“I know we haven’t won the tournament since 2003, right?” he said. “So, yeah, that’s huge. That’s the goal for sure, to try to win this tournament championship.”
Dayton (22-9) earned the No. 2 seed in the A-10 tournament, which started Wednesday with two games involving the bottom four seeds at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. The Flyers will play in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Friday against No. 7 George Washington (12-17) or No. 10 Massachusetts (14-15).
Winning the A-10 tournament is Dayton’s only sure path to the NCAA tournament. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi listed Dayton among his “First Four Out” of the at-large picture on Tuesday. Patrick Stevens, of the Washington Post, had Dayton in the same grouping.
On BracketMaxtrix.com, Dayton appeared on 10 of the 141 updated brackets on Wednesday. A victory in the A-10 semifinals against another bubble team, No. 3 seed Virginia Commonwealth (21-8), which appeared on 58 brackets, could help Dayton’s cause.
Dayton is also chasing the likes of Indiana, Xavier, Southern Methodist, BYU and Rutgers in the race to the right side of the bubble. The Flyers know what’s at stake this weekend: the program’s first NCAA tournament appearance since 2017.
“That is a goal for the season,” said freshman forward DaRon Holmes II, who was named the A-10 Rookie of the Year on Tuesday. “We deserve to be there, and we’re going to prove it.”
Dayton’s opponent: UMass has a 55% chance of beating George Washington in the second round Thursday, according to KenPom.com, though GW has won nine straight games in the series. George Washington won the only matchup this season, 77-68 at UMass on Feb. 9. James Bishop scored 24 points for the Colonials.
UMass and George Washington play at 6 p.m. in the third game of the day at Capital One Arena. No. 8 Fordham (15-15) plays No. 9 George Mason (14-15) at noon. No. 5 Saint Louis (21-10) plays No. 12 La Salle (10-18) or No. 13 Saint Joseph’s (11-18) at 2:30 p.m. Richmond (19-12) plays No. 11 Rhode Island (14-15) or No. 14 Duquesne (6-23) at 8:30 p.m. The Thursday games will air on the USA Network.
The No. 7 seed has defeated the No. 10 seed six times in the last 10 tournaments. George Washington hasn’t advanced to the quarterfinals of the A-10 tournament since 2017 and hasn’t reached the semifinals since 2014. UMass was a No. 5 seed last season and routed Saint Joseph’s in the second round before losing to Saint Louis.
FRIDAY’S GAME
Dayton vs. George Washington/UMass, 6 p.m., USA Network, 1290, 95.7
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