TODAY’S GAME
Dayton at Georgia Tech, 7 p.m. Wednesday, ESPN3, 1290, 95.7
The last question Dayton coach Archie Miller answered Monday provided the best answer. A day before his team began an road trip that begins with a game at Georgia Tech at 7 tonight and ends with three games at the EA Sports Maui Invitational next week, a TV reporter asked Miller how he looks in Hawaiian shirt.
“I don’t know,” Miller said. “I don’t go outside very much. The Hawaiian shirts really aren’t part of the trip. This is a heavy dose of packing, though, I will say, and no one hates packing more than me.”
That’s a good problem to have when you’re leaving the chill of Ohio for sun of Hawaii. The forecast calls for a high of 79 in Maui on Friday, the Flyers’ first full day in the Aloha State.
Sophomore guard Khari Price knew about this trip when he signed with the Flyers.
“It was definitely a persuasion factor in me committing here,” Price said.
Dayton plays No. 13 Gonzaga in Maui on Monday and will play host Chaminade or Baylor in the second round on Tuesday. Arkansas, California, Minnesota or Syracuse could be the opponent in their final game Wednesday.
First there’s the matter of a game against the Yellow Jackets and former Dayton head coach Brian Gregory.
Both teams are 3-0. Both teams have a mix of veterans and youth. Dayton starts two sophomores, two seniors and a junior. Georgia Tech starts three sophomores and two seniors.
The Yellow Jackets’ big man, Daniel Miller, is listed at 6-foot-11½ and is already the ACC’s all-time leader in blocked shots. Their leading scorer is senior guard Trae Golden (15.3 points per game). He transferred from Tennessee to be closer to his ailing father. The NCAA granted him a waiver so he could play this season instead of sitting out a year.
The Yellow Jackets also get back sophomore guard Chris Bolden tonight. He started 15 of the last 16 games season, averaging 9.5 points, but was suspended for the first three games this season.
“Georgia Tech is off to a good start,” Archie Miller said. “Everything is built around a toughness level that works inside and out, both on offense and defense. They’re very talented, very deep, very big.”
In addition to Gregory, the Flyers and their fans will see some familiar faces on the Georgia Tech bench. Georgia Tech assistant coach Billy Schmidt spent eight seasons at Dayton on Gregory’s staff. Assistant coach Josh Postorino played at Dayton from 1995-99 and spent three seasons on the Dayton coaching staff under Oliver Purnell. Mike Bewley, Georgia Tech’s strength and conditioning coach, had the same job at Dayton during Gregory’s last six seasons.
This game is not about reunions, of course — not for Miller. The third-year Dayton coach wants to see if the improvements his team showed in its last game, a 78-58 victory over St. Francis College (N.Y.) on Saturday, carry over to tonight.
“This is going to be one of the big windows of our season that’s really going to make or break us in terms of understanding how it’s going to be,” Miller said. “The adversity, the level of competition, the level of play we have to play to be successful, not in the friendly confines of UD Arena. Whether it goes good or bad, it’s really going to teach us how we need to be moving forward into January, February and March.”
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