Hoops season is a few months, and we'll be diving into football first, but it's not too early to start getting excited about University of Dayton basketball as tickets went on sale Tuesday for the Gildan Charleston Classic. Junior forward Xeyrius Williams and the defending Atlantic 10 champion Flyers will play Nov. 16, 17 and 18 in South Carolina.
Easy trip, great city, @Flyer_Faithful follow @DaytonMBB in Charleston in November. Bucky & I will see you there!https://t.co/PNkBzbGvsJ
— Larry Hansgen (@larryhansgen) July 11, 2017
First-year head coach Anthony Grant, hired to take over a team that has played in four straight NCAA Tournaments, will take his squad to Charleston, S.C., for three games. The schedule will be revealed later this month, and rest of the field will be Auburn, Clemson, Hofstra, Indiana State, Old Dominion, Ohio University and Temple.
Fans are already getting jacked up:
😈— Chris Mettler (@chrismettler19) July 11, 2017Make @ODUMBB play Clemson in the first round so me and my gf can have some friendly competition
The Flyers lost leading scorers Charles Cooke, Kendall Pollard and Scoochie Smith to graduation, but if Williams remains on track, he’s going to be special.
After averaging a modest 2.1 points and 1.7 rebounds as a freshman, the 6-foot-8, 210-pound former Wayne High star last season grew into averages of 8.2 points and 4.8 rebounds while leading the team with 36 blocked shots. He helped Wayne win the 2015 Division I state championship.
Dayton has not announced its complete schedule yet, but the Flyers know they will play Duquesne, UMass, Rhode Island, St. Louis and VCU home and away. They also will play host to Davidson, Fordham, George Washington and St. Bonaventure, and travel to play George Mason, La Salle, Richmond and Saint Joseph's.