VCU ranked 25th in the USA Today Coaches poll. At No. 33 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, VCU was the highest-ranked team Dayton had beaten in a true road game since No. 31 St. Bonaventure in 2021.
“It was the next game on the list,” Dayton guard Enoch Cheeks said. “It means everything. We’re the No. 3 seed now. It feels good to get the win.”
Dayton will spend four days at home before flying east again on Wednesday for the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament, which starts the same day with three games involving the bottom six teams in the standings.
Two days later, No. 3 seed Dayton (22-9) will play No. 6 Saint Joseph’s (20-10), No. 11 Massachusetts (12-19) or No. 14 La Salle (13-18) in the quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. In the regular season, Dayton beat Saint Joseph’s and La Salle at UD Arena and lost at UMass.
“I’m really confident,” Dayton forward Nate Santos said. “We’re starting to find a good rhythm now. I think that’s going to help us going into D.C.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Here’s a preview of the 15-team field:
Favorite: No. 1 seed Virginia Commonwealth has the best record (21-9, .700) in the A-10 tournament since 2012-13. It has made eight championship game appearances in 13 seasons. No other team has played in the championship game more than twice in the same period.
VCU beat Dayton in the championship game in 2015 and 2023 and has suffered six losses in the final.
VCU (25-6) will play No. 8 St. Bonaventure (21-10) or No. 9 Duquesne (13-18) in the first quarterfinal game at 11:30 p.m. Friday.
Hottest team: Dayton, which seeks its first A-10 tournament championship since 2003, was the only team in the A-10 to win its last four regular-season games. After losing 76-72 at Loyola Chicago, it beat Rhode Island, Richmond, Saint Louis and VCU.
Duquesne also took a four-game winning streak into the tournament last season and won four games in four days to win the championship. Two years ago, VCU won its last six games before winning three games in three days in the A-10 tournament.
By contrast, the 2022 A-10 tournament champion, Richmond, lost its last two games in 2022 before winning four games. The 2019 and 2021 champions, Saint Louis and St. Bonaventure, also lost their final regular-season games.
While Dayton most likely has to win the A-10 tournament to reach the NCAA tournament, its at-large hopes aren’t dead. They could play their way into the field with victories Friday and Saturday.
Jerry Palm, of CBS Sports, listed Dayton among his “First Four Out” teams in his latest updated projection, while Joe Lunardi, of ESPN, put Dayton in the “Next Four Out” category behind four others in the “First Four Out.” There’s even one NCAA tournament expert, Sheldon Jacobson, who has Dayton in the field as a No. 11 seed.
Credit: David Jablonski
Coldest team: No. 15 seed Fordham (11-20) has lost eight games in a row. It plays No. 10 seed Rhode Island (18-12) at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Dark horse: The No. 6 seed has won three of the last five championships. Saint Joseph’s (20-11) is the No. 6 seed this year. At No. 73 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, Saint Joseph’s is the third highest-ranked A-10 team behind No. 33 VCU and No. 67 Dayton.
Saint Joseph’s will play Massachusetts or La Salle in the second round at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. The Hawks won five straight games before losing 81-74 at La Salle on Saturday.
Upset potential: No. 2 seed George Mason (24-7) will play No. 7 seed George Washington (20-11), Rhode Island or Fordham in the quarterfinals at 5 p.m. Friday.
If the opponent is George Washington, the Patriots will have to beat the Revolutionaries for the third time after two close regular-season victories. George Mason beat George Washington 80-77 in double overtime in Fairfax, Va., on Jan. 18 and won 53-50 at George Washington on Feb. 5.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Player to watch: The hottest player in the A-10 entering the tournament is sixth-year Saint Louis guard Gibson Jimerson. He averaged 30.3 points in the last three games, making 20 of 40 3-pointers.
No. 5 seed Saint Louis (18-13) plays No. 12 Davidson (16-15) or No. 13 Richmond (10-21) in the second round at 2 p.m. Thursday.
Seed success: Five different seeds — every seed except the No. 2 — have won the championship in the last 10 tournaments, and eight different programs have won the championship in the same span: No. 6 Duquesne (2024); No. 1 VCU (2023); No. 6 Richmond (2022); No. 1 St. Bonaventure (2021); No. 6 Saint Louis (2019); No. 3 Davidson (2018); No. 4 Rhode Island (2017); No. 4 Saint Joseph’s (2016); No. 5 VCU (2015); and No. 4 Saint Joseph’s (2014).
Back in Washington: This will be the third A-10 tournament held at Capital One Arena. Davidson beat Rhode Island in the championship game there in 2018, and Richmond beat Davidson for the title in 2022. The tournament moves to PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh in 2026 for the first time since 2017.
History lesson: Four teams have never won the A-10 tournament: Fordham; George Mason; La Salle; and Loyola Chicago, which will make its third appearance.
Loyola (21-10) earned the No. 4 seed with a 74-51 victory at UMass on Friday. Loyola will play Saint Louis, Davidson or Richmond in the quarterfinals at 2 p.m. Friday.
• Of the former champions, Massachusetts has the longest drought (29 years) and is followed by Dayton (22 years) and George Washington (19 years). This will be the last chance for UMass, which last won the title in 1995, because it’s leaving the A-10 after this season for the Mid-American Conference.
• Duquesne had the longest drought until it beat VCU for the title last year. It had not won the tournament since 1977 when the A-10 was known as the Eastern Collegiate Basketball League.
• No team has repeated as champion since Temple from three straight titles from 2008-10. The only current A-10 program that has repeated is Massachusetts, which won five straight championships from 1992-96.
FRIDAY’S GAME
Dayton vs. Saint Joseph’s, UMass or La Salle, 7:30 p.m., Peacock, 95.7, 1290
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