BEVERLY HILLS (MI) — The time is almost here for all of the Flyer Faithful to gorge themselves on turkey and then feast on three UD games in four days at the AdvoCare Invitational from sunny Orlando. No 96 hour hoops binge is complete without some tasty appetizers, so here you go:

— ESPN’s Andy Katz believes that the Iowa/UD game may be the best opening round tilt in any of the holiday exempt tournaments:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=14211438

As I write this Ken Pomeroy notes that there are 62 undefeated schools left in D-1 men’s basketball…and five of them — UD, USC, Iowa, X and Notre Dame — are in Orlando. Meanwhile, six of the eight teams at The Wooden Legacy in Cali (where Dayton will play next year) are also entering that tourney unblemished.

— Pomeroy lists UD/Iowa as one of “the five games you’ll want to watch this week.” (Some scrolling is required):

http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/entry/week_in_review_11_13_11_19

— Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports declares UD/Iowa to be “the sleeper game of the week”:

http://mweb.cbssports.com/ncaab/eye-on-college-basketball/25387633/observations-lsu-needs-to-give-ben-simmons-space-to-operate

— David Jablonski of The DDN notes in his pre-tourney write-up that if UD beats Iowa it could mean that Dayton and Xavier could play Sunday for first time in 1,017 days:

http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/sports/college-basketball/dayton-xavier-could-play-sunday-for-first-time-in-/npTwF/

Nice to see that David is headed to Florida instead of Ann Arbor.

— Jablonski has added a new feature to his Flyer post-game coverage — Twitter reactions.

Here is the one for Alabama:

http://daytonflyers.blog.daytondailynews.com/2015/11/18/twitter-reacts-dayton-80-alabama-48/

And for Bill and Mary:

http://daytonflyers.blog.daytondailynews.com/2015/11/22/twitter-reacts-dayton-69-william-mary-66/

— ICYMI, this is a podcast of Monday night’s Archie Miller Show, courtesy of WHIO radio:

http://od-cmg.streamguys1.com/dayton/day957/TheArchieMillerShow/archiemillershow112315.mp3

— UD is #1 in the CoxHub A-10 power ratings:

http://www.coxhub.com/articles/vcu-vs-duke-highlights-big-weekend-for-atlantic-10?utm_campaign=Atlantic%2010%20Basketball&utm_content=25098417&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

— The Red & Blue get some votes in the Pickin’ Splinters Top 25 poll (Matt Schwade from FlyerHoops.net gets to vote):

http://www.pickinsplinters.com/?p=46817

— Rush the Court calls the Atlantic 10 “the best kept secret in Division 1”:

http://rushthecourt.net/2015/11/24/checking-in-on-the-atlantic-10-63/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter

— It is way, way too early to pay RPI ratings any heed, but from the “Just Sayin’ Department” UD is currently #7 in the highly accurate UD Pride RPI:

https://www.udpride.com/images/rpi.htm

— Speaking of things that are way, way this honor was way, way overdue:

http://daytonflyers.com/news/2015/11/24/MBB_1124154620.aspx

— “The Hometown Coach” Mark Adams likes to keep track of basketball programs that are doing more with less. To that end, here is the latest annual budget list (from 2014) of all Division 1 men’s basketball teams:

http://bbstate.com/all/budget-mbb

— “Awful Announcing” believes that FS1 is becoming the ESPN alternative nobody wanted:

http://awfulannouncing.com/2015/fs1-becoming-espn-alternative-nobody-wanted.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=fs1-becoming-espn-alternative-nobody-wanted

I used to love “The Mt. Rushmore of Awful Announcing” on their homepage, with Dickie V and Kenny “The Hawk” Harrelson duly ensconced on it, but it appears to have been eliminated.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
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