Dayton moves into top 25 after victory against Marquette

No. 22 Flyers play No. 19 Cincinnati on Saturday
Dayton's Zed Key celebrates after a basket against Marquette on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024, at UD Arena. David Jablonski/Staff

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

Dayton's Zed Key celebrates after a basket against Marquette on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024, at UD Arena. David Jablonski/Staff

The Dayton Flyers earned their first top-25 ranking of the 2024-24 season on Monday, landing at No. 22 in the Associated Press poll.

This is the first time Dayton has ranked in the top 25 since it was No. 24 in the final poll of the 2023-24 season.

Dayton (9-2) beat No. 6 Marquette 71-63 on Saturday at UD Arena. Marquette (9-2) fell to No. 9.

Connecticut, a team Dayton beat 85-67 in the Maui Invitational, climbed seven spots to No. 11 after beating Gonzaga on Saturday. Gonzaga fell five spots to No. 13.

Tennessee, Auburn, Iowa State, Kentucky and Duke are the top-five teams.

Seven voters ranked Dayton last week. Eight voters ranked it the previous week. The Flyers first received a vote in the Nov. 11 poll.

This week, Dayton ranked as high as 10th on three ballots. Twenty one of the 62 voters did not vote for Dayton.

Last season, Dayton ranked in the top 25 from January into March but fell out of the poll after a loss to Duquesne in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament. With a victory against Nevada and a loss to Arizona in the NCAA tournament, Dayton impressed enough voters to return to the top 25 in the final poll.

Dayton was ranked in the top 25 in 10 different weeks last season, rising as high as No. 16. It enjoyed its longest stay in the top 25 since the 2019-20 season when it climbed as high as No. 3 and was ranked from December to the end of the season in March.

This week, Dayton plays its final two non-conference games, facing UNLV at 7 p.m. Tuesday at UD Arena and No. 19 Cincinnati at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati. UC climbed three spots after beating Xavier on Saturday.

In other rankings, Dayton is No. 24 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, No. 23 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, No. 26 in the Ken Pomeroy ratings, No. 54 in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, No. 41 on BartTorvik.com and No. 18 on Haslametrics.com.

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