By Cord Rankin

EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern hits the road for the first time this season as it travels to Dayton for a matchup between two teams that reached the NCAA Tournament Second Round last season. Tipoff is slated for 6:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, Nov. 9, with the game airing on ESPN+ with Alex Mikos (play-by-play) and Brooks Hall (analyst) on the call and WGN Radio 720 with Dave Eanet (play-by-play) and Billy McKinney (analyst).

On Monday night (Nov. 4), the Wildcats (1-0) posted their largest margin of victory in a season-opener against a Division I opponent in program history with a 90-46 win over Lehigh.

Sullivan-Ubben Head Coach Chris Collins is in his 12th season at the helm of the ‘Cats, and his 178 wins rank third most by a head coach in program history. The unanimous 2023 Big Ten Coach of the Year, Collins has guided the team to back-to-back 20+ win campaigns. Of the six 20 or more win seasons in school history, Collins has recorded four of them (2015-16, 2016-17, 2022-23, 2023-24). Over the last two seasons, the Wildcats have won 24 Big Ten Conference games, their most ever in back-to-back seasons in school history, surpassing 20 wins encompassing the 1930-31 and 1931-32 seasons.

With the win over Lehigh, Northwestern improved to 11-1 in season openers under Collins. The ‘Cats are looking to start a season 2-0 for the fifth-straight season and the 10th time under Collins. Over the last four campaigns, Northwestern is 3-1 in its first road game of the season, and over the last two seasons the team’s 11-11 record on the road is the second-best in the Big Ten Conference behind Purdue (15-6).

Northwestern is 3-2 all-time against the Flyers and have won the last three in the series, with each game being decided by five points or fewer. Last season, the teams met in Evanston, where the Wildcats pulled away for a 71-66 victory.

The Flyers enter the Saturday’s game 1-0 following an 87-57 win over Saint Francis (Pa.) on Tuesday (Nov. 5). Head coach Anthony Grant led Dayton to a 25-8 record and an NCAA Tournament Second Round appearance last season. The Flyers return three starters from last season in Nate Santos, Javon Bennett and Enoch Cheeks. Santos was the team’s second-leading scorer averaging 11.7 points per game, while Bennett was second on the team in assists with 3.3 per game.

COURTESY NORTHWESTERN ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS