Dayton Flyers picked to finish in top three in A-10

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Richmond, which received 19 first-place votes, is the preseason favorite. It finished second last season with a 14-4 mark. It was Richmond’s best regular-season finish in coach Chris Mooney’s 15 seasons. The Spiders returns three players who ranked in the top 20 in the league in scoring: guard Blake Francis (17.7 points per game); forward Grant Golden (13.4); and Jacob Gilyard (12.7).

Richmond received 19 votes in the Associated Press preseason poll, which was released Monday. The only other A-10 team to receive votes was Saint Louis, which received four votes and was picked second in the A-10 poll. The Billikens received seven first-place votes.

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Rounding out the poll were: No. 4 St. Bonaventure; No. 5 Duquesne; No. 6 Rhode Island; No. 7 Davidson; No. 8 Massachusetts; No. 9 Virginia Commonwealth; No. 10 George Mason; No. 11 George Washington; No. 12 Saint Joseph’s; No. 13 La Salle; and No. 14 Fordham.

Crutcher was named to the A-10 preseason first team. He made the first team last season along with Obi Toppin, who left Dayton to enter the NBA Draft.

Crutcher was named to the preseason watch list for the Bob Cousy Award, which goes to the nation’s top point guard. He averaged 15.1 points and 4.9 assists while shooting a team-best 42.4 percent (72 of 170) from 3-point range.

Crutcher was the only Dayton player to earn preseason honors. Joining him on the first team were: Davidson’s Kellan Grady; Rhode Island’s Fatts Russell; Tre Mitchell, of UMass; Richmond’s Jacob Gilyard; and Jordan Goodwin, of Saint Louis.