GAME: No. 10 Dayton (24-8) vs. No. 7 DePaul (21-9).
REGIONAL: Phoenix, First Round.
TIME: Thursday, 9:40 p.m. EST.
SITE: HSBC Arena; Buffalo, N.Y.
As players from both Dayton and DePaul got together on Sunday to find out whether they would be in the NCAA tournament, neither club knew what to expect.
They both received at-large berths, and their first-round matchup should feel like old times when they meet in the Phoenix Regional in Buffalo, N.Y.
The 10th-seeded Flyers and No. 7 Blue Demons were once rivals in the Great Midwest Conference and have met 66 times. Dayton holds a 35-31 lead in the series that dates to the 1920-21 season.
The teams last met in Dayton on Dec. 30, 1998, with the Flyers winning 70-59.
"The tradition between these two schools and this rivalry is great," Dayton coach Brian Gregory said. "I grew up 30 minutes from where DePaul plays, so I got to experience this rivalry."
Dayton lost in the Atlantic 10 tournament final to Xavier on Saturday, and was unsure if it would get its second consecutive berth in the NCAA tournament.
"We were getting pretty nervous especially when they called some other teams for at-large (bids)," Dayton senior forward Keith Waleskowski said. "It's a No. 10-No. 7 game and there are a lot of upsets there. We're the 10 seed and we're playing DePaul and there's a lot of history there."
Dayton is led by its senior trio of Waleskowski, center Sean Finn and guard Ramod Marshall. They have combined for 40.7 of the team's 68.0 points this season, and have added 19.7 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game between them.
"Finn's made great strides over the last month," Gregory said. "Keith is what Keith is. He's probably one of the best players of all time in the Atlantic 10 when you look at the stats. And Ramod's had an unbelievable career in terms of winning percentage. These are three special guys. (They) know what their next goal is."
DePaul also lost in its conference title game, falling 55-50 to Cincinnati in the final of the Conference USA tournament on Saturday. It too was unsure if it was going to get an invite to the NCAA tournament, but the Blue Devils' play down the stretch got them in.
DePaul won six in a row before its loss in the conference championship game to earn its first NCAA invitation since 2000.
"It was nerve-racking. We had to be patient," Blue Demons center Andre Brown said. "We knew our time was going to come and here it is."
The Blue Demons will be without reserve LeVar Seals on Thursday after he was ejected on Saturday for striking Cincinnati's Tony Bobbitt near the groin.
Referees referred to the incident as a fight, which requires Seals to miss DePaul's first-round game. Seals is averaging 3.8 points, and leads all DePaul bench players with an average of 16.9 minutes per game.
The winner of this game will face either No. 2 Connecticut or No. 15 Vermont in the second round on Saturday.
PROBABLE STARTERS: Dayton - F Waleskowski (13.2 ppg, 9.7 rpg), F Marques Bennett (2.9 ppg, 3.4 rpg), C Finn (13.0 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 1.2 bpg), G Marshall (14.5 ppg, 5.2 apg), G Mark Jones (9.2 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.5 apg). DePaul - F Delonte Holland (16.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 2.1 apg), F Quemont Greer (12.6 ppg, 7.3 rpg), C Brown (14.0 ppg, 9.5 rpg), G Sammy Mejia (8.2 ppg, 4.4 apg, 4.3 rpg), G Drake Diener (12.0 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.5 apg).
HOW THEY GOT HERE: Dayton - At-large berth. DePaul - At-large berth.
ALL-TIME TOURNAMENT RECORD: Dayton - 13-14, 12 years. DePaul - 20-24, 21 years.
