The November game will be the third in three seasons between Dayton and SMU. Dayton lost 66-64 to SMU in the second game of the 2020-21 season on Dec. 5 at UD Arena when Emmanuel Bandoumel got the bounce on a jump shot with 0.2 seconds to play. That loss ended Dayton’s 21-game winning streak, which started with 20 victories to end the 2019-20 season.
Last season, Dayton traveled to SMU and lost 77-69 at Moody Coliseum, snapping a five-game winning streak that started with three victories at the ESPN Events Invitational.
SMU finished 24-9 last season. It ranked 53rd, one spot behind Dayton, in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. It ranked 62nd in the Ken Pomeroy ratings. Dayton was 45th.
SMU head coach Tim Jankovich retired after seven seasons in March. SMU hired Rob Lanier, who spent the last three seasons at Georgia State and led it to the NCAA tournament in March.
Lanier inherits a roster that lost its top four scorers: Kendric Davis (19.4 points per game), who transferred to Memphis; Marcus Weathers (12.8); Michael Weathers (11.0); and Bandoumel (10.6), who transferred to Nebraska.
The 2022-23 SMU roster includes seven new transfers: Alabama’s Keon Ambrose-Hylton, who was recruited in high school by Dayton; Iowa State’s Xavier Foster; Louisville’s Samuell Williamson; Washington State’s Jefferson Koulibaly; Eastern Michigan’s Mo Nije, who started his high school career at Centerville; Troy’s Efe Odigie; and Marist’s Ricardo Wright.
Six of Dayton’s 13 non-conference opponents on the 2022-23 schedule are now known: SMU (Nov. 11): UNLV (Nov. 15 in Las Vegas, Nev.); Robert Morris (Nov. 19 at UD Arena); Western Michigan (Nov. 30 at UD Arena); Wyoming (Dec. 17 in Chicago); and Virginia Tech (in Blacksburg, Va., on a date to be announced).
Dayton also knows it will play three teams from this group Nov. 23-25 in the Battle 4 Atlantis: Kansas; Tennessee; Southern California; N.C. State; Wisconsin; Butler; and BYU.
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