2017 NCAA Tournament: Wichita State vs Dayton preview, prediction, TV schedule

By Michael Foy | Mar 16, 2017

Mar 5, 2017; St. Louis, MO, USA; Wichita State Shockers guard Landry Shamet (11) celebrates with guard C.J. Keyser (3) after defeating the Illinois State Redbirds during the Championship game of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Scottrade Center. Wichita State won 71-51. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /

On Friday night in the NCAA Tournament, the Wichita State Shockers take on the Dayton Flyers in the first round.

TV Schedule: Friday, Mar. 17, 7:10 p.m. ET, CBS

Arena: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana

This game between the Wichita State and Dayton features a team that was extremely disrespected in terms of seeding by the committee, versus a team that played well all year only to stumble and drop their last two games of the season. This may very well be the game to watch in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Luckily for us, it’s a night game and we will all get to enjoy it.

Dayton is a fantastic team, and they, too, feel as though they were snubbed and given a lower seeding than they deserved. The Flyers did drop their last two games of the season, including their first game of the Atlantic 10 tournament. Despite this, the Flyers are experienced, starting four seniors, and know what it takes to make a deep tournament run like their 2014 Elite Eight appearance.

Wichita State is good, but do we know just how good? If you’ve watched them play, you’ve seen great basketball, but it just so happened to be against lower-tier opponents. Regardless, most metrics have the Shockers ranked very well, with KenPom ranking them as high as 8^th. Wichita State ranks in the top-20 in points per game (82.1) and points allowed per game (62.4). They are as complete of a team as any in college basketball and are easily the most dangerous 10-seed in the tournament.

Next: Kentucky vs. Northern Kentucky preview

Wichita State wins this and earns a match-up with (most likely) Kentucky. They are just too talented in all facets of the game to go out in the first round. This will be a rematch of the game in 2014 when Wichita State was undefeated and Kentucky was an 8-seed in one of the better basketball games in the last 10 years. Hopefully, that game will be even half as good as the one in 2014.

Prediction: Wichita State 75, Dayton 68

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