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Chris Johnson earned the 2010 NIT MVP award and the 2009-10 Chris Daniels Atlantic 10 Most Improved Player |
– Three University of Dayton Flyers were named to the Atlantic 10 preseason teams. Dayton was led by preseason first-team selection Chris Wright and third-team selection Chris Johnson. Freshman Juwan Staten, an ESPNU Top 100 guard, earned a spot on the preseason all-rookie team.
The University of Dayton Flyers were picked to finish in fourth in the 2010 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Preseason Poll.
Wright, a senior, is one of eight college basketball players named to the John Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 list in both 2009-10 and 2010-11. A member of this summer’s USA Basketball Select Team, Wright was named First Team All-Atlantic 10 in 2009-10 and averaged 13.7 points and 7.3 rebounds.
Johnson, a junior forward, earned the 2010 NIT MVP award and the 2009-10 Chris Daniels Atlantic 10 Most Improved Player honor after averaging 11.9 points and 6.9 rebounds per game last season.
One of the top point guards in the 2010 class, Staten will be among the leading candidates for Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year. Staten, an ESPNU Top 100 recruit, headlines the Flyers’ signing class ranked as high as 15th in the country.
Temple was named the preseason favorite, with 19 of the 26 first-place votes. Xavier garnered three first-place votes and was picked to finish second in the preseason poll. Richmond also got three first-place votes and was tabbed third.
After Dayton was Rhode Island in fifth. Saint Louis was selected sixth in the poll, while Charlotte was picked seventh. Duquesne was selected eighth followed by La Salle, George Washington, Massachusetts, Saint Joseph’s, St. Bonaventure and Fordham.
In that same poll, the coaches and media selected the preseason All-Conference teams. The first-team is comprised of Wright, Lavoy Allen from Temple, Richmond’s Kevin Anderson, Andrew Nicholson of St. Bonaventure and Damian Saunders from Duquesne.
The second-team consists of Juan Fernandez from Temple, Fordham’s Chris Gaston, Tru Holloway at Xavier, Delroy James of Rhode Island and Shamari Spears from Charlotte. The third team feature’s Dayton’s Johnson, Chris Braswell from Charlotte, Saint Louis’ Cody Ellis, Lasan Kromah of George Washington and Aaric Murray from La Salle.
Joining Staten on the A-10 All-Rookie Team are C.J. Aiken and Langston Galloway from Saint Joseph’s, Xavier’s Jordan Latham and Rob Loe from Saint Louis.
The Flyer Faithful will get its first look at the University of Dayton men’s and women’s basketball teams during the evening on Saturday, Oct. 23 at the annual Red & Blue Scrimmages from UD Arena.
UD’s exhibition games will be Monday, Nov. 1 against Grand Valley State and Saturday, Nov. 6 against Findlay. Both exhibition contests tip off at 7 p.m. ET.
