MEMPHIS – University of Dayton junior point guard Jalen Crutcher announced Thursday that he was submitting his name for the NBA draft.  The Memphis native made the announcement on social media, stating that he will preserve his college eligibility while going through the evaluation process.

A three-year starter, Crutcher was First Team All-Atlantic 10 this season.  Sports Illustrated ranked him 34th in its ranking of the Top 50 players of the 2019-20 college basketball season.  He was also First Team All-District 4 as voted on by the members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.  During the year, he became the first UD player to be named a back-to-back conference player of the week.

Crutcher led Dayton in minutes (33.7), assists (4.9) three-pointers (2.4 per game), 3-pt. FG% (.468, 147-314) and FT% (.869, 86-99), and was second in scoring (15.1).  In Atlantic 10 Conference games, he was the only player in the top seven of the guard-oriented stat categories -- scoring (7th), assists (7th), 3-pt. FG's (5th), 3-pt % (4th), FT% (3rd) and A/T ratio (1st).  

He is currently 36th in career scoring at UD with 1,170 points, and ninth with 470 career assists.  Crutcher is third at UD in career assists per game (5.0) and second in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.18).  

With Crutcher at point guard, Dayton went 29-2 this year, setting UD's record for wins in a season despite not having the benefit of post-season play.  The Flyers earned a No. 3 ranking in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls.  After being picked to finish third in the Atlantic 10 Conference's preseason poll, UD was the first team to go 18-0 in the conference in 35 years.

The last time a Dayton player entered the draft and retained his eligibility in the process was a year ago, when All-American Obi Toppin did so.  (Toppin entered the draft again this week, but signed with an agent, ending his college career.)