After returning to the continental United States, Hurley grabbed more headlines by vowing never to take his team to the Maui Invitational again or to any multi-team events in the regular season.
“I’m not doing another three-game MTE again,” Hurley told reporters. “Moving forward, we will only play home-and-homes or single-game events in big-time arenas. I don’t think I’ll ever do a three-game MTE again. Unless I’m not coaching here at some point, somewhere else. There’s zero chance I’ll do that again.”
***
If Dayton played a small part in Hurley, the Huskies and their fans never getting to enjoy beach time in November again, it will be a sad postscript on the 2024 Maui Invitational. For now, all the Flyer Faithful can do is cheer on UConn because UD’s victory will look much better if the Huskies live up to their preseason expectations the rest of the way.
UConn somehow still remained ranked this week, dropping from No. 2 to No. 25, despite the three losses in Maui. I did not vote for UConn. Nineteen people did, judging them on potential rather than resume, and their confidence was rewarded Wednesday when UConn beat No. 15 Baylor 76-72 in Storrs, Conn.
I also didn’t vote for Dayton, though eight voters did and they ranked as high as No. 20 on one poll. My reasoning is I didn’t think North Carolina, which beat Dayton in Maui but lost its next two games to Auburn and Michigan State, deserved to be ranked. North Carolina hadn’t beaten anyone of note, other than Dayton, through last week, and it still hasn’t. It lost 94-79 at home to Alabama on Wednesday.
I couldn’t rank Dayton without ranking North Carolina. Head-to-head results still matter in the poll. That’s not true in the Ken Pomeroy rankings or the NCAA Evaluation Tool. Dayton ranks behind UConn in both of those rankings despite its victory against UConn.
Trying to make sense of any of the scores this early in the season is difficult. Dayton flirted with a loss to Western Michigan on Tuesday before pulling away in the final 10 minutes for a 77-69 victory in their first game since returning from Maui. That was the same score they won by a year ago against Youngstown State in their first game after the Charleston Classic.
I think the narrow margin of victory would have been more of a concern — as it was against Ball State earlier in November — had everyone not seen how good this team can be in Maui. It was also a reminder of how difficult it will be to escape Atlantic 10 Conference play in 2025 without a bad loss.
Two unbeaten teams remain in A-10
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
For the second straight season, the A-10 team in the best position to earn a NCAA tournament at-large bid is Dayton. The Flyers have a victory against UConn but also two strong losses to North Carolina and Iowa State. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi predicted Dayton will receive a No. 9 seed as the A-10′s automatic qualifier and play No. 8 seed BYU in the first round in his latest prediction this week.
Dayton still has work to do in the weeks ahead, but the rest of the conference faces an even tougher road to entering the at-large conversation.
• Virginia Commonwealth (7-2), the A-10 preseason favorite, did not perform well in the Charleston Classic, losing to Seton Hall and Nevada before beating Miami.
• Loyola Chicago (7-0) has not had any opportunities to build a NCAA resume. Its best victory is against Princeton, which is No. 113 in the NET. Its only chance to earn a Quadrant 1 victory comes Dec. 15 when it plays No. 54 San Francisco on a neutral court in Milwaukee.
• Like Loyola, Rhode Island (8-0) has built a perfect record against a weak schedule. It hasn’t beaten anyone ranked higher than No. 153 Charleston. No. 80 Providence is the only top-100 team on its non-conference schedule.
• St. Bonaventure (8-1) is also off to a good start, though its best victory is against No. 69 Cal State Northridge.
Tough road ahead for Dayton
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Dayton plays Lehigh (3-5) at 2 p.m. Saturday at UD Arena. It’s the final game before a three-game stretch that will play a big role in defining Dayton’s season.
After a week break for exams, Dayton plays Marquette on Dec. 14 at UD Arena. Marquette is No. 5 in the Associated Press top-25 poll this week but lost 81-70 at Iowa State on Wednesday. Marquette plays No. 11 Wisconsin at home Saturday.
It’s hard to say where Marquette will land in the AP poll next week. Dayton hasn’t hosted a top-five team since it beat No. 3 DePaul on the famous shot by Ed Young in 1984. The last top-10 team to play Dayton at UD Arena was No. 6 Pittsburgh in 2007. Dayton won that game 80-55.
The last top-25 team to play the Flyers on Tom Blackburn Court was No. 25 Mississippi State, which beat Dayton 65-58 on Nov. 30, 2018.
After playing Marquette, Dayton closes non-conference play with a Dec. 17 game against UNLV (4-3) at UD Arena and a Dec. 20 game against Cincinnati at the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati.
UNLV has two common opponents with Dayton. It beat New Mexico State 72-65 on Nov. 23. Dayton beat New Mexico State 74-53 three days earlier.
UNLV lost 66-61 to Northwestern on Nov. 29. Dayton beat Northwestern 71-66.
Cincinnati climbed to No. 14 in the AP poll with a 6-0 start but lost 68-60 at Villanova on Tuesday. I suspect UC will stay in the top 25 next week, but I probably won’t rank the Bearcats because they haven’t beaten anyone better than Georgia Tech (4-4).
Fast Break
Here’s other news that might interest Flyer fans:
🏀 Famed St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca, who died last week at 99, coached St. John’s to NCAA tournament victories against Northern Illinois and Texas in 1991 at UD Arena.
🏀 Former Dayton forward Devin Oliver moved from Japan to France this week. He’s now playing for SLUC Nancy Basket in France’s top league.
🏀 Duquesne put single-game tickets on sale for its game against Dayton on Jan. 21 in Pittsburgh.
🏀 My book, “The Epicenter of College Basketball: A History of UD Arena,” went on sale a year ago. It’s now available on Amazon at this link.
What do you want to know about the Flyers?
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