Dayton vs. Virginia Tech: 2019-20 preview of Maui Invitational semifinals

Unbeaten Dayton coming off of an impressive victory over SEC opponent Georgia and upset-minded Virginia Tech will play in the semifinals on Tuesday of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational in Hawaii.

Date: Tuesday, November 26th

TV schedule: 8:00 pm ET. ESPN
Location: Lahaina Civic Center in Maui, Hawaii

Atlantic 10 Conference member Dayton coming off of a dominating opening tournament performance over Georgia takes on undefeated Virginia Tech from the ACC in the semifinal of the Maui Invitational. The Flyers are making their 4th appearance in the Maui Invitational and have won the tournament back in 2003.

Virginia Tech was not predicted to have a successful season for the 2019-2020 campaign. However, the Hokies after upsetting No. 3 Michigan State as well as winning at Clemson have started the season 6-0 heading into their contest against Dayton. Virginia Tech has a star player in red-shirt freshmen Landers Nolley II who scored 22 points versus the Spartans and put up 30 points at Clemson. Overall, the Hokies are a young and hungry team that can shoot from beyond the arch with efficiency.

Dayton and Virginia Tech have veteran coaches but both are fairly new to their respected programs. Dayton coach Anthony Grant is in his third season as the coach of the Flyers after previously being the head coach at both VCU and Alabama. He led Dayton to a 21-12 record last season and has the Flyers to a good start this season. Virginia Tech’s head coach Mike Young was the head coach at Wofford for 16 seasons were he led Terriers to five NCAA appearances over the last 10 seasons. This is his first year as the head coach of the Hokies and he has Virginia Tech off to a great start to their season.

Dayton is 4-0 heading into their matchup against Virginia Tech. The victory over Georgia was their first significant win of the season. The Flyers were predicted to finish within the top-3 of the A 10 before the season started and it was not a huge shocker that they defeated the Bulldogs. However, the beat Georgia convincingly and they have a talented star player in sophomore forward Obi Toppin who scored 25 points in Dayton’s victory in their opening game of the Maui Invitational. Toppin has put up 21 or more in all four games that he has played in this season. Dayton has a high-powered offense but it will be tested against Virginia Tech.

This semifinal contest on this side of the bracket was predicted to be a matchup between Michigan State and Georgia but both the Flyers and Hokies showed a tremendous amount of determination and hustle on the court in Maui to both earn a spot in the semifinal game. It is difficult to predict how this game will play out for various reasons.

One of the reasons being that both teams were well prepared for their opening-round games and neither team did not know who they would play in the next round. Both teams overall don’t have a ton of height on the frontcourt and both teams love to shoot the three-ball.

Prediction: Dayton 74, Virginia Tech 79