College Basketball Odds - VCU at Dayton Game Preview

The VCU Rams and Dayton Flyers were the two best teams in the Atlantic 10 last season. Although Rhode Island won the conference tournament, VCU and Dayton were the two best teams all year long and much was expected from them this year. Unfortunately, neither team is performing as their fans hoped.

VCU has at least continued to be competitive. All of its losses came against quality teams other than St. Joseph’s. Dayton has not been so fortunate. The Flyers have suffered some bad losses this season and are right around .500.

This war on the floor will go down Friday, January 12, 2018, at 7 p.m. ET at University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio. The game will be televised live on ESPN2. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Friday schedule.

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VCU is 11-6, but played a pretty tough non-conference schedule. The Rams were underdogs in every game they lost in non-conference play, and they were only able to cover the number once in those five losses.

The Rams have fared better since conference play started though. They are 3-1 SU and 3-1 ATS, with a win on the road as a short underdog against La Salle. Their only loss came on the road in overtime against St. Joseph’s, and this team has been able to put the screws to the bad teams in the A-10.

Things have not gone well for Dayton this season. The Flyers have been underwhelming and have already lost outright four times as a favorite this year.

Over has been a solid bet in Dayton home games thus far. Although the Flyers’ most recent home game against UMass fell well short of the total, their previous five home games all went over by healthy margins.

Coaching Angle

Both of these schools lost a good coach to a major program this offseason. VCU has become used to seeing its coaches leave for other jobs and has adapted, but Dayton has struggled to overcome the loss of Archie Miller.

Miller was a fantastic coach during his six seasons in charge of Dayton, taking the Flyers to the NCAA Tournament in four straight years. The Flyers had their best performance ever under his watch, reaching the Elite Eight in 2014, but he left for the challenge of taking over at Indiana this offseason.

His replacement, Anthony Grant, has had a hard time adapting. Grant was an assistant for the Oklahoma City Thunder for the last two years, but couldn’t resist returning to the college ranks when this job opened up. Interestingly enough, Grant’s first head coaching gig was at VCU. He coached the Rams until 2009 and then left for Alabama, leaving Shaka Smart to take over.

Four straight Rams coaches have left for jobs at power conferences. After Will Wade left for LSU this past offseason, it was VCU’s turn to steal a coach from another school. Mike Rhoades was previously an assistant with VCU, but left to become Rice’s head coach. He couldn’t resist the opportunity to return to Richmond though, and jumped at the chance to coach here.

Player to Watch

There’s no question who the star of the show is for Dayton. Josh Cunningham has continued to be fantastic for the Flyers this season. He is one of the most efficient shooters in the country, and he shined against Richmond on Tuesday night. On the road, he went 8-8 from the floor and finished the evening with 20 points. He is now hitting 67.2 percent of his field goals this year.

It was an incredible performance for Cunningham, especially because he had an off night rebounding. Fouls plagued him, so the team’s leading rebounder had just two boards. He is averaging almost 10 rebounds a game though and is averaging twice as many rebounds as anyone else on the roster.

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It’s tough to win on the road in college basketball, but VCU is equipped to do so here. The Rams’ guards will be able to exploit Dayton’s defense, and they will force some mistakes as well. Look for VCU to win this one handily.

College Basketball Odds: VCU 81, Dayton 72

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