Dayton, Ohio, is home to one of the top men's basketball programs in the Atlantic-10 Conference. The Dayton Flyers play at the University of Dayton Arena, which opened in 1969 and currently seats 13,435. Since 2001, college basketball has descended upon the UD Arena each March for the opening round of the NCAA March Madness, with the Flyers hosting the "First Four" games. The Flyers are coached by Anthony Grant, who had prior success coaching at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Alabama before replacing Archie Miller for the 2017 season.

Dayton Flyers Men's Basketball History

St. Mary's Institute first fielded a varsity men's basketball team in 1903, with the school being renamed the University of Dayton in 1920. Tom Blackburn brought success to UD in his run as coach from 1948 to 1964, leading the Flyers to six National Invitation Tournament finals and the 1962 NIT championship. From 1964 to 1989, coach Don Donoher built on this foundation, winning the NIT in 1968 and making deep runs in the NCAA Tournament throughout his career. In 1967, the Flyers went on an incredible run, beating Western Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia Tech and UNC before losing in the national championship game 79-64 to the UCLA Bruins. In 1984, the Flyers came close to a second Final Four appearance before falling to Georgetown in the Elite Eight.

After spending its entire history as an independent, Dayton joined the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now known as the Horizon League) in 1988, winning the conference tournament under future NBA head coach Jim O'Brien in 1990. The Flyers moved to the short-lived Great Midwest Conference in 1993 before finally joining the Atlantic-10 upon the GMC's demise in 1995. Archie Miller led the Flyers to their first Atlantic-10 regular season championships in 2016 and 2017 before leaving to coach the Indiana Hoosiers.