DAYTON -- The University of Dayton Flyers will open the 2018-19 season -- the 113th basketball season in school history -- on Wednesday, Nov. 7 when North Florida visits UD Arena.  It will be the first official men's basketball game at the Arena since Phase II of the three-year Arena Transformation renovation project was completed.  Game time is 7 p.m. ET.

 Together the two teams will step onto Tom Blackburn Court with nine of 10 starters back from a year ago.  Dayton has four starters back from 2017-18, while North Florida returns all five from last year's 14-19 team. 

The game will be carried by WHIO Radio, and televised by Spectrum Sports.  Streaming audio, streaming video (outside the Dayton DMA) and stats will be available at DaytonFlyers.com.

Pre-game, the Budwesier Clydesdales will make an appearance outside the south side of the Arena near the new ticket office from 5 to 7 p.m. ET.

THE NEARLY-TRANSFORMED UD ARENA
The University of Dayton is past the halfway point of a $72 million renovation of its Arena. The transformation of University of Dayton Arena will occur in three phases – from 2017 to 2019.

Phase II included new entrances on three of the four sides, a new box office, new seats in the 300 and 400 levels on the east side and a new and expanded concourse on the east side.

#TRENDING
•          This will be the 300th consecutive Dayton regular season game with a crowd of at least 11,000 fans.  UD was 23rd in Division I attendance last season with an average of 12,996.
•          Dayton returns four starters – Josh Cunningham, Trey Landers, Jalen Crutcher and Jordan Davis -- from last year's 14-17 team. 
•          UD also returns Ryan Mikesell, who missed all of last season after double hip surgery in the summer of 2017.  Mikesell started 24 games in 2016-17.
•          In addition to the five veterans, the Flyers have four newcomers on this year's roster.  They are junior college transfer Jhery Matos, redshirt freshman Obi Toppin (who was named the winner of the Dr. George Rau Spirit award despite sitting out the 2017-18 season), and true freshmen Dwayne Cohill and Frankie Policelli.
•          Three Division I transfers – Rodney Chatman (Chattanooga), Jordy Tshimanga (Nebraska) and Ibi Watson (Michigan) are sitting out the 2018-19 season.
•          During the off-season, the Flyers added assistant coach Donnie Jones (previously a head coach at Marshall and Central Florida), strength and conditioning coach Ed Streit (previously at UConn and the Chicago Bulls) and graduate assistant Sean Damaska (previously a development intern with the Dallas Mavericks).
•          UD is one of 13 schools with at least two former head coaches on its staff.  The others are Cal, Evansville, Fairfield, Georgia State, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Pitt, South Carolina and Washington. Anthony Solomon previously coached at SBU.

UP NEXT
•          The Flyers host Coppin State in their mainland game of the Battle4Atlantis on Saturday.
•          Game time is 7 p.m. ET.