, 2004 and 2020 were the other seasons), Richmond is off to a 6-0 start for the first time since joining the conference in 2001. Dayton’s 13-game winning streak is the nation’s longest active streak. Richmond’s nine-game winning streak is tied for third longest.
Dayton will play in front of the first sold-out crowd of the season at the Robins Center, which seats 7,201. Richmond ranks fourth in the A-10 in average attendance (5,992).
“We need to embrace the moment,” Richmond coach Chris Mooney said Wednesday. “It will be a sold-out crowd and a nationally televised crowd — embrace that. For many, many years, Richmond has performed well given these opportunities. This is the reason Richmond wanted to have our players here and the reason that they choose Richmond: there are games and opportunities like this.”
Richmond is 10-0 at home and beat George Washington 82-74 on Wednesday at the Robins Center. It’s the first time the Spiders have won 10 straight home games in a single season.
Richmond finished 15-18 last season and 7-11 in the A-10 one season after beating Dayton in the A-10 tournament semifinals and Davidson in the championship game. It was picked to finish 11th this season in the preseason poll.
The Spiders were 5-5 on Dec. 9 but have not lost since then. They two-point victories in A-10 play against Loyola Chicago and Duquesne and a 69-64 overtime victory against Davidson.
Richmond has been the A-10′s biggest surprise because of the emergence of fifth-year guard Jordan King. He played two seasons at Siena and two seasons at East Tennessee State before transferring to Richmond. He’s averaging a career-best 19.1 points per game while shooting 42.6% from 3-point range.
King scored 32 points against George Washington on 11-of-19 shooting. He scored 23 points during a 14-minute stretch from the end of the first half through midway into the second half as Richmond turned a 31-19 deficit into a 57-45 lead.
“The guy is a fantastic off-the-dribble jump-shooter,” George Washington coach Chris Caputo told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Very difficult to defend guys who do things like he does. He makes you pay for mistakes. He’s as good as there is in the league.”
Richmond’s second-leading scorer is 7-foot fifth-year center Neal Quinn (13.0 points per game). He had 12 points last season when Dayton beat Richmond 86-60 at UD Arena last season. The Flyers made 15 shots in a row in that game. Isaiah Bigelow, a 6-7 senior guard, ranks third on the team with 11.7 points per game and scored 19 points off the bench last season against Dayton.
Richmond ranks third in A-10 play in 3-point shooting percentage (40.2) and first in turnover margin (plus 2.7). It ranks 13th in rebounding margin (minus 3.2).
Dayton has won the last 10 regular-season meetings in the series and four straight games at the Robins Center since a 73-64 loss in 2014. The Flyers won the last game in Richmond 55-53 in 2022 on a last-second dunk by R.J. Blakney. Two years earlier, they went to Richmond after another 6-0 start in A-10 play and won 87-79 on their way to an 18-0 season in the league.
At the moment, this is a Quad 1 opportunity Dayton because No. 73 Richmond ranks in the top 75. It’s the second highest-ranked A-10 team behind No. 14 Dayton. In the Ken Pomeroy ratings, Dayton is No. 23 and Richmond is No. 83. KenPom.com gives Dayton a 59% chance of winning.
A victory would give Dayton a chance to rise in the Associated Press top-25 poll with with four teams in the top 15 losing early this week. Every victory moves Dayton closer to clinching an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament. The Flyers are getting an average of a No. 4 seed on BracketMatrix.com, which keeps track of the many bracket predictions.
“Just keep marching on,” Dayton guard Javon Bennett said Tuesday. “Just keeping stacking wins.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Richmond, 6 p.m., CBS Sports Network, 1290, 95.7
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