FACTS & STATS: Site: University of Dayton Arena (13,266) -- Dayton, Ohio. Television: Local. Home Record: Creighton 0-0, Dayton 0-0. Away Record: Creighton 0-0, Dayton 0-0. Neutral Record: Creighton 0-0, Dayton 0-0. Conference Record: Creighton 0-0, Dayton 0-0. Series Record: Dayton leads, 6-4.

GAME NOTES: Winners of 20 straight games at home, the 21st-ranked Dayton Flyers try to tie the school record in that department this afternoon as they open the 2009-10 campaign against the visiting Creighton Bluejays.

Needing only seven more wins at home to reach 500 overall at UD Arena, the Flyers enter this season as the favorite to take the Atlantic 10 Conference, thanks to having four starters and 10 of the top 11 scorers from last year's squad back for another run.

Dayton head coach Brian Gregory watched his team bow to Duquesne in the A-10 Conference Tournament semifinals last year, 77-66, but the team still made the NCAA Tournament and defeated West Virginia in the first round, 68-60. However, the Flyers were sent packing in the second round as they lost to Kansas in a lopsided 60-43 final, leaving Dayton with an overall record of 27-8 on the campaign.

The Bluejays are under the guidance of Dana Altman, and they put up a record of 27-8 overall as well in 2008-09, winning 16 of the 19 games played at home. The squad was an impressive 14-4 against the rest of the Missouri Valley Conference, but after losing to Illinois State in the conference tournament (73-49), Creighton was sent to the NIT where it defeated Bowling Green by just two points (73-71) and then fell to Kentucky by a basket (65-63).

This series dates back to 1961 and continued last year when the 'Jays posted a 77-59 win at home. As a result Creighton, which has a record of just 18-113 against AP ranked programs, closed the gap in the all-time series as it now favors Dayton by a count of 6-4.

The Bluejays welcome back three starters from a year ago, the most important of those being P'Allen Stinnett who earned a spot on the Preseason All-MVC First Team. Stinnett has been a consistent scoring option for the 'Jays for a number of years now, leading the current roster with 43 games having scored in double figures. A 12.5 ppg scorer last season, Stinnett will have to help bridge the gap left by the departed Booker Woodfox who led the program with his 15.8 ppg. Woodfox also took with him one of the top three-point efforts in all of college basketball after converting a stunning 47.6 percent of his tries, which adds even more pressure to Stinnett and someone like Cavel Witter (7.7 ppg) who holds the current high mark for the 'Jays with a 42-point game in his career. Kenny Lawson (8.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg) and Justin Carter (8.1 ppg, 5.5 rpg) will again be expected to handle action in the paint for Creighton, but the duo will need some more help on the glass after the team was beaten by more than three rebounds per game a season ago.

The Flyers focused much of their energy on defense last season, limiting opponents to just 61.4 ppg and a mere 39.7 percent accuracy from the floor. The fact that there were only two double-digit scorers on the roster wasn't that important as long as the defense showed up every night. Chris Wright was the top point producer with his 13.3 ppg, followed by Marcus Johnson with his 11.8 ppg. Both players shoot the ball well from the field, hitting better than 45 percent of their chances a season ago, but the area that still hurts the duo and the entire team is at the free-throw line. Neither Wright nor Johnson managed to hit even 68 percent at the stripe and because of that the team as a whole was down at a miserable 64.7 percent, not the kind of effort you'd expect from a nationally-ranked program. Another returning starter, London Warren, did little as far as scoring was concerned a year ago with his mere 4.1 ppg, mainly because his job was to distribute the ball. Warren accounted for almost one-third of the team's assists with 154, but better yet, he turned it over just 66 times.

The Flyers raced through the first couple of months of play last season, losing just once heading into the second week of January. Ironically, that lone setback came against this same Creighton bunch, so there is a bit of payback that needs to be settled this afternoon in Ohio.

Predicted Outcome

Dayton 74, Creighton 66