June 4, 2008

The University of Dayton will play in the third annual Chicago Invitational Challenge at the Sears Centre Arena this November, it was announced today. The tournament field was revealed in conjunction with the announcement that tickets for the four sessions played in Chicago will go on sale on Saturday, June 7.

The other teams in the field will be Auburn, Marquette, Northern Iowa, Chicago State, Mercer, Texas Southern and Bethune-Cookman.

Rounds one and two will be played on the home courts of Marquette, Dayton, Auburn, and Northern Iowa. Dayton will host Bethune-Cookman on Sunday, November 23 and Mercer on Tuesday, November 25.

The final rounds of the tournament will be during Thanksgiving weekend. UD will play Auburn on Friday, November 28 and Marquette on Saturday, November 29 at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

"The appeal to play in an exempt tournament like this works on several levels," Flyer head coach Brian Gregory said. "We will have five new players on next year's team, and this is a way to give them additional game experience early in their careers. And this will give Chris Wright more live action before he plays his first full A-10 season, since he played in only 15 games last year,

"It also allows us to play two extra games in front of our home crowd," Gregory continued, "and those games will lead to us being able to play an SEC team in Auburn and a Big East team in Marquette on a neutral court."

"Any time we have an opportunity to play teams from those types of leagues, we have to jump at it."

Tickets are available beginning June 7th, 2008 at the Sears Centre Box Office, select AMCORE Bank outlets, by phone at 1-888-SEARS TIX (732-7784), and on-line at www.searscentre.com. Tournament pass prices are $109 for floor seats, $98 for club level, $87 for lower bowl, and $65 for upper bowl and are good for all eight games.

For information on the Dayton allotment, contact the UD Arena Ticket Office at (937) 229-4433.

Sears Centre Arena is an 11,000 seat multi-purpose family entertainment, cultural, and sports arena located in Hoffman Estates' Prairie Stone Business Park. The Sears Centre Arena, which opened in 2006, is designed to accommodate a variety of events including concerts, family shows and sporting events. For more information regarding the Sears Centre Arena and upcoming events, please visit the arena's website at www.searscentre.com.

In a related note, UD has signed a contract to participate in the 2009 Puerto Rico Classic. The dates for the event are Thursday, November 19th through Sunday November 22, 2009 and it will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The tournament field and game schedule will be announced at a later date.

Dayton was 23-11 in 2007-08, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NIT, losing to eventual champion Ohio State in Columbus. The Flyers graduated All-Atlantic 10 guard Brian Roberts, but return their next three scorers and top three rebounders - forward Chris Wright (10.4, 5.7), guard Marcus Johnson (10.1, 5.1) and forward Charles Little (8.0, 4.6). Wright was named to the A-10 All-Rookie team even though he played in just one conference game.