What the ‘experts’ are saying about UD’s chances vs. Nevada
Pictured is DaRon Holmes II from the UD Men’s Basketball team at the A-10 Tournament. Photo courtesy of Oliva Shirk for Flyer News.
James Tong | Contributing Writer
DAYTON, Ohio – The Dayton Flyers (24-7) will face the Nevada Wolf Pack (26-7) at
4:30 on Thursday afternoon in wat many writers expect to be a close game. Both teams
lost the first game of their conference tournament after both were expected to go far in those
tournaments.
No. 10 seed Nevada is seen by many sports writers and experts to be the winner of this
matchup despite being the lower seeded team to No. 7-seed Dayton. Among the experts that have
Nevada winning are most notably ESPN’s Jay Bilas, Joe Lunardi along with NCAA.com’s Andy
Katz.
“They (Nevada) have a team that’s already won a tournament (Diamond Head Classic).
They’ve got a lot of momentum and I love the way they’re playing,” Katz said on NCAA.com.
While Katz has the Flyers falling to the Wolf Pack, he also listed Flyers star big man,
DaRon Holmes II, as one of the top players in the tournament in a post on Instagram after his
prediction.
Bilas said that, “Dayton will be a tough out because it has a true star in Holmes and solid
pieces around him. Six players hit more than 24 3s in the regular season, with four guys hitting
more than 40. The Mountain West has disappointed in past years, but Nevada has a very good
backcourt, I am taking the Wolf Pack.”
The team at The Athletic is at a split in its decision between the two teams. The
experts say that they can see Nevada winning for three reasons. The first is that they have been
winning and are “on fire in February and March,” the second being their guards, and the third is
that they have beaten strong teams. For the Flyers, the experts say that they can see them
winning since they have players such as Holmes and have a strong offense.
Chris Murray of NSN gave a more neutral statement, saying that “this is a tough one for
the Wolf Pack.”
Murray then took a look at Holmes’s statistics, backing up how tough a game
this will be for Nevada. Murray however cites the Flyers weak defense for a team that made the
tournament and that they are the “fourth-worst of any at-large team” according to KenPom.
It’s clear that a lot of the focus regarding players is on Holmes, who just made the AP
All-American Second Team. Holmes also was a first-team All-A-10 player, A-10 Defensive
Player of the Year, and A-10 Co-Player of the Year.
Other players to watch for Dayton include forward Nate Santos and guard Koby Brea. Santos
was placed on the third-team All- A-10 this year, while Brea won his second A-10 Sixth Man of
the Year Award while also being amongst the top players in 3-point percentage in college
basketball.
Players to watch for Nevada are guards Kenan Blackshear and Jarod Lucas, who were both
second-team All-MWC players. Another notable player for Nevada is third team
All-MWC forward Nick Davidson.
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