Dayton Flyers to open season Tuesday against OVC opponent

Dayton also had an exhibition game, which was scheduled to be played Saturday, cancelled because of a positive COVID-19 test within the Cedarville University program.

Television information for Tuesday has not been announced.

Here’s what you need to know about the game, which will be Dayton’s first since March 7, 2020, when it beat George Washington on Senior Night at UD Arena.

Tough start: Eastern Illinois (0-2) opened the season with a 77-67 loss to Wisconsin on Wednesday. It then lost 75-50 to Marquette on Friday. It had a game Sunday postponed because of COVID-19 issues at Butler.

Wisconsin ranks eighth in the Ken Pomeroy rankings, while Marquette is No. 27.

Looking back: The Panthers finished 17-15 last season and 9-9 in the Ohio Valley Conference. The program has posted five winning seasons in this century. It last made the NCAA tournament in 2001.

Preseason prediction: This season, Eastern Illinois was picked to finish fifth out of 12 teams in the OVC preseason poll.

The Eastern Illinois roster features two players who earned All-OVC preseason honors: 6-foot-4 senior guard Josiah Wallace, who led the team with 15.6 points per game last season; and 6-2 senior Mack Smith, who ranked fifth in the league with 79 made 3-pointers.

Eastern Illinois coach Jay Spoonhour is in his ninth season.

Improved schedule: According to the Ken Pomeroy rankings, No. 169 Eastern Illinois is a big upgrade over No. 341 Alcorn State for Dayton. The original opponent, Bellarmine, is No. 188.

History lesson: Dayton and Eastern Illinois have played once before. Dayton won 85-65 on Dec. 21, 1995, at UD Arena. Chris Daniels led the Flyers with 16 points.

Late start: The college basketball season started last Wednesday. There were 282 men’s basketball games played in the first five days. Of the 357 Division I teams, 99 did not play a game from Nov. 25-30, including five teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference: Dayton, Massachusetts, Fordham, Duquesne and St. Bonaventure.

UMass had some players in quarantine as December began and didn’t plan to play again until this week.