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Dayton Basketball: 2021-22 season preview and outlook for Flyers

By Tyler Cronin

Dec 12, 2020; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Dayton Flyers head coach Anthony Grant shows emotion on the bench against the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the first half of a Holiday Hoopsgiving game at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 12, 2020; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Dayton Flyers head coach Anthony Grant shows emotion on the bench against the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the first half of a Holiday Hoopsgiving game at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports /
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Dayton Basketball R.J. Blakney Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Dayton Basketball R.J. Blakney Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /

Schedule breakdown

Dayton’s non-conference schedule has some great opportunities but the large number of buy games put pressure on all of the opportunities, especially the Thanksgiving showdown against Miami (Fl) in the ESPN Events Invitational. As is typically true in quality early-season tournaments, getting into the winner’s bracket will provide two far more quality games.  I

n this instance, the Dayton-Miami will most likely face the AP Preseason #3 Kansas and get the chance at a season-changing win. The loser will probably face a quality North Texas team, but wins over sub-Top 30 mid-majors often have minimal impact, and losses can be devastating.

As for the Hurricanes, they were picked 12th in the official ACC preseason poll coming off of a 10-17 season but add a pair of top transfers in Charlie Moore (14.4 ppg, 4.2 apg at DePaul) and old A-10 friend Jordan Miller (15.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg at George Mason) to go with 3rd Team All-ACC guard Isaiah Wong.

The other key part of the schedule is a 10-day stretch in December where the Flyers go to SMU and Ole Miss, with a home game vs Virginia Tech in between. All three games will be potential Tier 2 wins, with any of them jumping up to Tier 1 if the opponent outperforms this year.  Getting two wins could be critical to any postseason hopes for Dayton.

The A-10 schedule features the same normal home-and-home pairing so the Flyers will play the preseason top 2, St. Bonaventure and Richmond, once each and get the Bonnies at home. The most daunting week is looking to be February 2 and 5, with road games vs VCU and St. Louis respectively.