Dayton Flyers seek first victory at La Salle in nine years

“They’re really cool,” Toppin said. “When we play them though, it’s different.”

The No. 20 Flyers (11-2) and Rams (8-3) will play twice in the coming months: Feb. 11 at UD Arena and March 4 at the Ryan Center. Those games will be two highlights in an 18-game conference schedule that starts Thursday for Dayton with an 8:30 p.m. game at La Salle (9-3).

"We've been working all summer, all non-conference," Toppin said Monday after a 77-59 victory against North Florida. "We can't wait to get into conference play."

While high-profile matchups against Virginia Commonwealth, Davidson, Rhode Island, Saint Louis and others await, Dayton first has to survive this trip to Philadelphia against two teams expected to finish among the bottom five teams in the conference. A 1 p.m. Sunday game at Saint Joseph’s follows the game at La Salle. UD will remain in Philadelphia between games, staying downtown.

ARCHDEACON: North Florida coach praises Toppin’s heart

Dayton has lost eight straight games in the City of Brotherly Love: four at La Salle’s Tom Gola Arena and four at Saint Joseph’s Hagan Arena. Its last victory came on Feb. 5, 2011, at La Salle. Chris Wright led the Flyers to an 85-81 victory, scoring 21 of his 25 points in the second half and throwing down a windmill dunk to punctuate the win with three seconds to play.

Dayton gets two chances to change the storyline of its tortured history in Philadelphia. Here are four reasons the streak could end Thursday in UD’s first game of the new year and new decade.

1. La Salle's record is deceiving: This is a much improved Explorers team that is just one victory away from matching last year's win total (10-21). However, their record includes seven victories against teams ranked in the bottom half of the Ken Pomeroy rankings.

La Salle beat No. 111 Wright State 72-70 on Nov. 26 in the Gulf Coast Showcase for its best victory. The Raiders played without their star player, Loudon Love, in the second half of that game after he suffered an elbow injury. La Salle has lost to No. 107 Penn, No. 55 Temple and No. 22 Villanova.

2. Dayton's non-conference schedule prepared it well: Dayton has five victories against teams in the bottom half of the Pomeroy rankings. It also has victories against No. 25 Saint Mary's, No. 63 Virginia Tech and No. 74 Georgia and took No. 2 Kansas and No. 34 Colorado to overtime before losing.

» FIRST 12 GAMES: Highlights from Dayton’s play in non-conference action

“I feel like we’ve gotten better from game one to game 13,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said. “We’ve learned a lot about ourselves. When we started this thing, we hadn’t had at any point in time from when everybody arrived on campus to our first game where we had everybody together. Obviously, we’re still missing one piece (Chase Johnson), but we’ve got some continuity now with different guys getting used to play with each other. To me, that’s how you improve. You begin to understand your role and how to play to your strengths and how to help your teammates play to their strengths. Thirteen games in, we’ve gotten better at that. I still think this team can get better.”

3. Dayton is due for a strong performance at La Salle: Until the 71-53 loss at La Salle two years ago, Dayton had lost three straight close games at Gola Arena: 72-70 in 2013, 55-53 in 2015 when a victory would have clinched a share of the A-10 title and 61-57 in 2016.

On paper, Dayton had a much better team in 2015 and 2016. La Salle had the edge in the 2013 matchup. It was a more even matchup in 2018. Dayton got blown out because it delivered one of its worst performances in one of the worst seasons in recent history.

» ATLANTIC 10: Breaking down conference’s performance in non-conference play

“It wasn’t one of our finest hours,” Grant said after the game.

Grant praised two players after that game: Trey Landers and walk-on Jack Westerfield. Landers is still a Flyer and knows Dayton’s history at La Salle. When he was asked if there were any particular games on the A-10 schedule he’s looking forward to, he singled out this one because it’s the next one.

“I really want to get the win at La Salle,” Landers said. “I haven’t won there yet. That’s the one I’m focused on.”

4. Dayton has the extra incentive: Dayton was picked to finish third behind VCU and Davidson in the preseason poll, and most other predictions mirrored the official poll. Now the Flyers enter the conference schedule as the favorite because they're the only top-25 team and rank well above the rest of the conference in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (No. 13) and the Pomeroy rankings (No. 9).

Of course, all along, the players and Grant have said the predictions don’t matter.

“Nobody expected us to do anything we’re doing right now,” Landers said. “We just let that be. We don’t get into that too much. Everyone has their own opinion. It really doesn’t bother us.”

THURSDAY’S GAME

Dayton at La Salle, 8:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network; 1290 and 95.7 WHIO