Home contests with Creighton and Miami of Ohio, games against three teams projected in next seasons top ten (Creighton, and at Pitt and North Carolina), and a matchup in Cincinnati against Louisville highlight the
2006-07 University of Dayton mens basketball non-conference schedule, which was announced today.
We are all, coaches and players alike, extremely excited about the challenge of this very difficult non-conference schedule, Dayton head coach Brian Gregory said. When you schedule these type of opponents, it gives our team the opportunity to test themselves against the very best, and grow competitively. This schedule will also prepare us for another tough Atlantic 10 season.
UD will open its fourth season under Gregory on Saturday, November 11 when Austin Peay visits UD Arena. The Flyers will also host North Carolina A&T on Wednesday, November 15 before taking to the road for the first time in 2006-07, taking on Southern Methodist University on Saturday, November 18.
UD will remain in Ohio for the next month. Dayton will take on Yale on Tuesday, November 21, and then meet Louisville in a marquee matchup on Friday, November 24 at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati. UD will then play six straight home games South Carolina State (Tuesday, November 28), Holy Cross (Saturday, December 2), Creighton (Wednesday, December 6), Grambling (Saturday, December 9), Western Carolina (Saturday, December 16) and Miami (Wednesday, December 20).
The Flyers will then celebrate the holidays and close out the non-conference schedule with two very tough road games. Dayton will take on Pitt in Pittsburgh on Saturday, December 23, and then travel to Chapel Hill to face the North Carolina Tar Heels.
If the pre-season rankings hold, it will be the first time UD has played back-to-back games against top ten teams on the opponents home court in school history.
Dayton has not played three top ten teams in the regular season since the 1978-79 season.
UD will play teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East, Conference USA, the Ivy League, the Mid-American Conference, the Mid-East Athletic Conference, the Missouri Valley Conference, the Ohio Valley Conference, the Patriot League, the Southern Conference, and the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Every Dayton non-conference opponent has at least three starters back.
Dayton returns four starters and its top three scorers (including Brian Roberts, an All-Atlantic 10 performer who led the team with a 16.0 ppg. average) next season. UD was 14-17 in 2005-06, with five of the wins and 11 of the losses coming against post-season teams.
Daytons complete schedule, including exhibition games, the Atlantic 10 Conference schedule and game times, will be announced at a later date.
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