Dayton basketball: Flyers will play Virginia in Charlotte in December

An already challenging non-conference schedule for the Dayton Flyers got even more difficult Wednesday as UD announced a game against the Virginia Cavaliers.

Dayton will play Virginia on Dec. 6 on a neutral court, the Spectrum Center, home of the Charlotte Hornets, in Charlotte, N.C. The game time will be announced at a later date.

With Virginia. of the Atlantic Coast Conference, on the schedule, Dayton now has non-conference games against six programs from the top five conferences. The Flyers also play Cincinnati (Big 12), Marquette (Big East), Georgetown (Big East), Florida State (ACC) and Brigham Young (Big 12) or Miami (ACC).

Dayton also plays Penn State (Big Ten) in an exhibition game in October.

This will be the fourth straight season Dayton has played a regular-season game on a neutral court outside of its November tournament. It played Cincinnati at the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati the last two seasons. It played Wyoming at the United Center in Chicago in the 2022-23 season.

Dayton and Virginia have played three times, and Virginia has won each game.

The Cavaliers won 74-67 on Feb. 16, 1987, at UD Arena, 69-50 on Dec. 9, 1987, in Charlottesville, Va., and 66-59 on Nov. 22, 2018, in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. The Cavaliers won the national championship in the same season they last played Dayton.

Virginia finished 15-17 last season under interim coach Ron Sanchez, who took over the program when Tony Bennett retired in October. That ended a streak of 14 straight winning seasons.

Virginia hired Ryan Odom, who spent the previous two seasons at Virginia Commonwealth, in March. Odom was 2-2 against Dayton during his time at VCU.

Virginia lost most of its 2024-25 roster to the transfer portal. Its top six scorers transferred.

Odom’s first roster has 11 newcomers. The group includes, among others: fifth-year guard Malik Thomas, who averaged 19.9 points per game at San Francisco last season; senior guard Jacari White, who averaged 17.1 points at North Dakota State; and junior guard Sam Lewis, who led Toledo in scoring (16.2).

With the Virginia announcement, Dayton’s non-conference schedule is nearly complete. Here’s a look at the known games:

Oct. 19, 2 p.m.: Penn State at Dayton (exhibition).

Nov. 3: Canisius at Dayton.

Nov. 8: University of Maryland, Baltimore County at Dayton.

Nov. 11: Dayton at Cincinnati.

Nov. 15: Bethune-Cookman at Dayton.

Nov. 19: Dayton at Marquette.

Nov. 22: North Carolina Central at Dayton.

Nov. 27, 7:30 p.m.: Dayton vs. Georgetown at ESPN Events Invitational, ESPN2.

Nov. 28, 7 p.m. or 9:30 p.m.: Dayton vs. Brigham Young or the University of Miami at ESPN Events Invitational, ESPN or ESPN2.

Dec. 6: Dayton vs. Virginia in Charlotte.

Dec. 16: Florida State at Dayton.