Dayton Flyers to play ‘secret scrimmage’ on Oct. 27

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The game matches former Virginia Commonwealth head coaches Anthony Grant, entering his second season with the Flyers, and Jeff Capel, who’s in his first season with the Panthers.

Capel coached VCU from 2002-06. When Capel left VCU to coach at Oklahoma, Grant left an assistant coaching job at Florida to replace him at VCU. Capel was 79-41 in four seasons. Grant was 76-25 in three seasons.

NCAA rules allow Division I teams to scrimmage once in the preseason, but they aren’t allowed to announce the scrimmage or publicize it. It’s rare for the scores or stats to be released from the scrimmages.

Dayton scrimmaged Northern Kentucky last season in Dayton, Purdue in Indianapolis in 2016, Marquette in 2015 in Indianapolis and Illinois in 2014.

Dayton has played two games against Pittsburgh in its history, losing 81-51 in Pittsburgh on Dec. 23, 2006, and beating the Panthers 80-55 on Dec. 29, 2007, at UD Arena.

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Pittsburgh was ranked sixth in the latter game and undefeated at the time. Brian Roberts scored 31 points in the upset for Dayton.

Pittsburgh finished 8-24 last season under Kevin Stallings, the former Vanderbilt coach who was fired in March after two seasons. It was the program’s worst season since a 6-21 finish in 1976-77. From 2002-16, Pittsburgh played in the NCAA tournament 13 times in 15 seasons.