Game Tips At 4:30 P.M. ET

DAYTON — The University of Dayton Flyers will begin an odd week, playing the same team in back-to-back regular season games for the first time in 27 years.  UD will be the visitor against George Washington on Sunday, Jan. 17 in a 4:30 p.m. ET game. The two teams will meet again in Dayton on Wednesday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. ET.  To add to the oddity, Sunday’s game will be played at Eagle Bank Arena on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.  It was moved out of D.C. due to security concerns related to next week’s presidential inauguration.

To take it just a little farther, the last time the Flyers played the same team in back-to-back games at any point was the last game of the 2011-12 regular season and the first game of the 20212 Atlantic 10 tournament against…George Washington.

Dayton is 7-3, and 3-2 in the Atlantic 10 after Wednesday’s 72-63 win over Duquesne.  Ibi Watson led UD with 19 points, backed by Jalen Crutcher’s 18 and Mustapha Amzil’s 11.

Sunday’s game will carried by WHIO Radio, televised on the NBC Sports Network and streamed at nbcsports.com/live.  Streaming audio, video and stats will be available at DaytonFlyers.com.

#TRENDING

• Moving into a more visibly primary role this year, Jalen Crutcher got the kind of attention from the media during the preseason that he is getting from opponents during the season.  He was on the Naismith, Wooden, NABC and Bob Cousy Award Watch Lists.

• Crutcher, a four-year starter, was ranked the 12th-best player in the country by ESPN, 16th in CBSSports.com’s top college basketball players.  The Athletic rated him sixth among its top 20 guards in the country.  He was also named Second Team Preseason All-America by Stadium. 

• Keep in mind that Crutcher was UD’s co-MVP last season, with consensus national PoY Obi Toppin. Crutcher is the first Flyer with 1,200 points, 500 assists and 200 three-pointers.

• Crutcher lived up to his nickname of “Clutcher” in Dayton’s first six wins, scoring UD’s final points in the last seconds of regulation or overtime at the line.

• Ibi Watson is second on the team in scoring (16.5) and minutes (39.0), and percentage-wise, is nearly a 50-40-80 guy.  He shoots 48% FG, 46% from 3-pt. and 86% from the line.

•If a “true freshman” is a player who signed the previous year and is playing without redshirting, can you call a player who signed in November and scores 22 points in December start a “truer freshman?” We call him Mustapha Amzil, and the 22 points he scored in first college game were the most at UD in 14 years.  He then had 15 vs. GMU (with 6 reb & 4 asst).

• Amzil was A-10 Rookie of the Week exactly 50 days after he signed with UD on Nov. 16.

• “True” freshman Koby Brea also made his first appearance in the La Salle game, and then got his first start vs. GMU.  He missed the first five games of the year with a wrist injury. 

• After playing a total of 18 minutes with no points or rebounds in his first four games of the year, redshirt freshman Zimi Nwokeji has averaged 25.0 minutes, 7.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in the last four games. 

• Jordy Tshimanga pulled down 16 rebounds at Fordham, the most by a Flyer in three years.   He is averaging 11.0 rebounds in his last three contests.  Sunday is his 100th collegiate game.

• In two games as a starter, Elijah Weaver has 19 points, 13 assists and four turnovers.

GAME PREVIEW COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS