“It is, of course, a fool’s errand to compile any kind of ‘next year’ bracket in college basketball,” Lunardi wrote on Twitter. “It takes an even bigger fool to attempt one with over 1,000 Division I players in the transfer portal. All of which suggests I am perfect for the job, as making an annual April fool of myself has become a true occupational hazard.
“That said, since doing the first ‘next year’ bracket way back in 2005, we average right around two No. 1 seeds per year landing in the same spot on Selection Sunday (and about 20 at-large teams overall). Think of this merely as a starting point for the long wait until November, when the real fun begins again.”
This is not the first indication of the high expectations for Dayton in 2022-23. A number of national college basketball writers — Seth Davis, Jeff Borzello, Kevin Sweeney, Gary Parrish and Jeff Goodman — all ranked Dayton in their “way-too-early” top-25 predictions earlier this month. The Flyers are expected to return their entire starting lineup and seven of their top-eight scorers, while adding a top-100 recruit in Mike Sharavjamts.
Lunardi’s prediction included one other Atlantic 10 Conference team, Saint Louis, which just lost its top returning player, Yuri Collins, to the transfer portal on Monday. Loyola Chicago, which will become the league’s 15th team in the 2022-23 season, was listed among the “First Four Out” of the 68-team field.
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