Dayton vs. Iowa State: What to know about Tuesday’s game in Maui

Williams, 74, coached the Tar Heels to three national championships in 18 seasons. He watched all four games on the first day of the Maui Invitational from a front-row seat under the basket.

Williams took a tumble during the game against Dayton when Javon Bennett’s momentum carried him off the court and into a photographer seated on the baseline. Bennett tripped over the photographer and ran into Williams, who was standing up at the time. They both fell to the floor. Williams got up with a smile and said something to Bennett before play resumed.

Williams coached in the Maui Invitational seven times (twice with Kansas and five times with North Carolina) and won one championship with Kansas and three with North Carolina. Maybe he had some advice for Grant and Bennett in his brief interactions with him. More likely, he offered words of encouragement.

Dayton (5-1) will need all the help it can get on the second day of the tournament. On paper, its job gets even tougher with a game against No. 5 Iowa State (3-1). The game starts 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, or 3:30 p.m. in Maui. It will air on ESPNU.

Putting a game in which it blew a 21-point lead behind it will be key for Dayton, though Iowa State is facing a similar situation, having blown an 18-point lead in an 83-81 loss to No. 4 Auburn (5-0).

“It’s a hard loss,” Grant said. “We felt like we had chances to win the game. So we’ve got to be able to be resilient and put our focus on the next game. That’s what I’m trying to do right now.

“We can’t really relive what happened tonight. Didn’t go our way. Our guys fought. We gave it everything we had. Give Carolina credit. They were able to win the game. So now we’ve got to get prepared for another tough, really challenging game tomorrow.”

Here are five things to know about the game:

1. Series history: The programs played a two-game series in 1987 and 1988. Dayton lost both games: 72-62 on Jan. 7, 1987, at Iowa State and 84-80 on Jan. 9, 1988, at UD Arena.

Jeff Grayer, Iowa’s all-time leading scorer (2,502 points) scored 32 points in the first game and 20 in the second game. Grant played in the first game and had eight points. Bill Uhl Jr., who’s in Maui to watch his son Brady play, had 21 points combined in the two games.

Dayton is 3-12 against the Big 12 with victories against Cincinnati in 2023, Kansas in 2021 and Texas A&M, which is now in the SEC, in 1999.

2. Basketball schools: Iowa State ranked 18th in the nation in attendance last season (13,868). Dayton ranked 20th (13,407).

3. Strong program: Iowa State has played in 10 of the last 13 NCAA tournaments. It reached the Sweet 16 twice (2024 and 2022) in coach T.J. Otzelberger’s first three seasons.

Iowa State finished 29-8 last season and was picked to finish third behind Kansas and Houston out of 16 teams in the Big 12.

4. Top players: Keshon Gilbert, a 6-foot-4 senior guard, leads Iowa State with 15 points per game. He scored 23 points against Auburn. He played his first two seasons at UNLV and scored 16 points against Dayton in a 60-52 victory in Las Vegas, Nev., in 2022.

• Curtis Jones, a 6-5 senior guard, averaged 11.0 points last season and averages 14.8 points this season. He played his first two seasons at Buffalo.

• Tamin Lipsey, a 6-1 junior guard, averages 11.8 points.

5. Maui history: This is Iowa State’s third appearance in Maui. It is 3-4 in the event with victories against Chaminade (1990), Illinois (2018) and San Diego State (2018) in the tournament.

Iowa State lost to Auburn when Gilbert turned the ball over with 13 seconds to play. Auburn went the other way and scored when All-American forward Johni Broome tipped in a missed shot with 1.2 seconds to play.

“There’s a lot of disappointment in the locker room after the game certainly, which you can imagine,” Otzelberger said. “We told our guys, ‘Use that feeling that you have now and you bottle it up and then you turn it into a positive.’ You come to a great tournament like this and you play these great programs, and you know that something like that can happen. You need to learn from it. In areas where we weren’t as strong, we need to make sure we address those and bounce back and be better for it. I’m confident in our guys that we’ll do that, and we’ll use it to our benefit to be better.”

6. Connections: Dayton assistant coach James Kane spent three seasons (2018-21) at Iowa State on Steve Prohm’s staff.

7. Odds and ends: KenPom.com gives Iowa State a 68% chance of winning and predicts a 74-68 score. Iowa State is No. 8 in the Pomeroy ratings. Dayton is No. 37.

• Dayton’s third opponent in Maui will be No. 2 Connecticut (4-1) or Colorado (4-1). Dayton will play at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday (9:30 a.m. in Maui) if it beats Iowa State or at 12 a.m. (7 p.m.) if it loses to Iowa State.