AdvoCare Invitational
Orlando, Fla.
First round, Thursday
Game 1: Xavier (3-0) vs. Alabama (2-1), noon (ESPN2)
Game 2: Wichita State (2-1) vs. Southern California (3-0), 2 p.m. (ESPN2)
Game 3: Notre Dame (3-0) vs. Monmouth (2-1), 6:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Game 4: Dayton (3-0) vs. Iowa (3-0), 9 p.m. (ESPN)
Second round, Friday
Game 5: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, noon (ESPN3)
Game 6: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 2:30 p.m (ESPNU)
Game 7: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, 7 p.m. (ESPN3)
Game 8: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 9:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
Third Round, Sunday
Game 9: Game 5 loser vs. Game 7 loser, 10 a.m. (ESPN3)
Game 10 (Third-place game): Game 6 loser vs. Game 8 loser, 12:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
Game 11 (Championship game): Game 6 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 4:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
Game 12: Game 5 winner vs. Game 7 winner, 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
THURSDAY’S GAME
Dayton vs. Iowa in Orlando, 9 p.m., ESPN2, 1290, 95.7
NOTE: Pre-game radio coverage begins at 8 p.m.
Fifty miles separate UD Arena and the Cintas Center. Dayton and Xavier played each other in men’s basketball 158 times between Feb. 20, 1920 and Feb. 16, 2013.
By Sunday, when Dayton and Xavier potentially could meet again on the final day of the AdvoCare Invitational, 1,017 days will have passed since they last played. UD has maintained possession of the Blackburn/McCafferty Trophy ever since winning the last game in the series, 70-59 at UD Arena.
No one on either roster played in the last game between the Flyers and Musketeers, though Dayton’s suspended senior forward, Dyshawn Pierre, started and scored 10 points in the last meeting.
Dayton and Xavier will be in the same building all week, the HP Field House at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, but they may not cross paths on the court. They’re on opposite sides of the bracket. In a perfect scenario for UD fans who miss their old rival, they would play in the championship game at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
For now, Dayton coach Archie Miller is concerned only with Iowa, the Flyers’ first-round opponent at 9 p.m. Thursday, but he knows a Dayton-Xavier game would be a fun matchup for the Flyer Faithful who flock to the Sunshine State.
“Xavier being in the tournament is unique probably more so for the fans,” Miller said. “I know our players are not naive to the fact they’re in the tournament, but I’ll also tell you this — and you can probably ask (Xavier coach) Chris (Mack) and his players the same — (the rivalry) is not the same as it once was in the past. If there was a matchup, it would get blown up pretty quickly. At the same time, there’s not that day-to-day interaction or that yearly interaction that affects us.”
Xavier (3-0) opens the tournament against Alabama, a team Dayton beat by 32 last week, at noon Thursday. Besides Xavier, the event formerly known as the Old Spice Classic and Orlando Classic, features a number of interesting teams and players.
Here’s a glance at the field:
Favorite: Defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion Notre Dame (3-0) is the top-ranked team in the field. It's 17th in the Associated Press poll and 18th in the USA Today coaches poll. The Irish play Monmouth (3-0) in the first round at 7 p.m. Thursday, and the winner plays Dayton or Iowa in the semifinals at 9:30 p.m. Friday.
Notre Dame finished 32-6 last season, bouncing back from a 15-17 record in 2013-14. They have ranked in the top 40 in the RPI in four of the last five seasons.
According to VegasInsider.com, Notre Dame and Wichita State both are 2-1 favorites to win the tournament. Dayton has 9-2 odds and is followed by Xavier (6-1), Iowa (11-2), Southern California (25-1), Alabama (60-1) and Monmouth (100-1).
Cinderella: Monmouth upset UCLA 84-81 on the road in their season opener. The Hawks forced 27 turnovers and committed only seven. Monmouth finished 18-15 last season, ending a streak of eight straight losing seasons.
Best player: Notre Dame junior point guard Demetrius Jackson ranks 18th on ESPN's list of the top NBA draft prospects of 2016. He scored 27 points in the Irish's season-opening 87-56 victory over St. Francis (Pa.) and averages 20.7.
Top freshmen: Southern California has two top-100 recruits in the class of 2015 on the roster. Chimezie Metu ranked 40th in the nation, and Bennie Boatwright ranked 87th. Both are 6-9 forwards.
Through three games, Metu has averaged 4.7 points and 4.0 rebounds in 16 minutes per game. Boatwright has averaged 9.7 points and 5.3 rebounds in 19.3 minutes.
USC (3-0) plays Wichita State (2-1) in the first round at 2 p.m. Thursday.
Key injuries: Wichita State's senior guard Fred VanVleet, who averaged 13.6 points, 5.2 assists and 4.5 rebounds last year, will miss the tournament with a hamstring injury. He was already nursing a sprained ankle when he re-injured the hamstring in a 77-67 loss to Tulsa on Nov. 17.
The Shockers also lost freshman guard Landry Shamet, who averaged 8.7 points and 2.7 rebounds in 19.7 minutes per game, to a broken foot. He’ll miss 10 to 12 weeks.
Impact transfer: Dayton junior forward Charles Cooke has made his presence felt in his first three games, averaging a team-high 15.3 points and shooting 42.9 percent from 3-point range.
Wichita State has another top transfer, 6-8 forward Anton Grady. He transferred after graduating from Cleveland State. He’s the only player in Cleveland State history with the combination of 1,000 career points, 600 rebounds, 100 steals and 100 blocks. He’s averaging 11.7 points and 5.3 rebounds in three games.
Past champions: Notre Dame won the title in 2010, beating Wisconsin in the final. Dayton claimed the title the last time it played in Orlando in 2011, Miller's first season, beating Wake Forest, Fairfield and Minnesota.
Alabama finished third in 2009. Xavier finished sixth that season.
Fun matchup: Aside from a possible Dayton-Xavier game on Sunday, a Dayton-Notre Dame game on Friday probably is the game Dayton fans would most like to see.
Dayton is 13-28 all time against Notre Dame. The teams played annually from 1970 to 1995. The series ended when Notre Dame moved into the Big East in the 1995-96 season. The Irish moved to the ACC in 2013.
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