There is plenty of work to be done.

The men's basketball team took a step toward making their way back into the NCAA Tournament with its 90-65 dismantling of Xavier Saturday. However, as much of a boost as the win was to the team's tournament hopes, Dayton is still not a lock. And while I have my own theories about what the Flyers need to do to get themselves back into the Big Dance, I thought it would be better to talk to a man who knows college basketball as well as anyone.

I spoke with ESPN Bracketologist and St. Joe's radio network color analyst Joe Lunardi last week to see what the Flyers have to do to make sure they're playing in the only tournament that matters come March.

First of all, beating Xavier, obviously, doesn't ink the Flyers into the tournament.

"It's not the be-all, end-all win because it's a home game," Lunardi said. "Now had they not lost to Xavier on the road or not lost to Rhode Island, if either of those had occurred, [they would be in a little better position]." I asked Lunardi if the win at Xavier would be a "baby step" toward getting back into the NCAA Tournament and he said it had a slightly bigger impact than that.

"Maybe a little more than a baby step-maybe like a toddler step." he said.

So what can the Flyers do to get back into serious at-large consideration? For starters, Lunardi said that the Flyers need to be near the top of the A-10 standings.

"What they need to be is in that top three or four in the league," Lunardi said. "And until that happens, they're going to be probably either just in or just out with very little comfort zone."

Lunardi said too that if he was told before the season that in early February the Flyers tournament status was in limbo, he wouldn't be all that taken aback.

"I [would have been] surprised but I don't think I would be shocked," Lunardi said. "Because they did schedule a lot of up games in the non-conference, they did schedule more games than usual away from the arena-which hasn't always been kind to Dayton over the years, to travel-and it's not like they were head and shoulders above the league."

What Lunardi added was that this year's Dayton team isn't like Xavier in 2006-07 or 2007-08, or UMass in its heyday, or John Chaney's great Temple squads or the 2003-05 St. Joe's teams.

"In those eras, there was clearly a team that was better than everyone else," Lunardi said. "And while Dayton was the logical pick [to win the A-10] given the personnel losses at Xavier and Temple, it wasn't a head and shoulders thing."

The real surprise has been how many other teams are in the mix with the Flyers. It's easy to look at the A-10 standings and see that Charlotte, Richmond and Rhode Island are all better teams than many people thought before the season.

"So instead of it being Dayton and Xavier or Dayton, Xavier, Temple-it's all three of them plus Charlotte, Richmond and Rhode Island," Lunardi said. "[Dayton] really hasn't dropped a lot, they've maybe slipped a half rung from maybe where we thought they'd be. There's just more people on the ladder with them-which is great for the league, but not so great for Dayton."

So where do the Flyers go from here? First, it now comes down to Dayton knocking off teams ahead of them in the conference standings. And that's good news considering the Flyers still have three of the four teams ahead of them in the A-10-Charlotte, Temple and Richmond-left on the schedule. Secondly, however obvious it might sound, Dayton will need to take care of business in Atlantic City.

How well the Flyers will have to play in Atlantic City, according to Lunardi, will depend on how they finish in the conference standings.

"If they finish 12-4, as long as they don't lose to anyone [bad] in AC, they should be fine," Lunardi said. "But if they finish fifth or sixth, which is where it sits today, and somebody comes in and upsets them in that early round? However unlikely that might be-given their huge home court advantage-that would be disastrous."

So basically what it boils down to is that if the Flyers take care of their own business down the home stretch of their 2010 A-10 season, they'll be back in the NCAA Tournament. And in sports, what more can you ask for than controlling your own destiny?