Dayton (18-5) takes a three-game winning streak into a 7 p.m. game Friday at Rhode Island. The Flyers rank 31st (down one spot from last week) in the RPI, 34th (up two spots) in the Pomeroy ratings, 34th (up three spots) in the Sagarin ratings, 30th in the KPI Sports ratings and 36th (up six spots) in ESPN's Basketball Power Index.
The Flyers keep piling up victories, but they haven’t had a chance to earn an RPI-boosting victory since they lost at Virginia Commonwealth. Rhode Island ranks 35th in the RPI. After this, Dayton has only two games against top-100 teams: No. 95 St. Bonaventure on Feb. 18 at UD Arena and No. 27 VCU on March 1 at UD Arena.
Here’s where a few of the experts predict the Flyers will land in the Big Dance:
Joe Lunardi, ESPN: No. 8 Dayton vs. No. 8 Iowa State in Buffalo.
Jerry Palm, CBS: No. 8 Dayton vs. No. 9 California in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Michael Beller, Sports Illustrated: No. 8 Dayton vs. No. 9 Minnesota
In his bubble watch, Beller writes: "The Flyers took care of business last week, knocking off Fordham and Duquesne. They're going to go into Selection Sunday without a signature victory no matter what they do the rest of the season, but if they play to script, they'll also have about 25 wins and a 14–4 or 15–3 conference record. That'll certainly get them an invite, even if their ceiling is a No. 7 seed.
Stewart Mandel, Fox Sports: No. 8 Dayton vs. No. 9 SMU in Tulsa.
131Sports: No. 7 Dayton vs. No. 10 Marquette in Greenville, S.C.
Bracketologist: No. 8 Dayton vs. No. 9 TCU in Sacramento.
Bracket Matrix: Dayton's average seed is 8.40, and it is listed on all 105 brackets.
In his first Bubble Watch of the season, ESPN's Eamonn Brennan writes of Dayton, "None of the Flyers' individual wins will get the blood boiling; the best is probably a home victory over Rhode Island, followed by a road win over Alabama, followed (we guess?) by a home win over Vanderbilt. It's in the aggregate that Dayton's wins impress: Eight of its 16 have come against top 100 teams. Maybe nine, if Richmond's RPI shrinks in the coming weeks, or 10, if the Flyers manage to beat Rhode Island for a second time Friday, this time on the road. It's an important reminder in the bubble discussion, which is often overly obsessed (us included) by the "But who did they beat?!" question. At a certain point, quantity matters, too."
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