If No. 5 Dayton (24-2, 13-0) had not already locked up a spot in the NCAA tournament, it did so Tuesday by winning its 15th straight game, 66-61 at Virginia Commonwealth. That goes down as a Quadrant 1 victory because it was a road game against a team ranked in the top 75 of the NCAA Evaluation Tool. Dayton is 3-2 in that category with one more opportunity coming March 4 at Rhode Island. The quadrant system helps the NCAA tournament selection committee pick the field.
In short, no matter what happens in the last five regular-season games and in the Atlantic 10 tournament, Dayton will hear its name called on Selection Sunday for the first time since 2017. As it chases the A-10 regular-season championship, it is also playing to improve its seeding in the big dance.
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As of Wednesday night, all 108 predictions on BracketMatrix.com had Dayton getting a No. 2 seed.
Dayton ranks fifth in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (same as last week), sixth in the Ken Pomeroy ratings (same), 15th in the Haslametrics ratings (one spot worse than last week), seventh in ESPN's Basketball Power Index (one spot better than last week) and ninth in the Sagarin ratings (four spots higher).
Here are what the experts are saying about where Dayton could land in the bracket:
Mike DeCourcy, Fox Sports/The Sporting News: No. 2 seed Dayton vs. No. 15 Little Rock.
Joe Lunardi, ESPN: No. 2 Dayton vs. No. 15 Bowling Green in Cleveland.
Jerry Palm, CBSSports.com: No. 2 Dayton vs. No. 15 UC Irvine.
Jonathon Warriner, MakingTheMadness.com: No. 2 Dayton vs. No. 15 Hofstra.
Kerry Miller, BleacherReport.com: No. 2 Dayton vs. No. 15 UC Irvine with the winner playing No. 7 Michigan or No. 10 Xavier.
DelphiBracketology.com: No. 2 Dayton vs. No. 15 Bowling Green.
Patrick Stevens, Washington Post: No. 2 Dayton vs. No. 15 Hofstra in Cleveland.
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