DAYTON - Home games against Saint Mary's and Vanderbilt, a trip to the Wooden Legacy tournament, a road game at Alabama, the first Flyer game in the city of Chicago in 27 years and an 18-game Atlantic 10 Conference slate headline the 2016-17 University of Dayton men's basketball schedule.

"We're really pleased with this schedule.  It successfully balances the various objectives an NCAA-caliber schedule has to meet," UD Vice President and Director of Athletics Neil Sullivan said. "The Atlantic 10 is poised for a great year, and we have some marquee A-10 matchups home and away. The non-conference schedule is terrific for our fans and gives us an opportunity to earn a bid and advance in the NCAA Tournament."

The Flyers' non-conference slate will include seven home games, one on the road and four neutral site games – three at the Wooden Legacy in Anaheim and one at the State Farm Chicago Legends against Northwestern.

The fresh highlight of the Dayton schedule is the beginning of a series with the Saint Mary's.  The Gaels return all five starters from last year's 29-6 team that won a share of the West Coast Conference's regular-season championship.  Saint Mary's is projected by most experts to be a Top 25 team in 2016-17.

Not counting the teams in the Wooden Legacy field, UD's nine non-conference opponents include:
• Seven that had at least 18 wins in 2015-16
• Seven who return three or more starters (two with all five)
• Four that played in the post season
• Two who won regular-season conference championships

Dayton opens the regular season at home against Austin Peay on Friday, Nov. 11.  After playing at Alabama on Tuesday, Nov. 15, the Flyers will return home to play Saint. Mary's on Saturday, Nov. 19.

Over Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 24, 25 & 27), the Flyers will compete in the 2016 Wooden Legacy in California.  The field includes CSUN (Cal State Northridge), Dayton, Nebraska, New Mexico, Portland, Texas A&M, UCLA and Virginia Tech.  UD will play Nebraska in the first round.  Five of the other seven teams return at least three starters.

Dayton is then back at UD Arena for three consecutive home games -- Winthrop (Saturday, Dec. 3), Division II St. Joseph's (Tuesday, Dec. 6), and East Tennessee State (Saturday, Dec., 10) – before traveling to Chicago on Saturday, Dec. 17 to play Northwestern in the United Center as part of the State Farm Chicago Legends doubleheader.  Illinois and BYU play in the other Chicago Legends game.

The Flyers close the non-conference schedule with contests at the Arena against Vanderbilt on Wednesday, Dec. 21 and VMI on Friday, Dec. 23.

The A-10 schedule will begin before the first of the year for the first time in school history when Dayton hosts La Salle on Friday, December 30. 

In league play, the Flyers will host Rhode Island (Friday, Jan. 6), Richmond (Thursday, Jan. 19), Saint Louis (Sunday, Jan. 22), Duquesne (Saturday, Feb. 4), Saint Joseph's (Tuesday, Feb. 7), St. Bonaventure (Saturday, Feb. 18), George Mason (Tuesday, Feb. 21) and for the second consecutive season, UD's final home game will be against VCU (Wed., March 1).

Dayton will visit St. Bonaventure, UMass, Duquesne, VCU, Fordham, Rhode Island, Saint Louis, Davidson and George Washington.  The game at Duquesne on Saturday, Jan 14 will be played at the CONSOL Energy Center, which will also be the site of the Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship March 8-12.

For the fourth straight year, UD will play a record number of nationally televised games.  The Flyers will play 22 contests on national television, one more than the previous school record set in 2014-15 and equaled in 2015-16.

Counting three games in the Wooden Legacy, Dayton will play nine games on the ESPN family of networks and CBS Sports Network, two on NBC Sports Network, two on the American Sports Network and one on the Big Ten Network.

In addition, every game of the A-10 Men's Basketball Championship will also be nationally televised. The championship game will be televised by CBS for the eighth consecutive year.

UD also announced the dates of its preseason Red/Blue scrimmage and its preseason exhibition game.  The Red/Blue game will be played on Saturday, Oct. 22.  Start time and more details will be announced when they become available.  The preseason exhibition game will be played against Findlay on Saturday, Nov. 5, and will tip-off at 7 p.m. ET.

Dayton finished the 2015-16 regular season as co-champions in the Atlantic 10, with a 14-4 conference record.  UD was 25-8 overall, and reached the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive season.  The Flyers' 78 wins over the last three seasons match the best three-year record in school history.
 
UD returns four starters - Charles Cooke, Kyle Davis, Kendall Pollard and Scoochie Smith - and nine letterwinners in 2016-17.  Cooke was First Team All-Atlantic 10 and led the Flyers in scoring (15.6 ppg.). Davis, Pollard and Smith are on pace to become the winningest four-year class in UD history.