“As far as I know, yeah,” Grant said.
Dayton not only received a bid when the bracket was announced at 9:30 p.m. Sunday, it earned a No. 1 seed in the Dayton Region of the 32-team tournament. Dayton (22-10) will play Florida Atlantic (18-15) at 2,500-seat Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena in Boca Raton, Fla., at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The game will air on ESPN2.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Here’s what fans should know about the tournament:
1. On the road: Dayton has not played a home game in the first round of the NIT since 2010 when it beat Illinois State 63-42 at UD Arena on March 17. That game came a day after a NCAA play-in game at UD Arena.
With the expansion of the NCAA tournament from 64 to 68 teams and the berth of the First Four in 2011, the NCAA tournament has started in Dayton every season, excluding the pandemic years (2020-21), with games on Tuesday and Wednesday. Those are the same days the NIT first-round games take place.
In 2011, 2012, 2019 and 2021, Dayton lost first-round NIT games on the road. It broke that streak in 2022, winning 74-55 at Toledo in the first round before losing 70-68 in overtime at Vanderbilt in the second round.
No one on Dayton’s current roster played in the NIT in 2022. Malachi Smith, now a redshirt junior guard, was a freshman that season but missed the NIT after injuring his ankle in the A-10 tournament.
2. Different look: The 2025 NIT is not the NIT Dayton fans remember. A new tournament, the College Basketball Crown, which takes place March 31 through April 6 in Las Vegas, Nev., took many of the teams that otherwise would have played in the NIT.
Boise State, one of the first four teams left out of the NCAA tournament field, will play in the Crown, as will Cincinnati, Nebraska and other teams that flirted with NCAA at-large berths. One A-10 team, George Washington, accepted an invitation to the Crown.
Some teams left out of the NCAA tournament, such as Ohio State and Indiana, declined bids to the Crown and the NIT.
The last time Dayton played in the NIT, the semifinals and championship game were still being played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Those games moved to Paradise, Nev., in 2023 and to Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in 2024. The final four teams again will play in Indianapolis this year on April 1 and 3.
“We’re excited about the extremely competitive field we put together,” said Tim Duncan, senior deputy athletics director at Memphis and chair of the NIT committee, in a NCAA press release. “Not only do we have 26 teams with at least 20 wins this season, but we have teams from 15 different conferences. We have a field of teams excited to continue to compete and try to earn an opportunity to play at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse. There are going to be great matchups throughout the tournament, and we look forward to crowning the NIT’s 87th champion in just a few weeks.”
3. A-10 feel: Virginia Commonwealth claimed the A-10’s automatic NCAA tournament berth with a 68-63 victory against George Mason on Sunday. For the second time in three seasons, only the A-10 tournament champion will play in the NCAA tournament. VCU earned a No. 11 seed and will play No. 6 BYU in Denver.
The A-10 sent four teams to the NIT in 2024 and six this season. A-10 teams make up 18.8% of the field. By comparison, the Southeastern Conference, which put 14 teams in the NCAA tournament, received 20.6% of the total bids.
Here are the other A-10 matchups:
• Saint Louis (19-14) at No. 3 Arkansas State (24-10), 9 p.m. Tuesday.
• UAB (22-12) at No. 3 Saint Joseph’s (22-12), 7 p.m. Wednesday.
• Samford (22-10) at No. 2 George Mason (26-8), 7 p.m. Wednesday.
• Loyola Chicago (22-11) at No. 4 San Jose State (15-19), 11 p.m. Wednesday.
• Kent State (22-11) at No. 3 St. Bonaventure (22-11), 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Saint Louis had the option of playing in the Crown, according to a report from longtime Saint Louis beat writer Stu Durando, but didn’t want to wait two weeks to play. Coach Josh Schertz got the approval of the players before deciding to accept a NIT bid.
“We’re going to go in and try to make a run,” Schertz told Durando. “We’ll approach it to win games, not experiment with stuff. We have seven or eight guys we’re playing and (some) of them have eligibility to return next year. So, I think it’s a great experience for these guys. We want to make sure we’re going to try to win as many as we can.”
4. NIT history: Dayton will play in the NIT for the first time since 2022. It will make its fourth appearance in Grant’s eight seasons. The program will make its 28th appearance overall. Only Saint John’s, with 30 appearances, has played more often in a tournament that was founded in 1938.
Dayton has a 41-25 record in the NIT and won the championship in 1962, 1968 and 2010. It finished as runner-up in 1951, 1952, 1955, 1956 and 1958.
5. Dayton’s path: If Dayton wins Wednesday, it would play No. 4 seed Middle Tennessee State or Chattanooga in the second round on Saturday or Sunday. That game would also be on the road.
There will be seven boys basketball state championship games played at UD Arena on Friday and Saturday. Even if Dayton plays in the NIT on Sunday, UD Arena “would have to be available the day before the game for practice by the visiting team, per NIT hosting guidelines,” according to a UD spokesperson.
If Dayton makes the quarterfinals, it would play at home on March 25 or 26. Its opponent would be North Alabama or No. 3 seed Bradley, who play at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Samford or George Mason.
WEDNESDAY’S GAME
Dayton at Florida Atlantic, 7 p.m., ESPN2, 95.7, 1290
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