Holmes is an easy pick this year to win the White-Allen MVP award. He shared the honor with Toumani Camara last season and with Camara and Malachi Smith in 2022. He’ll be the ninth three-time team MVP and first since Jalen Crutcher (2020-22).
Holmes is also on his way to winning the the Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year award. Only one Flyer (Obi Toppin in 2020) has won that award. Richmond guard Jordan King, whose team shares first place with Dayton at the halfway point of the 18-game schedule, is a strong challenger in the A-10 Player of the Year race. Holmes (20.0 points per game) and King (19.1) rank first and second in the conference in scoring. Holmes won the A-10 Player of the week award for the fourth time in the last six weeks Monday.
The A-10 Player of the Year award has gone to a player from the regular-season champion in three of the last four years, but Holmes could win the A-10 award even if Dayton finishes behind Richmond because Holmes is also a national player of the year candidate.
Holmes ranks second behind Purdue center Zach Edey in the KenPom.com Player of the Year standings. He was named to the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Top 10 List last week and to the Wooden Award Late Season Top 20 Watch List in January.
Dayton’s success has helped Holmes, and Holmes is the biggest reason for that success. On Friday against St. Bonaventure, he scored 25 of his 34 points in the second half, carrying Dayton to a 76-71 victory.
Dayton (18-3, 8-1), which climbed from No. 21 to No. 18 in the Associated Press top-25 poll on Monday, protected Tom Blackburn Court by beating George Washington and St. Bonaventure last week. Now it goes on the road to play fifth-place Saint Joseph’s (15-7, 5-4) at Hagan Arena at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Philadelphia. Another big test follows on Friday at fourth-place Virginia Commonwealth (14-8, 6-3).
“Both are hostile environments,” Holmes said. “We played at Richmond, which was a good test. Very hostile. Saint Joe’s, I like to say they have the fan base that talks the most smack out of any team on the road. They don’t have the biggest arena, but the fans talk a lot. So we’ve got to make sure we’re locked in and make sure we do what we need to do. VCU is rivalry game, so that game is going to be fun. It’s all just about us being ourselves and sticking to what we need to do honestly.”
Here are five things to know about the game:
1. Hot team: Saint Joseph’s finished 10-3 in non-conference play, putting it on pace to end a streak of five straight losing seasons and seven straight non-losing seasons. Coach Billy Lange is 53-84 in five seasons.
The Hawks lost three straight games by a total of 10 points to start A-10 play: 78-74 at Rhode Island; 88-85 at Saint Louis; and 78-75 at home to Loyola Chicago. It has since won five of six games: home games against La Salle, Duquesne and George Mason; and road games against Massachusetts and La Salle.
In an 88-82 victory at La Salle on Saturday, Saint Joseph’s rallied from a 12-point deficit in the second half. The Hawks made a season-best 26 of 33 free throws.
“The A-10 is loaded with good players and shotmakers,” Saint Joseph’s coach Billy Lange said after the game “and guys that can step up and make big-time plays and teams that can go on big runs and guys can block shots. It’s a really good league that deserves a lot of recognition. La Salle is one of those teams. That backcourt, when they got it cooking, is as hard to cover as any team that we’ve played all season, so to have a victory today is impressive. To do it the way we did it after having been victorious the last time we played them is even more impressive. We weathered a lot. We’ve been through a lot. These guys from a week ago to today learned how to weather that on the road, and I felt we earned this victory.”
Credit: David Jablonski
2. Series history: Dayton has won three games in a row against Saint Joseph’s since a 97-84 loss at Hagan Arena in 2021.
Dayton beat Saint Joseph’s twice last season: 76-56 at UD Arena in January and 60-54 in the quarterfinals of the A-10 tournament in March. DaRon Holmes II scored 37 points on 13-of-22 shooting in the two games. Dayton won 74-62 in 2022 in its last trip to Hagan Arena with Holmes scoring 18.
Dayton is 3-10 at Hagan Arena this century. It ended a nine-game losing streak in the building with an 80-67 victory in 2020.
3. Players to watch: Saint Joseph’s returned six of its top seven scorers from a team that finished 16-17 last season and 8-10 in the A-10. Four players are scoring more than 10 points per game.
• Erik Reynolds II, a 6-foot-2 junior guard, led the team with 19.6 points per game last season and averages a team-best 17.9 this season. He leads the A-10 in 3-point field goals made per game (3.4) and ranks sixth in accuracy (43.3).
• Lynn Greer III, a 6-2 junior guard who transferred from Dayton to Saint Joseph’s midway through his freshman season, averages 11.6 points per game and a team-best 4.0 assists.
• Xzayvier Brown, a 6-2 freshman guard, averages 11.3 points.
• Rasheer Fleming, a 6-9 sophomore forward, leads the team with 7.4 rebounds per game and averages 11.2 points.
• Cameron Brown, a 6-5 fifth-year guard, is averaging 10.9 points and has 1,393 points in his Saint Joseph’s career.
4. Strengths and weaknesses: Saint Joseph’s ranks second in the A-10 in scoring during conference play (77.8). It gives up 77.6 points per game, which ranks 12th out of 15 teams.
Saint Joseph’s ranks 31st in the country in 3-point shooting percentage (37.4). It has shot better than 34% in eight straight games.
5. Odds and rankings: KenPom.com gives Dayton a 63% chance of winning this game. Dayton ranks 17th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. Saint Joseph’s is the sixth highest-ranked A-10 team at No. 87.
This is a Quad 2 game for Dayton because it’s a road game against a team that ranks between 76 and 135. Dayton is 3-3 in Quad 1, 5-0 in Quad 2, 5-0 in Quad 3 and 5-0 in Quad 4.
This is a Quad 1 game for Saint Joseph’s. It is 1-2 in Quad 1 with losses to Kentucky and St. Bonaventure and a 78-65 victory at Villanova on Nov. 29.
TUESDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Saint Joseph’s, 8 p.m., CBS Sports Network, 1290, 95.7
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