BUFFALO, N.Y. — Dayton doesn’t have the go-to guy that many teams still standing in the NCAA Tournament do.

There’s no Andrew Wiggins. No Doug McDermott. No Russ Smith. In fact, no one on the Flyers averages more than 13 points per game.

But what Dayton does have is depth. Four players score between nine and 13 a game, and head coach Archie Miller rotates in at least nine guys with regularity. The Flyers (24-10, 10-6 Atlantic 10) don’t have nearly the same star power as Syracuse (28-5, 14-4 Atlantic Coast). If they end up upsetting the Orange on Saturday at 7:10 p.m. in First Niagara Center it will likely because of their balance.

“It’s big time, because we’ve got 10 guys who can make something happen within the zone,” Dayton forward Devin Oliver said. “We’ve got a multitude of shooters, and it’s good to have a team that’s balanced like that.”

He said teams with depth that can score from a variety of positions are often destined for a deep Tournament run. Jordan Sibert, Vee Sanford and Khari Price are capable scorers off the dribble, while Oliver, Dyshawn Pierre and Matt Kavanaugh can do damage in the paint.

All play more than 16 minutes per game, and three more players on Dayton average double-figure minutes. When Sibert, Oliver and Co. go to the bench, their backups aren’t much of a drop-off.

“We are a really balanced team,” Sanford said. “Anybody can have their night. I feel like that can be an advantage as far as if someone’s off, someone can be on for our team.”

That depth was on full display in the Flyers’ second-round victory over Ohio State. Eleven players saw the floor for Dayton and nine scored. It wasn’t as if it was a blowout, either. UD won by just one point, but bench players Kendall Pollard and Sanford saw valuable minutes late in the game.

Sanford hit the game-winner with 3.8 to go to keep the Flyers’ season alive.

Syracuse assistant coach Mike Hopkins said Dayton kept throwing different players at Ohio State and wearing the Buckeyes down.

Aaron Craft, LaQuinton Ross and Sam Thompson all played at least 30 minutes for OSU, but only Pierre played more than 30 for Dayton.

“We know they’ve got a lot of different players that can do multiple things,” SU forward C.J. Fair said.

Hopkins likened Dayton to Jamie Dixon’s Pittsburgh teams over the years. Dixon often has players who play 16 or 17 minutes and come in and “seem to hit two 17-footers” late in the game, Hopkins said.

Like Pitt, Dayton has bench players who can hit key shots down the stretch.

“There’s no changeover,” Hopkins said. “When their sixth, seventh, eighth man comes in there’s no difference to their team. They might actually get better.”

Syracuse, however, largely plays with a seven-man rotation. Michael Gbinije and Baye Moussa Keita see a decent amount of time, but the starters eat up the bulk of the minutes. Fair, Tyler Ennis, Jerami Grant and Trevor Cooney are all averaging more than 30 per game, and Rakeem Christmas plays 23 per contest.

Fair isn’t worried, though. He’s used to playing a lot of minutes and running up and down with opposing players who are fresh off the bench. Fair’s confident Syracuse will adjust accordingly and be able to outlast the Flyers.

“Yeah, they have their style. We have our style,” Fair said. “They rotate a lot of guys in and out frequently. For us, we play our starters the majority of the game.

“But it’s been effective that way. So I don’t see no problem with it.”

Published on March 22, 2014 at 5:22 pm

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