The set-up: Friday night features a quality A-10 matchup with the 15-4 Dayton Flyers (6-1 in A-10 play) visiting the 15-5 VCU Rams (5-2 in A-10 play). Both schools are off 25-win seasons last year, as well as appearing in the Big Dance.
Dayton: The Flyers made it three straight wins with a 67-46 blowout win of Saint Louis in their last game. PG Scoochie Smith led the way with 19 points, making six of nine shots, including five threes. Smith averages 13.9 PPG and 3.6 APG and pairs with the team's leading scorer, Charles Cooke (17.8 & 5.4), to give Dayton an impressive backcourt. Cooke had 15 points to go along with game-high totals ofnine rebounds and six assists in the win over St. Louis. The 6-6 Kendall Pollard (12.0 & 8.8) chipped in nine points and three blocks.

VCU: The Rams ended a two-game slide with an easy 90-52 win over La Salle in their last outing. The 6-7 Justin Tillman (11.6 & 7.6) led the team with 16 points on 7 of 10 shooting from the floor, while falling just one rebound shy of the double-double. Guard JeQuan Lewis had 15 points and leads the team with an average of 14.8 PPG on the season., A trio of guards join him on the perimeter in Williams (8.8), Doughty (8.7) and Brooks (6.0). The 6-7 Alie-Cox (9.8 & 4.1) joins Tillman up front but the Rams miss last year's leading scorer Melvin Johnson (17.7), as well as fellow guard Billbury (11.1).

The pick: The Rams have built quite a program, as the school has won 24-plus games for 10 consecutive seasons, which spans three head coaches. However, this hardly looks like a vintage VCU team and the Rams have so far avoided the top-echelon of A-10 teams. That's not the case here. Make Dayton a 10* play.