Dayton owns a 25-20 record against the Southeastern Conference. In the previous six years, Dayton played Florida (in the 2014 Elite Eight) and Texas A&M (2014 Puerto Rico Tip-Off) once and played home and away against Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Auburn.
Here’s a look back at Dayton’s previous game against Georgia on Dec. 21, 1973, at in the UD Invitational Tournament at UD Arena.
Who won: The Flyers won 63-55 in front of a crowd of 11,138.
Dayton Daily News headline: UD menu: Georgia crab.
Star of the game: Dayton's Donald Smith had 20 points on 9-of-17 shooting.
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Turning point: Dayton trailed 16-10 when junior Jim Testerman entered the game and started guarding Billy Magarity, who had scored 12 of Georgia's first 16 points. Testerman held Magarity scoreless over the next 12 minutes as Dayton went on a 27-6 run. Testerman had played a total of 25 minutes in the first five games and would average 3.3 points on the season but made his mark in that game.
“We’re just lucky Testerman did what he did,” Dayton’s Mike Sylvester said. “I was happy to see him play like that.”
What it meant: Dayton beat California 66-52 the next day to win the UD Invitational, an event that took place annually from 1972 to 1985 with one exception being 1984 when UD played in the Preseason NIT.
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The UD Invitational tradition died when the popularity of tournaments in exotic locations like Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Alaska rose. According to a Dayton Daily News report in 1985, “the original intent of the UD Invitational was to bring in intersectional teams that might not otherwise visit UD Arena. Extra guarantee money was involved. Originally, $10,000 was paid to each team.”
Dayton went 20-9 in 1973-74 and won a game in the NCAA tournament before losing in triple overtime to UCLA. Georgia finished 6-20 that season and was in the midst of a 20-year period (1960-80) when it had five winning seasons.
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