Dayton climbs in AP poll after 2-0 week

Dayton passed these teams: No. 19 Creighton (16-6), which dropped six spots; No. 22 Utah State (19-3), which dropped five spots; No. 23 Texas Tech (16-5), which fell eight spots; and No. 25 New Mexico (18-4), which dropped six spots. No. 16 Alabama (16-6) climbed six spots and passed Dayton, and so did No. 15 South Carolina (19-3), which was unranked last week.

This is the fourth straight week Dayton has ranked in the top 25. Dayton first received a top 25 vote in the Dec. 11 poll and then received two votes in the following two polls on Dec. 18 and Dec. 25. The Flyers received three votes on Jan. 1. On Jan. 8. they ranked as high as No. 17 on one ballot and appeared on 30 of the 63 ballots.

Dayton moved into the top 25 at No. 23 on Jan. 15 for the first time this season and climbed into the top 20 at No. 16 on Jan. 22 for the first time since 2020. It dropped to No. 21 last week after losing 69-64 at Richmond on Jan. 27.

This week, Dayton goes on the road for two Atlantic 10 Conference games, facing fifth-place Saint Joseph’s (15-7, 5-4) at 8 p.m. Tuesday and fourth-place Virginia Commonwealth (14-8, 6-3) at 7 p.m. Friday.

In other rankings, Dayton is No. 17 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (same as last week), No. 20 on Haslametrics.com (up two), No. 17 in the USA Today Coaches Poll (up two), No. 21 on BartTorvik.com (down one), No. 24 on KenPom.com (up one) and No. 25 in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (up one).