“It’s been really hard for us as a young group,” Dayton guard Koby Brea said after the Austin Peay game. “This isn’t how we expected our season to start.”
Five days later, Dayton beat the Miami Hurricanes 76-60 in the first round of the ESPN Events Invitational, which led to the best victory — at least in terms of the quality of the opponent and excitement of the finish — in Grant’s nine seasons as coach. Dayton beat No. 4 Kansas 74-73 on a buzzer-beater by Mustapha Amzil.
One day later, Dayton finished the job in Florida, beating Belmont 63-61 to claim the championship. It remains the only tournament trophy the Flyers have hoisted in the last 13 seasons.
“Not one day did I walk in after any one of your all’s losses and feel like you guys wouldn’t do anything but put the work in,” Grant told the players after the Belmont game. “Not one day. Through early-morning film sessions, through early-morning practices, through coming back in the afternoon, through workouts, I’m grateful that I get to coach a group like this. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’ve seen every side to this that this thing can go. To lose three games like that and not one guy in this room ever wavered, I’m grateful for that.”
Kansas would win the national championship that season, but looking back, maybe the Dayton victory isn’t as big as an upset as it appeared to be at the time.
Both teams had three future NBA players on their roster. Dayton had Toumani Camara, DaRon Holmes II and Koby Brea. Kansas had Christian Braun, who’s now Holmes’ teammate with the Denver Nuggets, Ochai Agbaji and Jalen Wilson.
That game and that tournament is relevant this week as Dayton (5-1) returns to the ESPN Events Invitational at the State Farm Field House at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Kissimmee, Fla.
Dayton plays Georgetown (5-0) in the first round at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and No. 9 Brigham Young (4-1) or the University of Miami (5-1) in the second game Friday.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Here are five things to know about the first game:
1: Series history: Georgetown leads the series 2-1.
Dayton beat Georgetown 80-74 at the UD Fieldhouse in January 1952.
Georgetown won the second matchup 81-72 in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament at UD Arena in 1989.
The programs last played in the 1984 NCAA tournament. The Hoyas won 61-49 at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion in the Elite Eight and then beat Kentucky and Houston to win the national championship. Grant was a freshman at Dayton that season but did not play against Georgetown.
2: State of the program: Georgetown’s third-year coach is Ed Cooley, who last coached against Dayton in the 2015 NCAA tournament with Providence, losing 66-53 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.
Georgetown finished 9-23 in Cooley’s first season. It finished 18-16 last season, ending a streak of five straight non-winning seasons.
Georgetown last played in the NCAA tournament in 2021. That’s its only appearance in the last 10 seasons.
Georgetown was picked to finish sixth out of 11 teams in the Big East preseason poll this season.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
3: Scouting report: KJ Lewis, a 6-4 junior guard, leads the team with 17.2 points per game. He played at Arizona the last two seasons and had seven points in 17 minutes against Dayton in the second round of the 2024 NCAA tournament.
• Malik Mack, a 6-2 junior guard, averages 15.4 points per game. He’s the only returning double-digit scorer from last year’s team.
• Another returner, 6-7 sophomore forward Caleb Williams has improved his scoring average from 4.3 last season to 11.4 points this season.
• Georgetown’s third-leading scorer, Vincent Iwuchukwu, a 7-1 senior forward, will not play in this tournament. He will miss at least six to eight weeks after undergoing an unspecified medical procedure. He averaged 11.8 points in the first four games.
4: Early results: Georgetown is 5-0 for the first time since the 2017-18 season. It has three victories against teams ranked below 300 in the Pomeroy ratings: No. 361 Morgan State; No. 354 Binghamton; and No. 326 Wagner.
Georgetown also beat No. 63 Maryland 70-60 on the road and No. 30 Clemson 79-74 at home.
Georgetown has won by limiting turnovers (7.8 per game) and by getting to the free-throw line (30.2 attempts per game, which ranks 19th in the nation).
Georgetown received 11 votes in the Associated Press top-25 poll and ranked 28th in voting points this week.
5: Odds & Ends: KenPom.com gives Dayton a 53% chance of winning and predicts a 74-73 score. Dayton is No. 69 in the Pomeroy ratings. Georgetown is No. 76.
• Dayton guard De’Shayne Montgomery was named Atlantic 10 Conference Co-Player of the Week on Monday. He averaged 17.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.5 steals per game in victories against Marquette and North Carolina Central.
Montgomery ranks second on the team in scoring (15.2) behind Javon Bennett (16.7) and leads the team in field-goal percentage (60.7) and 3-point shooting percentage (43.5) for players who have attempted at least 10 3s.
• After finishing 1-2 in the Maui Invitational last season, Dayton is 10-11 in seven November tournament appearances in Grant’s tenure.
• Dayton improved to 5-0 against the Big East in Grant’s tenure with a 77-71 overtime victory at Marquette on Nov. 19. The Flyers’ last loss to a Big East opponent was in 2015: 90-61 to Xavier in the AdvoCare Invitational, which is now called the ESPN Events Invitational.
NEXT GAME
Who: Dayton vs. Georgetown
What: First round of ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando, Fla.
When: 7:30 p.m., Thursday.
Streaming: ESPN2
Radio: 95.7-FM, 1290-AM
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