By the time Dayton plays La Salle at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the first of 18 Atlantic 10 Conference games, 11 days will have passed. That’s the longest gap between games for the program since the 1976-77 season when Dayton didn’t play a game between Dec. 21 and Jan. 4.
Of course, this is 2020. Nothing about this season is normal. It started two weeks later than normal for most of the country and three weeks later than normal for the Flyers. Dayton had four opponents cancel scheduled matchups because of COVID-19 issues. Players, coaches, trainers and others close to the team will undergo tests for the virus all season.
The long break was needed, coach Anthony Grant said, because the players had not visited their families in months, and they appreciated the opportunity.
“That just shows how much coach Grant cares about us,” said Crutcher, who traveled with his family to a cousin’s house in Washington, D.C., for Christmas. “We’re more than athletes. He cares about us as individuals. He’s really big on mental health. That definitely helped us.”
Now the grind of conference season begins. Dayton (4-1) brings a 20-game, A-10 regular-season winning streak, the fourth longest in league history, into the game against La Salle (3-5). Last season, the Flyers became the first team to finish 18-0 in the A-10 since the conference moved back to an 18-game schedule in 2015.
“Anytime a team goes undefeated in conference, everyone is going to want to beat them the next year,” Crutcher said. “We’ve just got to play like it’s another game and stick to our game plan.”
The conference had some highs — Richmond beating Kentucky, for instance — and lows — Richmond losing to Hofstra — during non-conference play. Here’s a rundown of the best and worst of the A-10 from the first five weeks of the season.
Best team: Saint Louis, which was picked to finish second behind Richmond in the preseason poll, is 7-1. At No. 29 in the Ken Pomeroy rankings, it leads all A-10 teams.
VCU (7-2) ranks 57th and is followed by No. 58 Richmond (6-2) and No. 59 Dayton. The Billikens have two victories over top-40 teams — No. 36 LSU and No. 40 North Carolina State — and have lost only to No. 26 Minnesota.
Worst team: This title likely will go to whoever loses Wednesday when George Washington (1-6) plays at Fordham (0-0). The Colonials rank 245th in the KenPom.com rankings. Fordham ranks 187th despite not having played a game. It cancelled all six of its non-conference games because of COVID-19 issues.
Most disappointing team: Rhode Island (3-5) was picked to finish sixth in the A-10. It lost its A-10 opener 67-58 at home Dec. 18 to Davidson (5-3), which was picked seventh. In non-conference play, Rhode Island lost to Arizona State, Boston College and Western Kentucky by six points or fewer.
Best victory: No one beater a higher-ranked opponent in the Pomeroy ratings than Dayton. Ole Miss (5-1) ranks 33rd.
Worst loss: George Washington lost 85-69 at home to Coppin State on Dec. 5. Coppin State (1-8) ranks 336th.
Best player: Massachusetts sophomore center Tre Mitchell, the league’s rookie of the year last season, leads the conference with 22.5 points per game in four games. He ranks 10th in rebounding (6.8), fifth in field-goal percentage (61.1) and sixth in blocked shots (1.8).
Best true freshman: Massachusetts guard Javohn Garcia is tied for second on the team and ranks 21st in the conference in scoring (14.3). He’s a 2019 graduate of Pickerington Central, the alma mater of Dayton’s Ibi Watson. Garcia 6spent a post-graduate year at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire.
Best redshirt freshman: Saint Louis guard Gibson Jimerson, who received a medical redshirt last season after suffering a foot injury in December, ranks third on the team with 11.3 points per game and has made 17 of 40 3-pointers (42.5 percent).
Best transfer: George Washington forward Matthew Moyer, a grad transfer from Vanderbilt, is averaging 10.6 points and 9.3 rebounds.
Most improved player: Virginia Commonwealth sophomore guard Nah’Shon Hyland has more than doubled his scoring average from last season: 9.0 to 18.2 points per game.
Best in-season additions: Dayton received good news Dec. 19 when Southern California transfer Elijah Weaver, a 6-foot-6 junior guard, was cleared to play. On the same day, Mustapha Amzil, a 6-10 freshman forward from Finland, joined the roster. Amzil practiced with the team for the first time Sunday.
“One thing I learned about Mustapha is he picks up everything so quick and so well,” Weaver said Monday. “He didn’t mess up in practice. We didn’t have to stop and teach him anything the whole day. Everything was so smooth. He learns fast, and he’s a good shooter.”
Best stat: Saint Louis ranks 10th in the country in 3-point field-goal percentage (41.0). Last season, it ranked 122nd (34.2). Two seasons ago, it ranked 335th (30.4).
Worst stat: Dayton ranks second-to-last in the country in non-steal turnover percentage (17.7). A non-steal turnover includes turnovers caused by traveling, offensive fouls, ball-handling errors, etc. — any turnover on which a steal isn’t credited to the opponent.
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