DAYTON -- The University of Dayton Flyers will take on Coppin State in its mainland game of the upcoming Bad Boy Mowers Battle4Atlantis on Saturday, Nov. 10. Exempt tournaments allow teams to play four games as part of the event. The games in Nassau are played on three successive days, which allows for one mainland game. Saturday's game time is 7 p.m. ET.
Dayton is 1-0 on the young season after Wednesday's 78-70 win over North Florida. Coppin State is 0-1, falling at Wisconsin on Tuesday 85-63. The game will be carried by WHIO Radio, and televised by Spectrum Sports. Streaming audio, streaming video (on ESPN+) and stats will be available at DaytonFlyers.com.
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
• Wednesday's game was the 300th consecutive Dayton regular season game with a crowd of at least 11,000 fans. The North Florida crowd was 12,522. 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.
• Dayton took the court against North Florida without Cunningham, who was injured in practice the day before. Taking his place in the lineup was redshirt freshman
Obi Toppin, who merely scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds with four dunks in his college debut.
• In addition to the five veterans, the Flyers have four newcomers on this year's roster. They are junior college transfer
Jhery Matos, Toppin, and true freshmen
Dwayne Cohill and
Frankie Policelli. Cohill also made his college debut (5 points) on Wednesday as well.
• 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).
UP NEXT
• The Flyers host Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday, Nov. 16 before they head to the Bahamas to play in the Battle4Atlantis Nov. 21-23.
• The Purdue Fort Wayne game time is 7 p.m. ET.