Flyers men’s basketball joins impressive field at 2021 ESPN Events Invitational

Flyers fans are no strangers to early season, neutral-site games; here cheering during the 2019 Chicago Legends game against Colorado. Photo courtesy of Griffin Quinn, Flyer News.

Peter Burtnett
Sports Editor

The University of Dayton men’s basketball team has joined an impressive field of teams at the 2021 ESPN Events Invitational, which will be played on Thanksgiving Weekend near Orlando, Fla., the university announced Thursday.

The invitational will be played at HP Field House at ESPN Wide World of Sports from Thursday, Nov. 25 through Sunday, Nov. 28. Joining the Flyers at the invitational are Alabama, Belmont, Drake, Iona, Kansas, Miami (Fla.) and North Texas.

The Flyers are no stranger to this invitational, though under a different branding and name, making the Orlando Invitational in 2011 and 2015, winning in 2011. Kansas is the other previous champion in this field, winning in 2014. The Flyers have some recent history with the Jayhawks, battling it out in an overtime thriller in the 2019 Maui Jim Maui Invitational.

Flyers head coach Anthony Grant also has his own history in play, as he previously served as head coach at Alabama from 2009-15, amassing a record of 117-85.

The invitational marks the 14th consecutive exempt tournament appearance for the Flyers in a full season.

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