What you should know about Wednesday’s game at UMass

“After being abandoned by their partners in the prestigious Great Midwest Conference, the Flyers wanted to play in a league where they could gain national exposure. They probably didn’t dream it would come so soon.

“The Flyers will make their A-10 debut against the No. 1 team in the country on Saturday when they take on the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.”

Twenty-nine years later, Dayton (11-4, 1-1) plays Umass (5-10, 0-2) at the Mullins Center on Wednesday at 7 p.m. It could be UD’s last game there. UMass will leave the A-10 for the Mid-American Conference after this season.

In 1996, UMass cruised to a 78-58 win in the final 10 minutes, capitalizing on 26 Dayton turnovers. Marcus Camby, the No. 2 pick in that year’s NBA draft, scored a career-high 38 points.

UMass improved to 12-0. It won its first 26 games before losing to George Washington. It then won nine straight games before losing to Kentucky in the Final Four.

“I thought we came in hard and didn’t back down,” Dayton coach Oliver Purnell said. “Sometimes you can be intimidated by a team that’s ranked No. 1 in the country, especially a team that plays as defensively as UMass. I’m proud that we came here and played hard, but we need to take better care of the basketball if we want to beat good teams in this league.”

Massachusetts peaked as a program this season, winning its fifth straight Atlantic 10 Conference tournament and reaching the Final Four for the first time in coach John Calipari’s final season. It is still the only A-10 team to reach the Final Four.

The Final Four appearance was later vacated by the NCAA because an investigation revealed that Camby had accepted gifts from agents.

UMass returned to the NCAA Tournament in 1997 and 1997, but has only secured a berth once (2014) in the last 26 seasons. The schedule Dayton will play on Wednesday is not the same as 1996, but as Dayton learned in an 82-62 loss to George Washington on Saturday, every road game in the A-10 is a challenge.

“It’s very hard to go into an opponent’s gym,” Dayton forward Zed Key said Saturday, “but we’re a good team. We’ll be fine.”

Here are 10 things you should know about the game:

1. Series history: Dayton leads the series 20-14. Dayton defeated UMass 64-60 at UD Arena last season and won 72-54 on its last visit to Amherst in 2023.

The Flyers have won eight straight games in the series. This is the longest winning streak for either team in the series.

After four straight losses at the Mullins Center, Dayton has won three straight games there. The arena has been 7-9 since 1996.

2. Status of the program: UMass improved from 15-16 to 20-11 last season in coach Frank Martin’s second season. It was the program’s first 20-win season since 2014. The A-10’s 11-7 record was the best in the first 10 seasons in which the A-10 played an 18-game schedule. It was picked to finish ninth in this season’s preseason poll.

3. Difficult team: UMass opened the season with a 103-74 win over New Hampshire, but then lost five straight games to West Virginia, Louisiana Tech, Hofstra, Temple and Florida State. It won four of the next six games but has since lost three straight games to Arizona State, Saint Joseph’s and Richmond.

4. A-10 launch: UMass lost 81-72 in its A-10 opener at Saint Joseph’s. It was a four-point game in the final four minutes, but the Minutemen trailed in the second half.

In Saturday’s 72-64 home loss to Richmond, UMass opened the game with a 20-7 run. Then they were outscored 14-4 in the final 6½ minutes. The Spiders led 34-31 at halftime and stayed on top in the second half.

“When we have problems on offense, we don’t handle those periods of the game very well,” Martin told reporters on Monday. “I am a player developer. That’s what I’ve always believed in: making boys better. Young people have more responsibility than they did a year ago. … There are moments where they try to do what I ask of them, but they try to handle more responsibility and it doesn’t work out. And these moments are what hurt us right now. We’re trying to get our guys to learn to overcome those moments.”

Photo credit: David Jablonski

Photo credit: David Jablonski

5. Transfer Portal Losses: Josh Cohen led UMass in scoring last season (15.9). A fifth-year forward, he is now starting for Southern California and is averaging 9.7 points per game.

• Forward Matt Cross ranked second in scoring last season (15.3). He is in his fifth and final season at Southern Methodist, where he started 10 games and averaged 10.7 points per game.

6. Top returnees: Rahsool Diggins, a 6-2 senior guard, leads the team in scoring (13.6) after finishing third last season (12.8). He scored 33 points against Saint Joseph’s.

• Jaylen Curry, a 6-0 sophomore guard, ranked fifth last season (7.9) and is second this season (12.9). He leads the team in assists (4.5).

7. Top Newbie: Daniel Rivera, a 6-6 sophomore guard, averaged 13.3 points last season at Bryant and is averaging 11.5 points in his first season at UMass. He leads the team in rebounding (7.4).

8. Another road test: Dayton will look to avoid its first consecutive A-10 losses since the 2022-23 season, when it lost 76-69 at Rhode Island and then 75-70 at Rhode Island.

9. Strengths and Weaknesses: UMass ranks fifth in the A-10 rankings in turnover margin (plus 1.6). Dayton is in sixth place (plus 1.27).

• UMass ranks 354th out of 364 teams in 3-point shooting (26.6%). It shot under 30% in five straight games before going 7 of 19 (39.6%) against Richmond. Dayton has shot under 30% in five straight games and is ranked 104th (34.9%).

10. Odds and Endings: KenPom.com gives Dayton an 85% chance of winning and predicts a score of 81-70. Dayton fell from No. 33 to No. 48 in the Pomeroy standings after losing to George Washington. UMass started the season ranked 116th and is now ranked 224th.

• Dayton is ranked 54th in the Ncaa Evaluation Tool. It is the second-ranked A-10 team behind No. 51 St. Bonaventure. No. 265 George Washington is the lowest-ranked A-10 team.

This is a Quad 4 game for Dayton and a Quad 2 game for George Washington.

Dayton is 2-3 in Quad 1 play, 1-1 in Quad 2, 2-0 in Quad 3 and 5-0 in Quad 4. UMass is 0-1 in Quad-1, 0-3 in Quad-2, 0-4 in Quad 3 and 4-2 in Quad 4.

WEDNESDAY GAME

Dayton at UMass, 7 p.m., Peacock, 1290, 95.7