| Game 4: Charleston Southern (1-2) at Dayton (1-0) |
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Charleston Southern men's basketball heads to the site of the NCAA First Four Saturday night as they tangle with Dayton from the Atlantic-10 in a primetime battle.
Saturday's 7 p.m. tipoff from UD Arena begins a challenging 48-hour trip for the Bucs as they follow with a visit to the Big Ten preseason favorite and current No. 3 Michigan State Spartans for a Big Monday matchup. Both contests come as campus games for the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.
Charleston Southern also makes their first trip to the state of Ohio since taking on Akron and Wright State in the 2015-16 season and face Dayton for the first time in program history.
For Openers
- Charleston Southern opens their four game Maui on the Mainland slate Saturday night when they head to Dayton, Ohio to take on the Flyers from the Atlantic-10 Conference. The primetime tilt is the first with Dayton in program history and marks the first visit to UD Arena, the home of the NCAA First Four games as part of March Madness.
- The Bucs play just their third game against a current A-10 school under head coach Barclay Radebaugh with the latest coming two seasons ago at Davidson. Saturday also marks the second of five matchups with new opponents in 2019-20 as the Bucs also head to Michigan State less than 48 hours later for a matchup with a top-5 opponent for the first time in school history.
- Charleston Southern will be playing their fourth contest of the season and second away from home while Dayton has played just once, an 86-81 win over Indiana State last Saturday at UD Arena.
- Dayton is the first of three teams currently receiving votes in the AP top-25 Poll on Charleston Southern's schedule alongside No. 3 Michigan State of the Big Ten and Missouri from the SEC.
- Radebaugh and the Bucs take on Dayton head coach Anthony Grant for the third time after playing Alabama twice when Grant was the bench boss in Tuscaloosa.
Scouting The Flyers
- Dayton enters Saturday in the midst of a three-game homestand to open the season before heading to the Maui Invitational. The Flyers downed Indiana State 86-81 last Saturday in their only contest thus far knocking down 21 free throws and blocking five shots to hold on for the narrow win.
- Dayton was selected third in the A-10 preseason poll with a first-place vote behind only VCU and Davidson. Obi Toppin and Jalen Crutcher were voted preseason All-Conference players with Toppin making the First Team and Crutcher earning Second Team honors.
- Four Flyers scored in double figures in their season-opening win with Toppin scoring 29 and grabbing 12 rebounds whith a pair of blocks while Crutcher added 14 points and six assists.
- Dayton used 44 points in the paint, 20 fast break points and 18 points off 12 Indiana State turnovers for a 1-0 start to the season at UD Arena.
- The Flyers are coming off a 21-12 season that saw a 13-5 record in the A-10 as well as 13-4 record inside UD Arena.
Challenging November Slate
- Four of Charleston Southern's nonconference opponents sit inside the KenPom top-100 rankings headlined by No. 1 Michigan State.
- Of the four top-100 teams CSU plays, three come in a three-game stretch between Nov. 12 and Nov. 18.
- CSU begins that daunting stretch with Furman (98) at home followed by a trip to Dayton (56) Nov. 16 and a visit to East Lansing for the preseason No.1 team in America, Michigan State (1) just 48 hours later on Nov. 18.
- Missouri (38) also looms on the Buccaneer schedule to open the December slate while Southern Utah (207), James Madison (223) and Eastern Kentucky (260) all sit within 40 spots of the Bucs in the KenPom rankings.
March Madness Taste
- In one road trip, Charleston Southern will get to play in Dayton, Ohio and East Lansing, Mich. - the homes of two NCAA mainstays. On Nov. 16, the Bucs will take on the Dayton Flyers in UD Arena, the site of the NCAA First Four Round, the first four games of March Madness. The NCAA adopted the First Four model of the tournament prior to the 2010-11 season with Dayton as the designated host for the Opening Round, hosting four games across two nights.
- Two days later, CSU heads to East Lansing to take on one of the most storied programs in the country in Michigan State and head coach Tom Izzo. The Spartans enter 2019-20 fresh off another Final Four run and have high expectations once again as the Big Ten favorites and a preseason No. 1 ranking.
- The Nov. 18 matchup with the Spartans also makes it the second time under head coach Barclay Radebaugh that the Bucs take on a Final Four team from the prior season - the last time it happened the Bucs traveled to Gainesville, Fla. to take on the back-to-back champion Gators in 2007-08.
- Both Dayton and Michigan State will head to the 2019 Maui Invitational the following week as part of a loaded field. It will also be the first time CSU faces either program.
