The game at Dayton will be the seventh of the 2025-26 season for N.C. Central. It likely will be the sixth regular-season game for Dayton and the last before it travels to Florida for the ESPN Events Invitational.
Dayton has never played N.C. Central, which finished 14-19 overall and 6-8 last season in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
Dayton is 18-1 against MEAC schools with the lone loss coming against Howard in 1980 at UD Arena. UD has not played a MEAC program since November 2018 when it beat Coppin State 76-46 at UD Arena.
The MEAC ranked 29th out of 31 conferences in the Ken Pomeroy ratings last season.
N.C. Central ranked 319th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool last season. It was No. 272 in the 2023-24 season, No. 185 in the 2022-23 season and No. 290 in the 2021-22 season.
N.C. Central lost seven players to the transfer portal, including three double-digit scorers: Po’Boigh King (who transferred to Sam Houston State); Perry Smith (Kennesaw State); and Keishon Porter (Evansville).
Moton is entering his 16th season as N.C. Central coach. He’s 271-194 with four NCAA tournament appearances. He played for the program from 1992-96.
N.C. Central played in the First Four at UD Arena three straight years (2017-19), losing 67-63 to UC Davis, 64-46 to Texas Southern and 80-74 to North Dakota State.
Here’s a look at the known games for Dayton.
Oct. 19, 2 p.m.: Penn State at Dayton (exhibition).
Nov. 3: Canisius at Dayton.
Nov. 8: University of Maryland, Baltimore County at Dayton.
Nov. 11: Dayton at Cincinnati.
Nov. 15: Bethune-Cookman at Dayton.
Nov. 19: Dayton at Marquette.
Nov. 22: N.C. Central at Dayton.
Nov. 27, 7:30 p.m.: Dayton vs. Georgetown at ESPN Events Invitational, ESPN2.
Nov. 28, 7 p.m. or 9:30 p.m.: Dayton vs. Brigham Young or the University of Miami at ESPN Events Invitational, ESPN or ESPN2.
Dec. 16: Florida State at Dayton.
Dec. 20: Liberty at Dayton.
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